I would greatly appreciate an evaluation of my profile:
Me: male / white / 28 years old
Undergrad: BA Economics from a good west coast school with a 3.1 GPA. 4 year starter on a nationally ranked 1-AA football team, team captain and made the All-American team my senior season. Additionally, I worked full time to put myself through school.
GMAT: I initially took the GMAT back in September and scored a 640, lower than expected. Yesterday (Dec 30) I retook the GMAT after increasing my studying substantially and scored the exact same, 640 (42/35). Feeling pretty frustrated as my average scores on practice exams have been in the 720 range.
Work Experience: While my GMAT score is below average, I feel that I have distinguished myself through my work experience. I have 4 years service as an artillery officer in the Marine Corps and have been consistently rated at the top of my peer group. I was the distinguished honor grad of my MOS school (1 out of 175 Army and USMC Lieutenants). I have had experience as a platoon commander of 45 Marines and combat leadership experience in Afghanistan in charge of a liaison team of 15 Marines. I have progressed quickly and attained positions of increased responsibility. In the past year I served as my battalion's operations officer (O-2 filling an O-4 billet), served as the XO of a company of 600 Marines (O-2 filling an O-3 billet) and for the past 6 months I have been serving as a company commander for 600 Marines (currently an O-2 filling an O-4 billet). Right now I am in the process of separating and will be leaving active duty next month as a Captain (O-3).
I would love to attend a top school. My plan was to apply to UPenn, UVA, NYU, USC and possibly others R2 this year, however with my lower GMAT and GPA I am aware that there are weak spots on my application. Right now I am unsure if I should go ahead and apply R2 or retake the GMAT in a few weeks and apply R3 to my target schools.
Are there any suggestions as to whether I am better off applying now with my current GMAT score or retaking and applying R3? Are there any other schools I can realistically target, either with my current GMAT score or an improvement?
Thank you very much for the help!
-Parker
Me: male / white / 28 years old
Undergrad: BA Economics from a good west coast school with a 3.1 GPA. 4 year starter on a nationally ranked 1-AA football team, team captain and made the All-American team my senior season. Additionally, I worked full time to put myself through school.
GMAT: I initially took the GMAT back in September and scored a 640, lower than expected. Yesterday (Dec 30) I retook the GMAT after increasing my studying substantially and scored the exact same, 640 (42/35). Feeling pretty frustrated as my average scores on practice exams have been in the 720 range.
Work Experience: While my GMAT score is below average, I feel that I have distinguished myself through my work experience. I have 4 years service as an artillery officer in the Marine Corps and have been consistently rated at the top of my peer group. I was the distinguished honor grad of my MOS school (1 out of 175 Army and USMC Lieutenants). I have had experience as a platoon commander of 45 Marines and combat leadership experience in Afghanistan in charge of a liaison team of 15 Marines. I have progressed quickly and attained positions of increased responsibility. In the past year I served as my battalion's operations officer (O-2 filling an O-4 billet), served as the XO of a company of 600 Marines (O-2 filling an O-3 billet) and for the past 6 months I have been serving as a company commander for 600 Marines (currently an O-2 filling an O-4 billet). Right now I am in the process of separating and will be leaving active duty next month as a Captain (O-3).
I would love to attend a top school. My plan was to apply to UPenn, UVA, NYU, USC and possibly others R2 this year, however with my lower GMAT and GPA I am aware that there are weak spots on my application. Right now I am unsure if I should go ahead and apply R2 or retake the GMAT in a few weeks and apply R3 to my target schools.
Are there any suggestions as to whether I am better off applying now with my current GMAT score or retaking and applying R3? Are there any other schools I can realistically target, either with my current GMAT score or an improvement?
Thank you very much for the help!
-Parker
