A decade ago, submitting a GRE score to an MBA program was unusual. Admissions officers would sometimes wonder why a candidate hadn't taken the GMAT. That era is over.
Every top MBA program now accepts both tests. At several elite schools, GRE applicants now outnumber GMAT applicants. The conversation has shifted from "will they accept it?" to "which test gives me the better score?"
Universal Acceptance at the Top
All M7 programs accept the GRE: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, Kellogg, Sloan, and Columbia. So does every other program in the top 25, and the vast majority of programs ranked beyond that.
This shift happened gradually between 2014 and 2020. ETS and business schools negotiated score comparison tools (the GMAT concordance table) to let admissions committees evaluate GRE scores against GMAT benchmarks. Once schools had a method for comparison, the practical barrier to acceptance disappeared.
The practical implication: if you're deciding between the GRE and GMAT, neither test is categorically better for MBA applications. The question is which test plays to your strengths.
The GRE's Growing Share
At 17 of 54 top-ranked programs, GRE submissions now exceed GMAT submissions. That's a structural shift, not a rounding error.
At the most selective schools, the GRE share is particularly high. Harvard Business School's entering class is 41% GRE. Stanford's is 42%. Berkeley Haas is 58% GRE. These numbers reflect both the growing comfort with the GRE among applicants and the fact that many strong candidates from technical fields prefer the GRE's format.
The trend has continued year over year since reliable data became available. GMAT's share has not collapsed, but GRE's share has grown consistently. This matters because it tells you something about how adcoms think about the two tests. If the GRE were genuinely disadvantageous, we wouldn't see this pattern at the schools that are most selective about who they admit.
Published Score Averages by School
These are published average GRE scores for recently admitted classes:
Harvard Business School: 164 Verbal, 164 Quant (328 combined) Stanford GSB: 164 Verbal, 164 Quant (328 combined) Wharton: 162 Verbal, 163 Quant (325 combined) MIT Sloan: 163 Verbal, 165 Quant (328 combined)
A few things to notice. First, the Quant scores at these schools are very high. Even at programs where Verbal performance is heavily valued, the Quant floor is around 160, which is the 50th percentile overall (median for all test takers, but well above average for non-STEM applicants). Second, the combined scores across M7 programs cluster tightly. There's less than a 5-point spread between the published averages at these programs.
Third, and most important: these are averages, not minimums. A meaningful portion of admitted students scored below these numbers. A meaningful portion scored above them. Averages describe the center of the distribution, not the full range.
The 65/15 Framework for MBA Admissions
Test scores account for roughly 15% of the weight in a holistic MBA application. Essays and recommendations account for roughly 65%. Professional experience, demonstrated leadership, and intellectual contribution fill the rest.
This framework is a rough approximation, but it reflects something real: at the schools where average GRE scores are 328, almost everyone applying has a competitive score. The test score functions more as a threshold than a differentiator. Above a certain score, it stops moving the needle. Below a certain score, it becomes a problem.
What that means in practice: getting your score above the competitive range matters. Obsessing over the difference between 326 and 330 does not. The applicant who scores 326 with extraordinary essays and a clear leadership narrative will be admitted over the applicant who scores 331 with generic essays.
The corollary is also true. A weak test score is one of the few application components that can stop an otherwise competitive application. If you're more than 10 points below a school's published average, that gap is worth addressing.
Deferred MBA Programs
If you're applying as a college student or recent graduate to a deferred enrollment MBA program, the test expectations are similar to the full-time program but applied to a different applicant pool.
Deferred programs like Harvard 2+2, Stanford Deferred Enrollment, Wharton Moelis, and Yale Silver Scholars typically require a standardized test. Test waivers available to experienced MBA candidates almost never extend to deferred applicants. The rationale is that test scores are more informative about a 21-year-old college student's potential than about a 30-year-old professional with years of demonstrable accomplishment.
For deferred applicants, the GRE also competes more directly with the GMAT because both tests are being evaluated without the context of years of work experience. Your score is one of the few objective pieces of evidence adcoms have. Weight it accordingly.
GRE vs. GMAT: When GRE Is the Better Choice
The GRE is generally the better choice if:
Your verbal reasoning is a strength and you want to leverage it. The GRE's Verbal section is often considered more vocabulary-intensive and in some respects more approachable for strong readers. The GMAT's Verbal section has its own quirks around argument structure.
You're applying to both MBA and non-MBA graduate programs. A single GRE score can satisfy requirements at law schools, master's programs, and business schools. The GMAT is MBA-only.
You have a STEM background and want a Quant-heavy test. The GRE's Quant section is not easier than the GMAT's, but many STEM-trained test takers find it more intuitive. The GMAT includes data sufficiency problems that require a specific strategic approach with no real analog in standard academic math.
You test better in untimed contexts. The GRE gives you slightly more time per question than the GMAT, though both are challenging under time pressure.
The GMAT may be the better choice if you're specifically targeting programs with very high GMAT score averages and you're confident in your data reasoning skills.
Using a Diagnostic to Decide
Before investing significant prep time, take a practice test for both the GRE and the GMAT. Your natural starting point on each test tells you something about which one plays to your strengths.
Some applicants find that their untrained GRE score is significantly higher than their GMAT score, or vice versa. That gap is meaningful. Choosing the test where you have a natural advantage reduces the total prep time needed to reach a competitive score.
Take a GRE diagnostic here to see where you stand before committing to either test.
Then, if you decide to pursue the GRE seriously, practice under realistic conditions. Timed practice on full-length tests is the most reliable way to move your score. Passive review of content rarely translates into score improvement.
See what full-length practice looks like here to understand what the realistic prep process involves.
What Adcoms Actually Do With Your Score
Admissions committees at top programs use a concordance table published by ETS to convert GRE scores to GMAT equivalents for internal comparison. A 328 GRE combined score converts to approximately a 730 GMAT. A 325 converts to roughly a 720.
This means your GRE score isn't evaluated in isolation. The committee has a standardized way of benchmarking it against GMAT scores in the same applicant pool. You don't need to worry about a structural disadvantage from submitting a GRE score. The comparison mechanism is built in.
What you do need to worry about is submitting a score that's genuinely below the competitive range for your target schools, regardless of which test you took. A below-range score on either test signals the same thing to adcoms. The test format doesn't change that calculus.