GMAT Weight in Business School Applications

The BWA and U.S. National Business School Rankings

The GMAC added the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) to the GMAT beginning in 1997, and from then until 2023, the AWA was a required part of the exam. When the GMAT underwent significant revisions in 2023, the AWA was eliminated from the test. After its removal, elite business schools reached out to the GMAC to express their need for a way to evaluate the true writing abilities of applicants. Given the rise of AI-assisted writing programs, it was clear students were using AI to complete business school applications and craft personal statements, making it difficult to assess their inherent writing skills. In July 2024, the GMAC reintroduced the AWA under a new name: the Business Writing Assessment (BWA).

Similar to its predecessor, the BWA is a 30-minute online writing task in which test-takers are asked to write an essay critically analyzing a given argument. Essays are scored on a scale ranging from 0-6 in 1-point increments. Test-takers must register for the BWA separately from the GMAT and pay a $30 fee for it, which includes sending the scores to chosen business schools. The BWA can be taken online any day of the year, and test-takers generally receive their scores within three to five days of completing the test.

It is well known that the GMAT is an important exam that plays a significant role in a business school application's success or failure. In fact, GMAT scores are the second-largest sub-category in the U.S. News rankings methodology, behind only "peer assessment score" at 25%. When the AWA was part of the GMAT and factored into the total GMAT score, it was clear that the section shouldn't be treated lightly. Now that the BWA is separate from the GMAT, schools haven't started regularly reporting the average BWA scores of accepted students, although it may happen in the future. While it might seem that this decreases the significance of the exam, it appears as if the BWA's importance is actually set to increase in upcoming years.

For the 2025 application cycle, Harvard Business School made submitting a BWA score a requirement for applicants offered an interview who completed the GMAT Focus Edition instead of the previous GMAT or the GRE. MIT Sloan has informed applicants that if they can't provide an AWA score or took the GMAT Focus Edition, they "may" be required to take the BWA, and if so, will be notified by Sloan after it sends invitations for interviews. While Columbia Business School is not currently requiring applicants to complete the BWA, they do strongly recommend that prospective students complete the exam. Other prestigious programs have indicated their interest in utilizing the BWA in some fashion, predominantly among candidates who have been offered an interview or who have been accepted in order to have a record of their writing abilities. Some programs have also indicated that the BWA may be used as a deciding factor between two similarly competitive applications. 

While it's difficult to quantitatively determine exactly how much weight a BWA score carries as part of a business program application, experts in the test preparation services industry believe business schools will increasingly use the exam. It is expected that more schools will begin either strongly recommending or requiring applicants to complete the BWA, especially given the proliferation of AI-assisted writing programs and the use of technology to craft essays and personal statements. When it comes to applying to business schools, it is never a bad idea to complete the BWA, even if certain schools consider it optional, as it provides the program with more information about you, your strengths, and how seriously you are taking the application process. While many business school applicants would rather perform long division by hand than write an essay, the BWA is a task that can be mastered through focused practice, making applications more impressive and competitive.