The pandemic has sabotaged the mechanism of education, which also includes taking standardized tests for pursuing academics abroad. GMAT and GRE are among the most popular exams taken by international students but they are also affected due to the pandemic which is restricting the candidates to take the tests. This whole process has made adverse effects on college admissions, as a result of which renowned B-schools have cut down on their need for standardized tests.

The list was topped by the biggies – MIT Sloan, Georgia Tech’s Scheller School of Business, and Maryland University’s Smith School of business, Rochester’s Simon School of Business, Wisconsin School of Business, Rutgers Business School and Northeastern University. The COVID-19 outbreak is undergoing a noticeable upsurge in its count of patients and this has resulted in additional B-schools waiving the need for GMAT/GRE. Now we also have University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Business, Babson College, Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business, and UC Irvine’s Merage School of business joining the bandwagon of B-schools going test-optional.

Miscellaneous Requirements to Dodge the Test

One needs to abide by certain requirements to waive off their tests, in Carlson Business School, the applicant needs to be among the 3.2 GPA holders and has acquired either CPA or CFA, a master’s degree holder or have obtained 4 – 5 years of work experience. On the other hand, Broad College, along with the work experience requirement has an additional requirement of “strong recommendation” and an interview with the school’s career development center. Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business aims at waiving off tests for the ones unable to access the test for “extenuating circumstances.”

UC Irvine requires an excellent academic performance along with 5 years of work experience.

A Better Time for Women and Minorities

Now when the standardized tests are becoming optional or being waived off, their value is being questioned as has been stated by Scheller Business School “We can predict a candidate’s potential for success in and beyond the MBA program without reliance on the GMAT or GRE. Basing decisions on previous academic experience, work history, and interview evaluations has been an effective admissions approach for our Evening MBA program, which began accepting candidates without a test score in 2018.”

Tippie’s part-time MBA degree witnessed a rise of minorities admitted by 73% which is 23 to 40 and women by 74% from 98 to 171. This B-school also noticed a rise in the diversity of students being admitted due to the waiving of GMAT and GRE.

Identifying Standardized Tests to be an Issue for Certain Candidates

Quite a number of B-schools are replacing a 3 hours long standardized test with executive assessments that are crisp. Columbia Business School, New York University’s Stern School of Business, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, and Vanderbilt University’s Owen School of Management are a few of the B-schools to have enrolled it. Few words from Vanderbilt will leverage this change, “Offering another option to our full-time MBA applicants simply makes sense and is an inclusive move to allow our applicants to submit their most competitive test score as a part of their application.”