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KngDi45 wrote:My main question is whether I should retake my GMAT or if my score is good enough:

Asian American Male *Born in U.S.*, 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 (Think: ExxonMobil; DOW Chemical; BASF etc) 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 are 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
2 years as debate coach along with helping start a debate program for high school

(There are other volunteer/leadership experiences from college that I have neglected to post at the moment)

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

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, mostly the tier one schools of Northwestern and U of Chicago. I know the average for most of the tier two schools listed is around 712-718 and i've read from multiple sources that I need to be well above the average. Furthermore, i'm worried that my quant is a tad low. From my four practice tests, i have yet to surpass the 50 score for quant.

Please advise and I appreciate the feedback!

Email: [email protected]