Chad

Thanks! I do agree with you. If you go in knowing that "I can take it again if I don't do too well" then it is a load off. I'm not saying every school will be willing to accept that but I think that when a school says that they truly evaluate other factors, I believe them now. And just remember, I think I posted this earlier too, but remember that not every successful businessman/woman, graduated from a top 10 school. The problem with many people who want to get an MBA is that if they don't get into the school they want, they tend not to try as hard as if they had gotten in. Anyways, good luck and best wishes.

Ursula, I just wanted to thank you for your words of encouragement, As it turns out, when the schools say they have no Minimum on the GMAT, I have to agree. They really do look at the whole package. After a 630 on the GMAT (6.0AWA), 9 years work experience, excellent references and excellent interviews, I have officially been accepted to both of the programs I applied to. Now the hard part is deciding which one. I am leaning more towards 1 right now primarily because the department head that I hope to work for eventually is an alumn from there. So again, thank you for your kind words, and all I can say to everyone is good luck and don't think that your not good enough. Cheers

I got in!!! Fall Term!!! Yahoo!!!! I'm flying high right now!!

Well, It's been about 6 weeks since my interview and I just got the call...I've been accepted to One of my Top 2 Choices (my #1 choice actually). I don't really want to say which one out of respect for those who are still waiting. But lets just say it's in the Top 5 (located in Chicago). Btw, before many people start to panick, it's the part-time program I'm doing. I want to thank Ursula and many others for their words of confidence after my GMAT etc etc.... So I'm now going to have to really enjoy my summer before I start in the Fall. Thanks Again ALL.

Maybe I should have stated, I'm applying for the Part-time program not the full time. There are 3 deadlines per year. This was for the Fall 2004.

I submitted my application right after the interview.

I had my interview with Kellogg also recently. Do you have any idea on how long it takes to recieve notification of acceptance or denial. If you are accepted, do they call you within a week or two, and if you are denied do you get a call in a week or two also or do you get a letter in like 4-6 weeks? Any idea?

I found this great website which all of you may be interested in. http://www.chudnovsky.org/mba/ I don't know how up to date it is, but it gives a good idea of selection criteria variations.

Well, I attended an open house for one of the top schools I wish to attend and I feel alot better about my chances. It turns out that the average for the part time program is lower than that for the full time program, and that experience and essays are really the bulk of the decision. I was amazed at how many people, even though they are working for very large companies and making very good money, they really don't get to do a variety of tasks. Fortunately, my company allows me to work on a lot of very diverse and challenging projects which require me to interface with customers, suppliers upper executives from major corporations and people of worldly acclaim. I'm actually excited again about the opportunities that may present themselves at this school. Thanks again all for your words of encouragement.

Thanks Ursula, I don't really want to use my personal life to make excuses for poor performance though. I would rather get there on my own merit. Sure it was stressful (especially with a 2 year old running around the house), but life is stressful. I guess being from Canada and having been brought up with queens english didn't help either, but I don't know. The bad thing about the GMAT is that they don't tell you what sections you performed poorly on i.e. CR,RC etc. I'd sure like to know where I screwed up. I even had 10 minutes left at the end of the verbal section. I will use the AWA score and my application essays to try to convince them that I'm well suited to their programs and that they could gain alot from me. I've got about 8 years of work experience and I'm not talking about McDonalds. I've worked in many different industries and hopefully all my other plusses will offset the GMAT score. But you know, in the end, if I don't get into the school I'd like to, it's not the end of the world. If only those who are successful graduated from the top B schools,then maybe i'd be worried, but I know many very successful business people who graduated from average level colleges. btw, I saw your score...niiicccceee!!! good job!.

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't responded in a while, but I had my second child a week and 1/2 ago. Well.. I got my official GMAT scores, and yup a 630, but I got a 6.0 on the AWA portion. So After talking with some business associates who attend the two top B schools I want to apply to, I'm going to go ahead and apply for part time MBA and hopefully they will tell me if I should retake the GMAT. I don't plan on spending the money unless it's necessary. So I'll keep you informed. Thanks for your support.

I am sorry to hear that Chad. You scored 700+ on the PP, so that's what you should have scored on your actual GMAT as well. Or did you do all the questions in [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] first before trying the PP? In that case, your PP scores are artificially boosted of course. Actually I did the PP's at the very begining. The thing with the PP's is that they aren't adaptive. I went back and did them a second time and all the questions were exactly the same. I really don't know where I screwed up. I thought (on the actual one) the math questions were reasonably difficult not the hardest I have seen in practise, and I thought the verbal were straight forward. I have no Idea yet what sections I screwed up on. Half the darn quant thought was DS questions which really sucked. I figure I'll try to study from the LSAT book to boost my verbal, maybe I can get around 680-700 the next time. I'm trying to get into Kellog or University of Chicago part time program and I've heard of people who have gotten in with as low as 610. I've got about 7 years of work experience, I've got my entire career plan laid out in terms of what I want to do and on top of that I even know what courses I want to take and how I intend on applying them. I'm sure I could do well at the interviews and such, and I have some really good references but I've heard that if you are denied at either school, that you have to wait 1 year before applying again, and I don't want to wait any more to start. So I figure if I do worse, they won't need to know, and if I do better, then I'll pay the 25 bucks to send the scores. The only reason I say I might do worse is that I've got my second child due tomorrow and don't know how much time i'll have to study over the next month or so. But we'll see.

I wrote the GMAT yesterday and unfortunately only a 630 (43Q,34V). I would have to say the Princeton review was closest at 610,650,650. I somewhat depressed right now, and will likely repeat the test next month.

I wrote the GMAT yesterday, I got a 630, (43Q,34V). I think I did maybe a 5 on the essays, but not sure yet. My question is now, should I retake next month? I've got my second child scheduled for delivery tomorrow and I don't know if I'll have much time to study. I want to go to either U of Chicago GSB or Kellog PART-TIME. I know that they advertise their average GMAT scores as 700 and 690 but this is overall, and I don't know what their MINIMUMS are. Any suggestions? I know I need to work on my verbal because I really thought I had better skills than that.

So when a question like this comes along, do you assume that they are looking for an answer that cares about order?