Electronically reprinted from May 14, 2010

GRE is Fast Becoming a GMAT

Alternative for B-School Applicants
More than 300 business schools now accept the GRE, and many
more may follow suit in coming years.
Electronically reprinted from May 14, 2010 Online
By Brian Burnsed

In 2005, the Stanford Graduate School of Business took a step that was unprecedented among top-ranked peer
schools—it began to accept the GRE from applicants. While many business schools had long accepted the GRE
on an exception-only basis, Stanford, whose business school is tied for the top spot in U.S.News’s rankings of the
nation’s best business schools, extended that option to applicants. And it hasn’t regretted the change.

School officials say they made the decision because it seemed nonsensical to accept the GRE from candidates
applying to their Ph.D. programs but not from their M.B.A. applicants. Officials also wanted to make the
business school more accessible to students who wished to coenroll in two graduate programs. Rather than
being forced to take the GRE and GMAT to gain acceptance into separate programs, Stanford officials reasoned
it made more sense for students to take one test. Thus far, the students accepted to the school who submitted
a GRE score instead of a GMAT have performed on the same level as their peers, and the school has seen no
drawbacks to the policy. “It’s not a test you use in isolation,” says Derrick Bolton, Stanford’s dean of M.B.A.
admissions. “It’s a test you use in context with academic record, with professional experiences. None of the
assessments are perfect, but all of them give us valuable information, so we were comfortable in trying this out.”

In the years since Stanford’s policy change was made, hundreds of M.B.A. programs have followed suit.
According to Educational Testing Services, which administers the GRE, 334 business programs accept the GRE,
up from 150 when ETS began tracking the data. Officials at ETS believe that the rapid acceleration over the
last several years will continue because accepting the GRE allows schools to strengthen their applicant pools:
Every year, more than 600,000 people take the GRE, while only about 270,000 take the GMAT. “From a strictly
business perspective, it’s a smart move,” says David Payne, vice president and COO of college and graduate
programs at ETS. “At no cost to the schools, it allows them to increase the size and diversity of their applicant
pool. In our discussions with business schools, especially directors of M.B.A. admissions, they’ve said that that
their priority is to have a large, diverse, and talented applicant pool so that they can bring in the classes they
want.”

The Graduate Management Admissions Council, owner of the GMAT, acknowledges that schools want to
diversify their applicant pools by accepting the GRE, but believes that the GMAT more accurately reflects which
students are best suited for business school. Despite the GRE’s surge at business schools, the GMAT too has
experienced growth in the number of test takers every year since 2004. While GMAC’s president and CEO David
Wilson sees the general appeal of broadening an applicant pool, he wonders whether some of the GRE test
takers are truly committed to business school. “[The schools] are looking for diversity, but it seems to me you
want diversity with a purpose,” he says. “There’s a question of motivation. Are [these students] motivated?”

While the majority of business schools now accepting the GRE are smaller, less-renowned programs, several
other top-ranked business schools have followed Stanford’s lead. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sloan School of Management, Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business, and Duke University’s Fuqua School
of Business stand third, seventh, and 14th, respectively, in U.S.News’s best business school rankings, and all
accept the GRE. MIT made the decision in 2006 because it wanted to open the door to students who had taken
the GRE but may not have long considered business school to be an option. Currently, about 10 percent of
Sloan’s roughly 4,500 applicants submit a GRE score instead of a GMAT. “We wanted to be able to open up our
possibilities,” says Julie Strong, Sloan’s senior associate director of M.B.A. admissions. “Maybe they’re taking a
GRE instead of a GMAT. Do they not go to business school because they’re thinking, ‘Oh, I already took a GRE,
I’m not going to do that’?”

[Read about the potential impact on B-school rankings.]

Now that so many schools are giving the applicants an option between the tests, it’s important for business school
candidates to know which exam is right for them. Sean-Michael Green, dean of graduate and adult enrollment
at Marist College, is familiar with both tests, having taken the GRE and GMAT three times each in the past
five years as a hobby. He claims the GRE places more emphasis on vocabulary and favors students with strong
backgrounds in English. Conversely, Green notes that the math is easier on the GRE than the GMAT, so students
who wish to attend business school but have taken little or no math during their time in college should steer clear
of the GMAT. “If someone hasn’t had many math courses, they would have a very difficult time with the GMAT,
but that person could survive the GRE because a lot of the math is algebra,” he says.

Graduate exams are not cheap, so cost is a factor as well. The GRE costs roughly $140, which is $110 cheaper
than taking the GMAT. While that difference may seem negligible as a one-time payment, many students opt to
take the tests multiple times. Given that the GRE is less expensive and allows students to apply to a broader range
of graduate programs, some experts feel it’s the test that makes the most sense for a broader number of students,
especially those unsure if business school is right for them. “If you can take one test and get away with it, why
not?” asks Neill Seltzer, national GRE content director for the Princeton Review. “Especially if you’re not sure if
you’re going to go to business school or graduate school.”

Searching for a college? Get our complete rankings of America’s Best Colleges.
Electronically reprinted from May 14, 2010

More Top-Ranked M.B.A. Programs

Now Accept GRE
Electronically reprinted from May 14, 2010 09 Online
By Robert Morse
A growing number of M.B.A. programs are now accepting the Graduate Record Exam or GRE for admissions.
This new trend gives prospective M.B.A. students more testing options, because almost all M.B.A. programs
only accepted the Graduate Management Admission Test or GMAT for admission. One key reason why M.B.A.
programs are adding the GRE as a testing option is it enables them to broaden their applicant pool and get more
potential students to consider going to B-school.

[Read More Reasons Why M.B.A. Programs Are Accepting the GRE in Admissions.]

U.S. News has just published a list of which M.B.A. programs are currently accepting the GRE for admissions
based on data collected through early January 2010.

These are the top-ranked M.B.A. programs from the 2011 edition of our America’s Best Business Schools
rankings that are now currently accepting the GRE:

1 (tie): Harvard University and Stanford University

3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
7. Dartmouth College (Tuck)
9. New York University (Stern)
11. Yale University
13. University of Virginia (Darden)
14. Duke University (Fuqua)
16. University of Texas—Austin (McCombs)
19. Washington University in St. Louis (Olin)

Of the 433 M.B.A. programs that U.S. News surveyed for the latest America’s Best Business Schools rankings,
115 of them—nearly 27 percent are currently accepting the GRE test for admissions. In terms of the 99 M.B.A.
programs that U.S. News numerically ranked in its newest rankings, 24 of them accept the GRE.

What impact will the rapid growth of the GRE in M.B.A. admissions have on the U.S. News America’s Best
Business Schools rankings? On the statistical survey that goes to M.B.A. programs in fall 2010, U.S. News plans
to ask a series of detailed questions on actual GRE test scores and the number and the percentage of fall 2010
enrolled M.B.A. students submitting them. U.S. News is considering changing its ranking methodology for the
2012 edition of the America’s Best Business Schools rankings—to be published in spring 2011—to include both
the GMAT and GRE test scores of all M.B.A. students entering in fall 2010.

Copyright © 2010, by U.S.News & World Report, L.P. Posted with permission.
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