Business school admissions will tell you that the past is a predictor of future performance. So, without further ado, let’s take a look back at what b-schools were doing in 2014, and see what we can predict for 2015.
Business schools that attract people with high GMAT scores produce MBAs who are the most highly compensated later in their careers. This was the proposition put forth by Jonathan Wai, a research scientist at Duke University, who then listed and ranked business schools by their average GMAT scores.
(The business school with the highest average GMAT score? Stanford GSB.)
Thanks a lot, Jonathan Wai.
That article seemed to fuel an even deeper preoccupation with GMAT scores than usual – by the media, MBA applicants, and the schools themselves. When Wharton’s record-breaking average GMAT score of 728 made headline news in September, online magazine Poets & Quants said the average GMAT score was “often considered something of a proxy for the quality of a class.”
I work with amazing students who come from a variety of backgrounds, and I believe that the GMAT score is only one measure of the quality of an MBA class and an applicant. Let me cite an example. One of my students is an Army officer who overcame a background of poverty, gangs, and absentee parents to go to college and rise through the ranks. His GMAT score is still under 700 (we’re working on it), but he perceives things about organizations that others do not. He is much more than his GMAT score.
Will the lopsided obsession with the GMAT score fade away in 2015? My prediction is “No.” Even though the low GMAT score at Harvard Business School was 510 in 2014 – so, clearly, people with unique backgrounds are admitted – the GMAT score is still a simple way to measure “the quality of a class,” so people do it.
Study hard! The GMAT arms race goes on.
Back in 1954, the GMAT’s precursor was administered to 1,291 business school hopefuls, who used No. 2 pencils, and probably grumbled about how hard the exam was. Today, the GMAT exam is a computer adaptive test administered all over the world over 250,000 times each year. In January 2014, a new CEO took the reins of GMAC (the creators of the GMAT). Sangeet Chowfla, who came from the high-tech industry, seems to be focused on continuing to grow the GMAT’s influence in international markets.
The GMAT is an elegant exam that challenges test-takers on the mastery of quant and verbal skills. The total GMAT score is one predictor of how well the test-taker will do in core MBA classes.
That said, I think we saw in 2014 how peripheral the new GMAT IR section is to MBA admissions.
The GMAT Integrated Reasoning section, introduced in 2012, tries to provide yet another quantifiable data point for admissions committees to consider, separate from the total GMAT score – this at a time when you see admissions officers gathering more applicant information along the lines of video essays, multimedia presentations, and about.me profiles – in short, information about communication and presentation skills, and personality.
The director of admissions for Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business told us that the GMAT IR score is considered at Tepper, because Tepper is a quant school, but the word from most schools to which we talked is that they are still compiling data. Business schools want to validate the correlation between the GMAT IR score and their own MBA students’ performance.
The Catch-22: If the GMAT IR score is not a big admissions factor, test-takers won’t take the GMAT IR too seriously > when test-takers don’t take it seriously, the school’s validation will be tricky > while validation remains in limbo, then admissions won’t use the GMAT IR score. In fact, I hear tales of our students quickly clicking through the IR section, just to get past it, yet gaining admission to such prestigious schools as Wharton, London Business School, Kellogg, and MIT Sloan.
Meanwhile, more business schools accept the GRE, and more applicants send GRE scores.
Interestingly, around the same time that GMAT IR was introduced, the GRE underwent a major overhaul to make it more appealing to business school admissions and test-takers. And it seems to have worked.
According to ETS (the maker of the GRE), 10% of GRE takers in 2013-2014 indicated that they were applying to MBA programs. At Yale SOM last year, 21% of applicants submitted GRE scores.
Will the GMAT IR gain traction in 2015? Will the GRE? It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.
MBA tech clubs hosted treks to SXSW Interactive. Alumni clubs threw parties. UT McCombs hosted a reception at the SXSW Startup Village. The SXSW 2014 Business Startup Challenge drew contestants from eight schools: Berkeley-Haas, Chicago Booth, University of Michigan (including Ross and the School of Information), MIT Sloan, Rice Jones, Stanford, UT McCombs, and Virginia Darden. MBAs and business school professors gave presentations.
Austin solidified its place with San Jose, Seattle, and San Francisco as a destination for MBAs going into the tech sector.
Meanwhile, more MBA programs got serious about the business of startups. Columbia Business School rented dozens of student incubator spaces in Silicon Alley (that’s NYC to you and me), and in May, Yale SOM formalized its entrepreneurship program.
Will MBA startup fever burn out in 2015? The Magic 8 ball says, “All signs point to No. But ask again next year.”
When the Indian government refused to promise that business school curriculum and funds would remain independent of government oversight, several business schools – Chicago Booth, Duke Fuqua, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, and Stanford – ended plans of opening their own campuses in India.
Still, most top U.S. MBA programs are – more than ever – committed to providing an international business education to produce global leaders. They are achieving their goals through academic agreements and international networks of schools (some set up in the 1990s). With the rise in the number of international applicants in 2014, the U.S. schools cannot afford to keep a U.S.-centric curriculum.
Some schools really committed to globalization in 2014.
Yale SOM, which is partnered with 26 schools, began requiring MBA students to go abroad for one week, at a minimum. As of 2015, Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business students will be required to either take a short travel course or take on a project abroad.
So, will more business schools require students to gain international experience in 2015 or 2016? The answer depends greatly on student reaction to the Yale SOM international requirements. If student satisfaction goes up, and applications rise, more schools may decide to give it a try in 2016, or adopt Tuck’s more moderate version. If students flee the resulting price tag, then … probably not.
MIT Sloan turned 100 years old in April 2014. As a proud MIT Sloan alum, I wish the school 100 more years of excellence and innovation in education.
In a GMAC survey of corporate recruiters, including recruiters at 36 of the Fortune 100, 86% planned to hire MBAs. Consulting and finance firms were hiring again, and perhaps a signal of a new trend, so were companies from the healthcare and manufacturing sectors.
Across accredited U.S. business schools, 65% of U.S. MBA graduates had job offers before graduating. Four business schools landed a near-perfect job placement rate (98%): Wharton, Chicago Booth, Dartmouth Tuck, and Emory's Goizueta Business School.
Will the MBA hiring boom last into 2015-2016? To quote a political operative from the 1990s, “It’s the economy, stupid.” So, as long as the U.S. economy remains stable, and the Career Services offices don’t get complacent, my answer is a qualified “Yes.” I qualify this by saying that regional MBA programs that were located in less prosperous areas of the country did not do well in placing their graduates. I urge you to check each MBA program’s 2014 employment report before deciding to apply.
My advice was that under most circumstances, you should go ahead and accept your GMAT score.
The road trip became a business movement. MBA students and professors hit the road to provide advice to and learn from small businesses across the United States.
The MBAs Across America movement, which started in 2013, recruited teams of MBA student volunteers to travel by car and consult with entrepreneurs on issues facing their small businesses. Students from HBS, Stanford, Babson, Berkeley-Haas, Columbia, and Michigan Ross spent the Summer of 2014 traversing the country and helping startups (and visiting Austin GMAT Review).
Meanwhile, three business professors traveled around in a van, talking with small business owners along the way, for their book Roadside MBA.
Will small business find a place alongside corporations in MBA case studies and discussions, perhaps in 2015? Is this a real trend? Looking at the hotbed of entrepreneurism that is Austin, talking with future MBA students of whom many hope to start new companies, I’m inclined to believe that business schools will increasingly reflect that zeitgeist.
Austin GMAT Review is the premier GMAT test prep company in Central Texas, offering structured GMAT courses to professionals preparing to enter full-time MBA or executive MBA programs. Austin GMAT Review caters to busy professionals who don't have the time to sort through masses of generic study materials. Meeting with an experienced professor face-to-face in limited-size GMAT classes, students receive the personalized coaching that they need and strategies to excel on the GMAT.
If you seek top-notch expert help with the GRE test, we recommend our affiliate Austin Elite Prep for GRE preparation.
