GPA’s can be one of the most fraught parts of the MBA application process, since you can’t really change it. What’s a good GPA for MBA programs? How can you determine the MBA GPA requirements at your prospective business schools?

In this article, I’ll go over a what a good GPA for business school is, how much and why your GPA matters in the course of MBA admissions, and what to do if your undergraduate GPA is lower than you’d like it to be.

What’s a Good GPA for Business School?

So, is there a specific GPA you’ll need to get into business school? The short answer is no. Like your GMAT score, your GPA is just one factor in a variety of admissions requirements, and different schools have different expectations when it comes to your undergraduate grades.

Most schools don’t have explicit minimum MBA GPA requirements. However, you can determine the expectations of a given school using the average GPA of their most recent incoming class(es). At most top 20 schools, the average GPA hovers around 3.5, making a 3.5 a solid baseline GPA for admissions. For very high-ranking MBA programs like Harvard and Stanford, average undergraduate GPAs are closer to 3.7.

How Much Does Your GPA Matter in MBA Admissions?

Like your GMAT score, your GPA is a significant factor in MBA admissions. There’s no doubt that admissions committees notice and value the information they can gather from your undergraduate transcript. While the GMAT is widely regarded as the most important determining factor in your chances of business school admissions, your GPA is nearly as significant to admissions committees. What’s more, average GPAs at top business schools have steadily risen over the years, making a high GPA even more important if you’re aiming for an elite MBA program.

However, MBA admissions is a holistic process that can’t be boiled down to just one number or factor. in addition to your GPA and GMAT, you’ll also turn in essays and/or other writing samples, letters of recommendation, and work experience. Many business schools will also require you to complete an interview. It’s possible, though challenging, to overcome a less-than-stellar GPA with other parts of your application.

Why Your Undergrad GPA Matters to Schools

Your undergraduate GPA is important because it’s the best indicator MBA admissions committees have of your ability to undertake the challenges of business school coursework. MBA programs are rigorous, and your school wants to know that you’re up to the task. Your past academic achievements are a good predictor of your future success.

The courses you choose to take, and your overall transcript, are just as or more important than the precise GPA number, though. The same GPA from a highly elite undergraduate institution is going to look different to an MBA admissions committee than it will from a mid-ranked school. Business schools will also take your coursework into account. A strong record of excellence in both quantitative and verbal skills, rather than a more one-sided curriculum, will be more likely to convince admissions officials that you’re capable of undertaking the rigor and variety of MBA coursework.

In addition, the average GPA of a school’s students helps to determine business school rankings (which in turn drives more applications from high-achieving students). Thus, schools that want to move up in rankings will sometimes place an emphasis on accepting students with higher GPAs.

How to Determine GPA Averages at Business Schools

Obviously you can’t change your undergraduate GPA once you have it, but looking up the average GPA for MBA programs you’re interested in will help you set realistic goals about where to apply.

To find the average GPAs of students at your prospective MBA programs, check out schools’ class profile pages (here’s Wharton’s 2018 class profile, for example). Most business schools have these class profiles, but if you can’t find one for a particular school, you can search the forums at GMAT Club to find its GPA info.

Once you have a list of prospective business schools, locate and record the average GPA at each one. To be safe, your GPA should be at or preferably above the average at the school in your list with the highest average GPA. If your GPA is significantly below a school’s MBA GPA requirements, a high GMAT score or exceptional work experience may help offset your disadvantage.

What to Do If You Have a Low GPA for Business School

If your GPA is lower than the MBA GPA requirements at your preferred schools, what’s your best bet for getting into a program anyway? Let’s go over what you can do or highlight in your business school apps if you have a low GPA for MBA programs you’re interested in.

#1: Supplement Your Transcript

Did you struggle in humanities courses in undergrad, or were classes in the STEM fields tougher for you? Take a critical eye to your undergrad transcript and pinpoint your weaknesses.

One way to demonstrate your commitment to business school and your academic career in general is to take postbaccalaureate coursework at your undergraduate institution or another one (online schools and local community colleges may be less expensive)—and show you can do better this time. Improving in your areas of weakness will demonstrate not only your capabilities in those subjects, but also your academic perseverance and dedication.

#2: Get a High Score on the GMAT or GRE

An exceptionally high GMAT or GRE score will help to offset a low GPA for business school applications. Prepare extensively (and effectively!) for the exam. A high score will demonstrate your intellectual abilities in MBA-relevant areas and your ability to do well under pressure.

#3: Highlight Exceptional Achievements

Extensive work experience, awards, and other demonstrations of high achievement in the workplace or in leadership roles can help make for a lackluster GPA on an MBA application. This is particularly true if you’re applying to executive MBA programs (programs geared towards working professionals, often with accelerated curriculum and increased hands-on experience) or if it’s been 5-10 years since you completed undergrad.

#4: Highlight Your Experience With a Feeder Company

Certain consulting/finance firms are known to serve as feeders for top business schools, with former employees making up disproportionate percentages of each incoming class. For example, McKinsey & Co., Boston Consulting Group, JP Morgan/Chase, Goldman Sachs, Blackstone Group, Summit Partners, and the Caryle Group each send a number of students to Harvard Business School (and other top MBA programs) every year. Other non-consulting employers, such as the U.S. military, the World Bank, Google, and Microsoft also serve as feeder companies for top MBA programs.

Working for one of these employers can give you an advantage for admission regardless of your GPA, since schools know that you’ve made it through a competitive hiring process and succeed in a competitive work environment. However, applying from a feeder company often also means that you’re competing with other employees, many of whom may have stronger academic credentials, so you’ll still need to find a way to stand out.

What’s Next?

Not sure if an MBA is right for you? Check out our intro guide to MBA programs for more information on MBA admissions requirements and whether you should go to business school.

Concerned about how your GMAT score will impact your chances of getting into business school? Our list of GMAT scores for top schools will help.

The post MBA GPA Requirements: What’s Good for Business School? appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.

Aside from your GMAT score, your GPA is the most important number on your MBA admissions application. Admissions committees look at your GPA as an indicator of past academic performance and as a predictor of whether or not you’ll succeed in their program. So can you get your MBA with a low GPA?

While a low undergraduate GPA certainly makes admission to business schools more difficult, it doesn’t make it impossible. In this guide, I’ll walk you through the ins and outs of low GPA MBA admissions. First, I’ll talk about why GPA matters to MBA programs. Next, I’ll talk about what actually counts as a low GPA for MBA programs. Finally, I’ll give you some tips and tricks for on getting into business school with a low GPA.

Why Does GPA Matter to Business Schools?

If you’re applying to business school, you might be wondering if your undergraduate GPA even matters to admissions committees. After all, there are plenty of other criteria on your application: GMAT scores, work and volunteer experience, recommendations, personal statements… In the face of all of this information, do admissions committees even care about GPA?

The answer is yes: admissions absolutely committees do care about GPA. In fact, according to a 2014 survey from Kaplan, GPA is the second most important factor in MBA admissions decisions, behind GMAT scores.

What makes GPA so important to business schools? Well, schools see your undergraduate GPA as an indicator of your future success in their program. If you did well as an undergraduate, admissions committees see you as more likely to do well with the rigorous business school course load.

Because GPA is used to predict future success in business school classes, low grades in classes related to business (such as quant classes, accounting classes, or economics classes) may be particularly worrisome to admissions committees because they show that you might struggle with the business school curriculum. I’ll talk about how to deal with low grades in your undergraduate coursework in a later section.

Business schools also care about GPAs because the average GPA of admitted applicants factor into their overall rankings. The higher the average GPA of their admitted applicants, the higher a business program will rank in national rankings.

Despite the fact that GPAs are important to admissions, having a low GPA doesn’t mean you can’t get into business school. Later, I’ll offer some tips for making your application stronger when you apply for an MBA with a low GPA . But first, let’s talk about what a low GPA even means.

What Is a Low GPA for Business School?

Now that we know why GPA matters, let’s focus on what a low GPA for business school means.

If you’ve been stressed out about not having a perfect 4.0 for your undergraduate coursework, you’ll be happy to know that MBA programs do not expect you to have a flawless transcript. In fact, business programs don’t have cutoff scores for GPAs, so you don’t have to worry about specifically looking for MBA programs with low GPA requirements. While the average GPA of admitted applicants varies greatly depending on the program, there are some general trends that I’ll talk about.

Unsurprisingly, the M7 (the unofficial group of the top seven business schools in the United States) have the highest average GPAs amongst admitted applicants. All M7 schools have an average GPA of 3.50 or higher for their admitted applicants.

The rest of the top 25 business schools range between 3.30 and 3.60 GPAs for admitted applicants. Business schools ranked 26 – 50 have an admitted applicant GPA range of 3.16 – 3.52.

What does this all mean? Well, you’ll notice that all of the top 50 business schools have average GPAs of 3.16 or higher amongst their admitted applicants. Ultimately, you’ll need to do research on the MBA program of your choice to see exactly what its admitted applicant average GPA is so you can see how you stack up. You can generally find this information in one of three ways: by checking out the program’s ranking on US News & World Report, by visiting the program’s website, or by calling the program’s admissions office. Finding out how your GPA relates to the average GPA of admitted applicants at the MBA programs you’re applying to will tell you whether or not your GPA is in an acceptable range, or if you’ll have to do some extra work for getting into business school with a low GPA.

Having a GPA up to .50 away from the average GPA of admitted applicants at a particular program isn’t the end of the world. You’ll be able to try to make up for your GPA with a strong overall application, which I’ll talk about more in the next section. If your GPA is more than .50 away from the average GPA of admitted applicants at your program, you may have a more difficult time getting accepted. If your GPA is more than .50 away, I’d suggest using a number of the application tips I outline in the next section and considering applying to some MBA programs with lower average GPAs.

How to Get Into Business School With a Low GPA

So you’ve looked into the programs you’re interested in and you’ve found that your GPA is squarely below the average GPA of admitted applicants. Don’t worry! Getting into business school with a low GPA is definitely possible and there are ways that you can make up for low grades in undergrad. In this section, I’ll give you some tips and tricks for low GPA MBA admissions and how to make yourself stand out.

#1: Take Extra Courses

Taking extra courses is a great way to demonstrate that you’re dedicated to improving your grades and mastering difficult coursework. If you struggled with a particular subject, such as macroeconomics, as an undergraduate, you can take courses at a local community college or enroll in a post-baccalaureate program to try and boost your performance. Take a number of classes so that you develop an alternative transcript to present to business schools.

Developing an alternative transcript will provide admissions committees with more evidence regarding your academic performance. You’ll also be able to improve on bad grades, showing that you’ve got the tenacity and academic chops to do well with the rigorous business school course load.

#2: Get a High GMAT Score

As I mentioned before, your GMAT score is seen as the most important factor on your MBA admissions application by 61% of business schools.

Having a killer GMAT score (above the average GPA of admitted applicants at your target MBA programs) will set you apart from other applicants and guarantee that your application gets noticed.

MBA programs use the GMAT as another indicator of academic performance, so scoring high on the GMAT will show that you’re a smart and capable student and help make up for a low GPA in MBA admissions.

#3: Offer a Compelling Explanation in Your Essay

If you had a number of extenuating circumstances that contributed to your low undergraduate GPA, you’ll want to use the optional essay to explain them. Perhaps you suffered an unexpected death in your immediate family, or struggled with an illness for many months. Telling admissions committees what happened gives them a more holistic idea of your performance.

You’ll want to make sure that your reason is really compelling. An admissions committee probably won’t see the death of your pet rabbit as a good enough reason for a drop in GPA. However, truly life-changing, extenuating circumstances can and should be talked about on your MBA admissions essay.

#4: Get (and Do Well at) a Competitive Job

Business schools care a lot about placing their students in competitive positions. Doing so benefits their ranking and makes more applicants want to attend their program.

If you struggled with your undergraduate coursework, getting and excelling at a competitive job will help show that you have what it takes to make it in the business world. If you can, get a job at a feeder company that has a relationship with the programs you’re applying to. For instance, if you’re applying to a business school that has its own internship program with Accenture, getting a job on your own at Accenture shows that you can succeed and be hirable after graduation.

#5: Demonstrate Exceptional Accomplishments

Business schools like admitting applicants with interesting, unique backgrounds to add diversity of experience to their class profiles. Have you done something amazing as an undergraduate? Maybe you organized a march that had 30,000 attendees or raised thousands of dollars for charity. Maybe you traveled around the world helping people in rural communities start small businesses. Or, you led a transformative initiative at the company you’ve been working at. Make sure that you highlight these achievements on your application. You’ll show that you’re a remarkable applicant that’d add a lot to the class’ profile.

Low GPA MBA Admissions: The Bottom Line

It is possible to successfully apply to an MBA with a low GPA, and plenty of students do so every year. However, you may need to due some extra legwork to make it happen.

First, you should figure out how low your GPA actually is compared to the expectations of your target schools. Then, consider what you can do on your business school to make up for your low GPA. Finally, you may want to look for MBA programs with low GPA requirements, like executive or online programs.

What’s Next?

We’ve talked about low GPA MBA admissions, but what’s a good GPA for business school? Check out our complete guide to learn what schools expect and what will make you stand out.

You can’t change your GPA, but you can change your GMAT score! Learn what makes a good GMAT score in our guide.

Questions about how to really beat the GMAT? Our guide to the ten top GMAT strategies will have you reaching your goal score in no time.

The post Getting Into Business School With a Low GPA: 5 Top Tips appeared first on Online GMAT Prep Blog by PrepScholar.