Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Yesterday Harvard Business School joined the likes of Stanford GSB and MIT Sloan when it announced that its general two-year MBA program will starting accepting the GRE from applicants this fall.

More details...
https://blog.veritasprep.com/2009/05/har ... t-gre.html


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Interesting! My thought is that it probably won't help the quantiatively-challenged, though. In a way, it hurts: with the GRE you are competing with all of the engineering PhDs, etc. etc.

I agree Paxton... the GRE scares me!

Paxton Helms - Kaplan wrote:Interesting! My thought is that it probably won't help the quantiatively-challenged, though. In a way, it hurts: with the GRE you are competing with all of the engineering PhDs, etc. etc.

But what about a person such as me, who is not quantitatively challenged but verbally is.[as per GMAT]

I have taken GMAT n number of times and yet my scores have shown little or no signs of improvement. My best score so far is 580 Q51 V18 AWA 6.

I'd rather compete with PHDs and engineers than not compete at all.
The problem is that top schools give way too much importance to GMAT, even though they say they don't.
They are accepting GRE for a very simple reason. After all B-schools are organizations themselves.

Hi guys,

How do you think an adcom would feel about someone who did poorly on a GMAT, then took the GRE (which is supposedly easier)?

If you take a GMAT twice, they only consider the higher score. But if you take GMAT once, do poorly (sub 600), then take the GRE and do significantly better... would they think that you are running away from the GMAT?

Morgoth wrote: But what about a person such as me, who is not quantitatively challenged but verbally is.[as per GMAT]

I have taken GMAT n number of times and yet my scores have shown little or no signs of improvement. My best score so far is 580 Q51 V18 AWA 6.

Well, if you're having problems with the verbal part of the GMAT, then taking the GRE won't significantly help you. Look at it this way:
- both the GRE and the GMAT have RC
- the GMAT tests reasoning with CR, while the GRE will have you memorize immense lists of words
- SC in the GMAT is far easier to improve upon (it's the quant of the verbal) than say for instance learning 5000+ words

You get a pretty good comparison of the GRE vs. the GMAT here. As you can see, they recommend taking the GRE if verbal is your stronger side.

@bigeater1: I'm pretty sure they'd want to know about your GMAT scores as well, but since the tests are not administered by the same company, you might "get away with" not mentioning the GMAT.

I'd like to add my own personal opinion regarding the GRE vs. GMAT issue. I've seen quite a few GRE tests (my boyfriend took the GRE about a week ago and I helped him prepare), so I guess you could say that I am familiar with the format. IMHO, the GMAT is the better test for a number of reasons:
1. biggest issue: learning lists of words you will NEVER EVER use after that. I guarantee that not even 1% of native speakers could tell you the meaning of 10% of words on those lists

2. the GRE does not test your critical reasoning skills. You will need to use critical thinking in class, so not testing this area is a minus

3. GRE quant is significantly easier than GMAT quant. How will the AdCom compare GRE/GMAT quant scores? Should they use that score predictor that ETS provides? They used the results of only 500 or so test takers to create that spreadsheet! As compared to the number of people that take the tests each year, that's absolutely nothing...