Humanities Majors and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT)
- Among all bachelor’s recipients, humanities majors are the least likely to take the GMAT, constituting 4–6% of all examinees over the 2000–2009 time period (Indicator III-11a).
- From 2000 to 2009, students with humanities degrees performed better than business majors, on average, and approximately as well as social and natural science majors (Indicator III-11b).
Source: Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAT), “Profile of GMAT Candidates, 1999–00 to 2003–04” and “Profile of GMAT Candidates, 2004–05 to 2008–09,” .
Data on who takes the are available from the Graduate Management Admission Council. Performance on professional school entrance examinations can serve as a measure of the extent to which individuals with undergraduate majors in the humanities are prepared for professional employment. While humanities students who take a professional school examination might not actually pursue a career in the tested field, the substantial fees and preparation involved in taking the test suggest the career options humanities students are seriously exploring. Moreover, test results of this kind can provide some measure of the applicability of the humanistic knowledge and skills gained in college to the entrance requirements for various professional occupations.
* The total score is a scaled combination of the verbal and quantitative scaled scores and thus reflects a student’s overall performance on the multiple-choice sections of the test. The scoring scale extends from 200 to 800.
Source: Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAT), “Profile of GMAT Candidates, 1999–00 to 2003–04” and “Profile of GMAT Candidates, 2004–05 to 2008–09,” .
Data on who takes the are available from the Graduate Management Admission Council. Performance on professional school entrance examinations can serve as a measure of the extent to which individuals with undergraduate majors in the humanities are prepared for professional employment. While humanities students who take a professional school examination might not actually pursue a career in the tested field, the substantial fees and preparation involved in taking the test suggest the career options humanities students are seriously exploring. Moreover, test results of this kind can provide some measure of the applicability of the humanistic knowledge and skills gained in college to the entrance requirements for various professional occupations.
