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I just took the gmat this morning, and was dissapointed with a 700 score. I believe my AWA went excellent. On the math part I ran into some questions I had never seen before which took up precious time. Once I realized that I'm getting more and more behind I panicked, and surely messed up multiple questions. In the verbal I once again did very well.
My final score was 700. Q 79th percentile, V 90th percentile. This was very disappointing for me, since I spent about 90% of my study time on math, and felt very strong in that area.

My Profile:

Academics:
I am a pharmacist that graduated last summer with a PharmD. I also have a BS in biology.
If I had to guess I would say I have around a 2.0 to 2.5 undergrad gpa. This is by far my biggest weakness. (I got into pharmacy school mainly on my high scores on prereqs, and an excellent score on PCAT, but my overall gpa was very bad)

Work experience:
After graduation, I took on a very challenging position as pharmacy manager in a chain retail pharmacy. This is a very busy pharmacy, and I actually have 15 employees under me, including 3 other pharmacists. At the time that I took the position, the pharmacy was in terrible shape in every way imaginable. Poor staffing, poor customer service, terrible execution, etc. It took me close to a year to fix the pharmacy, and now it is in great shape (still not perfect, but getting there). I took on this very challenging position with almost no prior management experience, and persevered where multiple people failed before me.

Other:
I am positive that I can secure excellent letters of recommendation based on my work experience.
I am also trilingual, and have lived in 4 different countries for at least a few years each.
Also, I know I can ace any interviews.

I'm very happy with my current position as pharmacy manager for now. I don't really care if I go to business school this year or next, though I am already 29 yo. I mainly want to go to business school because I don't want to work in a pharmacy for the rest of my life.

Also, it doesn't really matter where I go, since I can move anywhere in the country. I do however want to go to one of the top 10 schools. I don't really see the point for me to go to a program that is not top 10.

Finally, I know that if I keep studying, I can prolly get a score around 740.

So, do I have a shot of getting into any of the top 10 programs or should I retake the GMAT and maybe try next year?

Hey polishpistol,

First of all, nice name!

A score of 700 is a decent score, but it is either at or below the averages of the top 5 programs. Your GPA is significantly lower than the average GPAs. Perhaps this can be offset by decent grad school grades for your PharmD?

If you're looking to apply for this year, taking the GMAT again will take away precious time. From your post, you say that your primary reason for wanting to go to b-school is because you don't want to be a pharmacist anymore. You've definitely got to flush out better and articulate why you want to go to business school at this time, and why a specific school is the right answer.

A score of 740 will help, but you need to be mindful of getting through your essays and building your story. If you can do all of the other aspects of the application and still find time to retake the test then I say do it. If you think that it would significantly compromise the other parts of the application, I say don't retake.

Hope that this helps! Good luck!

Paul
[email protected]
www.EssayMatch.com

thepolishpistol wrote:I just took the gmat this morning, and was dissapointed with a 700 score. I believe my AWA went excellent. On the math part I ran into some questions I had never seen before which took up precious time. Once I realized that I'm getting more and more behind I panicked, and surely messed up multiple questions. In the verbal I once again did very well.
My final score was 700. Q 79th percentile, V 90th percentile. This was very disappointing for me, since I spent about 90% of my study time on math, and felt very strong in that area.

My Profile:

Academics:
I am a pharmacist that graduated last summer with a PharmD. I also have a BS in biology.
If I had to guess I would say I have around a 2.0 to 2.5 undergrad gpa. This is by far my biggest weakness. (I got into pharmacy school mainly on my high scores on prereqs, and an excellent score on PCAT, but my overall gpa was very bad)

Work experience:
After graduation, I took on a very challenging position as pharmacy manager in a chain retail pharmacy. This is a very busy pharmacy, and I actually have 15 employees under me, including 3 other pharmacists. At the time that I took the position, the pharmacy was in terrible shape in every way imaginable. Poor staffing, poor customer service, terrible execution, etc. It took me close to a year to fix the pharmacy, and now it is in great shape (still not perfect, but getting there). I took on this very challenging position with almost no prior management experience, and persevered where multiple people failed before me.

Other:
I am positive that I can secure excellent letters of recommendation based on my work experience.
I am also trilingual, and have lived in 4 different countries for at least a few years each.
Also, I know I can ace any interviews.

I'm very happy with my current position as pharmacy manager for now. I don't really care if I go to business school this year or next, though I am already 29 yo. I mainly want to go to business school because I don't want to work in a pharmacy for the rest of my life.

Also, it doesn't really matter where I go, since I can move anywhere in the country. I do however want to go to one of the top 10 schools. I don't really see the point for me to go to a program that is not top 10.

Finally, I know that if I keep studying, I can prolly get a score around 740.

So, do I have a shot of getting into any of the top 10 programs or should I retake the GMAT and maybe try next year?