What EA Score Do I Need?

The required executive assessment score depends upon who you are as an applicant. For a diverse (underrepresented minority/female) they are mainly looking for competency - they want to know that you can handle the coursework. To establish competency they look at a wide variety of factors, like do you have good math grades in your undergraduate or masters, do you have a CFA or do you do a quantitative job. They want to qualify you because offering diversity is really key to the whole value proposition of an executive MBA, what they are selling.

But if you are not an underrepresented minority or female, then your score is competing against many others. For example, if you are a white male consultant or a similarly large applicant pool this creates a *bidding up effect* of the required EA score.

One of my Indian clients visited Wharton San Francisco recently and people of his demographic profile actually told him he needed a 16 in quant with a 165 overall. This seemed pretty high to me, but he assured me that he spoke with a lot of people and even postponed his application based on what he heard there.