The number of students taking the Graduate Record Examinations, or GRE, has been steadily increasing over the past few years.
However, its growth is due less to American graduate applicants and more to international students applying to U.S. graduate business programs, according to Bloomberg Business.
GRE Use Rises
The total number of GRE takers has grown by 3% between 2013 and 2014, and by 12% since 2009. But the number of U.S. students taking the exam actually dropped over the same time period, from 445,135 in 2009 to 422,668 in 2014.
The decrease may be caused by a drop in the number total U.S. graduate school applicants who preferred to find jobs in an improving economic climate rather than going back to school, Bloomberg explained.
The overall increase is because of the test's booming popularity with Indian, Chinese and some European students, Bloomberg outlined. The number of Indian applicants taking the exam jumped by 124% since 2009 to 88,884 test takers.
China also rose over the same time period with 67,260 people taking the GRE in 2014, up by 44%. The GRE's profile is also rising in Europe, where an increasing number of schools are now accepting the test.
Part of the reason why the number of GRE takers has expanded is that more business schools are accepting the exam in place of the traditional business school entrance exam, the Graduate Management Admissions Test, or GMAT.
About 85% of all master's of business administration programs in the U.S. accept the GRE as an acceptable alternative to the GMAT, according to a 2014 Kaplan Test Prep survey of business school admission officers. The number of schools that accept the GRE grew by 24% since 2009.
Despite the ability to submit GRE scores, fewer than 1 in 10 do, according to the surveyed admissions officers. Many of the students who are taking advantage of the ability to use GRE scores are Indian and Chinese business applicants.
David Payne, vice president and chief operating officer for global education at Educational Testing Service, the company that administers the GRE, told Bloomberg that the company expects the foreign markets to continue their expansion.
"We're seeing massive growth in the middle class in India and China, and more people who have the financial means to support graduate education," Payne told Bloomberg. "We anticipate those markets will continue to grow."
Hurdles for Chinese and Indian Applicants and Students
Indian and Chinese applicants may be making up a larger percentage of people taking the GREs since 2009, but over that same time they've faced high rejection rates for U.S. MBA programs, according to Poets&Quants. Despite making up a majority of the applicant pool, these foreign students have significantly lower enrollment numbers.
For example, 70% of Washington University's Olin School of Business 1,490 applicants were international in 2010. However, only 35% of the full-time MBA students ended up being non-U.S.
Using internal admission reports from some of the top business schools, Poets & Quants reported that rejection rates are about four or five times higher for Indian and Chinese applicants than U.S. citizens.
Even when students from foreign countries are able to enroll in a U.S. MBA program, they can face a number of obstacles after graduation not faced by U.S. peers. Obtaining legal permission to work in the U.S. or adapting to a different culture are among the most common barriers for foreign MBA graduates, according to Bloomberg.
Some business schools have advisors that are trained specifically to deal with foreign students and the problems they typically run into. This includes bringing people to be "cultural" liaisons and help students run job searches both in the U.S. and in their home country.