chances for NYU/Col/Mich/Penn/Chi

Hey, so posted once already but now have an actual gmat score in hand instead of an estimate. Interested in all of the above schools. Here's my profile

1.Target school U-grad (top 30) Econ major, 3.75 GPA
2.690 GMAT (80% math, 81% Verbal)
3. 1.5 years at small but somewhat reputable brokerage doing s&t
...2.5 years (at time of entrance) large (500bn) Asset Management firm in portfolio mgmt
4. good ECs in college and now on the board of children's pediatric cancer foundation
5. Will have at least one recommendation from tenured prof of Columbia BS who i did a summer of research for

What are my chances and given the split and proximity to 700, is gmat worth a retake (only took once) Thanks

-not urm

 
Best Response

What was your practice test performance like? If you are truly confident you can squeak it past the 700 mark, it's worth trying, given that you only took it once. Your quant score is fine, your verbal score could do with some improvement, and trust me, it will make a big dent on your overall score.

That said, at present, I can see you getting into one or two of that list, but a sweep is unlikely. There's nothing wrong with you, but nothing driving you in either - you have to remember that these days, most applicants to business school are actually qualified and admissible, and given how low acceptance rates are, the majority of rejected applicants would actually have done just fine in the program. You tick a lot of boxes (4 years+ WE, good grades from a decent school, solid finance experience, ECs, 80/80) but you still might fall in that category, and if you don't want that to happen, you'll have to execute really well, which everyone thinks that they do, but people screw up on their essays way more often than you'd think. Trust me, I've read some dreadful essays.

You tick the boxes at Wharton and may get an interview, but most likely a dead meat sort of interview. A 740 would help your chances, but you'd need more than that too.

Your ECs will help you with Booth, and although their average GMAT has been going up a lot, they are not GMAT whores and if you execute supremely well, I could see them getting interested, but it's closer to a stretch than 50/50.

With a 750 and Early Decision, Columbia would be really interested in you. With a 690, you don't tick all their boxes, and they might defer/waitlist you with the expectation that you'll improve your GMAT and write them a love letter. "Asset management with a need to develop better fundamentals while staying in New York" will go far with them, and while they'll like your GPA, they will drag their feet a bit with your GMAT.

NYU, oddly, might be a bit tougher than Columbia unless you convince them that your old firm will gladly take you back, that you really, really want to be in New York and you hate Uptown, and that you'll retake the GMAT. Then they'd probably be happy to have you.

Ross is a fineschool and I think you've got a very good shot there provided you prove you want to go and that you have the resume and contacts to retain a position on the buyside.

The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd.
 

Thanks for the helpful feedback jtbb... Yeah, i was a little disappointed in my GMAT in that my avg practice test had been closer to 720. The thing is with Manhattan GMAT, i had been getting anywhere from like 75-80 % math (so I hit the upper bound on that) but 90-99 on verbal %. So im decently confident I could pull up my verbal but a little ehh on the math. I guess my main question would be in the event I would do worse, could that negatively effect me. I don't plan on applying till next year with Columbia ED being my first choice. Will a 720 (more realistic than a 750 for me) improve my chances that much with Columbia (or any of the schools). Thanks

 

If you have the time, definitely re-take to the extent that you are confident in your ability to bring your score above 700. In actuality, I think some people are overstating the importance of your GMAT score, which is well within the acceptable range for the schools you mentioned and a "check in the box" in my opinion with your 80/80 split. You will need strong recos and convincing essays.

 

Recos arfe overrated in terms of their importance - weak ones can keep you out, but strong ones just check the box as almost everybody has recos that extol his/her virtues. I'd try to bump up the gmat by spending some time on the verbal part - Col/NYU are sort of gmat-whorish and you should aim to be around 700-720. There is also no dearth of candidates that have convincing essays - these days, there's lots of advice on how to write your essays and just having a good story is not enough if you don't also have stats and WE that are at least at the average for the school. Otherwise, your shot will be less than 50/50. One of the most reliable indicators schools use is good old work experience, which is sort of like cash flow - hard to be faked, unlike EC's, essay bs, and recos.

 

just wanted to thank you all for the advice...wasnt sure I was gonna retake the 690 but with what i heard on here and elsewhere, decided to retake and got a 730 (95%V 80Q). feeling much better abt my chances for the above schools now and may even add one or two more elite ones in there. thanks a lot guys. so glad to be done with this test!

 

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The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd.

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