Advice needed - retake after 710?

Launched January 9, 2010
This topic has expert replies
Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:29 pm

Advice needed - retake after 710?

by gmatzadeh1234 » Wed Mar 11, 2015 6:21 pm
Hi - I am in need of some admissions and gmat advice. I will apply to business school in R1 of 2015. I just turned 30 so this is just about the last year I can consider going to business school. I want to go to business school to switch from the technology operator space to VC or Venture Growth Equity/PE. Going to business school will LIKELY be a temporary step back for me in terms of earnings but based on all the networking and research I have done so far, it is the surest way for me to make the career pivot I want. I am targeting Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and Wharton.

I took the GMAT a week ago and scored a 710 (44 Q & 44 V). Should I retake the test in hopes of getting closer to 750 to have a chance to get into the schools I am targeting? The GMAT tutor I worked with during my last month of prep is encouraging me to do so. He believes I was nervous and would perform better on a retake and have potential to score 720-760. (not to mention that the test proctor cost me 2 minutes of time in the quant section by telling me I had 2 minutes left of break time when I did not).

If I hadn't just started a new job (and I didn't have 2 very young kids and a wife who wants to see me when I am not solving RTD problems) retaking it would be a no brainer. I would really appreciate any words of wisdom. Thank you in advance.

Here is some background on my GMAT potential:
GMAT PREP 1 - 700
GMAT PREP 2 - 720
GMAT PREP 3 - 720
GMAT PREP 4 - 740

(I was scoring 740-ish on VP CATs)

Here is some background info on my application profile:

Work History:
- Currently the director of a 20MM+ business line leading a cross functional team of product managers, marketers, UI/UX designers and engineers at a high growth technology start up.
- Prior to that I was the first employee at a data analytics tech company where we raised over 40MM in venture financing from top tier VCs. While there i had a number of roles, I lead a professional services team, a product team and an analytics team of data scientists. Helped grow the business from $0 to over $20MM in revenue
- Started a real estate investment firm that has over 2MM in assets at produces 100k in revenue annually
- started a small seed stage investment partnership with founders of the aforementioned tech start up, invested in 18 companies, 3 exits so far
- prior to tech worked in quantitative finance (prepayment model forecasting, credit default risk, etc)
- I run the membership committee of a professional angel networking group where I evaluate and admit lots of successful alumni from top schools including the ones I am targeting and is run by two HBS alums

Academic
- CFA Charterholder
- Masters in Applied Economics concentration in Econometrics and Financial Economics from Johns Hopkins GPA 3.9
- Undergrad BS in Business with concentration in Economics from large state school, GPA 3.47

Personal:
- Citizen of central asian/middle eastern country
- speak a language other than english

User avatar
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 97
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2014 12:52 pm
Thanked: 7 times
Followed by:5 members

by Dozie@VeritasPrep » Mon Mar 16, 2015 7:00 pm
Thanks for sharing your profile. This is a tricky situation because you are targeting some of the top schools in the country that tend to admit students with very competitive GMAT scores. Although you performed well on the GMAT your score falls below the averages at most of these schools. You have a very impressive background that should be very attractive to most of these school so I would hate for you to be dinged based on a few points especially given your belief that you can hit the numbers.

I would re-take the GMAT given this information and hopefully its a one shot deal and you are all done in a month.

Good luck!
Veritas Prep | Veritas Prep Admissions Consultant

Find the expert who's right for you. Meet our team!
Register for a free MBA Admissions Workshop!

Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Mar 11, 2015 5:29 pm

by gmatzadeh1234 » Tue Mar 17, 2015 3:37 pm
Dozie - Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I appreciate the time you took. Seems like the consensus is to suck it up and retake it. I appreciate the tought love.