Importance of GMAT score to your MBA acceptance

[conrad_egusa]

I am a believer that ones GMAT score's weight is approximately 50% of the factors of one being accepted into an MBA program. I believe the breakdown is roughly:

50% GMAT Score
20% Work Experience
15% Recommendation
15% Undergrad university and GPA

The reason I believe this is because there are so many applications, especially to certain programs, that admissions officers need the GMAT score to immediately differentiate students.

What do you all think?

[StaceyKoprince]

The GMAT (along with GPA) is typically used as a threshold marker - if it's high enough, then the school will consider the rest of your application, and if it's not, then the school typically won't look at the rest.

After that point, however, the GMAT's importance drops drastically. The decisions tend to be made more around essays, recommendations, work experience, leadership potential, etc.

So, the GMAT can keep you out, but it's not the thing that's actually going to get you in. As long as your score is high enough for that particular program (and that obviously varies from program to program), the GMAT is not going to be the most important thing.

[irfanm]

Interesting post. However, I am bit confused here. No denial about the significance of GMAT!!! but Stacey, (last year) how come a 490 score got into HBS and a 530 into GSB (Stanford) and mid 500’s into MIT? This shouldn’t have happened if the process you describe is true. I think we all agree that lower 600’s especially any number that starts with 5s is lower for top business schools, yet ppl. with lower scores got into the program. I have a feeling that even with a lower gmat score an application is reviewed completely. After all ppl. pay at least $250 for the application and business schools have moral obligation to justify the app. cost.

[ayrathod]

I think the people with the uncharacteristically low GMAT scores that get into the top schools are people who are associated to a wealthy benefactors of the university or have some other connection.

[StaceyKoprince]

Have you looked at some of the descriptions of people who've gotten in? I attended a presentation by Stanford a few years ago. People who've won Olympic medals or professional athletes. International students who were so high up in politics or civil service in their home countries that they were one of the people running the country, basically. Or, on the other side, people who were working to tear down corrupt regimes in their home countries - a while back, Stanford had someone who'd been a political prisoner for a substantial length of time. People who've won major awards - Pulitzers, MacArthur "Genius" grants. People who have multiple patented inventions to their names.

So, those people? Yeah, they don't have to have the 710 on the GMAT. They're bringing something else to the table. :)