What is the practice of “indexing” applications?
Some business schools use a mathematical formula to combine an applicant’s GPA and score on the GMAT in approximately equal weights to generate a single numerical value for the application. In fact, the scoring system of the GMAT was designed to make quantitative evaluations of candidates easy. Here is an example of a mathematical formula that produces an index that gives approximately equal weight to the GPA and the GMAT score. Since the GMAT is scored on a scale of 200 (the minimum) to 800 (the maximum), dividing by 200 generates a number on a scale from 1 to 4, a 4-point scale that is similar to the grading system used by most U.S. colleges and universities. And the reduced GMAT score and the GPA are simply averaged. Thus, if a candidate has a GPA of 3.5 and a GMAT score of 500, the application is assigned an index of 3.0: Index = [(500/200) + 3.5]/2 = 3 A similar result can be achieved by using a formula that converts the GPA to the GMAT scoring scale by multiplying the GPA by 200:
