GMAT.  Those four little letters … coming back to haunt me.

I went to my interview last Wednesday and it went pretty well – from my point of view. I interviewed with one of the Associate Directors of the program, very nice woman, had a nice chat, wow’d the group with my presentation on my podcast experiences.  All in all, not a bad experience.

However, at one point in the interview, the interviewer asked me, and I quote, “So, tell me about your experience with the GMAT”. I laughed and said it wasn’t very positive. I made some joke about how no one over the age of 30 should have to take the test … cruel and unusual punishment and all that. Then she asked, “If the admissions committee asked you to take the test again, what would you say?”. I didn’t laugh. I waited a couple of seconds for the screaming in my head to stop and then told her I would take it again.  Oh, my, god.  I can’t believe I said that.

Okay, so that was last Wednesday.  Feeling positive … enrolled in a couple more classes over the summer … I know that I’ll hear something one way or the other by the end of the month.  Then I get a call this afternoon.

Guess who? The interviewer calls me to say the admissions committee would like me to take the GMAT again.  They are concerned about my ability to get through the program because of my low quant score. And they want me to take it by the end of June.  I need a higher score to be competitive in the pool of applicants.  Which I can understand. If they have highly qualified applicants and those applicants have higher GMAT scores, then I guess they could have just red lined me and be done with it.  But, they must see some potential in order to give me another shot at the GMAT. And what they are looking for isn’t impossible to obtain.  What the interviewer conveyed to me was that she was confident there would be a spot for me if I did better on the GMAT.  I guess she can’t come right out and say if I have a higher GMAT score I’ll be accepted.

I can’t believe I have to study for the GMAT again. I was so happy to be done and over with that test! But, I need to do better and better I will do.  I’m still in shock. I’ll post again when I get my wits back and let you know what I am planning on doing differently this time.