How to Send GMAT Scores to Schools

Last Updated on May 12, 2023

You sat for the GMAT and hit your score goal (way to go!). Now what? Sending your GMAT scores is not as daunting as it may seem, but there are a couple of different options to consider when deciding when to send your scores.

Sending your GMAT scores is not as daunting as it may seem.

In this article, we’ll break down the process of sending GMAT scores and answer key questions such as how to send your GMAT scores for free, how many schools you can send your GMAT scores to, and whether you need to know school codes to send GMAT scores.

• The Types of GMAT Score Reports
• Sending GMAT Scores on Test Day
• Sending GMAT Scores After Test Day
• Viewing and Sending Scores for the Online GMAT
• What if I Canceled My GMAT Score?
• How Long Does it Take to Send GMAT Scores?
• When is the Best Time to Send My Scores?

First, let’s take a look at the different types of GMAT score reports and when you can access each type.

The Types of GMAT Score Reports

There are actually a few types of score reports that GMAC (the GMAT-maker) generates: 

1. An Unofficial Score Report, which you’ll receive at the test center immediately after completing your exam.
2. An Official Score Report, which will be sent to schools of your choice.
3. An Enhanced Score Report, which you may purchase after your official scores become available and which is never sent to schools. 

Let’s take a closer look at each of these score reports.

Unofficial Score Report

Luckily, GMAC doesn’t make test-takers wait for long to see their GMAT scores. Provided you are taking the GMAT at a test center, immediately upon completion of your GMAT exam, you will see your Unofficial Score Report on the computer screen. This report will contain your Quantitative, Verbal, Integrated Reasoning, and Total Scores, as well as the percentile rankings associated with each of those scores. Since the Analytical Writing Assessment is not scored by the computer, you will not see that score until you receive your Official Score Report. Test-takers sitting for the online GMAT do not receive unofficial scores (more on that later). 

The computer will give you two minutes to either accept or cancel the scores for that exam. If you don’t make a selection to either accept or cancel your scores within the two-minute window, the computer will automatically cancel them. So, it’s essential that you have not only a score goal but also a score cutoff in mind before you sit for your GMAT. Your score cutoff is the minimum GMAT score you’re willing to let schools see. Research the average scores at your target schools and set cutoffs for your section scores as well as your Total Score.

KEY FACT:

You will have 2 minutes to either accept or cancel your GMAT scores after your exam. If you don’t make a selection, your scores for that exam will be automatically canceled.

If you accept your scores, you’ll get a printout of your Unofficial Score Report at the test center. This is for your informational purposes only. Unofficial Score Reports cannot be used for admissions applications and will not be sent to any schools. The purpose of your unofficial report is really just to give you the information you need to decide whether to keep or cancel your score and whether to retake the exam. Keep in mind that, although the scores you see on test day are “unofficial,” you can pretty much expect that they won’t change on your Official Score Report. The scores you see on test day should be the scores that schools will receive.

TTP PRO TIP:

It’s essential that you have not only a score goal but also a score cutoff in mind before you sit for your GMAT. Research the average scores at your target schools and set cutoffs for your section scores as well as your Total Score.

Official Score Report

Within 20 days of your GMAT exam (or 7 business days, if you take the GMAT Online), you’ll receive an email from GMAC letting you know that your Official Score Report is available on your mba.com account, where you’ll be able to view, download, and print your report. This is the report that will be sent to schools.

Your Official Score Report is valid for 5 years and contains scaled scores and percentile rankings for your Total Score and all of the GMAT sections, including the AWA (your essays will also be included in the report), for your most recent exam as well as for any GMAT exams you’ve taken in the past five years. If you’ve canceled any scores, those exams will NOT be listed on the Official Score Report sent to schools. So, if you cancel your scores for a particular GMAT, schools will have no way of knowing that you sat for that exam.

In addition to your score information, the Official Score Report sent to schools includes the photo that was taken of you at the test center before your most recent GMAT, your contact information and demographic information, and any self-reported data you may have provided, such as your GPA. One thing that schools will not be able to see is where else you’ve sent your scores.

KEY FACT:

Schools won’t see that you’ve canceled any GMAT schools or be able to view which other schools have received your scores.

Enhanced Score Report

The GMAT Enhanced Score Report (ESR) gives you a general sense of where your strengths and weaknesses were on a given GMAT and how you managed your time, providing a more detailed breakdown of test performance on each section. This report is private to you and can be ordered even for a canceled GMAT score. You can purchase your ESR from GMAC for $30,  at any point within 5 years of your exam date. The ESR for a given GMAT is available to you through your mba.com account within 24-72 hours after you take your exam. Note that the ESR is currently not available for GMAT Online exams.

For a detailed breakdown of what the ESR is and whether you should order one after your exam, check out our complete guide to the GMAT ESR.

KEY FACT:

You can purchase an Enhanced Score Report even for a canceled GMAT score.

Now that we’ve gone over the different types of GMAT score reports and when you can access them, let’s answer the all-important question of how to send GMAT scores to schools. There are actually two ways you’ll be able to send your GMAT score reports: from the test center and through your mba.com account. Let’s take a look at each.

Sending GMAT Scores on Test Day

When you sit for your GMAT, you’ll have the option to select up to five schools to send your official GMAT scores to, free of charge. The schools you select will receive your scores at the same time the scores post to your online account, so within 20 days of your exam date. This process is the same regardless of whether you take the GMAT at a test center or at home.

Fortunately, you do not need to know school codes in order to send your scores. The codes will be in the computer system, so you can simply search for each school by name to select the school. Some schools have multiple departments associated with them, so just be sure you select the department of the program to which you’re applying, if applicable. Check with the program to which you’re applying if you’re not sure of the exact name to search.

The great thing about sending GMAT scores to schools as soon as you finish your exam is that this service is included in your GMAT registration fee, so you won’t pay anything extra to send scores to schools on test day. With that in mind, it’s definitely a wise strategy to decide where you want to send your scores before you sit for your GMAT, so you can take advantage of the free option if you’re happy with your score. Furthermore, you’re given the option to select score recipients at the start of your exam, so do you really want to be agonizing over that decision seconds before you jump into answering GMAT questions?

Of course, there may be less than five schools you want to send your scores to, or no schools at all, and that’s OK. If, for example, you’ve decided on only one school you want to send scores to, you can select just that school on test day, and send your scores at a later date to any additional schools you decide on. You don’t need to have five schools picked out in order to send your scores for free.

TTP PRO TIP:

Decide where you want to send your scores before you sit for your GMAT, so you can take advantage of the free option of sending scores on test day.

Sending GMAT Scores After Test Day

Depending on your situation, waiting until after test day to send your GMAT scores may be the most practical choice for you. Perhaps you’re disappointed with your test-day performance and you want to retake the GMAT to try for a higher score. Perhaps you haven’t yet decided which programs you want to send your scores to, or you’re applying to more than five schools.

Whatever the reason, in the event that you don’t select any score recipients on test day or your list of recipients grows as time passes, you can order Additional Score Reports to send GMAT scores to schools after test day. Additional Score Reports are $35 per recipient and look exactly like the Official Score Report that would be sent to score recipients selected on test day. The only difference between the reports (aside from the cost) is when you choose the recipient. 

You can order Additional Score Reports by logging into your mba.com account and selecting the Additional Score Reporting feature. Again, you’ll be able to search for each school (and department, if needed) by name and select the school when it appears in the drop-down menu, so you won’t need any school codes. Of course, if you have the school codes (or you look them up on mba.com), you can search using those as well. 

You also can order Additional Score Reports by phone by contacting GMAT Customer Service, although there will be an added surcharge of $10 per report, or you can mail or fax this form to order your reports. If you need to pay using a personal check, cashier’s check, or money order, you will have to mail in the form. Credit card payments are accepted for orders online or by fax. 

One thing to keep in mind is that if you purchase Additional Score Reports within 72 hours after your exam, you forfeit that window to cancel your GMAT score. So, just make sure that you want to keep your score before you order Additional Score Reports. Also keep your application deadlines in mind, as it may take up to seven days after you order Additional Score Reports for your scores to reach schools. And, of course, you cannot order Additional Score Reports for scores that are more than five years old (expired scores).

TTP PRO TIP:

Make sure to factor in a processing time of up to 7 days when sending Additional Score Reports to schools.

Viewing and Sending Scores for the Online GMAT

The process of seeing and sending your scores for the GMAT Online is different in a few key respects from the process for the in-person GMAT. For one, you will NOT see unofficial GMAT scores at the end of your online exam — there are no unofficial scores given for the GMAT Online. Instead, you will receive an email containing your official GMAT Online scores within 7 business days of your test date. That email will contain your GMAT Online scores for the Quant, Verbal, and IR sections, your Total Score, and your score percentiles.

The Official Score Report for your GMAT Online is separate from the Official Score Report for your in-person GMATs. In other words, neither you nor any score recipients will see a five-year history of all the GMATs you’ve taken on your score report for the GMAT Online. So, essentially, if you take both the in-person GMAT, whether once or several times, and the GMAT Online, you will have two Official Score Reports: one report for any in-person GMAT scores and one report for your online GMAT score.

Since the score of your GMAT Online is kept in a separate score report, you can choose to send schools the Official Score Report containing only the scores of the GMATs you took at test centers. Schools will never see your GMAT Online score unless you decide to send it separately, nor will schools know that you took the GMAT Online. This is important because you do not have the ability to cancel a GMAT Online score. On the other hand, you can choose to send only your GMAT Online score and not your in-person GMAT scores, and in that case, schools will never know you took the in-person GMAT.

You will have the option to send your GMAT Online scores for free to an unlimited number of schools, which you can select by logging into your mba.com account after you receive the email with your official scores. So, you have full control over when your GMAT Online scores are sent, and you can send them to as many schools as you like at no cost. Once you do choose to send your scores, the schools you selected will receive them within 24 hours.

If, down the line, you want to send additional schools both in-person and online GMAT scores, you will pay for Additional Score Reports for only your in-person scores. So, say you are sending scores to three programs and want to send both online and in-person scores; you will purchase just three reports (but send six).

KEY FACT:

GMAT Online scores are kept separate from in-person GMAT scores and can be sent to as many schools as you like, free of charge.

What if I Canceled My GMAT Score?

As we already mentioned, canceled scores will not be viewable by you or by any of the schools that receive your GMAT scores. However, if you cancel a GMAT score and decide that you want to reinstate it so you can send it to schools, you can do so as long as your score is still valid, so within five years of the exam date. Keep in mind that it may take up to a month for your score reinstatement to be processed, and then the score will be sent to your recipients shortly after that.

Furthermore, you will not be able to alter the original list of score recipients you selected at the time of your exam; if you selected any score recipients when you sat for that exam, they will automatically receive the score after you reinstate it. You will be able to view the original list of schools before you confirm that you want to reinstate your score. And, of course, if you want to send the reinstated score to schools that aren’t on your original list, you can purchase Additional Score Reports to do so.

You can reinstate your canceled score online for $50 (or by phone for $60). Sending that score to your original list of up to five schools will be free, and no schools that receive your reinstated score will know that the score was ever canceled.

KEY FACT:

If you reinstate a GMAT score, you will not be able to alter the original list of score recipients you selected at the time of your exam; however, you can purchase Additional Score Reports to send that score to other schools.

Now that we’ve discussed how and when you can send GMAT scores to schools, let’s review the various timelines for sending GMAT scores.

How Long Does it Take to Send GMAT Scores?

Keep these timelines in mind when preparing your applications:

So, with all this in mind, is there a “best time” to send GMAT scores to schools?

When is the Best Time to Send My GMAT Scores?

In truth, there is no one “best time” for test-takers to send their GMAT scores to schools. The key point is to have a strategy in place before test day, so that you don’t have to make important decisions on the spot about when and where to send your scores. Have a mental list of score recipients ready and a cutoff point for the lowest scores you’re comfortable with sending to schools. 

Remember, when in doubt, you’re not obligated to send any scores on test day, but if you hit your score goal (and especially if your application deadlines are not far off), there really is no reason to wait to send your scores. You’ll cut down on your GMAT-related costs and have one less thing to worry about!

TTP PRO TIP:

Have a strategy for sending GMAT scores in place before test day, so that you don’t have to make important decisions on the spot about when and where to send your scores.

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