Military/entrepreneur weak GMAT (640), retake?

[Chos]

Good afternoon everyone,

Up front: thank you in advance for your help. This community is great and although I've never posted, I've found this site to be extremely useful. My profile says I'm new, but I just created a new account. I want to attend Columbia's Jan start MBA program.

Question: should I submit now for the Jan start program with what I have or should I retest and submit my application in October?

Last April I took the GMAT for the first time (640, 38V 39Q). I wasn't happy about that score, so I told myself I would study hard and retake it. Fast forward 15 months and I still haven't got it done!

Profile

Military: 28 years old, Air Force Captain, studied Finance/Air Force ROTC at top 10 West Coast school, front-end self-taught software developer/entrepreneur (see below), private pilot, 4.5 years of Air Force experience culminating in experience as a ICBM Crew Commander (4000+ crew hrs, hundreds of training hrs, commanded 1/3 of land-based nukes in U.S. at the end there). My ranking compared to my peers has been high throughout my military career.

Private enterprise: founded ChipLab, an online retailer; customers include Nike, Southwest Airlines, Wild Wings, Tim Duncan, Lebron James, etc. - you design it online, we make and ship it. Still working on this - but significant sales for a small business, 6 investors (2 of them Ivy MBAs)
Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch praised the technology we used initially (built pre-Air Force when I was in college) -https://techcrunch.com/2006/12/22/why-do ... use-flash/

The Air Force has had a profoundly positive impact on my life, but I want to get an MBA to help me re-focus back on business. I'd like to attend Columbia's accelerated program (Jan start) because I want to live and work in NYC and this should help me hit the ground running in a new city. I'd rather spend my time building my business and not with the GMAT, but if you guys think it's a show-stopper then that's what I'll have to do!

Thanks again everyone,

Chos

[sieken]

I think with your background, a lower GMAT score won't be as dangerous for you. With a great application and personal history, a 640, while not the best, won't put you out of contention. I was recently admitted into Cornell and waitlisted at Berkeley with a 640, an undergrad in econ, working at a well known firm as a senior economist, and an entrepreneur of two ventures, one failed.

My advice is to spend your time getting the best application out the door and if you get dinged, then work on pumping the GMAT up. Good luck!

[Jon@Admissionado]

Tough call. I totally agree with Siken that you have a stellar profile, and that although for most candidates a 640 would knock them out of the running for Columbia, for you it wont be the case.

HOWEVER, (you knew this was coming), its obvious that if you get higher on the GMAT it will help. I cant decide for you, cause I don't know what you would do instead, and its hard to evaluate greater chances of acceptance vs. business work. I would say, go with the 80/20 rule. How well do you normally test? Do you think with a moderate amount of effort you could get even 30 points higher? Then absolutely retake.

If its gonna be a bone-crunching struggle, then maybe its not worth it. But like I always say: You are only gonna do this once (we hope!) so best is to go in as strong as you can...

One final tip for you: If the Jan Columbia program is the ONLY program you are applying to, make sure that you write it in your essay! They WILL like it.

[Chos]

Jon and Sieken,

Thank you for your replies. Jon - I'm also considering Dartmouth (not the ideal culture for me, but it is essentially free with military GI Bill - also there are a lot of Dartmouth guys in Silicon Valley believe it or not) and Harvard (one of my investors has a Harvard MBA, but I know I would need to get the GMAT to 700+ ). Columbia is my #1 because I can get it done quicker and I've always wanted to live/work in NYC.

Again - thanks for replying.

[Chos]

Hi Jon - what score do you think I would need to be competitive for Stanford's GSB or HBS?

Thank you for your time.

[Jon@Admissionado]

Scratching the low end I would say 30-40 points higher. If you can do that, then its worth it. If you can do more then its almost an obligation.

[Chos]

Hi Jon & Sieken,

Wugh - retook and got a 660. Good news is I picked up 5 points in quant (still a 44 though). Lost 3 points in verbal. No need to reply if you don't want to - just closing the feedback loop. I may even take again in Jan - studying hard and only picking up 20 points doesn't do much for the ego.

Chase

[Jon@Admissionado]

Why Ugh? 20 points is still 20 points!
(and it does help.. puts you in the middle 80% rather than the outside 20%)
Thanks for the update dude, and good luck with your applications!

[ksc1940]

A 660 is not ideal by any means, but you do have a really strong profile. If you were a typical finance/consulting guy, a 660 would keep you out of the running at top 10 MBA programs, but that obviously does not apply to you. The good news is that your quant score improved a lot, which is pretty important. A 39 quant is quite low, and schools would wonder if you could actually do the work in b-school. A 44 quant is not amazing but nonetheless a respectable score. Keep in mind that the reason why quant percentiles are so skewed is because the international applicants from China and India who are all getting 50+ (i'm actually not exaggerating; the MEDIAN gmat quant of chinese applicants is a 50!).