I am an American girl who just took the GMAT and underperformed, with a 620. I was testing in the 680 range in the practice tests I took, but I guess I just wasn't as prepared as I could have been. Here's my dilemma:

I need to apply for a 2015 intake, and I am targeting European schools. I know that round 1's have closed for many of the good programs like HEC Paris and Copenhagen, but I could squeeze in to the round 2 deadlines at some other schools that I'm interested like ESSEC. Or I could try to retake the GMAT and see if I can score better, but apply in round 3 or later. I've read that it's a bit trickier to apply in the later rounds though, so I'm not sure this is the right approach.

The other parts of my application are pretty solid, I have 7 years of work experience in retail and retail operations. My bachelor's degree was in an arts field, but I graduated with honors. I have a substantial amount of volunteer experience, including helping some local internet fashion and retailling sites off the ground. Would my background be enough to compensate for my poor GMAT score?

Apply now and tell then you will retake. Give them the retake date.

Thanks for the advice. I think I will do just that.