Ask Stacy Blackman

My main question is whether I should retake my GMAT or if my score is good enough:

Asian American Male, 3 years of work experience but planning on applying after 4 years of experience
B.S. Chemical Engineering GPA: 3.78/4.00 from University of Oklahoma
Currently working for a petrochemicals company as a Technical Sales Engineer
GMAT: 710 (91 percentile) Quant 48 (71 percentile-ironically low for an engineer I suppose) Verbal 38 (85 percentile)

Brief Background: I work as a technical sales engineer for Chevron Phillips Chemical Company. I work with commodity plastics, specifically Low density polyethylene and high density polyethylene (recycling codes 2 and 4 on plastic articles). In terms of job functions, there are a few: Responsible for developing new products along with R&D (We field interests from customers as to what products they want us to develop and once developed, we are responsible for conducting trials of the new material at the customers, etc) ; help troubleshoot customers' issues with our products; attempt to increase product volume with customers; technical marketing (creating technical literature for customers).

I think my goals with a MBA is two fold: 1) short term: Over the past few years, the part of my job that interested me most was the product development aspect. I would like to utilize my MBA to help me understand how to make the business decisions and analysis in terms of managing the product portfolio as a product manager. I'd like to understand how to get that business overview when determining what products to add and what products to sever from our product slate. 2) Long term: As i mentioned, I work with commodity polymers. My goal and the reason I became a chemical engineer has always been to try to promote the use of alternative energy in today's world. I would eventually like to start my own company which would deal with specialty polymers that have alternative energy applications; for instance, a company that can be focused on researching and commercializing a speciality polymer that can be used in solar fuel cells to promote the effectiveness of solar power.

Volunteer Experience:
1 year Big Brothers Big Sisters Organization
1 year member of Lions Club
1 year volunteer at Nonprofit Homeless Shelter
1 year literacy tutor for illiterate adults
1 year engineering assistant teacher for a technology program for high schoolers
1 year of local city's park and recreation board

Leadership Experience:
1 year as Treasurer and 1 year as secretary for Society of Plastics Engineers
1 year as President for New Hire Network



Some of my target schools - albeit I need to do more research into some more schools -
Northwestern
M.I.T.
Berkeley
Columbia
Duke
NYU

From a self-reflection, I want to say that my weakest areas are leadership experiences and GMAT.

As I stated before, i took my GMAT for the first time today and received a 710. I've scored an average of 730 on GMAT Prep tests (4 tests) and i'm not sure if my score is adequate enough to be considered by target schools. I know the average for most of these is around 712-718 and i've read from multiple sources that I need to be above the average. Please advise and I appreciate the feedback!

Email: [email protected]