The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) announced a new fee waiver program today.

The cost of taking the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) exam can be prohibitively expensive for some B-school candidates, especially those unable to scrounge up the hefty $250 registration fee. Now GMAC is hoping to make a dent in that problem, starting a new program that will give business schools the option of waiving the testing fee for “underserved or economically disadvantaged� applicants, the organization announced today. Schools that participate will be able to receive up to 10 fee waivers, and in some cases more if the schools runs an admissions outreach program that targets students in these circumstances, GMAC says. Schools will then issue the waivers to students, who can use it to take one test and send out five official score reports to different business schools of their choosing. The admissions office can also give the waiver to an economically disadvantaged student who wants to retake the exam GMAC says.

“The fee waiver program reflects GMAC’s commitment to helping people with talent enter management education, whatever their financial circumstances,� said Julia Tyler, GMAC’s executive vice president of member services and school marketing.

The fee waiver program is an expansion of an existing one that helps people cover the cost of taking the GMAT, GMAC says. It may also be a strategic way for the testing administrator to compete with the Educational Testing Service, which has spent the last year or so trying to make inroads into GMAC’s domination of the B-school testing arena.