Ask Admissionado

Hi - I am in need of some admissions and gmat advice. I will apply to business school in R1 of 2015. I just turned 30 so this is just about the last year I can consider going to business school. I want to go to business school to switch from the technology operator space to VC or Venture Growth Equity/PE. Going to business school will LIKELY be a temporary step back for me in terms of earnings but based on all the networking and research I have done so far, it is the surest way for me to make the career pivot I want. I am targeting Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and Wharton.

I took the GMAT a week ago and scored a 710 (44 Q & 44 V). Should I retake the test in hopes of getting closer to 750 to have a chance to get into the schools I am targeting? The GMAT tutor I worked with during my last month of prep is encouraging me to do so. He believes I was nervous and would perform better on a retake and have potential to score 720-760. (not to mention that the test proctor cost me 2 minutes of time in the quant section by telling me I had 2 minutes left of break time when I did not).

If I hadn't just started a new job (and I didn't have 2 very young kids and a wife who wants to see me when I am not solving RTD problems) retaking it would be a no brainer. I would really appreciate any words of wisdom.

Here is some background on my GMAT potential:
GMAT PREP 1 - 700
GMAT PREP 2- 720
GMAT PREP 3 - 720
GMAT PREP 4 - 740

Here is some background info on my application profile:

Work History:
- Currently the director of a 20MM+ business line leading a cross functional team of product managers, marketers, UI/UX designers and engineers at a high growth technology start up.
- Prior to that I was the first employee at a data analytics tech company where we raised over 40MM in venture financing from top tier VCs. While there i had a number of roles, I lead a professional services team, a product team and an analytics team of data scientists. Helped grow the business from $0 to over $20MM in revenue
- Started a real estate investment firm that has over 2MM in assets at produces 100k in revenue annually
- started a small seed stage investment partnership with founders of the aforementioned tech start up, invested in 18 companies, 3 exits so far
- prior to tech worked in quantitative finance (prepayment model forecasting, credit default risk, etc)
- I run the membership committee of a professional angel networking group where I evaluate and admit lots of alumni from top schools and is run by two HBS alums

Academic
- CFA Charterholder
- Masters in Applied Economics concentration in Econometrics and Financial Economics from Johns Hopkins GPA 3.9
- Undergrad BS in Business with concentration in Economics from large state school, GPA 3.47

Personal:
- Citizen of central asian/middle eastern country
- speak a language other than english

Jon,

Thanks for the response and the advice. I really appreciate it. I also completely agree with you that using a switch into VC/PE as the reason for an MBA would be a poor choice. It sounds like what every kids coming from IT consulting says. I wanted to add that part into my ask for help to explain why I am not that interested in many other great business schools like NYU, Columbia, Northwestern, Chicago etc which are great programs that anyone should be happy to go to, but don't place anyone in VC.

That being said, I do think there is a compelling message I can make on what I offer that a finance expert doesn't in order to get into VC - actually have scaled a business, no many areas of pitfalls etc, Ive been toid by enough VCs that operating experience is a more compelling story than finance experience (even by VCs on the midas touch list) but that I basically need the pedigree. Plus, I have learned a lot of lessons sourcing deals for VCs, leading due diligence efforts, and investing my own money.

What do you think would interest an adcom? My current plan is something along the lines of picking my head up and tying together my deep experiences finance, machine learning, and tech operations into a coherent view of management and leadership etc....To wishy washy?