The average GMAT scores at the top business schools worldwide have been extremely high for years, prompting some experts and applicants to claim that they could surely not rise further. That claim was, however, proven wrong in a recent analysis of GMAT scores done by Poets & Quants, as their conclusion was that almost every Top 10 business school in the US was reporting a higher average GMAT score for the past year, with only a few exceptions. (The most notable exceptions being Wharton, where the average GMAT score remained at 730 and MIT Sloan, where the score slipped by two points, to 722)

Some other noteworthy updates from the Poets & Quants analysis include:

  • Chicago Booth now has an average of 740 – equal to Wharton and 10 points above HBS!
  • GSB expected to hit an average of 740
  • Tuck is up to an average of 722
  • Haas is up to an average of 725
  • USC Marshall up to an average of 703!
  • Rice-Jones is up to an average of 711!

In a few instances, such as in the case of MIT Sloan, the average GMAT score dropped. The biggest drops were seen for Notre Dame University’s Mendoza School of Business, where the GMAT average dropped nine points to 674 from a previous 683, as well as Oxford Said Business School, where the drop was 7 points, to 685.

It is therefore clear that GMAT scores continue to be an important parameter for MBA applicants, and that having a low GMAT score is likely to make an applicant less competitive, unless other parameters mitigate this weakness significantly.