What If I Dont Report Scores To Grad Schools? GMAT Strategy

[mkbigmoz]

Before you see your scores, you can pick 5 Grad schools to submit your scores to. Well, if you don't feel so great about your potential score, wouldn't it be wiser to simply pick 1 school? That way you would be minimizing the impact of a poor score, correct?


For example, lets say I would like to apply to 5 Grad schools. I take the GMAT and instead of picking the 5 schools I want to submit my scores to, I pick my least desired school. I score a 500, and this score only goes to the lowest school on my list. This way, I would be minimizing a damaging score. The school highest on my list would never see a poor score.


But on the other hand, if I score a 700, and my score is only submitted to my least desired school, I can later submit my score to any other desired schools, correct?


What is wrong with this strategy? Unless, ALL scores are submitted to schools, regardless of the choice you make on the GMAT.

[Z_I]

As far as I know, all scores are sent to the school to which you want to send scores too. Lets consider a scenario where you take the test twice:

TEST 1 - In this attempt you don't choose school ABC as one of the 5 schools to which you can send scores for free then the score is not sent to that school once you finish your exam.

TEST 2- However, if school ABC is your chosen school and you later retake the test and then choose to send your scores to the school, then your scores for TEST 1 will also be sent along with TEST 2 scores.

For a clearer picture you should call GMAC helpline and get this confirmed or clarified.

Hope this helps!!

[4seasoncentre]

mkbigmoz,


that seems to make sense to me.

the only downside I can think of is that those schools won't get your marks as quickly, and it costs money.

[VP_Jim]

It's true - schools see all of your scores from the past five years, so there's no point in delaying the inevitable. Go ahead and pick your schools to save the $30 each - if you retake later, the schools will see your first score, anyway.

[mkbigmoz]

Thanks for the clarification guys.