advice on B-school and whether to retake gmat

[harpreet1205]

Hi Ron/Stacey,

I recently appeared for gmat and scored 660 49Q/30V , 4 in AWA and 6 in IR..

I am disappointed with the score as I was expecting 700+ . I spent lot of time practicing verbal as I knew that I am not strong in verbal. But I screwed up my paper. Now with this score should I apply to the Ivy League colleges for Ms in Management or aim at retaking the exam.

My profile is not very great . I have a work-ex of about 21 months and had decent score at graduation level.

Also I have taken free GRE practice test available at your site and I scored 320+ and I am sure that with little more efforts I will be able to score 330+. Now, in the current scenario wherein I am sure that I can achieve a good score in GRE but not sure of GMAT, I really don't know what to do whether to go for GRE or GMAT. Moreover B-schools have started accepting GRE score but whether GMAT is preferred to GRE or the scores of both the exams are given equal priority is a matter of yet another concern to me.. I am totally lost.

Really looking forward to you precious advice. Please help

[StaceyKoprince]

That's a great question - but unfortunately we're not the people to ask. We're GMAT experts, not admissions experts.

You mention Ivy League schools and you also mention that your education and work backgrounds are "not very great." If you're going to have a chance at an Ivy League school, something within your profile has to be great. And that something has to be more than just your GMAT score. A great GMAT score can be a boost to your overall application, but it will NOT get you into a top school by itself. Too many other people already have great GMAT scores.

So my best advice for you is to talk to an admissions consultant. We've got a folder here called Ask An Admissions Consultant and I'm sure you can find other admissions forums on the web. Get a sense of where your current profile makes you a competitive candidate, and then figure out what (if anything) might change if your score went from 660 to 700.

If you decide to take the test again, then come back here and we can advise you on how to do that. Also, if you took our course or one of our Guided Self-Study packages, then you're eligible for a free Post-Exam Assessment (if you haven't done it already). This is a phone call with an instructor to figure out what happened on test day and come up with a plan to re-take the test. If this applies to you, please send an email to gmat@manhattanprep.com and request the Post-Exam Assessment. (But I would talk to an admissions consultant first.)