Sorry I haven't gotten back to you. David usually answers most of the mba admissions inquiries, which I prefer since he is pretty much the insider to the system, as an admissions consultant.

I think you have a lot going for you in your international work experience and it might be a good area to stress on applications/admissions letters.

As for the gmat, I would look at the required scores for admissions and the average accepted gmat scores and set your goal based on these. These can usually be found at schools websites or at businessweek.com.

Hi Spot and thanks for your inquiry.

I like your background. You worked for easily-recognized name employers and the positive about this is that you won’t have to spend as much time explaining exactly what you do there. The downside, though, is that it will make it a bit more difficult to differentiate your candidacy from the many others with similar work experience. Your travel experience is impressive and if that has held you back from more extensive extracurricular involvement, then you will want to state very tactfully in your application story.

Your GMAT score is only one small component of your candidacy and it is probably the most overrated as well. While I hope you don’t ‘blow off?the GMAT, bear these 2 things in mind:

1. Your academic qualifications (transcripts and GMAT) account for about 40% of the admissions decisions at the top schools.
2. All four of these schools will admit dozens if not hundreds of applicants with sub 600 GMAT scores. (Granted they probably packed a strong ‘wow?factor in their stories.)
3. Last year, Stanford rejected 8 out of 8 applicants with 800 GMAT scores.

The moral of this story? Again, the GMAT is often overrated and please don’t believe any “experts?who tell you to retake the GMAT until you score above 700. Depending on your demographic pool and the details of your particular candidacy, it will probably be unnecessary.

Don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like professional assistance with your applications!

Sincerely,

David Petersam
DPetersam@admissionsconsultants.com
703.242.5885

Admissions committee experience from the top b-schools

One of the hypothesized theories regarding Stanford's rejection of 800 GMAT candidates... is that they are just managing their yield rating, meaning that Stanford knows they are the "back-up" school to those with perfect scores, and they'll probably end up going to Harvard or Wharton anyway... so they reject them.

Just my 2 cents.

Interesting theory Jubers, but I have to politely disagree. I bet none of the 8 had good enough application "stories" for Stanford. Granted, part of a successful story is casting yourself as a match made in heaven with a business school and there is some interrelationship with fit and yield.

Stanford competes very successfully against HBS and Wharton. (And all other schools for that matter.) Additionally, we see re-applicants every year with perfect 800 GMAT scores and I'm pretty sure that not all of those applicants were accepted at other top MBA programs.

My point is... that even though you note that Standford rejected candidates with 800 scores, you can bet that more than HALF of those people got accepted at another top 10 school. (Harvard, Wharton, Sloan, Columbia, etc.)

In my professional opinion, I do not believe that -- whatever the percentage of the 800 GMAT score applicants were accepted to other top 10 MBA programs -- that percentage varies significantly for the 800 GMAT applicants or the 700 GMAT score applicants.

You start out by saying that, in your professional opinion, your disagree. What are you disagreeing to? Because your next sentence is so ambiguous, I don't know what to make of it.

My statement was that, of the 800 GMAT candidates who were rejected from Stanford, more than half were probably admitted to other top 10 programs.

You are disagreeing to that? If so, please have a supporting sentence following. I did not mention anything about variability in comparing 700 GMAT applicants to 800 GMAT applicants. To me, it seems like you just wrote a bunch of words and forced them into a sentence, which really does not come together well as a supporting argument.

If X% of 800 GMAT score applicants got into top 10 programs, then the % of 700 GMAT score applicants is very close to X.

The importance of a high GMAT score is way over rated.

Thanks for the clarification. I still don't agree with you... but then again, you would know alot more than me on this, so you're probably right.

Very interesting fact. Maybe I should have applied to H/W/S as well!!!

:) Being in the admissions business, David probably knows the admissions staff at several of these schools so its hard to argue with him. It is an interesting topic though. I'm sure if you had a 800 on the gmat you would be able to get into a decent school unless you had no other redeeming qualities.

What about online education ? I see info all the time to get your MBA online - does this only work in the US or worldwide ?? (That may be an issue as you are in AU)