Do Business Schools have different average GPA standards for each major?

Every graduate business school has an average GPA that they have on their websites. Does this average GPA standard change depending on an applicant's major? For example, do business schools have a higher average GPA standard for undergrad business majors compared to engineers?

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Best Response

The listed GPA is just a strict average. However, they absolutely take rigor of the program into account when the benchmark GPA's against candidates.

That being said, GPA isn't a huge deal for MBA apps. Ideally your GPA should be 3.5 or above, if you're in the 3.2-3.5 range but were in a very rigorous program that's not a big deal, if you're under 3.2 then you might want to include a few sentences explaining why. At the end of the day, it's just a check the box. Top programs aren't going to make final decisions based on one student having a 3.7 and another having a 3.5. Professional experience, essay, interview and recommendations are much more important.

 

In some, rather extreme cases, it might make a difference, but for the most part, the GPA is more of a guideline and the schools look at it in combination with the rest of your profile, so like BreakingOutOfPWM said, the GPA alone is not likely to make a huge difference, unless we are talking about an usual major/school or something in some way (can’t really think of any specific examples right now but theoretically it could happen).

 

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