10/26/98 KAPLAN'S GMAT PROGRAM: FOCUSED AND SUCCESSFUL

KAPLAN'S GMAT PROGRAM: FOCUSED AND SUCCESSFUL

Your ''Best business schools'' issue (Cover Story, Oct. 19) promoted an evaluation of GMAT prep courses. We wish you had actually done so. We invited your reporter to come into our classes to see for himself why Kaplan is the largest and fastest-growing GMAT program, with triple the students of any competitor.
He would have found a focused program that respects students' time and intelligence, with highly engaging teachers and lots of opportunities to practice in the new computer test format. Statistically, getting into business school is harder than it has ever been. Kaplan has been so successful because we help busy students get the scores and advice they need to overcome the high hurdle that business school admission presents.
Maybe some of this didn't make it into the article because our GMAT software has a 90% market share, which doesn't leave much room for the GMAT software BUSINESS WEEK co-brands with one of our competitors. That somehow didn't get disclosed.

Jonathan N. Grayer
Chief Executive
Kaplan Educational Centers
New York

Editors' note: We regret that the story did not mention that BUSINESS WEEK and Princeton Review have a co-branding and marketing relationship. But our story was based on what more than 2,000 recent graduates at 61 top B-schools told us in a survey, plus more than 20 additional interviews. And we did send a reporter to visit a Kaplan class.