The Application Process

Hey there guys,

So I'm not going to get into details, but I've taken the GMAT twice now, about 6 months apart, the second of these two just this past Friday. I am also currently in application mode, and have submitted 2 applications already (gotten invitations to interview at both!). So I thought I was going to do a little better on this past test. The first time I got a 640 39Q 40V and this second time ANOTHER 640 but a 44Q 34V. Now, it doesn't take a genius to realize that that your verbal score shouldn't fall like that, and in fact on the practice tests I was taking (MGMAT and MBA.com) I was racking up 700s. But I digress.

I have two applications coming up - University of Illinois and Penn State (Smeal). But I don't know which 640 to submit... I have a 3.3 w/ Finance & Entrepreneurship from a Indiana, 3 year exp, good essays and solid letters of rec. Any ideas???

The school will see both of your scores so there isn't really much thought to put into it. If the application system is anything like mine, I remember there was a section where I had to input my GMAT score - even though they would see the official score from GMAC. I would recommend putting the one with the 44q in that section because for business school a higher quant score trumps a higher verbal score. That's just my $0.02

I agree, put in the one with higher quant, because you claim your essays are good (so you prove that you actually are good in verbal). I don't believe business school value quant higher, especially because more people are strong in quant.

Also, I read in "how to get into the top mba programmes" that some school might calculate their own GMAT score by taking into account the higher of the two individual scores...you might have pretty good chances after all

bln123 wrote:I agree, put in the one with higher quant, because you claim your essays are good (so you prove that you actually are good in verbal). I don't believe business school value quant higher, especially because more people are strong in quant.

Also, I read in "how to get into the top mba programmes" that some school might calculate their own GMAT score by taking into account the higher of the two individual scores...you might have pretty good chances after all

That's exactly why business schools value quant more than verbal...because so many people score higher in quant. It's business school where all you'll be looking at all day is numbers. I'm not going to argue this point because through all of the research I've done this past year... a higher Q score is "better" than a high V score - all other things equal.