pstu24

I know that the GMAT is only one of a variety of factors when it comes to admission. However, it is also a pretty big one. Rather than researching roughly 75 schools or so in a first evaluation (to slim down the schools I want to look at), is there an actual listing of which schools have what for the average GMAT for PhD programs? I suppose it's just hard to decipher which school is "top 10", "top 30" , "Ranked" and "unranked" when I don't even know for sure which schools have which average incoming GMAT? Any help would be appreciated!

I went through the process (unsuccessfully) about 2 years ago to try and get into a Finance PhD program. My profile is (hopefully) competitive, in that I scored a 700 GMAT, already have an MBA. My undergrad GPA was low (still above 3.0), but the Graduate GPA was a bit better (3.5). I can also argue that I was active, in that I was a full time student athlete and worked a full time job during my undergrad career. The point is that I applied to a mix of some top programs, some middle of the pack ones, and a few "lesser" caliber schools just to keep my options open. This was back in the fall/winter of 2011. I didn't even hear back from those schools. I mean, I received rejection notices (went 0 for 8), but I never was even contacted about my background, never contacted about visiting the school for a recruitment weekend or even an interview. I could understand that maybe with the higher ups I was one of the first cut. But for some of the lower schools, I wasn't even contacted let alone waitlisted.... This time around I am trying to be a LOT more prepared. I want to be as proactive as possible. So ... do I contact them? Do I (nicely) insist that I come visit and meet them? Do I ask them about recruitment weekends and essentially just show up or invite myself? I am moving forward with all aspects of the applications, and have added more experience to make myself more attractable as a candidate. But, I'm worried that if I don't get some face time and (hopefully) have them fall in love with me, I'll see the same results as the last time through. Any thoughts (or suggestions?) Thanks!