One of the biggest fallacies I see perpetuated on the MBA boards: a high GRE/GMAT can negate a low GPA (or vice versa, though the applicant is usually concerned about offsetting a weak undergrad performance).
To clarify: your GPA doesn’t matter at all unless you attended a school in the United States. Around the world (and adcom staff are absolutely aware of different grading protocols internationally) we don’t see the grade inflation we see in the U.S. So if your international GPA converts to something that’s way below your target school’s average, that is not a problem.
Next, although the average GPA — and sometimes the GPA range — gets reported, your adcom reviewers care a whole lot more about the details of your transcript. What courses did you take? Did you challenge yourself? Did your grades follow a pattern, for example, start low and gradually increase, or did you have one or two bad terms that you will explain in additional info? Were you an athlete, working, dealing with health issues or family crises? Your succinct explanation in the additional info section can mitigate the less stellar grades.
All that out of the way, the GRE/GMAT and GPA serve two different purposes. Anyone who tells you “you got a 340 on the GRE? Your 2.0 GPA won’t matter!” has no idea what they’re talking about. It’s like a doctor telling you that it’s okay to have a temperature of 105 because your blood pressure is normal. Each metric provides different information.
The GRE/GMAT assesses your readiness for grad school. The MBA admissions world is full of apples-to-oranges comparisons; the GRE/GMAT score provides the only data that enables adcom to compare applicants side by side. The higher-ranked the program, the less the GRE/GMAT matters — adcom understand that the tests themselves create a lot of stress, and that many people just aren’t good at taking tests. But before they can offer you admission — which they will do based on other factors (NO ONE ever got into a top program because of a great test score) they want some assurance that you can do the work. A score that’s above their threshold gives them peace of mind.
As you move down the rankings, though, the scores matter more. Why? Because those schools want to move up in the rankings for many, many reasons, and they know that raising their average test scores will help them in that regard.
Your GPA, conversely, reflects sustained effort over 3+ years. Your transcript also says a lot about who you are and lets adcom imagine what kind of MBA student you will be. If you didn’t enjoy undergrad, you may hate MBA school. However, as any admissions officer will tell you, the negative impact of weaker grades diminishes the longer you’ve been out of school. If you’re applying at age 24, your grades will matter a lot. If you’re applying at age 34, with a dozen impressive years of work experience, a weak undergrad performance will only be an unfortunate memory.
The takeaway: your undergrad performance matters. You can’t change history, but you can explain it, or you can prove — with your achievements — that you’ve moved past that unfortunate period. You should absolutely try to get as good a score as possible on your test. But don’t assume that a strong score alone will get you admitted to the M7.
