RISE Of The GRE - Average GRE Scores At The Top Business Schools! : The B-School Application

For decades, those who wanted to get their MBA from any respectable school in the US had just one choice: the GMAT. Not anymore!
More and more MBA programs are accepting the GRE instead of the GMAT for admissions applications. This allows candidates with more vague post-graduate plans to opt for the GRE rather than the GMAT. A-list MBA programs, including those at Harvard, MIT, Instituto de Empresa, and CEIBS, accept the GRE test for admissions and their admissions officers have publicly notified the applicants that they have no preferences when it comes to the standardised test taking.
Confused whether you should you take the GMAT or GRE for MBA admission? While the GMAT is designed specifically for business school applicants, the GRE is a test that can gain students admittance to graduate programs across almost all subjects, including the MBA. Also for MBA applicants, if you already hold a GRE score, you may not need to take the GMAT in order to get into certain business schools. Similarly, if you are daunted by the GMAT and think the GRE might be easier for you, then you may have the choice of doing either test, depending on which programs you are targeting.
Some students excel at the GMAT and others at the GRE. My advise would be to take a practise test and consider opting for the exam in which you would naturally excel! GMAT no longer holds the monopoly. Some schools such as Texas A and M(Mays) and Olin have a lot of candidates who got in with a GRE. Coming back to statistics, lets see how many candidates at Top B-schools were admitted with a GRE.

Percentage of Students Admitted With the GRE!
School	% GRE 2015	% GRE 2016	Y-O-Y Change
Boston (Questrom)	34%	42%	8%
Texas A&M (Mays)	15%	39%	24%
Illinois	23%	36%	13%
Southern Methodist (Cox)	12%	35%	23%
Washington (Olin)	28%	34%	6%
Texas-Dallas (Jindal)	34%	32%	-2%
Georgia (Terry)	N/A	31%	N/A
Arizona State (Carey)	14%	30%	16%
Maryland (Smith)	34%	29%	-5%
Boston College (Carroll)	26%	27%	1%
Georgia Tech (Scheller)	10%	23%	13%
Ohio State (Fisher)	15%	23%	8%
Florida (Hough)	17%	23%	6%
Yale SOM	23%	22%	-1%
Georgetown (McDonough)	22%	22%	0%
Pittsburgh (Katz)	N/A	22%	N/A
UNC (Kenan-Flagler)	16%	21%	5%
UC-Irvine (Merage)	12%	20%	8%
MIT (Sloan)	18%	18%	0%
Texas (McCombs)	15%	18%	3%
Minnesota (Carlson)	18%	16%	-2%
Penn State (Smeal)	10%	16%	6%
George Washington	N/A	16%	N/A
UC-Davis	15%	16%	1%
Michigan (Ross)	14%	14%	0%
Vanderbilt (Owen)	12%	14%	2%
Rochester (Simon)	18%	14%	-4%
Stanford GSB	16%	13%	-3%
Dartmouth (Tuck)	7%	13%	6%
NYU (Stern)	N/A	13%	N/A
Emory (Goizueta)	13%	13%	0%
USC (Marshall)	N/A	13%	N/A
Duke (Fuqua)	12%	11%	-1%
Rice (Jones)	8%	11%	3%
Notre Dame (Mendoza)	9%	11%	2%
Rutgers	N/A	11%	11%
Cornell (Johnson)	11%	10%	-1%
Wisconsin	10%	10%	0%
Purdue (Krannert)	9%	10%	1%
Penn (Wharton)	7%	9%	2%
Iowa (Tippie)	10%	9%	-1%
Virginia (Darden)	N/A	8%	N/A
UCLA (Anderson)	10%	8%	-2%
Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)	4%	8%	4%
Indiana (Kelley)	4%	8%	4%
Columbia	8%	7%	-1%
Washington (Foster)	2%	6%	4%
Michigan State (Broad)	7%	6%	-1%

Source: U.S. News

Kudos to ETS team who have worked pretty hard to ensure that we get a substitute to the GMAT. Most business schools opt to accept GRE scores as an alternative to the GMAT so as to widen their pool of applicants, and bring in students with non-traditional backgrounds – those who do not have backgrounds in finance, accounting, economics and so on. This diversity is positively encouraged at top business schools.

Yes Stone! We are interested. Can you tell us about the average GRE scores at the Top-MBA programs around the world? Or when it comes to MBA decisions, what GRE scores will we need to make the cut at our dream b-school?
Well, here you go :-

Average GRE Scores at Top-MBA programs!
School	GRE Verbal	GRE Quant	GRE Total	GRE Writing
Stanford GSB	164	165	329	4.9
Yale SOM	165	163	328	4.8
Virginia (Darden)	164	162	326	4.7
NYU (Stern)	163	161	324	4.6
Georgia Tech (Scheller)	161	163	324	4.5
Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)	160	163	323	4.0
Michigan (Ross)	161	161	322	5.0
Dartmouth (Tuck)	161	159	320	4.7
Cornell (Johnson)	161	159	320	4.2
UCLA (Anderson)	159	161	320	4.5
Minnesota (Carlson)	163	157	320	4.3
Duke (Fuqua)	160	159	319	4.4
Texas (McCombs)	160	159	319	N/A
Wisconsin	160	158	318	4.5
Washington (Foster)	159	158	317	4.4
Iowa (Tippie)	154	162	316	N/A
UC-Irvine (Merage)	155	161	316	4.0
Georgia (Terry)	159	157	316	4.0
UC-Davis	156	160	316	3.8
Georgetown (McDonough)	158	157	315	4.0
Washington (Olin)	158	157	315	4.1
Penn State (Smeal)	159	156	315	5.0
Rochester (Simon)	157	158	315	3.9
Boston (Questrom)	158	157	315	N/A
Illinois	157	155	315	4.0
Indiana (Kelley)	158	156	314	4.1
Rice (Jones)	157	157	314	4.0
Vanderbilt (Owen)	158	156	314	4.0
Rutgers	155	159	314	N/A
Notre Dame (Mendoza)	157	156	313	4.2
Ohio State (Fisher)	157	156	313	N/A
Southern Methodist (Cox)	157	155	312	4.1
Purdue (Krannert)	152	160	312	4.0
Arizona State (Carey)	156	155	311	4.1
Texas-Dallas (Jindal)	154	157	311	3.7
Maryland (Smith)	155	155	310	3.9
Michigan State (Broad)	154	155	309	4.0
George Washington	156	153	309	4.1
Texas A&M (Mays)	154	154	308	4.0
Boston College (Carroll)	155	152	307	4.0
Pittsburgh (Katz)	153	152	305	3.8

Source: U.S. News

Thank you for putting this together and I think there are many benefits to taking the GRE, especially if you're just not getting traction with the GMAT. However I did want to point out that INSEAD only accepts the GMAT... unless it is not offered in your country.

https://mbaprepcoach.com

Thanks MBAPrepCoach and Narenn
Indeed, every B-school in the US accepts the GRE. Some schools like TAMU and Questrom have a major portion of their incoming class with the GRE and not the GMAT.
Also, I have updated the article with the source.

Where does someone fall with 170 quant and 154 verbal?

KomalSg wrote:Where does someone fall with 170 quant and 154 verbal?

Hi, Congratulation on a fabulous GRE score.
Based on the GRE-GMAT conversion tool, Your score is equivalent to 710 on the GMAT.

Congrats again!

Great post Stone. Kudos to you for constantly providing valuable information to the community.
Its great that you have collated the information of the average GRE score for the US universities, but it would be much more helpful if you expand the table for Non-US universities.
Also that these scores corresponds to the actual GRE score accepted by the universities or the conversion of GMAT equivalent.

itisSheldon wrote:Great post Stone. Kudos to you for constantly providing valuable information to the community.
Its great that you have collated the information of the average GRE score for the US universities, but it would be much more helpful if you expand the table for Non-US universities.
Also that these scores corresponds to the actual GRE score accepted by the universities or the conversion of GMAT equivalent.

Hi,
Thank for the comment. Appreciate it.
After your PM, I did try to dig out the GRE numbers for the Top B-schools outside the US. Unfortunately, the schools outside the US DO NOT report the GRE scores(that is if they take them at all) to any external agency (like FT/US News etc.). The best way for anyone to know about the average GRE ranges for schools outside the US is to email their respective graduate business department. I don't think they will tell you the exact average GRE score but they will rather give you a range to work with.

To all the future readers- The numbers above are from 2017 and I am looking into the latest 2018 numbers. One thing is for sure - The new numbers are BIGGER and BETTER than previous years(they will be posted soon). GRE is here and it is here to stay. A great of people this year took the GRE and got into Top-B schools (with scholarships!)
So, if you are starting out your standardised test preparation- Give a practise test for both the GRE and the GMAT. I have seen that some people excel at the GMAT and others at the GRE. Analyse your practise test and see which one you like and will probably excel at.


Best,
Stone

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