GMAT Score: What is Considered as Good by the Top Schools?

[2010Applicant]

I have just taken the GMAT. (I am applying to HKS, Fletcher and SIPA; all of them allow GMAT in lieu of GRE.) My scores are:

Verbal: 40 (89 percentile)

Quant: 49 (87 percentile)

Total: 730 (96 percentile)

AWA: not known yet.

I am just wondering if the 87 percentile in the quant section, in your opinion, would present some difficulty in getting into a top school? (assuming that I am very well-qualified in other aspects of the application.) Would this 87 percentile be regarded by them as good / okay / borderline /relatively poor ?

It's been many years since I last took the GMAT. Back then, the quant section was really easy and participants were much less competitive. A scaled score of 48 earned me a 97 percentile! Gee, it's much more difficult now. Anyway, I would appreciate your feedback!

[acup313]

I am not sure about your particular field, but I know in mine that this would be considered a very good score. You will see higher scores, and I know in my field the focus is more on the quant than the verbal, but the GMAT score is more of the cutoff test. By that I mean if you have at least this score your application gets looked at, if it is below it they may not even consider you. I would assume that your score is good enough to get you looked at everywhere. If it is a close decision between you and someone else it may be a tiebreaker, but I would say that is still an excellent score.