Looking to get into Top 10 - Possible?

stamry wrote:Hi, this is my first post here, but I've seen some of the responses that have been provided and I believe I will get some pretty effective insight from these forums.

Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Undergrad: Virginia Tech
Majors: Dual Degree: Business Information Technology, Finance
GPA: 3.95
Work Experience: Less than 1 year at IBM. Plan to apply to schools within 4 years.
GMAT: 650 (44 Q/35 V)

I plan to apply to schools within 4 years, before the score is invalid and so I can accumulate more work experience and professional recommendations. Is my GMAT score too low/borderline to get into top 10 schools? The schools I'm looking at in particular are Harvard, UPenn, Chicago, UC Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, and Duke. I don't know if I should retake the GMAT because that seems to be my weakest point, but I get the feeling that my GPA and work experience should compensate for it.

Feedback and insight would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Stamry,

Having gone through this process now, I will give you advice from my point of view. Now take it with a grain of salt, but I saw that no one had responded to you so I felt compelled to offer some sort of feedback. Now again, this is just what I've seen after a year of immersing myself in this process.

Ethnicity: Very Common
Gender: Very Common
Undergrad: Very Common - Great Undergrad University, but for the top 10 schools it's very common
Majors: Dual Degree (less common) but IT Tech/Finance = Very Common
GPA: 3.95 - Great
Work Experience: nice!
GMAT: 650 (44 Q/35 V) - Low End of Spectrum, for the top 10 schools.

I think you should take the GMAT again before you apply. You want to be able to submit the best application possible so if you know that the 650 is a weakness now, that's what you should work on for the future. Also, you don't want the admissions committee to see that you took it say 4 years ago (when you apply) and wonder "Well why didn't he/she retake it?" Also, the mean GMAT scores for the top schools continues to increase so by the time you apply who knows what the mean scores will be?

Your score is great and I wish I had that score, but remember that you will be competing against people who have everything you have and then some! You don't want to give the admissions committee any reason to choose another person over you, and from what I hear the GMAT is a quick way for them to rule someone out.

You're in a great position that you're thinking about it early. I really wish I had done that.

Hope that helps... Good Luck

I believe that you should retake your GMAT. It can't hurt and you have plenty of time. Your focus should be on getting stellar work experience so that you will have a fantastic resume and LORs, but, a better GMAT would also improve your odds for a top school.

Good luck!