Retake 730 GMAT for H/S/W?

Bump. Any advice? From what I've found searching forums, I'm right on the borderline for a score that will neither help nor hurt me, but I'm wondering if it's worth retaking since I'm still a senior in school so I have so much time.

waste of time. i suggest you do it after everything else is done.

It probably won't matter, 730 is in line with if not above most of the averages at top schools. Focus more on other parts of the application.

http://www.mbadataguru.com/blog/admissions/harvard-business-school-acce…

Thanks for the responses. So if a 730 is passable, is there no point in retaking during this semester of school? I'm just worried that I won't have time once I start working this summer, plus I'm still in classes/study mode.

Ask yourself what the opportunity costs are.

As long as the ~$300 isn't a dealbreaker for you, you do not have anything else planned in the next few weeks that could benefit your career / resume, and you wouldn't mind resuming studying then go for it.

If you do have e.g. extracurriculars you could attend to (investment clubs, congresses, etc.) that would stand you in better stead when writing your applications, choose to do those, since they are much more valuable than a 20-pt GMAT difference once you've hit that 730 threshold.

if you have the time/energy to take it again, there's no downside and it'll always help to get your score higher. 770 could be a difference maker

Its the elephant in the room, but your age/gender/nationality status are a factor here. Are you an Asian Male? Then yeah it might be worth it? Are you a transgender refugee with multiple pronouns? Your 730 is good.

Any other thoughts? Still seems kind of split between keeping and retaking.

I honestly would retake it. Unless you believe you can do something truly exceptional for extracurriculars (found a charity that gets a check from the Gates Foundation, etc.) or will be part of the next Silver Lake / Dell deal during your time in PE, you're going to blend in with the 1,000's of other people that look like you coming from finance.

I'm not sure why people pretend that GMAT doesn't matter. Yes, it's obviously not the only thing, but schools report their averages to US News and S/W post averages to their website (H uses median). So, because of how averages work, yes it matters. You're right at the average for H/W & below the average for S. If they're grabbing a "boring" finance candidate, they're going to at least pick one that makes up for the interesting kid with a 690 that they took.

It looks like you're checking all the boxes except maybe extracurriculars. I doubt that they'll differentiate between you and another candidate who has a higher GMAT when the time comes. You'll almost certainly both get interviews if you keep this path up and success will be based on that, your recs, your resume and your essay.

guys from PE backgrounds should have 750+

Should retake, if anything this will give you scholarship money. As much as they say you only need 720+ and then other parts of your profile kick into consideration, from personal experience if your profile is unique it's great but then if you have 770 it's a deal breaker.

If you think you could perform better without too much additional sacrifice why not? It would def. help if Stanford is your top choice.

But if it would come at the cost of more interesting parts of your app (due to the opportunity costs of time and effort), then don't bother.