GRE Not Quite Taking Off for MBA Applicants

Although a growing number of elite business schools have begun accepting the GRE as an alternative to the GMAT as part of their application process, Geoff  Gloeckler‘s recent story in BusinessWeek indicates that very few prospective students took advantage of the option for admittance into the MBA Class of 2012.

By accepting the GRE, business schools hope to make it easier for an expansive pool of potential applicants to consider their programs. Applicants weighing post-graduate program options won’t need to study for and take an additional exam, should they choose business school as their next step.

However, at eight prominent business schools that accept the GRE for entry into their full-time MBA programs, only four percent of applicants actually submitted the test.

BusinessWeek reveals that Washington University’s Olin Business School received the highest percentage of GRE scores, accounting for seven percent of the total applications submitted. The McCombs School of Business, meanwhile, reported only one percent of applications included the GRE.

Derrick Bolton, MBA admissions director at Stanford Graduate School of Business, tells BW that the number of individuals submitting the GRE was “not a statistically significant group.” At Harvard Business School about five percent of applicants, some 468 people, submitted GRE scores, which was similar to the case at Yale School of Management.

Sara Neher, director of admissions at the Darden School of Business, tells BW that during the last application cycle less than two percent of applicants submitted GRE scores and only two or three were admitted.

It may be too soon to tell whether submitting GRE scores rather than GMAT is a good move. “My guess is that it will take a few years for admissions officers to feel completely comfortable with the test as an alternative to the old, reliable GMAT,” writes Gloeckler, “And, until then, I’m not sure I would feel comfortable letting my application ride on such an unknown.”

Interested in reading more? Click HERE to see more test prep advice.

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