erkki

What do you want to do with your MBA? That makes a difference. In terms of student life, you can either live in Los Angeles or in Indiana. Los Angeles is way more culturally diverse and you will see many more internationals in that area (outside of school).

I think once you get rejected you can't do anything until the next year. If you really want to apply this year, you should just pick some new schools.

It is very expensive to apply to business school, with applications costing about $200 each for the good schools. I did not want to spend more than $1000 on my applications, so I made sure that I picked my schools wisely. I made sure that I really wanted to go to any of the schools that I got in to, so basically I didn't have a safety. I felt that a safety school wasn't really worth the cost, since I probably wouldn't get a great return on my investment. I ended up choosing four schools - Stanford, Michigan, UCLA, and USC. I figured Stanford was my reach, Michigan and UCLA were slight reaches, and USC was a match. I would have been cool going to any of those schools. I could have applied to a school like UCSD or UCI where I'm fairly certain I would have gotten in, but I wouldn't have been happy there so I didn't think it was worth applying.

That's lame that they brag about turning down people who scored 800. It's almost as if they turn them down just so they can say that they did. I applied to Stanford and got dinged, but I didn't really expect to make it because my essays sucked.

I was a round 1 applicant and submitted my application on November 1. I am a U.S. Citizen. Tuition there is about $21k/year.

You hit the 80/80 split! Good job!

I was admitted to the UCLA Anderson School of Management in December and already sent in my deposit. Any other MBAers out there?

Congratulations on a great score!

Sibs, I don't think you should really approach it that way, thinking that you need to get a certain number right. As you know, the GMAT is a computer adaptive test, so missing the first two will affect your score differently than missing the last two. And because a few of the questions don't count, this further complicates things. Just do your best, make a good effort on each question, and work on your timing. If you do all of this (and look up ursula's study methods), your target score will take care of itself. Good luck!

Yeah, I think just knowing the formulas for combination and permutation and knowing which is which should be enough prep. You shouldn't have to worry about spending hours practicing those types of problems. And for probablility, I didn't see anything that was more difficult than a simply-worded conditional probability problem.

I got a PM from another user who also got the RC passage about the potatoes on a PP.

I actually jumped to a 750 :D Good luck with your re-test. I'm sure you'll improve.

I didn't do my PP online...I did it from the CD-ROM.

Right now I'm looking at Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, UCLA, and USC. I have a campus visit to USC scheduled for Monday afternoon. I'm doing an info session and then meeting with a current student. He/she will be taking me to a class and then I'm going to stroll around the campus.

Great post. I really admire your study habits. Thanks for sharing. Maybe the next time I have to take a standardized test (which I hope is never again!) I will mimic your strategy.

Awesome job!

I took the test twice and my scores did not change. Don't expect them to change at all. The main difference is that with the official report you'll get your AWA score as well.

For analysis of an argument, I find three assumptions that the author makes. I start off the essay by saying something like, "In discussing the issue of (issue), the author concludes that (what the author concludes). This conclusion cannot be valid, since the author makes a number of assumptions that have not been supported by evidence. Then my next paragraph, I talk about the first assumption. "First, the author assumes that (what they assume). This is not necessarily true because it's possible that (some other outcome not covered by the assumption). What would strenghten this argument is if the author could show evidence that supported (the assumption that they made)." Every paragraph after that is pretty similar. The second paragraph I start of with "In addition, the author assumes that..." and in the third, I say "Finally, the author makes the assumption that...". Then I end it all by saying "if the author can provide evidence of these things, only then will his conclusion be valid." For the analysis of an issue essay, I just pick a side, and then I think of three things to say in support of it. Then I write a paragraph about each of these three things and why it's better than the other side of the issue. Basically, I just used the template that the Kaplan books give.

Awesome job! Congrats! I don't think we can properly assess your chances at H/W/S unless we know more about you besides your GMAT. But your score is a great jumping off point!

The Kaplan tests are very frustrating, which I why I always advise people to start off with the Kaplan practice tests, and do the PP tests last so that confidence is high heading into the real GMAT.

The Kaplan CD-ROM has 4 CAT tests (I think). I know there are at least a few. It's a good thing to study off of, since I found it way harder than the real test.

Congrats! I got my official report today too, and got a 6.0.

I consider myself a pretty fast typist, and I was able to organize, write, and proofread my essay in about 15 minutes. So as long as you are semi-good at typing and can mentally organize your essay within a few minutes, time should not be an issue.

David, I was wondering what my chances are for the following schools: Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, UCLA, and USC. I graduated from UC Irvine and was a Regents' Scholar. I completed the Honors Program there, and graduated with a 3.32 GPA with a major in Biological Sciences and a minor in Cognitive Psychology. During college my main extracurriculars were working for Housing for two years as a House Assistant (analogous to an RA), and winning the House Assistant of the Year in 1999-2000. I was also a member of our campus' College Bowl team for four years, where we regularly placed in the top 3 for our region. I wrote a regular column for the School Newspaper, and was involved in a small handful of clubs. I have worked at the University since I graduated, first as a business assistant at one of the housing complexes, then as a program coordinator and academic advisor for the University's honors program. I have had four years of work experience, and I will have completed five years by the time I intend to enroll in business school (Fall 2005). I am a member of two professional organizations for University personnel, and I am also an active member of the alumni association. I serve as an officer for the Honors Student Alumni chapter, and I am also the representative for the Alumni Association on the Board of Directors for the campus' Recreation Center. In addition, I serve as the advisor to two student organizations, and I have won awards as Club Advisor of the Year for the past couple of years. One of the clubs that I advise is the Golden Key International Honour Society, which is heavily involved in Community Service. I have organized several hundred hours of community service for the students at our university, and I have also personally spoken at a number of low-performing high schools during community outreach events. Also, for the past three years I have been part of a review committee put together by the Office of Admissions to review applications. My GMAT score is a 750 with a 6.0 AWA score. I am going to Business School mainly for a career change. I am really interested in getting in to the Marketing field. The favorite part of my job now is when I am "selling" our school to students who are considering schools that are more famous such as Stanford, UCLA, and Berkeley. I have been very successful at marketing our product, and I hope to make this my career, but in a field other than higher education. Also, my parents own a business and I would also like to be able to advance their efforts and perhaps expand it.

Yes, it was on the PP exam CD that I got from ETS that contained the passage that I got on the GMAT. But don't depend on getting a passage on the GMAT that you've already seen. I just got lucky. There's no substitute for good, old-fashioned studying.