Taking GMAT to help with PE recruiting

Also planning on taking the GMAT (current senior). I'm more inclined to take it simply because I know I have more time now than I'll have during the 3-4 postgrad years during which I'll be working.

I think it'll also help with PE recruiting. Not sure to what degree, but it should do something

From a European perspective: I think that a crazy GMAT score will not really move the needle when recruiting for PE. As a recruiter I would focus on relevant experience, rather than the score of a test for which you can prepare as well as you want. I am also taking it currently and do not see direct transferability of the content to real-world problems.

A good alternative would be the CFA. Taking it confirms your interest in finance and it is allegedly harder than the GMAT.

Only reason to take GMAT would be if you feel that you might want to ultimately go to B School (and you have free time now). Any benefit you might receive from crushing it (such as high quant score) would be nominal at best.

In a similar boat and would love to know if a good GMAT might help with PE recruiting given a 3.4-3.5 undergrad GPA.

How would a good GMAT prove to a PE shop you would make a good investor? I'm sorry but GMAT should be taken if you wanna go to business school get deal experience to get into PE.

Yes, it will help if your other standardized test scores (e.g. the SAT) aren't as high or your GPA looks like it will come in below a 3.5.

Unless things have changed in the past few years, my experience is PE firms care A LOT about credentials, particularly credentials that signal "I'm smart". I was asked for my SAT scores by most PE firms when I was recruiting, for example.