Quote:
Originally Posted by Biesterfield
You mentioned your GMAT is mid-700's. You still think its worth it to take it again?
Here's my logic: I got a 740, which is 97th percentile. 750 is 98th percentile and 760+ is 99th percentile. That's above the median GMAT score for any bschool in the world, I think (Stanford 730 median, Wharton/Harvard 720).
However, and I say this cautiously, I think you need to compare against subgroup. I'm an American white male. The top business schools are usually ~33+% international, and I would bet my life worth that the average GMAT score is significantly lower among the non-native speakers. Also, while I'm fairly agnostic about affirmative action, ~20% of the class is US minorities who probably also have significant differences than my subgroup.
The top 10 MBA programs together matriculate 5000-5500 students each year. Approximately 6500 people score 760+ on the GMAT each year (650k people take the test every year), and another 6500 people score 750.
Put all that together and I would argue that the median score for American white males at Harvard/Stanford/Wharton is probably 760. Now, none of this is to overemphasize the GMAT: it's pretty clear that MBA programs value work experience/esasys over raw GMAT. Even so, I would guess that most application reviewers check the GMAT first and then view the application. Given my non-traditional MBA background, I'd like them to view my application through the lens of "99% on his GMAT." Harvard/Stanford/Wharton/similar definitely admit people from my subgroup with sub-700, but I bet the admission rate is quite low.
Like I said, I'm more or less planning on applying to the top 10, so do I think that having a 760 instead of a 740 would change one or two admissions decisions? For any particular school, the process is a crapshoot, but over 10 applications, I think 20 more GMAT points changes at least 2 decisions. That's my speculation.