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Profile Evaluation, GMAT 2nd attempt 620 (Q49, V25), HELP

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Profile Evaluation, GMAT 2nd attempt 620 (Q49, V25), HELP

by jeffau524 » Wed Oct 12, 2011 10:15 am
Hi everyone,

I re-wrote my gmat yesterday and got a disappointing score of 620 and debating with myself whether to take the gmat again or to start application process. A brief background and objective for myself:

GPA: graduated from University of Arizona as a finance major with a 3.22/4.00 major GPA, but overall GPA of 2.96/4.00 (not sure if I should put my major gpa or the overall gpa on my application)

GMAT: First attempt in Sep, 2011 (Q44, V24, AWA 4.5, Score 560)
GMAT: Second attempt in Oct, 2011 (Q49, V25, Score 620)

Experience: 2 years in banking industry working for wells fargo bank, and 1 year experience in brokerage. Total work experience in financial industry post-graduate 4 years

Target school: University of Southern California (Marshall), Cornell (Johnson), UCLA (Anderson), University of North Carolina

Programs: Full-time two year MBA

Objective post-MBA-graduate: start as analyst for investment bank, like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs

Right now, I am debating that I should start my essay writing process so I can meet the round 1 deadline or register again for my 3rd GMAT attempt and apply in the second round. Also, is there any other schools that you recommend for my career path? Please, I am desperate for advice now. :(
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by essaysnark » Wed Oct 12, 2011 11:43 am
Hi jeffau524--

Well, first thing: Congrats on raising your score so much between test 1 and test 2!! That's an impressive improvement.

But to be completely frank with you: You don't have a strong chance at admission to the schools you've listed with the 620, and even more directly: You don't have a good chance of going into finance/IB with this score.

When the bschools evaluate your application, not only will they look at the GMAT score against the pool of other candidates who are applying concurrently -- they will also look at that score (and everything else) to assess whether they think you'll be successful in landing a job coming out of their program. As you know, IB is incredibly competitive - and IB for Goldman, well.... that could be considered a little unrealistic for someone with a lower GMAT. It's the cream of the crop company, right? And they get to handpick "the best and the brightest" -- and since many bschools have a grade nondisclosure policy, believe it or not, your GMAT score from before you enter bschool is used as part of the recruiters' evaluation process when they make hiring decisions.

So, if your heart is set on IB at one of those premier firms, then you're gonna need to bump up that score kind of a lot.

Even just having a serious chance at admission at any of the schools on your list, you'd probably need a higher score (though some of those schools, like Cornell, are a little more flexible - but even they would probably balk at this score if you want to do finance).

So sorry to have to offer this advice! The GMAT is a nasty little test, isn't it? We totally wouldn't tell you that you have to re-do it if we didn't feel strongly about it. But you're gonna need to have a stronger score in order to be truly competitive at this level.

Now to anticipate your next question: Testing three times won't hurt you. You'll want to make this the last time, of course! But you are not damaging your chances simply by having three tests on your record.

Hope this helps!
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by jeffau524 » Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:02 pm
Hi Essaysnark,

Thank you so much for your advice. I think I am going to re-write it and I am confident that I can get higher on my verbal this time. Is there any good material that you recommend for that?

On top of that, you mentioned bschools do handpick on the candidates that they feel will best fit for landing a job. Should my essays focus on another goal instead of aiming too high for that? In addition, I thought applying in the first round would increase the odds for getting in? Wouldn't it be harder in second round?

In your opinion, would 700 is a good score to get into my target schools?

Jeff
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by Jon@Admissionado » Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:35 am
To chime in here, a 700 would be wonderful, and a 680 would likely be fine too :)
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by essaysnark » Thu Oct 13, 2011 2:18 am
Hi Jeff -- glad to hear you're gonna go for it again!

A 700 *might* be acceptable -- at least, in general, that would be a completely reasonable score for any of the schools you've listed to consider you, as it's well within their 80% ranges. However, a 700 score could still be tricky for BB IB (we don't have much hope at all of landing a Goldman job with a 700 GMAT score - maybe it's possible if the rest of the package is superlative but it's just not that distinctive when you consider who else is interested in Goldman). Another note on Goldman: They don't regularly recruit at all the schools. If you're really interested in Goldman Sachs then be sure to target those schools that they frequent (Columbia, Wharton, LBS, etc.). Other BB IBs recruit at a wider range of schools; e.g., Cornell is working hard to raise their profile and improve their network - they already have strong connections to places like Citi and JPM and DB. Also, it's much harder to get into IB from a West Coast school, they just don't send the numbers of graduates that direction as compared to those in the east.

We're not experts in the GMAT - we just know that it's hard!! And we don't offer advice unless we're confident that we know what we're talking about. But, you've obviously come to the right place!! There's plenty of great resources on BTG and certainly you'll be able to get some help around here.

On the career goals - we're big fans of the truth :-) and we always feel Brave Supplicants should tell the adcom what they literally want to do/plan on doing after bschool. If you really want to go into IB then see what you can do to bring up the score, and then reevaluate... or, if you only threw out "investment banking" here because it sounds like a good idea but you're not really all that invested in it yet (sorry for lame pun could not help ourself!), then keep exploring your career options, talk to people in finance and see what else there is, and most definitely yes, modify those plans till you find something that you feel confident in, that you can write passionately about in your essays.

And on the first round advantage - yes, but. Here's what we had to say about that a few weeks ago: https://essaysnark.blocked/2011/09/ ... -idea.html Seems like you're in a situation that would benefit from pushing out to Round 2 so that you can have a stronger presentation.

So to summarize: 700 is totally do-able for the schools you've listed, but it depends on the whole package and it very much depends on what your goals are. The goals are the most important thing in this entire process - yes, even more important than GMAT, in a certain way - so figuring out the plan for the future is a really helpful step as it determines your options.
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by jeffau524 » Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:45 pm
Thank you so much all for your advice, I am re-taking the test in Nov and hopefully I can boost my verbal score a lot. In addition, should I start working on my essays as well or just focus on my gmat prep?
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by essaysnark » Fri Oct 14, 2011 1:33 pm
Really good question! Most people do better if they can focus just on test prep and not worry about essays simultaneously. It depends on how many applications you're doing in terms of how much time you need overall for essays but ideally you'll go exclusively on the GMAT for now and then move to essays. It's sort of up to you though in terms of personal style/study habits. Most people should *definitely* get cranking on Round 2 essays in November (particularly if they haven't written any essays at all yet - meaning, if you didn't do any Round 1 apps and you're starting completely from scratch, you need to give yourself some time to get the essays in line).

So - not sure this helps since we just contradicted ourself!!!

EssaySnark

(PS: EssaySnark has a new thing-a-ma-jig in the works that should be of great help to people who haven't started in on any essays yet - stay tuned, we'll be announcing in about a week!)
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by MBAPrepAdvantage » Tue Oct 18, 2011 8:36 am
Let us know what score you obtained after the test. The higher the better but you still might be competitive for USC Marshall and UNC Kenan-Flagler with a mid to high 600.

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by jeffau524 » Wed Oct 19, 2011 10:05 pm
Will let you know the updates right after the exam on 17th next month. :D
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by throughmba » Wed Oct 19, 2011 11:44 pm
Dont forget

1. set a regular study schedule
2. get your hands on AS MANY sample tests as possible
3. practice practice practice answering questions on all these sample tests
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