United State News: 10 MBA Programs With the Highest Average GMAT Scores
Scoring high on the GMAT is not easy — according to GMAC, only about ten percent of all test-takers score above 700. However, a high score signals to business schools that a candidate is well-rounded, and can solve complex problems under pressure.
Of course, the GMAT score is not the only factor by which business schools judge applications; work experience is also important, as is undergraduate performance and extra-curricular activities.
Here’s a list of the US-based MBA programs which report the highest average GMAT scores for their cohorts.
The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
When prospective b-school students are exploring their options, they often decide where to apply by looking at the average scores on the Graduate Management Admission Test, or GMAT, for a certain school.
The exam is used as part of the admissions process for more than 6,100 graduate programs around the globe, according to a report from the Graduate Management Admission Council, which tracks business school data and administers the test.
During the 2016 test year, which ran from July 2015 to June 2016, 261,248 GMAT exams were taken by prospective MBA students, a GMAC study found. Of those exams, less than 30 percent of scores were 650 or higher.
Among the 10 schools with the highest GMAT scores in the U.S., incoming full-time students for fall 2016 had an average score of 725; the GMAT has a maximum score of 800.
Stanford Graduate School of Business, which is tied at No. 4 in the U.S. News Best Business Schools rankings, had the highest average GMAT score at 737, according to the data submitted by 127 ranked business schools in an annual survey to U.S. News. The average GMAT score at the California b-school also rose by four points compared with the previous year.
While the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School is tied at No. 1 with Harvard Business School in the Best Business Schools rankings, the school had the second-highest average GMAT score: 730.
Among all the MBA programs that provided data on GMAT scores, the average was 632 – much lower compared with the 725 average among the top 10.
Below are the 10 business schools with the highest average GMAT scores for incoming full-time students in fall 2016. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| Business school (name) (state) | Incoming full-time enrollment (fall 2016) | Average GMAT score | U.S. News b-school rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stanford University (CA) | 417 | 737 | 4 (tie) |
| University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) | 851 | 730 | 1 (tie) |
| Harvard University (MA) | 934 | 729 | 1 (tie) |
| Northwestern University (Kellogg) (IL) | 474 | 728 | 4 (tie) |
| University of Chicago (Booth) | 586 | 726 | 3 |
| Yale University (CT) | 334 | 725 | 9 (tie) |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan) | 409 | 724 | 4 (tie) |
| Columbia University (NY) | 558 | 720 | 9 (tie) |
| Dartmouth College (Tuck) (NH) | 285 | 717 | 8 |
| University of California—Berkeley (Haas) | 252 | 717 | 7 |
Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Business School Compass to find GMAT data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed 471 schools for our 2016 survey of business programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Business Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The applicant pool and score data above are correct as of March 14, 2017.
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