Conventional wisdom would lead you to believe that if a school receives fewer applications, it would most likely end up with an incoming class that would have a slightly lower average standardized test score. After all, if there are fewer applicants from which to pick a class, it stands to reason that there would be fewer high test scores in the batch.
But when it comes to business school average GMAT scores–a core metric in the annual U.S. News’ ranking of the best full-time MBA programs-that’s just not the case. The early data, in fact, suggests the exact opposite, with many school reporting record averages for the test. Although only two of the top 25 U.S. MBA programs bucked the downtrend in MBA applications this past year, 19 schools are reporting average GMAT scores that either equal or exceed their year-earlier averages.
In fact, slightly ore than half of the top 25–13 to be exact–are publishing higher averages than they had last year. At Columbia Business School, where applications fell by 2.6%, this year’s average class GMAT soared eight points to a record 732 to equal Stanford, Wharton, and Kellogg for the first time. Those four schools now boast the highest average which puts their scores at the 96th percentile of those who have sat for the GMAT, meaning that only 4% of test takers scored higher. Columbia now says the average GMAT score for its entire applicant pool is now 713–152 points above the average GMAT score for all test takers of 561. After a 4.3% drop in applications, MIT Sloan managed to increase its class average GMAT score by six points to 728, also a record.
AT DARDEN, APPS FELL 16.7% BUT AVERAGE GMATS ROSE FIVE POINTS TO A RECORD 718
Even more astounding, the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business saw a 16.7% falloff in applications, a decline that was exacerbated by the violent white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Va., last August. But Darden boosted its average GMAT number by five points to a record 718. And after MBA applications fell 8.5% at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, the average GMAT this year went up by four points to a record 720.
NYU Stern, UCLA Anderson, and Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business all reported average GMAT scores that were three points higher this year. Yet Emory saw a 6.8% drop in apps, and Stern experienced a 3.7% decline. At least, UCLA Anderson was able to eke out a 3.3% increase in applications to help it rise the average GMAT score for this year’s incoming class to 719, also a record.
Of course, these days GMAT scores are only part of the picture. Increasingly, schools are enrolling more MBA students who submitted GRE scores and at several schools average GREs are now on an uptrend trend as well. At Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, only one of two top 25 schools to buck the downward trend in apps, 15% of the 287 students in the school’s Class of 2020 got into Tuck with a GRE, with the verbal average at 163, up from 161 last year, and the quant average at 161, up from 158 a year earlier–all records.
‘THERE ARE STILL PLENTY OF FISH IN THE SEA’
Scott Shrum of Veritas Prep
Many of these highly selective business schools, of course, have applicant pools of significant depth so that anything other than a dramatic decline in applications would not really impact reported academic or test scores. “Many of the top schools talk about how they could easily fill their class at least once more with great applicants from the pool of denied applicants each year,” says Scott Shrum, president of Veritas Prep. “So, even if you trim away 5-10% of applicants, there are still plenty of fish in the sea in terms of looking for very competitive applicants with strong numbers. And if applications are dropping and schools are becoming even more hyper focused on rankings–getting more pressure from the dean and so on–then they still will have plenty of high-powered applicants to choose from.”
The reasons for these ever escalating GMAT scores, which have led in recent years to something of an arm’s race among the top schools, also has to do with changes in the test. Three years ago, for example, the average GMAT score was 547. Today, it’s 14 points higher at 561. “Over the past several years, GMAC has introduced score cancelation policies that are far more applicant-friendly than they used to be,” explains Shrum “In 2014, they started letting applicant see their unofficial scores before deciding whether or not to cancel them. In 2015, they stopped including canceled scores in the score reports that applicants send to schools. They also gave applicants the ability to cancel their scores after walking out of the test center, up to 72 hours after taking the test. More than a quarter of test takers were canceling their scores. GMAC also started letting people retake the test just 16 days after the previous exam. Add it all up, and applicants are able to take more shots at the test, and submit more favorable scores to schools when they finally do well.”
Shrum also believes that the increased numbers of people who are now submitting GRE scores has led to an increase in GMAT numbers in applicant pools. “With more students taking the GRE for MBA admissions, this may be causing the following effect: Applicants continue to see the GRE as the ‘easier; test, and some who are scared off by the GMAT end up fleeing to the GRE, leaving behind a more competitive pool of people who focus on the GMAT.”
NOT ALL THE TOP MBA PROGRAMS COULD DEFY THE PULL OF GRAVITY
Not all schools were able to keep their year-earlier averages in the face of application declines. At Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Management, for example, the class GMAT average fell five points to 706 from a record 711 a year ago. But Rice suffered the largest single percentage decline of any top 25 school this past year, seeing applications for its full-time MBA program shrink by 27.7%, a decline made worse by the effects of Hurricane Harvey which dumped 51 inches of rain on greater Houston in two days. After creeping higher for five consecutive years, from 714 for the entering MBA class in 2013 to 727 last year, the average GMAT score at Yale University’s School of Management slipped three points to 724. It took a 7.6% drop in MBA applications to cause the reversal.
In at least one case, a decline in the average seems deliberate and unrelated to the application falloff. At Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, the average fell five points to 732 because the school felt that its industry leading 737 average over the past two years was discouraging talented young people from applying to the school which also has the lowest acceptance rate for any prestige full-time MBA program of 6% (see Stanford Wins Plaudits For A GMAT Slide).
Of course, averages are just that–averages. There are plenty of people who score below a class average number and many that score above it. This year’s entering classes include a student with a 500 GMAT at Wharton, a 530 at Columbia Business School, and a 590 at Northwestern Kellogg. It’s highly unusual for a school to break these numbers out. One exception: Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business which this year reported a GMAT average of 677 for its incoming MBA class, down from 678 a year earlier. Kelley reports that 44% of its newly enrolled MBA students got in with GMATs at 700 or higher, with 46% of the class scoring between 600 and 699, and the final 10% of students with a GMAT score of between 500 and 599 (see below).
WHARTON ADMITTED A 500 GMAT THIS YEAR, HARVARD HAS A STUDENT WHO SCORED A PERFECT 800
Most business schools report middle 80% ranges, preferring that applicants do not see the full range of GMATs they accept. The policy of publishing just middle 80% numbers would tend to discourage applicants who score below the more narrow range of scores a school reports. Still, a good number of schools now report the full range, including Harvard Business School (610 to 800), Wharton (500 to 790), Stanford GSB (600 to 790), Northwestern Kellogg (590 to 790), Chicago Booth (610 to 790), Columbia (530 to 790), Dartmouth Tuck (620 to 780), and NYU Stern (590 to 780).
Fewer schools report GMAT splits. Two notable exceptions: Harvard Business School. Among the 930 students in this year’s incoming class at Harvard, GMAT test takers had a median verbal score of 42 and a median quant score of 49. The full verbal range on the GMAT was 28 to 51, while the quant range was 35 to 51. Dartmouth Tuck, meantime, reports that its average verbal GMAT score is 41, with an average quant of 48 and an integrated reasoning average score of 6.8. The verbal range goes from a low of 31 to a high of 50, while the quant range is 37 to 51.
In the end, some think there is little connection between declining apps and reported class GMAT scores. That’s because the majority of young professionals who have dropped out of the applicant pool aren’t the best candidates. Adds Shrum: “I think a lot of the people who aren’t applying are the marginal people who would only have been so-so candidates, anyway. When the economy tanks, a lot of fence-sitters hurry up and apply. Many of them are not stars, with high strong stats and so on. They’re ‘Plan B’ folks who figure they will give an MBA shot and try to wait out the bad economy in school. The flip side is that the economy is good right now, and many of these fence-sitters are happy where they are, so they’re not applying, and the schools don’t miss them because there are still enough MBA-dreaming Princeton grads with high GMAT scores to choose from.”
DON’T MISS: AVERAGE GMAT SCORES FOR THE TOP 50 BUSINESS SCHOOLS or AVERAGE GRE SCORES FOR THE TOP 50 BUSINESS SCHOOLS
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