one step at a time?

[hopeplan]

I am in a job. Am planning to take the test in august this year. After looking at the scores, I want to then decide which schools to apply to, for a phd in marketing. Are there any practical issues with this approach? Any pitfalls?

[bauble]

If you don't have any info on the field (marketing or b-school phd in general), then waiting until august is a tight timeline to get up to speed to know enough to move forward (in terms of targeting good schools in terms of your interests, putting together good apps, knowing what you're getting into, those sorts of things). So start asap if you're thinking of fall 2009 admission.

[desimba]

Adding a different lens to the issue: You can choose upto 4 schools where your scores can be sent free of any additional charge. So say you want to apply to a total of 10 schools, ideally you would like to know at least 4 of the 10 schools on that list before you go to the GRE/ GMAT exam center. At the end of the test, when you have seen the unofficial scores yourself, you get to choose which schools the score needs to be sent to and you can choose the 4 schools that you had in mind.

You could even go with a strategy such as:
1) If GMAT > 740, then I will send my scores to MIT, Stanford, Chicago & Kellogg
2) If GMAT: between 710 and 740, then scores to be sent to Chicago, Kellogg, Duke & UNC and
3) If GMAT < 710, then scores to be sent to UNC, Purdue, CMU & Rutgers (as an example)