| Type: | 501(c)(3) |
| Key People: | Joy Jones (Chief Executive Officer) |
| Graduate Management Admission Council | |
| Founded Date: | 1953 |
| Location: | Reston, Virginia, U.S. |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
| Focus: | Higher Education, Testing |
The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) is an international non-profit organization of business schools that provides products and services to academic institutions and prospective graduate management education students. The organization owns the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), a standardized assessment that is widely used by graduate business administration programs (e.g. MBA, Master of Accountancy, Master of Finance, Master of Science in Business/Management, etc.) to measure quantitative, verbal, analytical and integrated reasoning skills in applicants.
GMAC is based in Reston, Virginia. In 2007, the organization opened an office in London, its first international location.[1] GMAC also has offices based in Shanghai, China and Gurgaon, India.[2] The Graduate Management Admission Council has 227 member schools from 34 countries, including Australia, Canada, China, France, Great Britain, India and the United Kingdom.[3] In 2007, the organization embarked on an effort to increase its membership outside North America.[4] GMAC is governed by a 16-member board of directors that includes representation from business schools and private industry.[5]
See main article: Graduate Management Admission Test. The GMAT exam, taken more than 230,000 times per year, is designed as an objective predictor of how well a student will perform academically in the first year of a graduate business education program.[6] Through the Validity Study Service (VSS), the GMAT has been shown by GMAC researchers to be a reliable predictor of academic performance in business school, especially when used in combination with an applicant's undergraduate grade point average.[7] [8] In June 2012, a new section was added to the GMAT Exam called Integrated Reasoning.
GMAC's other products include the Graduate Management Admission Search Service (GMASS), a searchable database of more than 350,000 GMAT Exam and mba.com registrants.[9] Admissions professionals can also use GMATCH, GMAC's two-day online global recruiting event.[10]
In 2013, GMAC launched the Reflect Self-Assessment and Development Tool. It is an online assessment and self-directed, soft-skills development program.[11]