In Grad School Admissions, GMAT and GRE are Taking a "Back Seat."

Do standardized tests provide enough insight into an applicant’s academic abilities and their expected success in an MBA program? Some higher education institutions have begun waiving test scores in favor of looking at an applicant’s job experience and academic accomplishments, which studies have shown are better predictors of academic success than standardized test scores alone.

In today’s ever changing job market, the seemingly endless demands on working professionals may limit the number of MBA applicants due to the added time commitment to prepare for the GMAT or GRE exams. And yet, some college administrators worry that standardized tests may conceal more than they reveal, especially among underrepresented groups and those who have been out of school for some time. In fact, relying heavily on a single factor can be counterintuitive to the ultimate goal – identifying qualified candidates who will contribute to the intellectual discourse.

At Ramapo College, MBA Admissions Officers have a number of key predictive variables at their disposal that go well beyond test scores. It is not uncommon for working professionals to return to Ramapo after years of successful employment, providing admissions officers with an objective benchmark of an applicant’s skillset and a window into the type of insights that might be shared in the classroom.

“Students often self select themselves out of the process without realizing the value of their work experience,” says Tim Landers, Director of Ramapo’s MBA Program. Landers adds, “Our small cohort size gives us the advantage of meeting one-on-one with each candidate; there’s no better way to judge whether someone is a good fit for our accelerated program than a face-to-face meeting.” For large MBA programs processing thousands of applications, standardized tests remain an efficient and objective means of evaluation because it puts all applicants on a similar scale.

Undergraduate GPA and academic honors are traditional key predictors of success in graduate school but, for those whose academic career was a distant misbegotten adventure, officers look more closely at the cognitive skills demonstrated through the attainment of professional licenses, memberships in trade associations and, most importantly, professional achievements and levels of responsibility.

Michael DiBartolomeo, Associate Director of Graduate Admissions at Ramapo, explains, “Today’s marketplace demands ever more specialization and regulatory oversight, which is why so many of our applicants arrive with significant milestones in hand, e.g., CPA, Certified Financial Planner, Project Management Professional, LEED Certification, and Six Sigma.”

Graduate Admissions counselors now have greater latitude when considering nonbusiness degree applicants due to the advent of the pre-enrollment boot camps. “Students prefer to spend their time on something directly related to their MBA success rather than on studying for a standardized test that might only be marginally related to the curriculum,” says DiBartolomeo.

Categories: MBA