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Issues About the GMAT and Graduate Business Programs

Published: October 28, 2008

Many working adults with significant professional experience do not view the GMAT or GRE as a relevant measure of their ability to succeed in a graduate program.

The Graduate Management Admission Council states that graduate management education programs employ the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) to evaluate applicants from many educational backgrounds. They assert that the GMAT helps programs choose the students who are most likely to succeed academically in a graduate business program. The GMAT is recognized by AACSB International, the accrediting body for business school programs worldwide, as the most effective test available for matching student competencies with program demands – regardless of program type or the race, gender or national origin of students.

The GMAT is a critical part of the selective admissions process for nearly 4,000 graduate management programs at 1,800 schools around the world. For more than 50 years, schools have used the GMAT exam to assess candidates' skills and predict their success in a graduate business curriculum. The exam is recognized by most academics as a proven and reliable measurement. However, studies show that only one factor predicts success in graduate business school better than the GMAT exam: combining the GMAT exam with undergraduate GPA.

AACSB International is an agency that grants accreditation for undergraduate and graduate business administration and accounting programs. Accreditation is a process of voluntary, non-governmental review of educational institutions and programs. Institutional accreditation reviews entire colleges and universities. Specialized agencies award accreditation for professional programs and academic units in particular fields of study.

AACSB International accreditation represents the highest standard of achievement for business schools worldwide. Institutions that earn accreditation confirm their commitment to quality and continuous improvement through a rigorous and comprehensive peer review. AACSB International accreditation assures stakeholders that business schools:

• Manage resources to achieve a vibrant and relevant mission.
  
  
• Advance business and management knowledge through faculty scholarship.
  
  
• Provide high-caliber teaching of quality and current curricula.
  
  
• Cultivate meaningful interaction between students and a qualified faculty.
  
  
• Produce graduates who have achieved specified learning goals.

The following table provides a sampling as to how important GMAT scores are for admission to many graduate business programs.

Institution Average	GMAT Average	Age Average	GPA
Arizona State University	649	28	3.4
Babson College	630	29	3.2
Baylor University	595	27	3.1
Boston University	655	26	3.29
Brigham Young University	653	28	3.53
Carnegie Mellon	691	28	3.3
Case Western Reserve University	615	27	3.16
Columbia University	709	28	3.4
Cornell University	673	27	3.26
Dartmouth College	699	29	3.3
Duke University	705	29	3.4
Emory University	680	28	3.4
Georgetown University	662	28	3.3
Georgia Institute of Technology	655	27	3.43
Harvard University	708	27	3.6
Indiana University - Bloomington	644	28	3.3
Loyola University Chicago	540	28	3.2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	710	28	3.5
Michigan State University	637	28	3.38
New York University	700	27	3.4
Northwestern University	700	28	3.4
Purdue University	667	28	3.3
Rice University	625	28	3.2
Southern Methodist University	661	28	3.26
Stanford University	711	NR	3.5
The Ohio State University	664	27	3.4
The University of Chicago	695	28	3.4
The University of Texas at Austin	670	28	3.38
Thunderbird	600	28	3.3
Tulane University	655	27	3.35
University of California at Berkeley (MFE)	699	29	3.5
University of California, Los Angeles	710	28	3.6
University of Colorado at Boulder	648	28	3.31
University of Georgia	663	27	3.33
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	649	27	3.4
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor	690	28	3.3
University of Minnesota	655	29	3.25
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	652	28	3.28
University of Pennsylvania	714	29	3.5
University of Rochester	664	27	3.4
University of Southern California	680	27	3.3
University of Virginia	680	28	3.3
University of Washington	677	29	3.45
University of Western Ontario	647	30	NR
Vanderbilt University	622	29	3.2
Wake Forest University-Full-time MBA Program	630	28	3.2
Washington University in St. Louis	650	28	3.19
Yale University	696	28	3.5

Source: Princeton Review

There are some business schools that provide alternative paths to taking the GMAT.

An article in the October 2^nd, 2008, INSIDE HIGHER ED notes that in the last year, two top business schools – Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – have started giving students an option of submitting scores on GRE (Graduate Record Examination) instead. Johns Hopkins University has also been giving students the option.

According to several other business admissions officials, their schools have been accepting GRE scores quietly – not publicizing it as an option, but not turning away applicants who want to be considered that way. And several consultants who work with applicants to business schools said that they have seen some of their clients obtain permission to use the GRE instead, on a case-by-case basis.

Low scores on the GMAT (or GRE) often hurt a lot of older (age 30+) business school applicants since they have been out of school for some time. There are, however, a number of reputable graduate business programs and online business schools that do not require the GMAT or GRE for admission. However, there are also a number of less reputable programs that do the same, many of whom are not accredited by AACSB.

Because online graduate degree programs cater to older, working adults, many of them are abandoning the GMAT and GRE as measures of academic preparedness. Many of these programs see experience as a better indicator of success in the business world than old-school academic measures, such as the GMAT.

Many working adults with significant professional experience do not view the GMAT or GRE as a relevant measure of their ability to succeed in a graduate program. As a result, the GMAT/GRE requirement is a significant deterrent to their pursuing their interest in graduate programs. These students have two options:

1. Find a graduate program where the GMAT or GRE is not required (see "Sidestepping The GMAT").
   
   
2. Find a school that accepts professional certifications or other criteria in lieu of the GMAT or GRE.

The reason many schools do not accept experience as an indicator of success is that they find that it is often hard to assess it in a manner that insures consistency when evaluating candidates. Inconsistency in admission assessments is problematic because to allow an alternative to the GMAT, AACSB requires the use of guidelines that are consistent – they must be able to effectively and consistently predict success among all candidates. Hence, many business programs are leery about using experience or experience plus GPA as the sole evaluation criteria for admission.

It is fair, I think, to state that just because someone has a lot of experience does not mean that they can be successful in an academic program of study. There are many different reasons why someone is promoted. Hence, although evidence of promotions is evidence of success, it doesn’t necessarily follow that it can translate to academic success. For example, how does promotion from junior analyst to project leader indicate that someone might do well in MBA courses in accounting and finance?

A more viable option is to allow professional certifications as an alternative to the GMAT or GRE. Candidates that have earned their CFA, CPA or CFP are often waived from taking the GMAT or GRE. High-level professional certifications tend to be reliable predictors of academic success because they are distinctive and they provide tangible evidence that a potential student will perform well against rigorous testing criteria.

Certifications from professional societies and those earned from vendor-independent certification programs for executives and professionals are seen to offer high standards of excellence, and they oftentimes require continuing education to maintain one’s certification. Unlike vendor or product certifications, professional certifications are intended to be portable to all places that a certificant might work, without concern for products used. Moreover, the professional certification oftentimes helps to establish a legally defensible assessment for an entire profession. An example of this is a CPA who would not be certified for just one corporation or one piece of accountancy software, but for general work in the profession.

Examples of the type of profession-wide certifications that might exempt prospective students from the GMAT or GRE include:

APICS Certified in Production and Inventory Management or APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional

Certified Business Intelligence Professional

Certified Financial Planner

Certified Information Security Manager from ISACA (see Certification section)

Certified Public Accountant

Chartered Financial Analyst

Professional Engineer Certification

Project Management Certification

Six Sigma Green Belt or higher

Vendor- or product-specific certifications in computer technology are not typically accepted as alternatives to taking the GMAT or GRE – thereby excluding certifications from Microsoft, Oracle Cisco and others from consideration. Vendor- and product-specific certifications are involved and they are portable across locations (for example, across different corporations that use that software), but they are not portable across other products. Because they are so singularly focused and varied relative to certification types and levels, they are typically seen as being too inconsistent a measure for ascertaining one’s ability to succeed in a graduate academic curriculum.

I welcome your comments about this issue. You can email me at herschel@sju.edu.