Average GMAT scores at the world’s top business schools have increased in 2022. Averages rose at 12 of the top 20 business schools ranked by the Financial Times this year, including the likes of Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Columbia Business School.
All but one of the top 20 schools that reported increasing average GMAT scores were based in the US. The FT list is made up of 14 US business schools.
Averages have been on an upward trajectory in recent years, with top US schools like Stanford and The Wharton School breaking records in 2019 and 2021.
The record for the highest average GMAT score has been broken again in 2022, with Stanford reporting an average GMAT score of 738, five higher than its previously held record of 733.
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Average GMAT scores increase at M7 and other top US business Schools
The likes of Stanford, Wharton, and Harvard Business School are part of an elite group of US institutions who largely dominate the FT ranking, known as the M7 Business Schools.
While Stanford posted a record average GMAT in 2022, average GMAT scores among most of the M7 also rose. Only Harvard and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management didn’t report an increase, remaining on 730 and 727 respectively (Harvard provides a median GMAT score).
Wharton—2022’s top-ranked MBA—had the highest increase in average GMAT score, rising by 11 points to 733, equalling last year’s record. MIT Sloan also saw a substantial increase of 10 points, with an average of 730.
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business MBA saw GMAT scores average out at 732, rising by eight points. Stanford’s score rose by five and Columbia admitted students with an average of 729, three points higher than in 2021.
Other US business schools ranked among the world’s top 20 MBA programs by the FT also reported increased average GMAT scores.
Yale School of Management saw scores rise from 720 to 730 in 2022 (Yale reports a median GMAT score). Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business saw GMAT scores rise from 720 to 724. NYU Stern School of Business also reported a rise from 723 to 729.
Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business reported a rise of 13 points, rising to 713, while the University of Virginia Darden School of Business MBA rose by 12 to 715. Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management saw scores increase from 700 to 710.
University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business was the only US business school ranked among the top 20 whose score fell. The Haas average GMAT dropped one point, to 726 in 2022.
Average GMAT score changes for top global b-schools
Fewer scores rise at top schools in Europe, Asia
Outside of the US, GMAT scores were less likely to rise among the schools ranked in the FT's global top 20.
INSEAD, the top-ranked school outside of the US, saw average GMAT scores fall from 710 to 708. Spain’s IESE Business School also admitted lower scoring applicants. It’s average score fell from 681 in 2021 to 670 this year.
London Business School saw average GMAT scores rise by one point, to 708. While scores remained the same at top French business school, HEC Paris, and China’s top-ranked school, CEIBS. Italy’s SDA Bocconi features among the global top 20 but doesn’t share GMAT score data.
Some Asian and European schools fell out of the top 20 this year, as US business schools took the majority of spaces. National University of Singapore Business School, who ranked 14th in 2021, saw average GMAT scores rise from 667 to 670.
Cambridge University’s Judge Business School MBA admitted higher scoring applicants on average, with a score of 690 (Judge reports median MBA scores). ESADE Business School, who ranked 20th in 2020, had an unchanged average GMAT score of 660 in 2022.
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