I graduated from a top 30ish business school with degrees in Ac'ting and Finance with an overall GPA of 3.3. I worked in public accounting as an auditor for 2.5 years for a national firm and I left my firm in the summer to do interviews as it was impossible to interview because of my scheduling and client deadlines.

I desired to switch to a corporate accounting role to make my accounting experience whole before switching to strategy consulting, Post MBA and in the long term, entrepreneurship or corporate mgmt. I have been unsuccessful in getting offers in corp. accounting because most companies were looking for long term commitments and I disclosed my intentions to go get my MBA in Fall 2012. During the summer, to keep busy, I studied for the CPA, GMAT, researched schools, attended admission events and applied and interviewed for jobs. I haven't passed the CPA yet, no job and bombed the GMAT (got a 370) and blowing through my savings.

I am a minority applicant applying through the Consortium to Darden, Tuck and Texas and directly to Harvard, Columbia and Chicago. I was able to land an interview with Darden through their diversity event and will be interviewing at Tuck. For the GMAT I used Veritas but did not study effectively. I did the lessons, practice problems, but not enough looking back and did only 1 practice exam. I will like to use Veritas in class lecture and take it again late Dec. My question to you guys is if it is worth it, now, given my very first low score and how late in the second round I will be submitting an application. I sent the sores to the schools last week but I am thinking of calling GMAC to not report the scores to the schools yet and apply towards Fall 2013 were I may be more competitive. At the same I feel highly motivated to redeem myself this year because I am not a quitter and I think if I withdraw my applications after making so many connections with these schools that it may hurt me in the long run. There is nothing new under the sun and I believe you guys can please advice me on what directions to take.

Thanks.

Sorry to hear about your dilemma. You definitely will not be competitive with a 370 GMAT score, so the question is, how much can you get it up before the January round two deadlines. You might as well try, since there is no risk in doing so, and if you cant get closer to the 80% range for your target schools, you might try to figure out exactly why and see if it's something you can address. Your GPA in school was good, and you say it was a top 30 program, which will help, but you also said you have 2.5 years of professional accounting/auditing experience yet do not have your CPA? This does not seem to fit. I would definitely say you should have your CPA license and an improved GMAT score to consider applying. Doesn't matter if it's late or early in the round.