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Assertion: GRE test takers may not be as motivated about attending business
school as GMAT takers. Not surprisingly, this comes from the CEO of GMAC (Burnsed
2010), owner of the GMAT–the implication once again being that business schools
will not take GRE scores as seriously as GMAT scores, debunked above. This
assertion too makes little sense. The GRE and the GMAT are measures of academic
ability, not of motivation. Admissions committees have many ways of determining
an applicant's motivation for applying to business school without having to look
at which standardized test they took. "People who apply having taken both tests
were pretty clearly headed down another path before considering business
school," says Rod Garcia. "We just wanted to remove an impediment for those who
had already taken the GRE and didn't want to have to take yet another test."
Assertion: Allowing the GRE as an alternative to the GMAT allows applicants to
game the system by taking both tests and submitting the better of their two
scores to business schools. Applicants weak in math should take the GRE and
those weak in English should take the GMAT. This kind of strategizing appears
often on business school forums and admissions counseling web sites. The
possibility of gaming the system might explain Columbia's unique rule of
accepting the GRE only if the applicant has not taken the GMAT within the past
five years. In any case, "we haven't seen this at Sloan," says Rod Garcia.
"Those who submit their GRE results to us tend to have taken the test years
ago." To those thinking about gaming the system? "If you feel more comfortable
with one test or the other, then do it–but look, these are standardized tests;
their results are consistent. Performance in one is a good indicator of
performance in the other. We have not seen anyone do poorly on one and great on
the other."
Assertion: Accepting the GRE allows business schools to diversify their
applicant pools. Schools that have decided to accept the GRE often cite this as
a reason for doing so–and it is true, to an extent. "Accepting the GRE was right
for MIT Sloan, which attracts a lot of engineers," says Rod Garcia. "We wanted
to bring in non-traditional candidates–English majors, history majors, and
more–and this was a good move that successfully allowed us to look outside our
usual applicant pool." However, he says "probably less than five percent of
candidates apply with the GRE." Derrick Bolton, Director of MBA Admissions at
Stanford, says that when his school started accepting the GRE, only a small
number–about three percent–did so (Jaschik 2008). Pat Harrison, Associate
Director of Admissions for the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, concurs:
"The number of applicants who have submitted GRE scores to us is very small"
(Harrison 2010). At each of these schools, the number of GRE applicants
translates to a dozen or perhaps two dozen enrolled students per class year–a
sprinkling of diversity.
That brings us to our last assertion: The move by business schools to accept the
GRE as an alternative to the GMAT is a Big Deal. While perhaps true for ETS
(administrators of the GRE), GMAC, business education journalists, and
admissions consultants, it is far less so for most business schools and their
applicants. For them, there is no GMAT-versus-GRE smackdown. At business
schools, the number of GRE submissions is small, the adjustment they need to
make to accept those GRE submissions is small, and the importance of GMAT-versus-GRE
is small. "We are not trying to replace the GMAT," says Rod Garcia of MIT Sloan;
"we are just providing a convenient alternative to it." "Really, this is not a
big issue for us," says Libby Livingston of Goizueta. "If we decide to use the
GRE, it would probably just be with our joint MBA degree programs, like the
School of Public Health, where the GRE is already required."
In summary, for current MBA applicants, choosing which standardized test to take
is rather simple. Those who already took the GRE, performed well on it, and are
applying only to business schools that accept it should just submit their GRE
results; otherwise, they should take the GMAT.
Burnsed, Brian. "GRE is Fast Becoming a GMAT Alternative for B-Shool
Applicants." U.S. News & World Report, May 14, 2010.
Damast, Alison. "GRE v. GMAT: Battle of the B-School Gatekeepers." Businessweek,
July 23, 2009.
Di Meglio, Francesca. "GRE or GMAT: Test-Takers' Dilemma." Businessweek,
December 28, 2009.
Garcia, Rod, interview by R. Todd King. The GRE at MIT Sloan (May 15, 2010).
Harrison, Pat, interview by R. Todd King. The GRE at Dartmouth Tuck (email
exchange) (May 19, 2010).
Inside Higher Ed. "Debating the Numbers on GRE as B-School Option." Inside
Higher Ed, September 1, 2009.
Jaschik, Scott. "Attacking the GMAT Monopoly." Inside Higher Ed, January 8,
2008.
Lagorio, Christine. "The G.R.E. vs. the GMAT." New York Times, December 23,
2008.
Livingston, Libby, interview by R. Todd King. The GRE at Emory Goizueta (April
29, 2010).
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