PR Newswire
United Business Media
News Release
MCLEAN, Va., June 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) and deans of the 36 Historically Black College and University (HBCU) business schools agreed today (June 5) to partner to better prepare African American students for both the GMAT exam and success in graduate management education.
President and CEO David A. Wilson, in his keynote address at the annual HBCU Deans Roundtable Summit in Atlanta, GA, noted significant increases in African American students taking the GMAT exam, which is owned and administered by GMAC and used for admission to more than 4,600 graduate management education programs around the world. He praised the business schools for their effort. The number of African American test takers has doubled in the past decade, with a 26 percent increase in just the past four years.
At the same time, Wilson noted, "The time has come for us to work together to increase the accessibility of the exam for African American students and to help you better prepare students for the test." Although many students do very well, Wilson said, the mean score is still 100 points below the mean score for all test takers.
"We can work together to make a change," he added. "Diverse candidates bring great value to schools and, ultimately, to the corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations that hire them."
As part of this partnership, Wilson pledged fee waivers for each of the HBCU business schools to use at its discretion to make sure that no student is denied access to the exam for financial reasons. In addition, he gave each dean packages of test preparation materials, including copies of the new 12th edition Official GMAT Guide and GMAT Prep CDs. "You are uniquely positioned to prepare your students and we want you to have the materials to do it," he told the deans. "We want to work with you in every way we can."
"We look to the HBCUs to help us achieve the diversity in our program that benefits all of our graduate students," said Melvin T. Stith, dean, Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University.
Wilson also announced a cross-country tour of the GMAT Mobile Testing Center to HBCUs and Hispanic-Serving Institutions from October 2009 to May 2010. The 32-school bus tour will reach all U.S. based four-year HBCU and HSI members that are at least 40 miles from the nearest GMAT test center, thus further enhancing student accessibility.
The Graduate Management Admission Council (www.gmac.com) is a nonprofit education organization of leading graduate business schools worldwide dedicated to creating access to and disseminating information about graduate management education. GMAC is based in McLean, Virginia, and has a European office in London. The Council owns the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), used by approximately 4,600 graduate management programs at some 1,900 business schools around the world to assess applicants. The GMAT -- the only standardized test designed expressly for graduate business and management programs worldwide -- is currently available at more than 450 test centers in over 100 countries. More information about the GMAT is available at www.mba.com.
SOURCE Graduate Management Admission Council
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