GMAT Scores Needed for Admission to an MBA in the US

Updated March 23, 2021 Updated March 23, 2021

To break down a top business school’s application fortifications, you’ll need to know what GMAT score to aim for

Find out the average, median, and mean GMAT scores the top 20 business schools in QS Global MBA Rankings: United States 2021 are looking for.

What are the GMAT scores you need to be aiming for in order to win admission to one of the leading full-time MBA programs in the US? An analysis of the averages seen among 2020’s entering classes at 20 top schools has much to reveal.

Average GMAT scores

Only students in Stanford Graduate School of Business's MBA class of 2022 holds an average GMAT score of above 730 (with an average of 733) among the top 20 institutions analyzed here.

However, six schools achieve an average GMAT score in the 720s:

Haas School of Business: 727
Columbia Business School: 726
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business: 724
NYU Stern School of Business: 723
The Wharton School: 722 (median GMAT 730)
Tuck School of Business: 720

There are four business schools that boast an average GMAT score from 700 to 710:

And finally, Tepper School of Business students scored an average GMAT score of 680, and Kelley School of Business following with 652.

The average of all averages recorded here is 710, which only serves to emphasize how many admitted MBA students in the US are surpassing the 700 threshold. Time to get to work!

Median GMAT scores

The following business schools offered median average GMAT scores on their school websites:

Harvard Business School: 730
MIT Sloan School of Management: 720
Yale School of Management: 720
Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University: 700

Mean GMAT score

This year, two business schools recorded a mean GMAT score for their Class of 2022 students:

The Kellogg School of Management: 727
Questrom School of Business: 657

Range GMAT score

The Fuqua School of Business is the only business school in the top 20 to only show its GMAT range of 660-740.

This article was originally published in March 2021 .

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Written by

Niamh O

Niamh is Deputy Head of Content at QS (TopMBA.com; topuniversities.com), creating and editing content for an international student audience. Having gained her journalism qualification at the Press Association, London and since written for different international publications, she's now enjoying telling the stories of students, alumni, faculty, entrepreneurs and organizations from across the globe.