Earlier this month, Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business and the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business announced that their full-time MBA programs would go test-optional for the 2020-2021 admission cycle. These two are the latest among a growing group of schools to waive standardized test requirements for eligible applicants. Like Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Georgia Tech’s Scheller plans to pilot the test-optional policy for all Fall 2021 applicants. The University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business is implementing a test waiver program where applicants who meet an existing set of criteria can opt out of providing standardized test scores. UVA Darden, University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Business, and Rutgers Business School have incorporated similar criteria-based waiver systems.
The schools point out that while they have used standardized test scores previously, to gauge an applicant’s ability to compete in the academic rigor of their program, they say their admissions teams remain confident in their holistic assessment of an applicant’s potential. UVA Darden is asking candidates who do not provide test scores to include alternative evidence that they will be able to succeed academically.
The schools hope that the policy will attract more applicants. After announcing its test-optional policy, UVA Darden reported receiving “an influx of qualified applicants who had been furloughed or laid off amid the pandemic.” Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Blair Sanford, Assistant Dean for Full-Time MBA and Master’s Programs at Wisconsin-Madison said, “Some of the reasons why we decided to expand the policy in the first place still exist. The pandemic is still in place… In addition, it gives us a broader reach to attract qualified students in a difficult environment.”
The schools are also optimistic that the policy change will appeal to a more diverse swath of applicants, particularly those from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. The costs of taking the standardized tests, including preparation, can be a barrier to otherwise well-qualified applicants. Maryam Alavi, Dean at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business, in an interview with Poets & Quants said, “Beyond the complications COVID-19 has introduced in terms of access to exams, an overreliance on standardized test scores in MBA admissions decisions puts underrepresented minorities, individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and first-generation college graduates at a disadvantage. We move forward confident that the change in this year’s admission process will attract our most diverse, qualified, and successful MBA cohort yet.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, however, many of the elite schools remain hesitant to move completely away from standardized testing, though most have begun accepting the results from online GRE and GMAT testing. And a few top-tier schools including NYU’s Stern, Columbia University’s Business School, and most recently, Vanderbilt University’s Owen, have opted to accept the Executive Assessment (EA) test as an alternative to the GMAT/GRE for full-time MBA applicants. The EA, which is much shorter at 40 questions and 90 minutes compared to the four-hour GRE or GMAT, generally requires less intensive preparation than its longer counterparts.
It will be interesting to see how things evolve from here, even among elite schools. Michael Robinson, Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Columbia Business School, has expressed interest in following the methods and outcomes of elite undergraduate institutions that have gone test-optional. At an MBA roundtable over the summer, Robinson said, “So, for us in admissions, it’s not that we want to basically admit people with the highest test average. It’s more about whether this person can succeed academically in that class. There are ways to get the right answer to that question without a GRE or GMAT or executive assessment. So I’m really curious to see what’s happening there. We’ll see what that looks like.”