The GMAT, short for Graduate Management Admission Test, has seen an increase of 21% in its application trend in 2020 despite Covid-19 pandemic. The applications submitted for GMAT 2020 for a total of 731 global management programmes managed to surpass its 2019 negative growth trend and show growth in the current year.
The GMAT is taken by applicants from across the world who wish to study management programmes in top study destinations such as the US, Canada, UK and other countries.
According to one of the recent studies conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), administrator of the GMAT test, several reasons might have led to this growth. 88% of the corporates looking to hire more MBA graduates could be one of these reasons. In addition, numerous students from India have migrated to the US for an MBA because of recent changes in the new governments policies.
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The total growth in GMAT 2020 applications is 2.4%, compared to -3.2% in the previous year. The data showed that Canada hired 63% of its international applicants for its business schools compared to 2019 and the US and Europe hired 49% and 51% respectively.
B-schools in these countries are currently hiring more domestic students than international and most of the B-schools in these countries have also increased fees for online initiatives.
Countries like India and China have also seen a decline in the number of domestic applications, which may mean that students are putting their plans on hold.
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The president and CEO of GMAC, Sangeet Chowfla, said that there were a lot of concerns about travel restrictions, availability of visa during the second quarter of 2020. However, the number of GMAT 2020 international applications grew to a record 21% and domestic applications to 29%.
Chowfla further mentioned that although the GMAT 2020 yield rate had declined, the number of applications increased 21% amid the pandemic.
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