Best Online MBA Programs

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Online MBA Programs With No GMAT Requirement

Edited by Trevor Rupe

Published

An empty exam room with rows of desks and chairs

Say no test is required

44

of 143 pages read

Describe a waiver

23

conditions the school sets

Median tuition, no-test programs

$28,068

$32,265 across all ranked

Cheapest

$10,470

University of Central Arkansas

Most lists of online MBA programs with no GMAT are typed from memory and go stale the month a school changes its admissions page. This one is counted from sentences: every program on this site has had its own page read and quoted, and a script re-fetches those pages and fails when a quote is no longer there. So the question here is not which programs someone believes are test-optional. It is which program pages say so, in words, today.

What The 143 Pages Actually Say

Three answers, and they are not interchangeable. 44 pages state outright that no GMAT or GRE is required. 23 describe a waiver, which is permission to skip the test if you meet conditions the school sets, and which you have to ask for. The remaining 76 do not mention a test on the page that was read; that is a gap in the evidence rather than a requirement, and this site will not guess which.

Ranked Online MBA Programs With No GMAT

The 44 ranked programs whose pages state no test requirement, best-ranked first, with the sentence each one rests on. Tuition is the whole-program figure the school reports to AACSB.

Ranked online MBA programs whose pages state no GMAT requirement
Program Tuition Rank What its page says
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois $24,984 fourth “GMAT/GRE – not required for admission”
The University of North Dakota, North Dakota $19,277 seventh “No, the UND online MBA program does not require a GMAT score for admission.”
Bowling Green State University, Ohio $18,180 ninth “Apply now and benefit from our streamlined admission process. No GMAT and no application fee.”
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Texas $14,478 12th “3.0 GPA or above in the last 60 hours: No GMAT scores are required”
California State University, San Bernardino, California $16,500 13th “No, a GMAT or GRE is not required for admission into the MBA Online Program.”
University of Massachusetts Lowell, Massachusetts $19,740 14th “Complete in 12-24 Months No GMAT/GRE Required”
Baylor University, Texas $28,536 16th “A GMAT/GRE is NOT required to be admitted.”
Mississippi State University, Mississippi $24,975 20th “Flexible – admit any semester No GMAT/GRE Required”
University of Cincinnati, Ohio $24,296 25th “Flexibility 100% online No GMAT requirement Courses offered in spring, summer and fall semesters”
University of North Alabama, Alabama $16,830 31st “Bachelor's degree or equivalent A minimum GPA of 2.50 on a 4.0 scale No GMAT required”
Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma $11,730 35th “No GMAT is required for the Southeastern Oklahoma State University online MBA.”
Saint Mary's College of California, California $45,360 42nd “Is the GMAT / GRE required? GMAT/GRE is not required.”
Bryant University, Rhode Island $23,805 43rd “No GMAT/GRE required. International applicants: Please read more about the international application process”
Xavier University, Ohio $36,000 52nd “The MBA programs at Xavier University do not require the GMAT or GRE test scores.”
Southeast Missouri State University, Missouri $14,115 53rd “No GMAT/GRE Required – We understand standardized tests don't tell the full story.”
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Wisconsin $26,000 55th “Many applicants will qualify for admission without GMAT/GRE scores.”
University of South Dakota, South Dakota $16,980 56th “No GMAT Required Available for students who hold a bachelor's degree from a US college or university.”
University of Scranton, Pennsylvania $37,635 57th “No GMAT/GRE required and no application fee for domestic students”
Emporia State University, Kansas $10,890 63rd “a simplified application process and no GMAT requirement”
California State University, Sacramento, California $29,700 66th “No exams required for admission (GMAT or GRE not required).”

24 more ranked programs state the same thing. Every card in the main ranking links the page its summary was written from, with the date it was read.

Programs With A GMAT Waiver Instead

A waiver is a different offer. The school keeps the requirement and lets you out of it on conditions: a minimum GPA, some years of work, a prior graduate degree. These 22 ranked programs describe one, and the sentence is worth reading before you count on it.

Ranked online MBA programs describing a GMAT waiver
Program Tuition Rank What its page says
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts $36,075 21st “GMAT/GRE waivers are available for those who qualify.”
Lamar University, Texas $13,153 36th “The General MBA totals 30 credit hours, with the GMAT waived for applicants who meet minimum GPA requirements.”
La Salle University, Pennsylvania $31,150 48th “Applicants that have earned a master's degree or higher from a program accredited in its disciple will be waived from the GMAT or GRE exam requirement.”
University of Houston, Texas $41,574 50th “You also need to take the GMAT or GRE, though you can apply for a GMAT/GRE waiver”
University of West Florida, Florida $15,064 65th “We are temporarily waiving the GMAT/GRE requirements for all applicants.”
New Jersey Institute of Technology, New Jersey $40,032 76th “GMAT/GRE requirement is waived for applicants with an earned Bachelor’s degree from accredited US and Canadian-based institutions with a minimum GPA of 3.0”
University of Delaware, Delaware $43,604 78th “GMAT/GRE Optional If you are not submitting a GMAT/GRE score, please select that you request a waiver”
University of Central Oklahoma, Oklahoma $11,256 84th “Competitive GRE/GMAT score - a waiver is available for qualified applicants”
Santa Clara University, California $93,160 89th “While the GMAT or GRE is a required component of all our online graduate business programs, waivers are available for qualified applicants.”
Western New England University, Massachusetts $36,000 93rd “There is the option to request a waiver of the GMAT.”

Does Skipping The Test Cost You Anything?

On the two things this site can measure, no. Every program counted here is at a business school accredited by AACSB, which accredits about five percent of the world's business schools and is the entry condition for this ranking in the first place. And the price runs the other way from the assumption: $28,068 median against $32,265 across all 286 ranked programs.

What no source can tell you is whether admissions without a test is easier. Federal data does not report admission rates for individual graduate programs, and this site does not publish estimates in their place. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is the highest-ranked program here stating no test requirement, at fourth of 286, which at least settles the question of whether the good programs do it.

Common Questions

Can you get an online MBA without the GMAT?
Yes. Of the 143 AACSB-accredited online MBA pages this site has read, 44 say in their own words that the GMAT or GRE is not required, and a further 23 describe a waiver. The rest do not mention a test policy on the page that was read, which is not the same as requiring one.
What is a GMAT waiver?
A waiver is permission to skip the test, granted on conditions the school sets: a minimum undergraduate GPA, a number of years of work experience, a prior graduate degree or a professional license are the usual ones. 23 of the programs here describe one. It is not the same as a program with no test requirement at all, because a waiver has to be applied for and can be refused.
Are no-GMAT online MBA programs accredited?
Every program on this site is at a business school accredited by AACSB, the oldest and most selective of the three business-school accreditors, and dropping the test does not change that. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is the highest-ranked program here that states no test requirement, fourth of 286 nationally.
Do no-GMAT programs cost more?
Not on this evidence. The median whole-program tuition among ranked programs that state no test requirement is $28,068, against $32,265 across all 286 ranked programs. The cheapest is University of Central Arkansas at $10,470.

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