Good Score, Uneven Quant / Verbal % Split - Re-take...?

[chasedavidson]

I finished the GMAT for the first time a couple weeks back and scored a 710 overall (V - 42/96%, Q - 44/61%). My ultimate goal is to be a contender for a few of the top tier business schools - Wharton and Columbia are two in particular that I am interested in. With this large of a split b/w verbal and quant, and a particularly low percentile in quant, should I try re-taking to better position myself for a school like Wharton? I really burnt myself out studying for the test and the idea of having to gear back up for round two is about the least appealing thing to me right now. I took all 6 MGMAT CAT's and the highest % I got on Quant was 68%, with the rest ranging from the high 50's to low 60's, so while I think I could improve from 61%, my guess is that my score may drop in verbal and my overall score would be around or below a 710.

If I re-took and got a lower overall score, would the fact that admissions folks could see it in the system affect their perception of my abilities, despite them "taking" the highest score?

I attended a good undergraduate school and had an OK GPA (3.5), but was an economics major, took a considerable amount of finance and business courses, and will have 4+ years of work experience as a number crunching financial analyst.

Thanks,
Chase

[StaceyKoprince]

It'd be best to ask an admissions consultant about this - my area of expertise is the GMAT itself. (I'd be happy to help figure out what to do if an admissions consultant thinks you should take it again.)

There's a folder here called Ask an Admissions Consultant. MBA Mission also gives free 30-minute phone consultations, so maybe you want to take them up on that.

How did you do on IR? That one also has a decent amount of quant, so a good score there would help. And an admissions consultant is going to want to know the rest of your "quant experience" (whether you took quant classes in school and, if so, whether you had good grades; whether your current job has quant aspects; etc).

Let me know what you hear!

[chasedavidson]

Stacey,

Thanks, I noticed that forum and posted a few days back and haven't heard back yet. To answer some of your other questions, I got a 7 on IR (82%tile) and a 6.0 on AWA. I was an Econ major at UVA, so took a pretty good amount of courses requiring quant aptitude with decent grades in them (including an A in applied calculus II and a B+ in intro to statistics). Additionally, I will have 4+ years of work experience, all of which will in a financial analyst or associate capacity meaning daily exposure to numbers...

Chase

[StaceyKoprince]

You may also want to go on the websites of the companies - they may not respond on our forums as quickly as they respond on their own forums or blogs. Or sign up for a free consult (most companies do this because, of course, they're hoping you'll sign up!).

Okay, so from what you've told me, you've got plenty of other ways to demonstrate your quant chops. And your quant isn't THAT low. I have heard that some of the top schools are okay with 45+ on quant as long as there's other evidence (like you have).

But, again, this isn't my area of expertise.