High & Low GMAT Scores At The World’s Leading MBA Programs

The GMAT is dead. Long live the GMAT.

Today (January 31) marks the last day that candidates for graduate business education can take the old Graduate Management Admission Test. On February 1 and thereafter, B-school prospects will sit for the GMAT Focus Edition, a leaner, quicker exam with a dramatically different scoring scale that was designed to keep pace with the GMAT’s main rival in graduate business admissions, the Graduate Record Exam (which itself has undergone a major transformation in recent years).

That is, if they sit for any exam at all: 15 of the top 25 U.S. B-schools — including MIT Sloan, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, UVA Darden, and Dartmouth Tuck — are currently offering test waivers for the ongoing 2023-2024 application cycle, keeping very much alive the prospect of test-less admission to an elite full-time MBA program that has been a reality since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic nearly four years ago.

BIGGEST GMAT AVERAGE INCREASES 2022-2023

2024 P&Q Rank	School	Average GMAT 2023	Average GMAT 2022	Growth
23	Emory Goizueta	709	700	+9
15	UC-Berkeley Haas	733	729	+4
27	Georgia Tech Scheller	694	690	+4
16	CMU Tepper	705	702	+3

SCORES TREND DOWNWARD IN 2023 AFTER A STRONG 2022

The new GMAT was introduced on Nov. 7, 2023. The updated test represents the single biggest change to the GMAT since it moved from paper to computer in June 1997. The GMAT Focus Edition can be taken in two hours and 25 minutes, without breaks, a significant reduction from the traditional GMAT which takes three hours and seven minutes to complete. To shorten the time to take the test, GMAC removed a 30-minute analytical writing assessment and reduced the time it takes on quantitative reasoning, verbal reasoning, and integrated reasoning to 45 minutes each.

The result: a completely different, streamlined test, with a new scoring system that will defy apples-to-apples comparisons going forward. For one thing, scores on the new test will be different — the new range of scores is 205 to 805 — and they will be lower. (For details on how the GMAT Focus differs from its predecessor, see here and here.)

So — what better way to mark the end of one era and beginning of another than by examining the final batch of old GMAT scores from the 2022-2023 MBA admissions cycle, scores used to gain entry to the MBA Classes of 2025? Below are key data drawn from class profiles at the top-ranked B-schools, which show, among other trends, that scores were generally down last year after a strong 2022, which itself was down from a record 2021.

BIGGEST GMAT AVERAGE INCREASES 2020-2023

2024 P&Q Rank	School	Average GMAT 2023	2020	4-Year Trend
37	Indiana Kelley	685	652	+33
23	Emory Goizueta	709	683	+26
16	Carnegie Mellon Tepper	705	680	+25
22	USC Marshall	722	707	+15
6	Duke Fuqua	716	702	+14
27	Georgia Tech Scheller	694	680	+14
8	Virginia Darden	716	703	+13
21	Vanderbilt Owen	687	676	+11
2	Harvard Business School	740*	730*	+10
7	Cornell Johnson	710*	700*	+10

*Median

GMAT AVERAGE ACROSS TOP B-SCHOOLS FELL MORE THAN 3 POINTS IN 2023

In the MBA Class of 2025 that enrolled last fall, Stanford Graduate School of Business reported the top GMAT average among all U.S. B-schools: 738, up from the previous year’s top score average of 737. That matches Stanford’s school record set in 2021. The GSB has had sole ownership of the top GMAT score among U.S. MBA programs every year since 2019; in 2018 it shared the top score with three fellow M7 schools.

The lowest average reported in 2023 among top schools: Florida Warrington College pf Business, new to the top 25 this year, with 650.

Overall in 2023, 16 of the 28 highest-ranking B-schools in the U.S. reported GMAT averages of 700 or greater, along with five more schools with 700+ medians. That’s actually a decline from 18 schools with averages over 700 (and the same five schools with 700 or greater medians). Only nine of 28 schools reported an increase in GMAT average or median, when a year earlier, 23 of 26 did. Four schools reported achieving new school records, and three others (including Stanford) reporting matching records; in 2022, 11 schools had new records; in 2021, 15 did.

No schools reported double-digit growth in their GMAT averages in 2023; a year earlier, three did, led by a 16-point jump at USC Marshall School of Business. The biggest jump this year was 9 points, from 700 to 709, at Emory Goizueta Business School; Marshall was one of 12 schools with declines, and one of two with the biggest drop-offs, falling 10 points to 722 from 732 (the other was UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, which slipped 10 points to 696 one year after jumping 10 points to 706). Harvard Business School, which reports a median GMAT score, saw its first increase in 13 years, to 740.

Overall, year-to-year growth averaged 3.25 points at the eight schools out of 28 that reported it; in 2022, it averaged 5.3 points at 15 schools. Across 22 of 28 schools that report averages, the average GMAT score in 2023 was 711.5; a year ago, also at 22 schools, it was 714.7.

BIGGEST GMAT AVERAGE DECLINES 2017-2023

2024 P&Q Rank	School	Average GMAT 2023	Average GMAT 2017	Trend
25	Florida Warrington	650	NA	-23.5*
13	UCLA Anderson	710	716	-6
20	UNC Kenan-Flagler	696	701	-5
21	Vanderbilt Owen	687	690	-3
11	Chicago Booth	728	730	-2
31	Penn Wharton	728	730	-2
12	Northwestern Kellogg	731	732	-1

*2018-2023

OVER TIME, GMAT SCORES HAVE STEADILY GONE UP

Broadening our outlook to the last four years, we still see a widespread increase in scores across schools. Between 2020 and 2023, the number of schools that reported a rise in class GMAT average was 22; in 2022, looking at the previous three years, 24 schools reported improvement. Likewise:

• Schools with double-digit GMAT growth from 2020 to 2023: 10
• Schools with double-digit GMAT growth from 2020 to 2022: 13
• Average GMAT growth from 2020 to 2023 among schools that report averages, not medians: 10.7 points
• Average growth from 2020 to 2022: 10.2 points
• Biggest GMAT growth from 2020 to 2023: Indiana Kelley, 33 points to 685; Emory Goizueta, 26 points to 709; CMU Tepper, 25 points to 705
• Biggest GMAT growth from 2020 to 2022: Indiana Kelley, 33 points to 685; USC Marshall, 25 points to 732; CMU Tepper, 22 points to 702

We can look back further as well. In 2022:

• Number of schools with 6-year increase in GMAT average (2017 to 2022): 15
• Number with double-digit increase: 6
• Average increase: 9.8 points
• Biggest increase: USC Marshall, 29 points to 732; NYU Stern, 19 points to 733; Emory Goizueta, 18 points to 700
• Number of schools with negative growth: 5 (Biggest drop-off: Rice Jones, -9 to 702)

And in 2023:

• Number of schools with 7-year jump (2017 to 2023): 16
• Number with double-digit increase: 7
• Average increase: 9.6 points
• Biggest increase: Emory, 27 points to 709
• Number of schools with negative growth: 6 (Biggest drop-off: UCLA Anderson, -6 to 710; Florida Warrington -23.5 over six years, 2018 to 2023)

BIGGEST GMAT AVERAGE INCREASES 2017-2023

2024 P&Q Rank	School	Average GMAT 2023	Average GMAT 2017	Trend
23	Emory Goizueta	709	682	+27
22	USC Marshall	722	703	+19
10	NYU Stern	732	714	+18
6	Duke Fuqua	716	702	+14
16	Carnegie Mellon Tepper	705	691	+14
27	Georgia Tech Scheller	694	680	+14

TOP EURO SCHOOLS PREFER TO BE VAGUE

Many U.S. B-schools report ranges of scores in addition to averages and medians, as a way to give comfort to prospective students as they contemplate what it will take to gain admission. Seven schools out of 28 examined by P&Q currently publish full ranges, among them notably this year Harvard, which admitted someone with a 500 score; and 16 publish 80% ranges as a way to avoid putting too harsh a spotlight on the low end of scores. Two schools — Columbia and NYU Stern — publish both the full and 80% range. See table below for details.

Very few schools, however, publish the percentage of their admits who submitted GMAT scores, in part because it has long been assumed that everyone, or almost everyone, did. Stanford (61%), Harvard (69%), and Chicago Booth (66%) are the only three top schools to offer GMAT percentages currently, while far more schools offer the percentage of those taking the less-popular GRE. But with waivers aplenty these days it is not safe to assume that the percentage of GRE submissions (known) and the percentage of GMAT submissions (guessed at) add up to 100.

Outside the U.S., top B-schools in Europe and elsewhere do not always provide specifics on their MBA classes’ GMAT scores, preferring instead to give vague statements like “around 700” or “with a typical range of 600 to 800.” So states London Business School. Other top global B-schools’ latest data:

• HEC Paris: “The average GMAT score for the class of 2019 is 690 or 635 under the Focus Edition.” (Scores are good for five years.)
• At IE Business School, the average score for MBAs is “around 680.”
• IESE’s MBA GMAT acceptance range is 580-750, or 545-715 under the Focus Edition.
• CEIBS’s average GMAT for 2023, 2024, 2025 classes is 685, range 640-740
• Oxford: 680 median
• Cambridge: 682 average
• INSEAD: “In order to be competitive, you should aim to achieve a score at or above the 70th percentile (about 650) in both the quantitative and verbal sections. … For the GMAT Focus Edition, INSEAD recommends a 60th percentile on the Verbal component (80), and a 66th percentile on the Quantitative (80) and Data Insights components (77).”
• SDA Bocconi: 665 average
• Toronto Rotman: 672 average, 80% in the 630-720 range, 10% below 630, 10% between 720 and 770

2023 GMAT RANGES AT THE TOP U.S. B-SCHOOLS

P&Q 2024 Rank	School	GMAT Average	GMAT Range	GMAT 80% Range
1	Stanford	738	630-790	NA
2	Harvard	740*	500-790	NA
3	Dartmouth Tuck	726	630-800	NA
4	Columbia	730	610-790	700-760
5	Yale SOM	720*	NA	680-760
6	Duke Fuqua	716	NA	670-760
8	Virginia Darden	716	NA	680-750
9	Michigan Ross	719	NA	670-760
10	NYU Stern	732	650-780	700-760
11	Chicago Booth	728	600-780	NA
12	Northwestern Kellogg	731	620-780	NA
13	UCLA Anderson	710	NA	640-760
14	MIT Sloan	730*	NA	700-760
15	UC-Berkeley Haas	733	NA	680-770
16	CMU Tepper	705	NA	650-750
17	Washington Foster	710*	NA	660-740
19	Texas McCombs	704	NA	670-740
21	Vanderbilt Owen	687	NA	640-730
22	USC Marshall	722	NA	681-760
24	Georgetown McDonough	695	NA	630-743
27	Georgia Tech Scheller	694	NA	640-722

*Median

SCORES ON THE NEW GMAT WILL BE LOWER — BUT TEST TAKERS SHOULDN’T WORRY

As GMAT test takers sit for the new, shorter, sleeker exam, they will discover that it is difficult to score a 700 or more on the test. That’s because a new scoring approach substantially lowers test scores.

A 750 on the old GMAT, which puts a test taker in the 98th percentile, converts to just a 695 on the new GMAT Focus Edition, according to the new concordance tables released by the Graduate Management Admission Council, the administrator of the exams. A 700 score on the old test is a 645 on the new GMAT. No wonder so many rushed to take the old test before its sunset.

Ryan Starr, a Manhattan Prep teacher who took the GMAT Focus as soon as it became available and scored a 755, says the changes to the test are positive. One of the biggest involves the Integrated Reasoning section, known as the Data Insights section, which used to hold less weight compared to the other sections. In the new GMAT Focus, that section is weighted the same as the Quant and Verbal sections.

Starr reassures students concerned about scores that are lower than what they might have scored on the old GMAT. “GMAC already came out with percentiles and scoring conversions by way of giving schools guidance on what these scores mean,” he says. “Students are worried that schools won’t know, and will see lower schools overall — but schools are on top of this. That’s one of the main jobs of admissions.”

See the next page for seven years of GMAT data for 28 of the top U.S. business schools.

AND DON’T MISS GMAT TEST TAKERS RUSH TO TAKE THE OLD EXAM THAT SUNSETS ON JAN. 31 and THIS TEACHER TOOK THE NEW GMAT AND SCORED A 755. HERE’S WHAT HE THINKS OF THE TEST