I'm planning on applying in August 2012 to go to B-School starting in August 2013:

Background: American Male (Caucasian), Age At matriculation: 26
Undergrad: BS from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Dual Degree in Finance & Accountancy) Minor in Technology & Management
GPA: 3.69
GMAT Score: 710 (49 in quant, 37 in Verbal, waiting on AWA)

Undergraduate Activities:
- Involved in fraternity
- Involved in Hillel Foundation (Jewish organization on campus) as intern and Treasurer
- Involved in University consulting organization (started as consultant and ended as project manager)

Work Experience: As of July 2012, 3 years at IBM Global Business Services; promoted from consultant to senior consultant after 2 years. First project at a consumer products company doing SAP Supply Chain implementation. I have some org change experience, proposal experience and I recently moved to a new group to do implementations for Workday, which is a Cloud Based HR system so by the time I apply,

Extracurricular Activities:
- Involved in Chicago Business Volunteers for the Arts, doing pro bono consulting work for non profit arts organizations in Chicago
- Sit on governing board of University of Illinois Hillel Foundation, same organization I was a part of as a student

Target Schools (Top 5): Kellogg, Booth, Stern, Columbia, Wharton

My ultimate goal with getting an MBA is to change careers from IT consulting to Investment Banking. My passion has always been finance and business as opposed to IT oriented work. I finished undergrad in 2009 while doing job recruitment in fall 2008, which was a very tough market for finance jobs so that is a large part of why I ended up at an IT consultancy.

Do you think I have a chance at top tier schools with a 710 and such a wide discrepancy between quant and verbal scores?

Thank you very much and I appreciate your help.

GMAT should be good enough to be competitive at these schools. You have some time now to work on your leadership experience and making sure you are making an impact compared to your peers, which will help your recommenders rank you highly. Your religious heritage will also be a positive differentiator for b-school applications, since schools put a premium on people bringing a different perspective, especially one that is in the minority. Let us know when the time comes if you need help pulling your story together into a coherent, persuasive package for your target schools.