How Much Does Your GRE Score Actually Matter?

Every prospective MBA student asks some version of this question. How much does my GRE score matter? What if my GPA is low? Can a great score make up for a weak transcript?

The answer you'll find on most admissions blogs is some version of "it's holistic." That's true, but it's vague enough to be useless. Here's what's actually going on.

It is Definitely The Shoes: Two Numbers That Determine How Tall You Look

In 1997, German artist Hans Hemmert threw a party at Gallery Gebauer in Berlin. When guests arrived, each one was handed a pair of custom platform shoes: light blue Styrodur foam with rubber soles and Velcro straps. He'd made 50 pairs, with soles ranging from 5 to 43 centimeters thick depending on how tall you were. The result: every single person in the room stood at exactly 2 meters. He called it "Level."

Hemmert wanted to see what happens when you strip away the social dynamics of height. No one looking up. No one looking down. Just people, at eye level, having a conversation.

The Admissions Committees that review your application want to throw the opposite kind of party. Rather than dealing with a room full of people who are all the same height, they strap your GRE score and GPA on your feet like shoes, but they do so to intentionally create and accentuate height differences. Also unlike Hemmert's party, or shoes in reality, in this party it is ok to wear two shoes that aren't remotely the same size, as they really just average out.

Your GRE (or GMAT) score is one shoe. Your GPA is the other. Your total height, or the degree to which you stand out when the admissions committee looks out across the room, is determined by the combination of both.

If both shoes are tall, you're standing comfortably above the crowd. The committee can focus on what makes you interesting rather than squinting at your numbers. If one shoe is shorter, the other can still compensate. A GRE significantly above the median of your target programs with a GPA that lands equally below averages out similarly to both scores right on the median or to a higher GPA coupled with a lower GRE. Since most people reading this article will no longer be in much position to change their Undergraduate GPA, the key becomes to target their test scores accordingly.

If both shoes are short, you're noticeably below the sightline. Not invisible, but the further below the sightline you sit, the more you will need something else to draw attention your way. If both are tall, the committee sees you immediately, which is exactly the advantage you think it is: not a guarantee of anything, just more time spent looking at you, and a sense that you mostly need to compete against the smaller group of equally tall peers, and that a much larger percentage of you will wind up offered admission.

To reference a more contemporary German party, it's a bit like the line at Berghain: who they let in is somewhat mysterious and certainly is determined by more than this, but being taller somehow helps.

The Room: How Tall You Look Depends on Who's Standing Next to You

Here's where it gets more complicated. Your height isn't absolute. It's relative to the other people in your room. And the room you're in isn't the only room that admissions officers are looking at.

Though they won't always admit it, admissions committees (AdComs) tend to group applicants by demographic criteria. A 27-year-old Brazilian woman who spent five years as an engineer is in a different room from a 32-year-old Indian male with 7 years of experience running a nonprofit he founded in education, and a Dutch 32-year-old male with 3 years at a boutique consulting firm specializing in high-end font selection for highway signage are all in very different rooms. Some are crowded and some are nearly empty; some are ones that the AdComs are very accustomed to recruiting heavily from and some feel more like wild cards. When the committee looks across a crowded room, they're comparing you to a large group of similar applicants, and when they look across a sparse one, you might be the only person they see. Like undergrad GPA above, many people reading this will not have a lot of say in what room they're standing in, as those factors have already been set for them or by them. But it is worth mentioning that anyone who knows that they are ultimately targeting an MBA but is still far out has time to think about what work experience will be most helpful both for demonstrating their qualifications for the MBA and for their intended career afterwards, and in many cases a non-traditional role is as good or better than a traditional one.

Business Schools are building a class, and they want diversity of background, industry, geography, and perspective. Your background determines what kind of diversity you bring and how many other applicants look like you.

This means a 320 GRE from someone in a less common profile carries different weight than a 320 from someone in an overrepresented pool. Your shoes may be the same height, but they look different in a different sized room, with different people surrounding you.

Why Schools Care About Your Numbers More Than They'll Admit

Admissions offices love to say that test scores "predict success in the program." That's technically true. (A meta-analysis of 82,659 graduate students found that GRE scores predict not just grades but faculty ratings, comprehensive exam performance, and even whether students finish their degrees.) But here's what's more immediately relevant to them: test scores predict their rankings, and they're not going to leave that to chance.

Median GRE and GMAT scores are published. Median GPAs are published. When those numbers go up, the school looks more selective. When they go down, the school drops in rankings. The incentive structure is not subtle.

If your numbers are above a school's median, you're an asset. You make their published statistics look better by being there. That gives you leverage you might not realize you have. But no score is so good that it will get you in; it just gets you more attention and less competition.

If your numbers are below their median, it hurts you in two ways. For one, you're a statistical cost. The rest of your application needs to be compelling enough that the admissions committee is willing to absorb the hit to their numbers. And for two, they're going to devote less attention to your application anyway, so it is hardest to grab their attention and show them that you stand out in that way.

The Outfit: What Actually Gets You In

So far, we've ignored the thing that actually gets you the most attention at a party, and that does the most to grab whatever attention you get from the AdCom and convince them to offer you a spot. Your story is your outfit. This is told through your personal statements, but also through everything that you provide: CV, letters of reference, interviews, undergrad transcript, etc. They care most about three elements:

What have you done already? Not just roles and title, but specific accomplishments, decisions, and results that show who you are and how you stand out from your peers. This is the elusive Leadership that programs allude to, as well as anything else that makes your story interesting.

Why an MBA, and why now? There has to be a gap between where you are and where you want to go that an MBA specifically fills. The person reviewing your role knows what stories their program tends to work best in, and they want to fill their program with the people who are aligned with that and will benefit most from it. "I want to advance my career" is not a reason. "I want to transition from engineering management to product strategy at a consumer tech company, and I need the business fundamentals and network to do that" is a reason.

Why this program? Generic enthusiasm is transparent. Specific knowledge of the program, its culture, its curriculum, and its alumni network is not. If you can't articulate why this school over the other nine you're applying to, they'll assume you either aren't that committed to them and might go elsewhere even if offered admissions, or aren't that serious about the whole process. They want to know that you've done your homework and know what you're getting into, and that you've correctly identified a match.

A compelling narrative with solid numbers beats a blank narrative with perfect numbers almost every time. But "solid numbers" still has a floor, and that floor is higher at more competitive programs.

Matching to Programs: Reach, Target, Safety

The useful way to think about this isn't "what score do I need?" It's "which programs am I competitive for with the scores I have?"

Look at the published medians for the schools you're considering. If your GRE and GPA are both above the median, that program is likely a target or a safety, assuming the rest of your application is strong. If one is above and one is below, it depends on how far below and what the rest of your profile brings. If both are below the median, it's a reach.

A healthy application list has all three: a few reaches where you're stretching, several targets where you're competitive, and one or two safeties where your numbers are clearly above the median and the main question is whether you'd actually attend.

If your numbers put every school on your list in the "reach" category, you have two options. Adjust the list, or raise the numbers. You can retake the GRE. You can't retake your undergraduate GPA, but a strong GRE score can offset a weaker transcript. Between the two shoes, the GRE is the one you can still change.

For help figuring out where you stand, our score comparison tool can give you a starting point. And if you're still deciding between the GRE and the GMAT, our forthcoming article on how to decide covers everything you need to know.