should retake GMAT? and general profile evaluation

[danforthd]

Hi, can you help me evaluate my chances at the schools listed below given my profile? Also, can you give me some advice as to whether or not I should retake the GMAT?

I am a 24 year old American, white female (will be 26 upon enrollment) with a 3.9 from a top 15 US liberal arts college. Upon enrollment I will have 4 years experience working in tax accounting at a big 4 accounting firm, 3 years of which spent living in Europe. During this employment, I received an early promotion. I am planning to change my career path completely after the MBA.

My scores on the GMAT are as follows:
760 (47Q, 47V), 73% and 99% respectively
AWA 6/6; IR 6/8 (63%)

Regarding my GMAT score, I am concerned about my relatively low quant score (73%) and my low IR score. I have heard that students applying to start school in Fall 2013 should not worry about IR, but since I am applying for the following year, do you think this score will negatively affect my application? Similarly, do you think the 47 Q score (73%) is close enough to the 80% rule to slide or would you recommend retaking the GMAT to see if I can improve my quant score? In addition to the acconting, economics, and finance classes required for my major, I also took 2 math courses in college (statistics and calculus). I received A's in all of these courses mentioned, so I'm hoping my transcript will compensate somewhat for my low Q score.

I am planning to apply to schools in Fall of 2013 and to enroll in Fall of 2014. I would ideally like to go to a top 5 school (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Sloan, Kellogg, Booth) but if it is unrealistic for me to go to one of these, would also apply to Darden and Fuqua. I would of course apply to other schools if you would recommend it. Can you please evaluate my chance at these schools? Thanks in advance for your help! I really appreciate it!!

[mili]

Hello,

Thanks for sharing your profile! Here is my advice based on what you've shared below:

In terms of whether you are competitive for the programs you've listed, I would say that while your academics are very strong, the rest of your profile is not as competitive for these programs. A couple things to note: At these programs, the most important thing they'll want to see is leadership in every setting (professional, extracurricular, community). The challenge with your current career is that in the accounting world you don't often get leadership and team opportunities in the same way you might in other roles. Usually it is more of an analysis/individual contributor role. Please correct me if that's not the case for your role.

Further, they want to see you highly engaged outside of your professional role - ideally in a leadership capacity. This could take shape in any number of ways (coaching a soccer team, running marathons, being a concert pianist, leading mountaineering expeditions...).

Finally, they want to see strong community engagement. Generally this means volunteering (ideally in a leadership position) at a nonprofit you are passionate about.

I didn't see any of these things in your profile below, so I am concerned about your competitiveness at the programs you mentioned. I would say that HBS, GSB and MIT are long shots and probably not worth applying to. Of the programs you mentioned, you'd have the best chance at Booth, as in my experience, they put slightly less emphasis on extracurricular/community.

Based on all this, I would suggest focusing more on programs like Michigan, Duke, Darden, etc. where your strong GMAT will pull more weight.

As for the GMAT, I don't think you need to retake it. I think that your accounting career combined with your strong grades in your quant classes will suffice.

Good luck!
Mili