Top business schools use GRE-GMAT comparison tool | Interactive graphic

For most MBA aspirants, getting the perfect GMAT score is a major part of securing a seat in a good business school. However, the Education Testing Service has developed a GRE-GMAT comparison tool that allows a student to apply to business school with a GRE score.

The comparison tool - developed by ETS researchers using information from students who had taken both tests - predicts a student's GMAT score from his or her GRE score.

Wharton associate director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Kathryn Bezella said Wharton will continue to require GMAT scores and has no plans to begin accepting GRE scores in the near future.

"Such a change would be a big decision for us and would require considerable time to implement," she said, adding that so far, "GMAT scores have been a good predictor of academic performance of students at Wharton."

Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, one of the first schools to start accepting GRE scores for business school admissions, played a major role in advancing the use of the GRE.

While some schools, like Stanford, require either the GRE or the GMAT, other schools require both. In the last year, the number of schools accepting both increased to 115.

Among those following the trend are top U.S. schools like Harvard University's Business School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management and Johns Hopkins' Carey Business School. Leading international schools, like IE Business School in Madrid and China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, also accept both tests.

"This tool helps the schools to broaden and diversify the applicant pool," said ETS spokesman Mark McNutt.

According to Deirdre Leopold, managing director of Harvard's MBA Admissions and Financial Aid, HBS will be accepting GRE scores for the "2+2 business program," for which students apply as undergraduates and complete their MBA within two years of their undergraduate degree.

Leopold will be at Penn Feb. 23 to discuss this program.

"The rest of the applicants need to apply through GMAT scores, at least for this year, while we test the 2+2 program," she said.

McNutt said the traditional MBA student used to have a background in economics or business, but now schools are seeking students who take the GRE - who may not have always planned to go to business school. "We need people who can solve complex problems in a complex economy," he said.

ETS was administering both the GRE and the GMAT before they lost the rights to administrate the GMAT to ACT Inc. and Pearson VUE two years ago.

"The tool did not have anything to do with ACT Pearson," said McNutt. "We try and help the B-schools as much as possible, and that is what we are doing here."

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