Should You Take the GMAT or GRE?
Although an increasing number of business schools are accepting Graduate Record Examination, or GRE, scores for admission into MBA programs, the Graduate Management Admission Test, or GMAT, remains the test of choice, MBA admissions officers say.
"We tell applicants they can submit either; but all things equal, we tell them we'd rather see a GMAT," said Brian Precious, director of admissions for the MBA program at the College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Since 1954, the GMAT has been used to help predict the capabilities of students who are applying to MBA programs. Today, it is accepted at more than 2,000 business schools worldwide. However, the number of business schools accepting GRE scores, which are traditionally submitted for graduate programs in the arts and sciences, have been on the rise. Today, more than 600 business schools accept these scores, meaning that applying students have more options.
Creating diverse student bodies in MBA programs
Business schools are beginning to accept GRE scores to enable applicants without quantitative backgrounds to apply to MBA programs. While engineers and those with business and science backgrounds tend to do better on the GMAT, native English speakers without quantitative backgrounds tend to perform better on the GRE, according to Precious. Precious said he would like to see all applicants have an equal chance of gaining admission into programs in order to create more diverse MBA classes.
"We don't want to have all engineers or all business majors; we want to have a diverse group of students in our programs," Precious said.
Business schools are also accepting GRE scores from students enrolled in other graduate programs who want to pursue an MBA as part of a joint degree. For instance, a student in the master's of engineering program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign could conceivably submit her GRE test scores to try and gain entry into the Illinois MBA program.
Prospective students for any program, however, should know in advance what tests they can submit. Guidelines vary from school to school, as the Wisconsin School of Business shows.
"We only accept the GRE on a case-by-case basis," said Maria Reis, assistant director of admissions for the school's MBA program.
Determination about accepting GRE scores at the Wisconsin School of Business is only made after reviewing the entire student application. Other aspects also come into play when it comes to acceptance: interviews, letters of recommendation, and undergraduate and professional performance, Reis said.
"One single item is not going to get you in or keep you out of the program; it's the whole application," Reis said.
Upcoming changes to the GMAT
In June 2012, a new change is planned for the GMAT that replaces ones of the essays with an integrated reasoning section to better reflect what business schools are teaching and what companies want MBA graduates to be able to do. The new section should measure test-takers' abilities to draw conclusions from various sources of data, including spreadsheets, graphs and charts. These are important skills for success in the future as U.S. firms could need as many as 1.5 million data managers and analysts in upcoming years, according to McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting firm.
"Companies want graduates with these data analytics or 'integrated reasoning' skills; schools are designing curricula around them and the GMAT will be measuring them," said Bob Ludwig, director of media and public affairs at the Graduate Management Admission Council, the administrator of the GMAT.
The changes to the GMAT have been in the works for some time and are not in response to the growing acceptance of the GRE at business schools, he said. However, Ludwig said a student who does have GMAT scores shows a commitment to attending business school.
"The GRE is the general exam for graduate programs--for everything from romance languages to science," he said. "If you're taking the GMAT, you're serious about business school."
Rounding out your application
Chris Coates, a sales consultant, took the GMAT to try and gain entry into business school. He did so because the GMAT was the preferred test of choice at Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University, his top business school choice.
He succeeded, but not without first reviewing GMAT prep materials. He described the test as difficult and said that more than half of it consisted of math he had not done in about 10 years. Yet, to his thinking, the GMAT is not weighed too heavily when it comes to entry into MBA programs. Other things come into play, too.
"I believe that the work experience an applicant can bring to the classroom is just as, if not more valuable, than the test results," he said.
