Some of the first stats a prospective student looks to when narrowing their target list of preferred MBA programs are the average GMAT scores of the most recent classes. While not the end all, be all in MBA admissions, a strong score is still considered an indicator of eventual MBA success. Students want to know the number to shoot for.
However, this is no longer the case at many online MBAs.
In Poets&Quants‘ eighth annual ranking of the best online MBAs in the U.S., the role of standardized tests like the GMAT and GRE in admissions decisions has taken a nose dive compared to prior years. With 40 of the 57 ranked schools now opting for test-optional admissions, only a fraction of incoming students are submitting test scores.
For prospective students, our OMBA ranking also collects a trove of other data to help determine one’s chances of admission as well as program fit. These include acceptance rates, graduation and retention rates, and how alumni rate their programs for learning experience and career outcomes.
In this story, we dive into the data for GMAT and GRE scores, average undergraduate GPAs for admitted students, average years of work experience, and average age for all 57 schools in the 2025 ranking.
HOW GMAT FIGURES IN OUR OMBA RANKING
Test scores do not play a major part in our methodology, but we do consider them as part of our Admission Standards category which also includes the metrics of admission rate, undergraduate GPA, and years of work experience. Admission Standards accounts for 33% of the final score in our ranking.
Before the pandemic, 50% of the Admissions Standards scores were based on a school’s average adjusted GMAT score – a calculation accounting for the school’s average score as well as the percentage of students who submitted test scores and those who had scores waived because they had 10 or more years of work experience.
But after the pandemic, more and more schools have gone test optional – that is they don’t require test scores, either from the GMAT or GRE, as a condition of admission. In fact, 40 of the 57 schools ranked for 2025 indicated that they are now test optional. Schools may still accept scores if a student wants to submit them to boost their own applications, but lack of a test score does not count against them.
So, three years ago, we reduced the weight of the GMAT score from 50% down to 20%. We at P&Q still consider GMAT and GRE scores a robust measure of admission standards and so our methodology continues to reward schools that report test stats. But, for 2025, we further reduced the metric to 10% of the Admission Standard score while also including GRE scores into our calculations.
FEWER SCHOOLS REQUIRING TEST SCORES
While a strong test score is very often still a marker of a strong application at full-time MBAs, online programs increasingly offer generous test waivers, allowing students to forgo the GMAT or GRE in lieu of work experience or strong academic credentials. Other schools have gone completely test optional.
In our 2025 ranking, none of the 57 ranked programs reported GMAT or GRE scores from more than 50% of admitted students.
At University of Texas at Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management, ranked No. 1 overall, 29% of admitted students for the 2023-2024 academic year reported test scores as part of their admissions – 13% submitted GMAT scores and 16% submitted GREs. Compare that to last year when 60% of Jindal students submitted test scores – 33% for GMAT and 27% for GRE.
There’s just no denying that test scores play less of a role in online MBA admissions. Just 4 of 57 schools had at least 10% of admitted students report GMAT scores in the 2025 ranking, compared to 4 of 51 schools for 2024, 14 of 50 schools for 2023, and 13 of 52 schools for 2022.
It’s a similar story for the GRE. Just 3 of 57 schools reported scores for our 2025 ranking, compared to 4 of 51 schools last year, 7 of 50 schools for 2023, and 8 of 52 for the 2022 ranking.
In our 2021 ranking – for which data was collected in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic – 17 of 47 schools had 10% or more of admitted students reported GMAT scores and 18 of 47 had the same amount for the GRE. Many of the schools who suspended test scores during and immediately after the pandemic simply never went back to their previous testing policies.
With fewer schools reporting, it makes it harder for meaningful comparisons. The chart below shows schools with the highest combined percentage of students who reported either a GMAT or GRE score as part of their admission application.
Percentage Of Students Reporting GMAT/GRE |
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2025 RANK |
School |
Average GMAT |
% Reporting GMAT |
Average GRE |
% Reporting GRE |
Total % Reporting Test Scores |
1 | University of Texas at Dallas (Jindal) | 611 | 13.00% | 310 | 16.00% | 29.00% |
35 | Texas Tech University (Rawls) | 514 | 20.00% | 301 | 7.00% | 27.00% |
7 | Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) | 684 | 13.00% | 313 | 13.00% | 26.00% |
4 | University of Washington (Foster) | 644 | 14.00% | 305 | 8.00% | 22.00% |
28 | Villanova University | 455 | 6.00% | 302 | 10.30% | 16.30% |
2 | University of Michigan (Ross) | 694 | 9.00% | 315 | 5.00% | 14.00% |
11 | Auburn University (Harbert) | 559 | 6.00% | 309 | 5.40% | 11.40% |
57 | University of North Texas (Ryan) | 428 | 2.00% | 301 | 8.00% | 10.00% |
13 | Lehigh University | — | — | 305 | 9.00% | 9.00% |
More Data:
- PAGE 2: All average reported GMAT & GRE scores at all our ranked schools
- PAGE 3: Average undergraduate GPA
- PAGE 4: Average years of work experience, age