Cornell Johnson Joins Schools Waiving GMATs & GREs For Admission

Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management

Add Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management to the growing list of business schools that are waiving GMAT and GRE exams during the pandemic. The school has quietly added a new waiver policy on its website, becoming the 11th out of the top 25 MBA programs in the U.S. to do so.

Johnson said the new admissions policy applies to all three of its full-time residential. MBA programs, its two-year and one-year accelerated MBA programs in Ithaca, New York, as well as its Cornell Tech MBA in New York City. The school makes clear that applicants can request a waiver “without negative bias.” The school, whose two-year MBA is ranked 12th best in the U.S. by Poets&Quants, joins MIT Sloan, UVA Darden, Michigan Ross, Carnegie Mellon Tepper, UNC Kenan-Flagler and others in offering applicants the chance to avoid the test if they meet certain conditions.

Admissions statement, moreover, raises questions about the value of the standardized tests in admission decisions, an issue that more deans and admission directors are beginning to address. Several admission directors believe the tests make it more difficult to admit a diverse class of students and are less predictive of a candidate’s success than other admission materials from undergraduate grades to admission interviews.

‘WE CONTINUE TO DEBATE THE VALUE OF A GMAT/GRE SCORE AS A PREDICTOR OF FUTURE ACADEMIC & CAREER SUCCESS’

“In response to continued hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and as we continue to debate the value of a GMAT/GRE score as a predictor of future academic and career success, Cornell Johnson is offering candidates of the Full-Time MBA 2020-2021 application cycle the ability to request a GMAT/GRE test waiver, without negative bias,” according to the statement on Johnson’s website.

To gain a waiver, applicants must submit a short 100-word statement that describes their “personal circumstance” as well as “a clear and compelling argument” for why they would flourish in Johnson’s rigorous academic environment. The school expects to make a decision on all waiver requests within  7 to 10 business days. The deadline for such requests is Feb. 25th for the school’s March 8th deadline and March 29th for its April 8th deadline. “You may continue working on the rest of your application as we process your decision, so we encourage you to request a waiver as one of the first steps in the application process,” according to Johnson.

The school maintains that a waiver would not disadvantage any candidate, either for admission or for scholarship awards. “All applications will be considered holistically, and you will not be at a disadvantage without a standardized test score,” according to the new policy. “However, depending on your future goals, our admissions team may advise you to take the GMAT/GRE to strengthen your application for internship and full-time recruiting processes. The GMAT/GRE test is a helpful data point for the admissions committee, but we review each application holistically and the waiver will not negatively bias your consideration for scholarships.”

All told, 66 of the top 100 business schools have now gone fully test-optional or are actively promoting test waiver policies (see table below). MBA admission officials insist that their admission standards have not declined as a result of the policy changes. Instead, they are relying on other parts of candidates’ applications to gain confidence that an applicant can handle the academic requirements of their programs.

DON’T MISS: SHOULD MBA PROGRAMS MAKE THE GMAT & GRE OPTIONAL?

or STILL MORE BUSINESS SCHOOLS WAIVING STANDARDIZED TESTS

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