JBSchool
That is inaccurate. There are plenty of examples of students getting in with the waiver and the published class stats show ~10% of students were admitted with a waiver. Posted from my mobile device
Yes, students do get in with waivers. I highly recommend talking to someone in admissions at the school you are applying to because different schools treat waivers differently. T-15 schools that accept waivers usually admit fewer than 10% of their class with waivers. I’ve attended multiple events at Cornell and Stern and they both accept waivers, but if you listen to the admissions officers, they both make it clear that waivers are NOT for everyone, and they emphasize this point a lot. Both mentioned that they want you to have some other evidence that you have strong quant skills. They also emphasized that you should consider whether a GMAT waiver aligns with your stated career goal. For example, if your career goal is to work in IB (or consulting if you want to do MBB or Big 4) a GMAT waiver will be a red flag, because recruiters for those industries will want to see a GMAT score anyway. On the other hand, it might not matter so much for Tech or Healthcare. On the other other hand, I attended a session at Simon (Rochester) and they seemed much more relaxed about waivers.
Unsaid, but likely also true for all schools, is that they probably want a high TOEFL score from international students who use a waiver. And they probably have higher GPA expectations from students who want waivers (it makes it easier to say "I’m smart I just don’t test well"). Also unsaid, GMAT waivers are probably disproportionately given to people who fill a diversity slot of some kind (not just racial, but also not traditional work backgrounds, gender, geographic, 1st gen, 1st gen college, etc.). Also also, I’ve heard this hinted at by some admissions officers, waivers are likely disproportionately given to applicants with company sponsorships. Company sponsorships are basically a guarantee that you will complete the program on time and get a job immediately after graduating, which helps their stats.
As with any one piece of the application, if you’re weak in one area, it likely just means you need to be stronger in other areas. So you’re not submitting a GMAT score. That doesn’t mean you won’t get in, but it does mean your GPA needs to be higher than people who do submit a good score, your career accomplishments need to be better than people who submit a good score. Maybe it’s an extra incentive to try to get sponsored. And if you don’t fit those criteria, you might want to reevaluate whether a waiver is the right path for you. I got a 540 on my first practice test and a 750 on my second time taking the real thing, so it is possible to improve your scores.
I have also heard that some admissions officers say that they are able to look at scores after the admissions round is over, and that they sometimes discover that students who don’t submit scores actually would have been better off submitting a below average score than requesting a waiver.