GMAT Vs. GRE
Top business schools recently made announcements that are changing the test taking industry for MBA admissions.
ETSs GRE exam vs GMACs GMAT Exam
The GMAT exam has been the only standardized exam accepted by business schools”that is, up until recently. The GRE exam was traditionally only for graduate programs, not including the MBA.
In an effort to expand their reach of potential students, some top business schools are accepting GRE scores in addition to GMAT scores. The pool of GRE test takers includes more English majors, artists, and females than the current pool of GMAT test takers. GRE test takers could contribute to the diversity of business schools.
How do they compare? Well ETS is claiming that they test the same skills that the GMAT tests while the GMAC wants people to believe their GMAT exam is better at assessing students for academic success in business school.
MIT, Stanford, the University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins and Instituto De Empresa in Madrid are all jumping on the GRE bandwagon. For a full list of the bandwagon, click here.
And now, Harvards 2+2 program (not the entire business school) will be accepting both GMAT and GRE results beginning with the class of 2012.
Harvard announced on their blog: Beginning with the class of 2012, HBS will accept both GMAT and GRE results. We think that both tests will provide adequate metrics of what a standardized test can tell us about a candidate. It will take a while for us to do a complete update of every reference to these tests on our website ” in the meantime, please accept this as official notification of this change.
No wonder why the GMAT announced they are changing up the exam come 2013!
What will happen as a result?
Well, here are a few topics and my predictions of what will happen.
Will the demographics of who applies to business school change?
Well, there are two trends that could take place.
1) Those who originally were considering grad school in subjects like psychology, English, sociology, mathematics, and chemistry will now also consider business school.
2) Those who were going to take the GMAT, might consider taking the GRE instead.
So now, will competition to enter Americas top business schools become even more intense in coming years?
Each incoming class of MBA students will have a smaller percentage dedicated to those who came from backgrounds such as investment banking and management consulting. A larger percentage of incoming students will come less quantitatively-intensive fields.
What about admissions acceptance rates?
The admissions acceptance rate will also go down as the number of spots stays the same but the number of applications go up. But if we subdivide applicants into sections of what their previous background is, I would say the competition will get stiffer|tougher| for those already in business and finance while those in less traditional fields will have a slight leg up over time.
Is the GMAC just going to sit there and let ETS enter their business school turf without doing anything?
Of course not! The GMAC has already announced they will be launching a next generation GMAT in 2013. Up next, I will tell you more about that announcemet.
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