GRE Scores & Submission Rates At The Top 50 U.S. MBA Programs

Fewer and fewer schools are going test-optional, with the number of top U.S. B-schools providing waivers or altogether eschewing entrance exams falling from 37 in 2022 to 20 in 2023. That’s due to the coronavirus pandemic ending, of course, but it’s also because for all their flaws, the GRE and GMAT are useful barometers of readiness. As former Graduate Management Admission Council CEO Sangeet Chowfla wrote in 2023:

“Standardized tests are a useful tool in the admission process. The benefit is in the word – standardized – that provides an empirical data point that is free from bias and interpretation. A GMAT 700 is a GMAT 700. You cannot wish it away if you are unfamiliar with the candidate’s background or uncomfortable with their color, origin, orientation, or political beliefs. They are not without issues – in structure and in usage. We should strive to make them better, not throw the baby out with the bathwater of the politics of the day.”

GRE VERSUS GMAT: WHICH SCHOOLS PREFER WHICH TEST?

2024 P&Q Rank	School	% GMAT 2023	% GMAT 2022	% GRE 2023	% GRE 2022	Tests Required?	GRE And GMAT Both Accepted?
1	Stanford GSB	61%	67%	39%	33%	Yes	Yes
2	Harvard Business School	69%	74%	34%	30%	Yes	Yes
3	Dartmouth (Tuck)	61%	68%	42%	38%	Yes	Yes
4	Columbia Business School	53%	55%	26%	26%	Yes	Yes
5	Yale SOM	62%	58%	37%	39%	Yes	Yes
6	Duke (Fuqua)	34%	46%	37%	36%	Yes	Yes
7	Cornell (Johnson)	42%	50%	16%	22%	Waiver can be requested	Yes
8	Virginia (Darden)	35%	40%	34%	36%	Yes	Yes
9	Michigan (Ross)	38%	43%	36%	30%	Waiver can be requested	Yes
10	New York (Stern)	45%	49%	22%	21%	Yes	Yes
11	Chicago (Booth)	63%	73%	32%	N/A	Yes	Yes
12	Northwestern (Kellogg)	67%	76%	29%	N/A	Yes	Yes
13	UCLA (Anderson)	65%	77%	32%	22%	No	Yes
14	MIT (Sloan)	54%	54%	34%	32%	Waiver can be requested	Yes
15	UC-Berkeley (Haas)	46%	49%	53%	45%	Yes	Yes
16	Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)	40%	69%	24%	17%	Yes	Yes
17	Washington (Foster)	39%	64%	32%	9%	No	Yes
18	Rice (Jones)	20%	39%	31%	7%	Waiver can be requested	Yes
19	Texas-Austin (McCombs)	34%	44%	30%	40%	No	Yes
20	North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)	28%	29%	23%	19%	Yes	Yes
21	Vanderbilt (Owen)	36%	47%	23%	22%	Waiver can be requested	Yes
22	Southern California (Marshall)	36%	42%	33%	33%	Yes	Yes
23	Emory (Goizueta)	28%	50%	24%	N/A	Yes	Yes
24	Georgetown (McDonough)	34%	39%	37%	49%	Yes	Yes
25	Florida (Hough)	72%	54%	6%	46%	Yes	Yes
26	Rochester (Simon)	21%	39%	27%	16%	No	Yes
27	Georgia Institute of Technology (Scheller)	30%	37%	30%	26%	No	Yes
28	Washington (Olin)	20%	30%	27%	47%	Yes	Yes
29	Georgia (Terry)	29%	29%	32%	38%	Yes	Yes
30	Notre Dame (Mendoza)	34%	48%	27%	16%	Yes	Yes
31	Pennsylvania (Wharton)	67%	71%	37%	30%	Yes	Yes
32	Brigham Young (Marriott)	47%	39%	8%	N/A	Yes	Yes
33	Texas-Dallas (Jindal)	28%	33%	41%	44%	Yes	Yes
34	William & Mary (Mason)	10%	14%	13%	15%	No	Yes
35	Arizona State (Carey)	27%	44%	30%	37%	Waiver can be requested	Yes
36	Boston (Carroll)	33%	NA	20%	NA	Yes	Yes
37	Indiana (Kelley)	42%	50%	13%	20%	Yes	Yes
38	Michigan State (Broad)	19%	32%	14%	5%	No	Yes
39	Maryland (Smith)	25%	24%	16%	18%	No	Yes
40	UC-Irvine (Merage)	33%	24%	6%	29%	Yes	Yes
41	Boston (Questrom)	27%	17%	28%	18%	Yes
42	George Washington	10%	25%	12%	23%	No	Yes
43	Texas A&M (Mays)	26%	33%	39%	39%	Yes	Yes
44	Minnesota (Carlson)	36%	33%	11%	15%	Yes	Yes
45	UC-Davis	27%	NA	22%	NA	Yes	Yes
46	Southern Methodist (Cox)	28%	26%	22%	23%	No	Yes
47	Northeastern (D’Amore-McKim)	4%	NA	7%	NA	No	Yes
48	Babson (Olin)	18%	NA	11%	NA	No	Yes
49	Rutgers Business School	35%	59%	15%	6%	Yes	Yes
50	Ohio State (Fisher)	18%	36%	33%	23%	Waiver can be requested	Yes
52	Pittsburgh (Katz)	30%	54%	25%	23%	No	Yes
53	Wisconsin	35%	42%	15%	21%	Yes	Yes
55	Utah (Eccles)	17%	27%	24%	38%	Yes	Yes
59	Penn State (Smeal)	NA	27%	NA	22%	Yes	Yes

Source: U.S. News and business schools

DON’T MISS AVERAGE GRE SCORES AT THE TOP 50 U.S. MBA PROGRAMS (2023) and GMAT VS. GRE: WHICH TOP-50 MBA PROGRAMS PREFER WHICH TEST?

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