Profile evaluation- Top 25 school- Intl. applicant

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Hello everyone,

I knidly request your help in assessing my profile and giving me GMAT recommendations.

The schools I want to apply to are:
Harvard,
MIT,
Wharton,
Booth,

I recently took the GMAT for the first time and my scores where:
Total: 720 (94%)
Quantitative: 47 (77%)
Verbal: 42 (95%)
AWA: 4.5 (37%)

As you can see, even though my Total Score is strong, my Quantitative and AWA have room for improvement.
I am heavily considering re-taking the test, but time is running against me so it is a difficult decision. I believe I can improve on these areas, but at what cost?

Please consider the following and give me your advice:

- I am international applicant (29 yrs old - from South America), and as such I need to apply in the second round to leave enough time for visas.
- I have a Geoscience Engineering Degree with a GPA of 3.99/5.
- I also have an MSc in Petroleum Engineering and Project Development from a French institution. GPA of B in the scale from A to F.
- I have 4 years experience in the energy sector (offshore drilling to be precise). I have worked in operations and
in marketing/sales departments in several African and South American countries.
- I speak Spanish, English, French and Portuguese.
- During college I worked part time in a multinational consumer products company.
- During college I also participated in several extra-curricular activities.

Thanks beforehand for your comments and opinions.
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by paulsbodine » Wed Nov 17, 2010 10:58 pm
shaggster,

If you have evidence that you could raise your score (such as practice tests) and retaking would not interfere with your application process, then take it again. If your GPA is the equivalent of a U.S. 3.0 then you will need to raise the GMAT score to compensate for the GPA, since the average GPA at the schools you mentioned is about 3.6. It's hard to say whether you have a strong enough profile for MIT, Wharton, and Booth, without knowing more about your leadership record. Given your age, you should not wait any longer if your goal is a U.S. school.

I hope this helps,
Paul Bodine
Author, "Great Applications for Business School," "Perfect Phrases for Business School Acceptance," "Perfect Phrases for Letters of Recommendation"
https://www.paulsbodine.com/
[email protected]
(858) 869-1959