GMAT retake is it okay

[amit.dhingra7]

Hi,
What is the criteria for most of the good universities, for accepting GMAT score. Do they all take the higher score or the average. I more specifically need information of 10-15 ranked schools.

Actually, I have to play gamble for a good school, for which I have to give GMAT next week (date constraint), and I know that I will not score well in that. And thus I might take it again for a higher score.
I will like to go on with giving GMAT asap if most of the schools accept highest score (as ISB does).


Thanks a lot for taking pain in reading all this.

Thanks
aD

[beatthegmat]

Most schools just consider the highest score.

[Kim24]

Eric,

Do you know if schools do consider all your scores even though they only take the highest? For example if you took the test more than 5 times would that raise some red flags?

[Stacey Koprince]

More than 5 times would most likely raise red flags. Generally, up to 3 is considered fine. Beyond that, the school might like or even require some sort of explanation as to why you took it so many times - and if they either don't get an explanation or don't like your explanation, there's a good chance it will be a negative on your application.

[Kim24]

Thanks Stacey. Isn't it true however that most schools only take the highest score? Does that mean that they indeed view the full report or only look at what you write in the application form and later verify with the official score?
I know that at some schools they do this, so they actually only see the full report after you have been admitted.
Personally I have struggled with the GMAT and have finally reached the mid 600s after 7 tries however this was over the course of about 6 years due to in large part to changes in my career plans. Will this hurt me going into the application cycle this year? Any thoughts on how I can prevent any major damage to my candidacy would be very very helpful. Thank you.

[Stacey Koprince]

When schools verify a score, they see all scores that are still valid in your record (so, scores from the past 5 years). For the most part, they only care about your highest score, but they might be concerrned if they see either a huge discrepancy (going from 300 to 700) or many, many scores. It really depends upon the school and, to some extent, the person who's checking the scores.

So, it might be completely fine, and it might not. I would check with Stacy Blackman over in the admissions consulting thread and see what she recommends.