Hey nycgmat2011--
First of all - in the grand scheme of things - a 650 is a good score! The GMAT test is *hard* and anyone who gets to that level should be proud.
The issue is -- particularly for Round 2 -- it's not quite competitive enough to be considered a "safe" score at most of the schools you're targeting.
We can't say it's a no-go for Stanford because of all the schools, Stanford is the most unpredictable. They respond to a huge array of elements in a profile. We don't know nearly enough about you to say that you have no chance at Stanford. But the truth is, their average GMAT score is stratospheric, and the vast majority of accepted students are above 700. BUT we don't want to make Stanford's decisions for them - we know they want to see varied profiles and we have no idea what you bring to the table. You do have your work cut out for you with a GMAT at this level though.
The same is even more true at Darden. They are considered one of the most academically rigorous. If your GMAT is mostly strong on the quant side, then maybe you'd have a shot - but we can't promise it. Not in Round 2.
In Round 1, then the "maybes" are easier to bet on, because a) it's easier to get in anywhere in Round 1, and b) if it doesn't work out, you can always try again in Round 2 -- but for you, this is your one shot for this year.
Here's a rough guide to this issue:
https://essaysnark.blocked/2011/09/ ... nswer.html
A bigger question is, can you devote enough time to BOTH the required GMAT studying, AND the necessary essay development tasks, to get it all done?
In our experience of working with clients in this situation for many many years... we're not hopeful.
Both these tasks are time-intensive. Both require significant focus (and each requires a different kind of focus).
So it's a bit of a rock-and-a-hard-place here.
We rarely see people do a bang-up job on writing essays for multiple schools in a single month... much less tackling that PLUS the GMAT again.
Sorry to be such a downer, but these are big projects you've laid out.
To summarize:
A 650 *might* be sufficient for a school like McDonough, or Fuqua.
If you have a very interesting profile with diversity on different dimensions, a 650 is absolutely high enough for Stanford - but if your profile is standard, either in terms of background or future goals, then meh. Not gonna stand out. Lots of work and high risk.
Darden we'd discourage with this GMAT - it's possibly in the same category as Duke and Georgetown but it seems daunting to us.
You probably should go into this assuming you may end up a reapplicant next year though. Here's what we mean by that:
https://30days.hoop.la/displaycontent/co ... 0198229094
This is obviously just one snarky opinion!!!
Hope we haven't completely demoralized you.
Best of luck with everything and please keep us posted! Would love to see where you take things.
EssaySnark
