Hi everyone,
Can you please help me evaluate my chances/options for MBA programs based on the following criteria?
Who am I?
25, white male, American
640 - GMAT
Undergrad - 3.3 GPA JMU - Business Management
Work Experience: 3 years in technology SAAS Sales and past year international software sales (4 years exp. by Sept. 2015 entry date or 4-5 by 2016 entry date - still deciding)
I've been part of a company that went public and excelled in an environment with high turnover, a competitive and demanding work environment while the company grew and changed rapidly in just a few short years right before it had an IPO. I have experience training a sales team in India and working on my own cross-divisional projects (3 months in India) and now I have since (last year) switched to a new company where I created the international business plan and me and one other guy are essentially running a startup within a public company having to justify every decision we make while bringing in revenue and advocating for more resources.
Where am I looking?
I am still open to suggestions but since my interests are getting a more rich international cultural experience, creating a good ROI for myself after business school, and technology I have determined that the below are my top choices:
IE
ESADE
IESE
UNC
UCLA or Berkley
LBS
What's my GMAT sory?
Rewind - 4 years ago I took my GMAT Oct. of my senior year - cold turkey, I just walked in and got a 550. I thought it was a business test and not the HS math and reasoning test that it is so I was rusty and unprepared. I also had a job interview the same day and my mind was distracted. I knew by this point no quality MBA program would take someone right out of college but I was committed from the fee and thought why not since it lasts 5 years.
Fast forward to today - I just took the GMAT this morning and scored a 640 after about 3 months of studying. Basically, I studied casually for about a month and took a practice test and got a 610, then I studied a lot harder and took it after about another month of studying and got a 670. Then the last 3 weeks I have been crazy busy with work and pretty much have been working 10-16 hours days in Sales trying to hit my end of our fiscal year quota. This has left me only about 10 hours of studying in the last 3 weeks combined. So the day before the test (yesterday) I took one final practice test and got a 650. While it seems that while I did score around my predicted score I think that if I was able to "cram" the last 3-4 weeks rather than being consumed by work I could have a potential of around 690-700. There were a few easy questions that I know I missed and recalled the answer to shortly after submitting my answer and I wanted to scream back, back, back but I restrained.
So now I am, stuck with a few short weeks until some complete applications are due. When I started studying for the test I thought that I'd have more time to figure out what program I wanted to do and what Ideal score I needed to get. But here I am with little (or no) time for a fall class of 2015 MBA program. Would I be better off waiting another year to fine tune my MBA program desires, my resume, (maybe my GMAT but I'd rather not), my extra curricular activities and recommendations, or can I get into the above mentioned schools with where I am at now?
My weaknesses
From studying for the GMAT I've concluded that my quant weakness is problem solving and my verbal weakness is probably sentence correction and so I feel like if I need to take it again then I could either focus hard and self-study again and really plan out the test at a better period of time in my life to bring it up to a 680-700. Or I could pay for an expensive tutor and get it up to a 700 or above. But is it worth it?
If I am not planning on going into investment banking or a top consulting firm do I really need a top 5 program?
I haven't secured any letters of recommendation yet or even looked at essay requirements which I'm slightly worried about.
Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Retake or not? 640 - Q44 V34
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Hey... I think you may have posted this twice --- I put a reply on this topic to your other post.
Good luck!!!
-Brian
Good luck!!!
-Brian
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Brian Lange
Instructor, Manhattan GMAT
Expert Contributor to Beat The GMAT
Merci, Danke, Grazie, Gracias -- Whichever way you say it, if you found my post helpful, please click on the 'thank' icon in the top right corner of this post.
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Brian Lange
Instructor, Manhattan GMAT
Expert Contributor to Beat The GMAT
Merci, Danke, Grazie, Gracias -- Whichever way you say it, if you found my post helpful, please click on the 'thank' icon in the top right corner of this post.
And I encourage you to click on 'follow' to track all my posts -- all the cool kids are doing it!