With round 2 application deadlines rapidly approaching, many applicants may wonder what their chance of getting an MBA interview with their favorite schools is. I analyzed the MBA interview probability for the top 25 schools over the past 5 years by GMAT and GPA. Unsurprisingly, for most schools the MBA interview chance increased for high GMAT and high GPA candidates.
Some interesting insights I found:
- At Booth, GPA has little to no impact on likelihood of getting and interview unless your GMAT is under 700
- At Columbia, GMAT and GPA are very important for your interview chances
- At Cornell, GMAT is far more important than GPA for getting an interview
- At Duke, neither GPA nor GMAT seem to have much of an impact on interview odds
- At Emory, strangely, if you have a GMAT of 700 or higher then low GPA applicants actually have a higher chance of getting an interview
- At Georgetown, chance of getting an interview for 740+ applicants is no more than for those in the 700 to 730 range
- At Stanford and Harvard, chance of interviewing is depressingly low, both GMAT and GPA are very important
- At Ross, GPA doesn’t seem to matter if an applicant has a GMAT of 740 or higher
- At NYU, having a very high GMAT dramatically increases your chance of getting an interview
- At Wharton, having a high GMAT only appears to matter if the applicants GPA is over 3.40
- At Yale, both GMAT and GPA have a huge impact on chance of getting an interview
University of Chicago (Booth) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
33% |
52% |
68% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
28% |
53% |
67% |
3.60+ |
58% |
59% |
73% |
Arizona State University (Carey) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
56% |
53% |
75% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
58% |
33% |
100% |
3.60+ |
52% |
62% |
75% |
Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
67% |
61% |
74% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
48% |
62% |
80% |
3.60+ |
53% |
49% |
77% |
Columbia University MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
19% |
25% |
43% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
17% |
34% |
54% |
3.60+ |
28% |
43% |
55% |
Cornell University (Johnson) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
46% |
62% |
69% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
48% |
61% |
68% |
3.60+ |
54% |
58% |
72% |
Duke University (Fuqua) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
58% |
64% |
65% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
57% |
58% |
62% |
3.60+ |
76% |
63% |
66% |
Emory University (Goizueta) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
47% |
55% |
78% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
44% |
52% |
57% |
3.60+ |
52% |
43% |
62% |
Georgetown University (McDonough) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
65% |
74% |
72% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
65% |
88% |
85% |
3.60+ |
71% |
85% |
89% |
Stanford University (GSB) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
3% |
3% |
12% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
6% |
12% |
18% |
3.60+ |
13% |
14% |
22% |
University of California—Berkeley (Haas) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
12% |
27% |
22% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
28% |
27% |
44% |
3.60+ |
27% |
39% |
50% |
Harvard University (HBS) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
5% |
10% |
13% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
12% |
15% |
18% |
3.60+ |
12% |
24% |
27% |
Indiana University (Kelley) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
44% |
57% |
75% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
39% |
70% |
70% |
3.60+ |
34% |
76% |
84% |
Northwestern University (Kellogg) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
67% |
82% |
80% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
56% |
77% |
86% |
3.60+ |
60% |
76% |
83% |
University of Texas—Austin (McCombs) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
44% |
68% |
76% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
51% |
74% |
81% |
3.60+ |
60% |
75% |
82% |
Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
58% |
76% |
88% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
62% |
77% |
91% |
3.60+ |
74% |
86% |
80% |
Vanderbilt University (Owen) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
74% |
80% |
56% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
66% |
74% |
83% |
3.60+ |
94% |
83% |
92% |
University of Michigan—Ann Arbor (Ross) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
50% |
57% |
72% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
54% |
65% |
70% |
3.60+ |
50% |
68% |
70% |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
14% |
26% |
24% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
0% |
24% |
33% |
3.60+ |
26% |
39% |
39% |
New York University (Stern) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
24% |
28% |
44% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
35% |
41% |
58% |
3.60+ |
13% |
37% |
56% |
Dartmouth College (Tuck) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
58% |
66% |
71% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
38% |
64% |
82% |
3.60+ |
65% |
73% |
74% |
University of California—Los Angeles (Anderson) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
26% |
40% |
57% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
23% |
60% |
70% |
3.60+ |
24% |
60% |
69% |
University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
72% |
68% |
89% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
59% |
71% |
83% |
3.60+ |
63% |
73% |
90% |
University of Southern California (Marshall) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
38% |
74% |
67% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
52% |
74% |
75% |
3.60+ |
28% |
71% |
85% |
University of Virginia (Darden) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
40% |
41% |
58% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
36% |
39% |
73% |
3.60+ |
50% |
54% |
60% |
University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
29% |
35% |
33% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
26% |
27% |
46% |
3.60+ |
29% |
36% |
55% |
Yale University (YSOM) MBA Interview Probability
|
< 700 |
700 – 730 |
740+ |
< 3.40 |
15% |
31% |
42% |
3.40 – 3.59 |
24% |
41% |
63% |
3.60+ |
34% |
53% |
67% |
Related
You might want to put asterisks next to schools with open interview policies — e.g., Kellogg, Tuck, Fuqua — as, of course, GMAT and GPA will not matter. It’s up to the applicant’s initiative if they want to interview.
Good point. I didn’t bother because if you are applying and don’t know it has an open interview policy then you have a bigger problem than whether or not there is an asterisk explaining it.
Looks like there’s some strange results in the cross tabs for the <3.4 v 3.4-3.59 GPA row for some schools. For instance, Haas and Wharton show a higher probability for interview under the 700-730 GMAT result versus a 740+ GMAT. That seems suspect.
If these were smoothed out, how do you think it might shift? I just can't imagine a higher GMAT would realistically produce a lower chance.
Hi Deckard, these are strange results. I don’t think that the schools actually prefer people with lower GPA or GMAT in certain ranges. Instead, I believe there are additional factors that are not captured in the data. It could be that some of the people have particularly impressive accomplishments other than GMAT or GPA. The data is not perfect and doesn’t capture all applicants or all data about applicants.