Wharton just made applying to its MBA program a little bit easier and cheaper.
Starting with students who apply in fall 2010 Wharton plans to allow MBA applicants to submit the Graduate Record Exam as an alternative to the Graduate Management Admission Test.
Wharton joins over 250 international MBA programs that accept GRE scores, including top U.S. schools such as Harvard Business School, the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. These schools are in the minority, with over 4,600 business education programs using GMAT scores.
While the GMAT has been the standard for business school admissions since 1954, MBA programs hope that accepting the GRE — which students can use to apply to a variety of graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences — will attract a broader applicant pool.
A Wharton admissions official told The Daily Pennsylvanian in February that Wharton had no plans to accept GRE scores in the near future, but Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid J.J. Cutler said discussions following last year’s admissions cycle led the program to change its policy.
According to Cutler, businesses are increasingly requiring interdisciplinary work, making students who have non-business backgrounds more attractive to MBA programs.
He added that accepting the GRE will open the door for graduates who “may not have anticipated the need for an MBA” but work in fields where a business education would benefit them.
He also said he thinks that both tests provide “valuable insight” regarding a student’s mastery of necessary skills.
Director of Career Services Patricia Rose said she believes Wharton’s decision to accept the GRE will help students.
Many students feel most prepared to take the GRE when they are seniors and will now be able to rely on that score for later applications, Rose said.
Mark McNutt, a spokesman for Educational Testing Services, which offers the GRE, said that opening admissions to the GRE would allow business schools to attract students who may be considering other master’s or doctoral programs.
McNutt also said that the biggest advantage for the students is the difference in cost between the two tests. The GRE costs $150, while the GMAT costs $250.
However Dave Wilson — the president and CEO of the Graduate Management Admission Council, which oversees the GMAT — said that the GMAT remains the best predictor of students’ academic performances in business schools.
For example, Wilson said that the GMAT’s quantitative section is “far more complex than the arithmetic rules and algebraic rules” offered by the GRE.
Despite the increased options, Rose does not believe that there will be much change in the number of students taking the GMAT.
Andrew Mitchell, assistant director for GRE and GMAT programs at Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, agreed.
“The vast majority of business schools still only accept the GMAT for applications,” Mitchell said, adding that Kaplan recommends students to still take the GMAT if they’re interested in attending business school.
Still, both Rose and Mitchell said that Wharton’s decision could foreshadow a big movement by business schools to accept both tests.
“Wharton being a leader in the field,” Mitchell said, “it will be interesting to see whether more schools start accepting the GRE. That might very well happen.”
