Stat hungry business schools

Question

Out of curiosity which business schools care the most about stats. For example at a school like HBS I know a 3.8 and 760 will only not ding your applications. At which top 10 schools will high stats go the furthest in getting you in?

Thanks for the help everyone.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Admissionado · Answer

Stats are pretty much equally important for all US Bschools. European schools tend to be a lot more flexible (UK schools a bit less than other euro schools).

CriticalSquare · Answer

Hey there,

The way you've phrased your question kind of leads to a response that isn't super useful. Like Jon said, all schools care about stats. As they should - rankings are based on them. Things like GMAT scores, GPAs, incoming salaries, work experience, etc. all play a part.

So the answer you're looking for isn't the answer to your question as its stated. The reason a 760 isn't a huge deal at Harvard is because you have to consider the applicant / accepted pools. A lot of people applying to HBS have a 730+ score. So they don't use it as a yes/no gate. But like you said, it's super important and their steadily increasing GMAT average score is a testament to that. So, whenever you're looking at a stat like GMATs or GPAs, the lower in the rankings you go the more distance you'll put between your score (assuming it's higher) and the median. If you can fall outside of a standard deviation, it'll matter more.

Also, schools within tiers tend to act similarly. So schools within, say, the top 3, place a similar emphasis because they're seeing a similar applicant / accepted pool. Same with top 5, top 10, top 20, etc. Tiers matter.

The simple answer is #10 will care more about a higher GMAT score (all else equal) than #2. But that's relative and not necessarily always the case. Even if they do, that doesn't mean they care 2x or 5x as much. They could care MARGINALLY more.

That's why, when you look around these forums, admissions consultants are so focused on your WHOLE profile. Because the simple answer to your question doesn't really solve the puzzle.

Hope that helps!

Bhavik

mgg234 · Answer

I feel like the above answers haven't been that useful. It's true you need the full package everywhere, but certain schools certainly do put more emphasis on GPA and GMAT than elsewhere.

In general, look at schools that have higher GMAT/GPA averages relatives to their rankings (e.g. Yale), These cares about GMAT and GPA a bit more than average. Schools with below average GMAT/GPA for their rankings (e.g. Duke) care less about GPA/GMAT and more about work experience and fit.

For example, a year or two go, the the bottom 10% range for Yale was a 3.36 (for comparison, Columbia's bottom 10% range was 3.0 at the time). Since Yale is a less competitive school than Columbia (although there certainly are people who pick Yale over the M7), acceptance by definition had to be significantly much less competitive among the cohort with high gmat/gpa.

Similarly, a lot of schools try to game the rankings and chase high GMAT's. Wharton certainly did this recently (it worked), and UCLA I did an analysis on GMATCLUB, and literally every non-indian applicant with a 750 GMAT got in.

There's always a minimum work experience you need though, so stats alone won't get you in anywhere among the top schools, but there are certainly schools where stats are more important, even among relative cohorts.

seekingmba123 · Answer

NYU and Yale are the obvious stat hungry business schools. They favor people with high GMAT/GPA over quality work experience to improve their rankings based on what I've observed.

Stat hungry business schools

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