This year, an MBA applicant to Harvard Business School won acceptance with a GMAT score of 490. At Stanford, a newly enrolled MBA candidate had a 530 GMAT, while at Wharton, someone sneaked through with a GMAT of 560.
Those scores are the lowest reported in the rather vague GMAT ranges published by the business schools. But who actually gets into a top-ranked MBA program with a GMAT that is, in Harvard’s case, 240 points below the school’s median GMAT of 730?
The answer, according to admission officials and consultants, is a highly exceptional applicant–with just one exception: a lousy GMAT score.
WHAT’S REALLY THE AVERAGE SCORE ON THE GMAT?
First, some perspective: A score of 490 is in the 32nd percentile at a time when the median GMAT for enrolled students at Harvard is in the 96th percentile. It’s decidedly well below the 544 average score and there are some schools that would immediately toss the application in the rejection pile.
Oddly, in some cases, it may be easier to get into a top school than a second-tier MBA program. That’s because second-tier schools can be more sensitive about low GMAT scores because they take down the reported averages that sometimes are counted in MBA rankings, such the annual list compiled by U.S. News & World Report. The theory is that U.S. News does not request GRE scores so taking an applicant with a weak GRE result can’t hurt a school’s standing in such lists.
LOW GMAT SCORE ADMITS ARE OUTLIERS
“At HBS, there were cases of candidates who have lower-than-average GMATs but get in. But looking at the GMAT score alone misses the point,” .
“Schools do look at the whole profile of the candidate: academics, leadership, and uniqueness defined as what new or different perspective they will bring to the class. In the case of the guy at HBS who had less than a 550 GMAT and got in, everything else about him was incredible. He had excellent academics at a rigorous and selective university, tons of leadership at work plus leadership in his community involvement plus his recommenders truly raved about him and had tons of examples to reinforce the perspective that he was an outstanding candidate. His low GMAT essentially was an outlier.”
How are they able to convince admission officers to accept them? They tend to isolate the GMAT as an aberration. “They provide hard evidence of achievement and excellence in every other aspect of his or her life,”. They build and sustain genuine, one-on-one relationships with decision makers at the B-schools. They craft deeply personal essays that leap off the page, grab the reader’s heart, and make it impossible to reject without actually meeting the person behind the app.”
WHAT’S THE LOWEST SCORE AN ELITE SCHOOL HAS ADMITTED?
While the 490 score in this fall’s entering class at Harvard is stunningly low, it’s not the lowest successful B-school candidate
For example, helped a Wall Street analyst gain admission to a top-10 Ivy League business school despite a 410 GMAT after taking the exam five separate times. Making it even more difficult, the candidate had a modest 3.0 GPA in a non-quant undergrad major.
GMAT Scores For Top European Business Schools
| School | 2019 GMAT Range |
| Cambridge (Judge) | 520—780 |
| HEC Paris | 600-770 |
| IESE Business School | 530—780* |
| Oxford (Saïd) | 510—800 |
| IMD | 610—770 |
| IE Business School | 610—770 |
| Mannheim | 510—770 |
| SDA Bocconi | 540—750 |
| ESADE | 550-750 |
| Warwick Business School | 510—750 |
| Manchester Business School | 600–760 |
| Imperial | 520–720* |
| ESMT Berlin | 510–740 |
| Cranfield | 600–710 |
| Erasmus | 530–730* |
| City (Cass) | 510—720* |
| St. Gallen | 560—720* |
| Lancaster | 530—710* |
| INSEAD | 600—780* |
| London Business School | 600—790 |
Compared to their U.S. counterparts, European business schools tend to be far less transparent with MBA admission stats. But approached each of the schools below and asked for the latest GMAT scores for their 2018 entering classes of MBAs. Only four schools–Imperial, Lancaster, Cass & Erasmus–declined to provide any data at all.
