10 B-Schools With the Highest GMAT Scores

The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.

Like it or not, standardized test scores play a key role in the business school admissions process.

Students can choose to take either the GMAT or the GRE, but either way, they'll have to do well on the exams to be accepted into the best business schools.

See the [2016 Best Business Schools in photos.]

Whether it was through self-guided test preparation, a great tutor or sheer intellect, students at these schools were able to excel on the GMAT.

Incoming full-time students at these 10 schools had average GMAT scores of 715 or higher in fall 2014, according to data submitted to U.S. News in an annual survey.

It's not surprising that the incoming full-time students at Stanford University, the nation's top-ranked business school, had the highest average GMAT score. The California school came out on top among the 126 ranked schools that submitted data with an average GMAT score of 732.

Of the schools on the list, only three failed to make it into the top 10 of the U.S. News rankings: the Stern School of Business at New York University, No.11; the School of Management at Yale University, No. 13; and the Anderson School of Management at the University of California--Los Angeles, No. 15.

The average GMAT scores at these 10 schools seem particularly high when compared with the scores at most schools that submitted data. At the 126 schools that reported information to U.S. News, for example, the average GMAT score for incoming full-time students in 2014 was about 634.

Discover these [tips for GMAT success.]

Below are the 10 business schools with the highest average GMAT scores for incoming full-time students in fall 2014. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.

Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Business School Compass to find GMAT score data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.

U.S. News surveyed 464 schools for our 2014 survey of business programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Business Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The GMAT data above are correct as of March 26, 2015.

Devon Haynie is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering online education. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at dhaynie@usnews.com.