Mr. IB Back Office To Front Office/Consulting

Due to your low GPA from merely a “decent state school” and also low GMAT score, you are going to have to work your way in with a really compelling story. You seem to have the basics of that story here, given the fact that you are the first in your family to graduate with a four-year college degree and have lived and worked in China for a year (it would be interesting to know how that came about). You are also going to have to mount something of a campaign to get into your target school. By campaign, I mean visiting the campus, attending classes, speaking to students and alumni and attending every MBA admission event sponsored by Duke. The admissions team has to know who you are and they have to like you. You will definitiely need an advocate there. Lucky for you, Duke is one of the schools that not only claims that its admissions are holistic; it is a school that will in fact take every aspect of your application into consideration beyond test scores and GPAs.
Should you retake the GMAT? Yes, of course. You need to improve your score by at least 40 points to have a credible chance of admission at Fuqua besides mounting the campaign. A higher score will also help you land a job after your MBA because some of the firms you will be applying to will likely ask you your score. And you need to explain why your GPA is as low as it is and convince admissions that it is not an indication of your true academic ability. I would also apply to Indiana Kelley, UNC, and Rochester Simon. You need to increase the number of schools here to gain a better shot at acceptance. Here’s hoping you can do all that and get an invite to a fantastic MBA program that will allow you to achieve your dream.