Hi - I just took the GMAT for a second time and scored the following:

700 - Q 66%, V 95%

This is an improvement from my first time taking the test:

640 - Q 63%, V 82%

I want to attend Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, Yale, NYU, or UNC. I am happy with my improvement as I was aiming for a 700, which I believe will round out my application and make me competitive for these schools, but I am concerned about my low quant score, especially since I don't have much of a quant background (I took one college calculus class and got a B+). I plan to get my MBA to continue a marketing career.

Will any of these schools see this quant score as a big problem or does it just depend on the rest of my application?

It definitely depends on the rest of your application (Quantitative work experience? Additional quant courses taken? GPA?). Stanford will probably have the biggest issue with your low Quant. Why not study and take it again? I know....easy for me to say, but you've only taken it twice, so give it another shot, at worst you have a solid score.

Having said the above, you really haven't given enough background info to warrant a good opinion.

If your academic history doesn't include a lot of quant, then your GMAT quant will be a concern -- adcoms will be concerned whether you will be able to handle the number crunching in an MBA program. Even if the rest of your application is stellar, adcoms may be more inclined to waitlist you until you are able to reasonably show that you can handle the number crunching.

My suggestion is to re-take the GMAT if you can, and shoot for an 80% on the quant ideally (and at an absolute minimum, 70%+). If you don't reach those milestones, enroll in 1-2 courses (calculus, stats, algebra, accounting, finance, etc.) at a community college or online extension program offered by a university.

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com