LettersWhy business schools should stop fixating on GMAT scores

Readers discuss the tendency among business schools to stress the importance the GMAT scores, and the Hong Kong government’s response to the drop in non-local student numbers at international schools

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Business school admission officers should aim to predict success in an organisational leadership career, which requires a holistic approach that goes beyond GMAT scores. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 2:30pm, 20 Apr 2023

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For many years, I have been disappointed that business schools overemphasise incoming MBA students’ Graduate Management Admission Test, or GMAT, scores. Admissions officers should understand that past a certain point (around the 85th percentile), an applicant’s GMAT performance no longer adds value to the overall admissions decision, and a very high score may detract from it.

Sadly, many admissions officers and journalists are not qualified in psychometrics so do not fully understand the proper role of testing in admissions decisions. Some famous ranking publications and websites wrongly suggest the higher a school’s GMAT average, the better their students and the better the school. This has fuelled an erroneous race for higher GMAT averages.

As dean of admissions at the Kellogg School, Northwestern University, in 1983-89, I insisted on neither publishing nor calculating a GMAT average. Instead, we released 50 per cent score ranges to applicants and media to help candidates, control abuse and promote a holistic admissions culture.

When I was chairman of the committee for the GMAT during the same period, we promoted the same restraint to our Graduate Management Admissions Council members with Educational Testing Service support. GMAT scores are not meant to be averaged in an effort to suggest school quality.

Our objective in MBA admissions is to predict success in an organisational leadership career, which goes way beyond maximising scholarly aptitude, which is all the GMAT does. During my directorship in 1985, Kellogg became the first top school in the United States to require admission interviews to assess leadership and interpersonal skills to help stop the abuse of GMAT scores.

Harvard Business School went so far as to eliminate the GMAT as an admissions requirement for a few years in the 80s and later also required applicants to interview.