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Good GMAT Score: Acceptable GMAT Scores
How important are GMAT Scores and Grades?
The GMAT score and GPA are used in two ways. First, they're used as
"success indicators" for the academic work. In other words, if admitted,
will you have the brain power and discipline to make it through the
program? Second, they're used to compare applicants against the larger
pool. In particular, the top schools like applicant pools with high
scores. They think that having an incoming class with high score and
grade profiles is an indicator of their program's prestige and
selectivity.
The GMAT
Virtually every MBA program in the country requires their applicants to
take the GMAT. In fact, one of the notable holdouts -- Harvard --
started requiring the GMAT again for people applying for fall 1997
admissions. Great GMAT scores won't necessarily get you into the school
of your choice (there are too many other factors), but low scores will
almost certainly keep you out. As a general rule, if your scores are
more than 50 points below a school's average, you are probably facing an
uphill battle. If you're in this situation, consider taking the GMAT
again. Business schools generally focus on your most recent score.
GPA
Some schools look more closely at junior and senior year grades than the
overall GPA. Most consider the academic reputation of your college and
the difficulty of your curriculum. A transcript loaded with courses like
"Environmental Appreciation" and "The Child in You" isn't valued as
highly as one with a more substantive agenda. Increasingly, schools are
looking quite closely at your performance in quantitative courses,
particularly calculus and microeconomics, when evaluating transcripts.
Given the quantitative nature of much of the course work in an MBA
program, they feel that such courses are good indicators of your likely
performance. If you didn't take any quantitative courses as an
undergraduate (or didn't do so well in the ones you took), one thing
that you can do to improve your application is to take a calculus,
statistics, or microeconomics class before you apply. Of course, you
need to do well if this is going to help you. |
