750 GMAT - sufficient for merit based aid?

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750 GMAT - sufficient for merit based aid?

by Quant45 » Fri May 25, 2018 7:50 am
Good morning!

I will be applying to M7 this fall. I scored a 750 on GMAT. I know this is more than good enough for admissions consideration. What I'm concerned about are scholarships. Would a higher score significantly increase chances of merit-based aid at any of these schools?

I don't want to re-take this but would hate to leave money on the table. Unless it's Harvard I'm strongly opposed to paying sticker tuition. I think my time would be better used to pivot immediately to other elements of my application... hopefully those of you with experience here will agree.

Note that the rest of my profile is strong:

UG Engineering GPA (T25 school): 3.5
MS Engineering (T25 - completed while fully employed): ~4.0
7 years work experience @ blue chip company at time of 2019 matriculation - mix of project management and business development (P&L accountability for multi-million $ budgets; leading 10-30+ person teams; lead lots of interactions with present day customers and potential future customers)

Very strong references
Years of community involvement in leadership roles
Experience running my own business on the side for the past 3 years - high profitability

Goal: Management consulting for a few years and then likely transition back to my industry in more senior leadership role... continue to grow my business on the side

Male. Not a URM nor do I have any "sob stories".

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by MargaretStrother » Tue May 29, 2018 6:24 am
Absolutely no need to retake the GMAT, IMO. I've seen lots of merit scholarships to top MBA programs with even lower GMATs than 750. However, HBS states that their fellowships are needs-based, so expect financial need to be a factor as well, alongside strong, impactful community service leadership.
There is an ongoing rumor that schools throw money at people they want to lure them away from competitors -- you've got a pretty impressive profile, so that might be an (unofficial) component, but it's not a quantifiable factor that you'd want to rely on.

Good luck!
Margaret Strother
Margaret Strother
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Stacy Blackman Consulting

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