Profile Evaluation - Uneven GMAT Q/V split

[blairwinston]

So I just took the GMAT this morning and am hoping for a little advice. I scored a 710 (Q50, V36). I'm targeting Kellogg, Booth, Wharton and Darden and plan to concentrate on corporate strategy.

A little bit about my background...I graduated from a top 10 liberal arts college with a 3.4 GPA. I was a dual major in Math and Economics. (In all honesty, I just didn't try as hard as I could have.) I've been with a large consulting firm in DC for the past 3 years working on Department of Defense contracts. For the past two years, I've worked on the same contract where the team is essentially only the project manager and myself. I've had the opportunity to take on a great deal of responsibility, but I can't claim to have supervised employees (besides the odd junior staffer who has assisted for a month or so). On the plus side, I'm confident that the project manager will write me a stellar letter of rec because we've formed a close bond.

My extracurriculars are ok but nothing too standout unfortunately. I'm on a women's USTA tennis league (I played tennis in high school and college). I've recently started volunteering at a soup kitchen serving breakfast to homeless men and women a couple times a month before work. I've participated in various community service events through my work, but nothing out of the ordinary.

A unique aspect of my application is the summer between college and starting my job, my dad ran for office in the state legislature. I had the opportunity to essentially lead the campaign and think I will be able to get an interesting essay out of it. I know it was my dad, but it was a legit operation. We had a team of volunteers and I played the role of jack-of-all-trades - creating the literature, planning the door knocking and phone banking efforts, organizing meet and greets, etc.

I plan to retake the GMAT simply because I have the time and figure it's worth a second try. But assuming this is as good as it's going to get for me, I was wondering how schools would view this pretty large split between Q and V. (For what it's worth, back in the day I faced a similar situation with the SAT. I spent two months focused just on the verbal sections, but my second attempt just led to my math going up and my verbal staying exactly the same. So part of me thinks my brain just isn't built to think the same way test takers do.)

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance.

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi Blair,

Thanks for sharing your background and dilemma, and congrats on a strong GMAT score overall. Your background and experiences do sound like they could lend themselves well to essays and anecdotes, and that will help your application. The fact that you are currently still involved in tennis (if I read that correctly) as well as the community volunteering is a positive thing (many have struggled to be involved since undergrad, for example).

Sounds like you are planning to take the test again which is fine and schools generally take your highest score, and if you happened to bump your overall it could push you above the average at some of the schools you mention (and bumping verbal would give you that boost to the overall).

In terms of the math/verbal split itself, while a balanced score is a positive, if forced to choose, this split you have is actually probably preferable to the opposite. In fact Wharton for example has been known to prefer 80th percentile in quant scores specifically. So your strong quant score is a plus and demonstrates that you can handle the quant and analytical components of b-school. And while the scores are far-off, the percentiles are closer because test-takers do better on math than verbal generally (hence you are likely at about 90th percentile Q and 80th V).

So overall if you're planning to re-take once more, go for it and see what you can do, and in general don't worry too much at this point on the score discrepency-- start focusing on those applications and essays as those can become the deciding factor if your scores are in the average range of accepted applicants. :)

Good luck to you, and feel free to check in with questions!

Jennifer Kedrowski
MBA Admissions Consultant
www.mbamission.com
jen@mbamission.com

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