Admissions: What the Business Schools think!
Once a year, Kaplan Test Prep surveys the top business schools in the US, and finds out what the admissions officers want to see in an application. The 2010 survey, which was taken towards the end of the year, showed several trends, including the ongoing question of whether to go for the GMAT or the GRE, and also looked at the influence of social networks on B-school applications.
Perhaps the most noteworthy finding from the survey was that fact that the number of schools that are accepting the GRE is increasing. Having said that, almost a third of schools who accept both the GRE and the GMAT say that applicants submitting the latter score hold an advantage.
GMAT or GRE?
According to the 2010 business school survey the GRE, also known as the Graduate Record Examinations test, is making substantial headway when into the market; 39% of the 288 schools that were surveyed said that they are now accepting a GRE score as part of an application. This has shot up from 24% the year before. One thing to note when considering future trends however is that of all of the business schools that only accept the GMAT, 75% say that they have no plans to considering accepting the GRE in the near future.
However, despite this trend, the GMAT still has an edge over the GRE. Whereas 65% of admissions officers say that it will make no difference to the application whether the candidate decides to sit the GMAT or the GRE, 32% said that applicants with a GMAT score will have an advantage over those who submit a GRE score. B-school candidates do seem to know this; of the 69% of schools that accept the GRE, the report showed that fewer than 1 in 10 candidate submitted a GRE score.
Other trends from this 2010’s survey:
Whether you decide to go for GRE or GMAT, a low score is the biggest killer in an application. 48% of the schools surveyed cited a poor GMAT/GRE score as the biggest application killer, a poor GPA score is considered the second biggest application killer at 33%, whereas a lack of work experience came in third at 10%.
Looking at the new GMAT Section: 31% of admission officers consider the addition of the integrated reasoning section a positive one, whereas 47% are neutral towards the change. Looking further at the integrated reasoning section on the GMAT, 42% don’t think that the new section will make the exam any harder, however 21% do.
Considering Social Networking, 66% of B-schools said that a applicants have sent them a LinkedIn networking request. 9% of officers said that they visited the candidate’s page in order to help them assess the applicant’s application.
The 2010 report surveyed 22 of the top 30 business schools in America (ranking according to US News and World Report’s ‘Best Business Schools 2010’). To download the report, click on the link below.
