The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : GRE scores are popular among business schools too

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Thursday, Jan 17, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

GRE scores are popular among business schools too

R.Ravikanth Reddy

Some US business schools are giving students the option of submitting GRE scores instead of GMAT scores

HYDERABAD: The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) has been the standard accepted test for admission to the MBA programmes in majority universities in US and Europe. But the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE), which is the standard test for MS programmes, seems to be penetrating into the MBA schools as well. Some of the sought-after business schools in the US like Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and John Hopkins University, among others, have started giving students the option of submitting GRE scores instead of GMAT scores. Though it is being done on case-by-case basis several other business schools too are using the GRE option, bringing cheer to applicants from countries like India.

Innovative courses

“GRE scores are being accepted, but as of now only in a few universities,” agrees Arul Joseph, Coordinator, research wing of Visu International. It is convenient for students who land up in business schools to do their master’s or Ph.D programmes in business-related fields.

A majority of Indian students going abroad come from engineering background and take GRE for MS courses. With changes in the admission procedures those preferring to study MBA would not have to take the GMAT thus saving money and time.

More expensive

GMAT costs much more than GRE and money-conscious Indian students would definitely welcome the change. As of now, not even two per cent of engineering students going abroad prefer MBA. But those preferring to work for a couple of years immediately after engineering and then move to US generally land up in management programmes.

The joint programmes offered in several universities linking engineering and management is said to be one of the major reasons for accepting GRE scores. In such cases, the schools do not want the applicants to take two different tests. Mr. Joseph says it all depends on the curriculum and the universities decide on these options taking several factors into account.

On the advantage to the Indian students, particularly those from South India, Mr. Jospeh says they are all comfortable with GRE than GMAT given their core engineering background. But at the same time, he says that such students continue to score above 500 in GMAT too. However, it will take a long time before radical changes are brought in since colleges would like to track the students’ performance to see whether GRE scores helped them study the programme easier or whether they were better with GMAT system.

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