MBA Grades

Question

I don't know if this has been discussed or not. From my perusal of law school related forums, I've observed two things which seem to be general consensus.

1. Law School grades are extremely important in determining job prospects.

2. It is difficult to know how well one will do in Law School. This is because everyone is very academically gifted and law school exams are a different kind of animal than what one encounters as an undergrad.

Is this the case with top MBA programs? I've got a 760 GMAT and good grades. While I'm still a few years from B-School, I am wondering if I can reasonably expect that to translate into good grades there. Basically, I'm assuming that wherever I get in I will be there because of academic ability and that others will be there because they've got better work history and whatnot than I do. Also, as someone with a BBA and Masters in Accountancy I'll already have a leg up on a lot of the material. Should I be able to bank on doing significantly above average as long as I apply myself?

That leads to the second issue. Even if one does get top grades, does anybody care? I recall reading that some guy wrote a book about HBS after getting his MBA and his assessment was that there was serious grade inflation and it was mostly a networking exercise for the elite. Is that the case everywhere? Do employers care much about your GPA?

jordanhendrix · Answer

HBS along with many other schools have a non disclosure policy so employers cannot even ask how you did.
Other schools that come to mind, all the top ones, Chi, Ross Etc.

Also adcoms generally say that the GMAT is a good indicator of being able to handle the curriculum, calculus is also a requirement at many schools.

If you did well in these aspects, I think you have the aptitude, throw in UGPA as a measure for work ethic and you being to get the picture of "can this person hang in B-School" from an admissions point of view.

That said, of the MBA's I have spoken with they say B-school isn't that hard academically. It can be changeling trying to balance all the other aspects (Ec's Recruiting)

whiplash2411 · Answer

Didn't HBS recently change their non-disclosure policy to voluntary disclosure?

riverripper · Answer

Grades matter very little for the most part. Few companies care enough to even ask. Some claim to have a minimum of a 3.5 or something but I know people who got offers despite being well below. If you want to get good grades its not that hard if you put the time in. Most schools are on a curve and unlike law school students for the most part are not very competitive for grades.

brainhurt · Answer

As a specific example of whether anyone cares, at NYU they don't list GPA on their standard resume format, and an alum told me that the only firms he had heard had asked about grades were Goldman and McKinsey.

DrSatisfaction · Answer

At oxford the curve it so most of the class has a grade in the C range, which means in all likelihood, your GPA will not be something you'll be too proud of. However, it's a non-issue since most employers don't really care at all. All they want to know is that you got into the program and that you have a reasonably good GMAT.

3underscore · Answer

Classes that matter: Finance (any banking job), Accountancy (banking, research), Strategy (Consulting).

They are about the only three you may ever get asked for, and it really is limited to that. Some may never ask (S&T never did), but bankers said that questions were asked in interview.

A few firms ask for GMAT (Big 3 Consulting, Big Banking).

The reason you don't see GPAs on resume's is because they are hidden under different things. At NYU, you will see people who are Stern Scholars (1st year GPA high enough - I forget if it is above 3.8 or in the top 10%), then there are individual academic scholarships that signal you don't arse about all the time.

Some employers will care about this, some couldn't care less. I would argue a high GPA never did anyone any harm. Outside the core classes, it would be embarassing to get low grades in key classes related to your career path - the firm may ask for your transcript out of formality, and if it is there, then people learn.

futurestrategist · Answer

Interesting that top firms ask for GMAT. Do they ask for SAT, ugrad GPAs and non-MBA grad GPAs as well?

I feel that these top firms skirt around the schools' grade non-disclosure policies by asking for other metrics.

PadawanOfTheGMAT · Answer

They don't really ask you to have a gmat score, they ask you if you have a gmat score, and if yes, then how much did you score

Jerz · Answer

I have heard of some of my classmates who were interviewing in banking or consulting being asked about SAT and undergrad GPAs, so it does come up. Even at a school like Kellogg where we do disclose our MBA grades.

bakfed · Answer

quick question: so for school that doesn't disclose GPA, how would employers (i.e. MC and IB) know if you're telling the truth about your GPA? (Or GMAT score?)

jordanhendrix · Answer

^^^ you're not supposed to tell them

bakfed · Answer

really? I thought top MC and IB will ask for GPA and GMAT.

jordanhendrix · Answer

We need someone who has gone through rec to verify, but what's the point if you they can just ask you?

jordanhendrix · Answer

Of course the GMAT is not included in that policy

3underscore · Answer

If you have grade non-disclosure you have grade non-disclosure. You should not say anything and explain the policy.

GPA matters little. About 50% of people get their jobs off the summer internship if things go right, and that means when you are recruited you don't really even have a GPA. Ultimately anyone recruiting MBAs is aware that they are recruiting someone that their GPA won't really reflect their ability. That is the nature of Business School. It isn't really all that academic, so you can't really learn much from GPA a lot of the time.

bakfed · Answer

so if there's grade non-disclosure, no one talks about it and even if employers ask, you say you can't answer that question? And there's no GMAT non-disclosure policy?

futurestrategist · Answer

I think recruiters will review your resume for relevant experiences and clubs if they cannot ask you for your MBA GPA. As said earlier, an MBA gpa might be useless, especially early on in 1st semester recruiting.

I have heard that recruiters ask for ugrad GPAs and GMAT scores to provide a complete picture of you.

3underscore · Answer

There is no such thing as a GMAT non-disclosure agreement. You could not provide it when asked, but that tells its own story as they know you have it.

Jerz · Answer

To be clear, most recruiters (with the exceptions of finance and consulting) don't really care about GPA, GMAT, SAT, etc.. I did recruiting for pharma/biotech, and don't think any of that ever came up in applications or interviews.

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