China’s National Education Examinations Authority (NEEA) has canceled GMAT, GRE, IELTS, and TOEFL for the month of February 2020. The decision has been taken to contain the spread of the coronavirus. This is a very unfortunate incident where the death toll has risen to at least 80. However, this outbreak has a potential impact on candidates, both Chinese and non-Chinese who are applying to US schools this year. Please read the entire article to understand how it might affect you as a business school applicant.
The statement issued by the NEEA
The statement issued by the NEEA just a few hours earlier said,
“As of January 26, 30 Provincial Governments in China had announced Level One Public Health Emergency Response, which calls for all round measures to contain the spread of coronavirus at all public venues including test centers. Decision has been made in consultation with Pearson VUE to CANCEL all February GMAT tests at all test centers throughout mainland China and return full test fees to personal registration accounts of affected test takers. We will closely follow national and local anti-epidemic development and update post February arrangement of registration and testing activities.”
Similar statements have been made for other exams as well. Below are the links to complete statements for these exams:
Full refunds are available for people planning to take the tests in February and future registration and examination details will be announced according to the progress of epidemic prevention and control, NEEA said in the statement.
What do these cancelations mean for Chinese students?
It would result in a delay for Chinese students to apply for international schools. It could also effectively delay when they could start school.
Students planning to apply in round 3 of the MBA application take the GMAT in and around February. Moreover, business schools sometimes ask applicants to retake the GMAT to make their overall application stronger.
Chinese students could lose out on this opportunity if business schools ask them to improve upon their GMAT scores, provided business schools do not provide any relaxation to Chinese students.
What does it mean for non-Chinese applicants?
This would mean that business schools might look at candidates from other nationalities more favorably. According to GMAC geographic trend report, around 73,000 Chinese students sent their GMAT score to a US business school. As close to 70% students apply in Round 2 and Round 3, a combined figure of 51,000 Chinese students have either applied to a US business school in round 2 or will apply in Round 3.
Assuming a significant proportion of these candidates are yet to take the GMAT and they don’t apply for Round 3, it opens up a lot of opportunities for non-Chinese students.
Here is the latest class profile and employment report for Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton.
But, why would US business schools look at non-Chinese students more favorably?
Because the US has already seen 5 cases of Coronavirus till now, with the recent case confirmed in Arizona’s Maricopa County. The earlier 4 cases were confirmed in Chicago, Seattle region, Orange County, and Los Angeles County.
A statement released on Sunday from the Arizona Department of Health Services described the patient as “a member of the Arizona State University community who does not live in university housing.”
According to Nancy Meissonier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, All five U.S. patients had traveled previously to Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the infectious disease outbreak, and all five remain hospitalized.
How does it impact non-Chinese students?
- It lessens the competition for Non-Chinese students for Round 1 and 2 waitlist and Round 3 applications
- It increases the competition in Round 1 of MBA applications next year since a lot of Chinese applicants may not be able to apply in Round 3 this year and they would be eager to apply ASAP
This scenario could be the case for non-Chinese students, provided business schools don’t extend their deadlines for Chinese students. So, if you are planning to apply in next year’s application rounds, you may consider applying in this year’s round 3 as well. Why don’t you start preparing for the GMAT?
Further reading:
