Recently we did a research on the Top 15 US MBA programs and their class profile. The data gave us a lot of insights on preference of schools, emerging trends, entry criteria and backgrounds of applicants that schools prefer.
Here are the top 5 trends:
1) Schools have different GMAT and GRE standards
This was a surprising finding for us. For instance Yale has a relatively easier 720 median GMAT score but a high GRE score requirement of 166 in Quant and 164 in verbal. The Verbal in GRE has an inverse correlation with the acceptance rate of international applicants. Schools tend to be lenient with verbal to accommodate a larger more experienced international cohort.
162 is considered a safe score in GRE Verbal if you are targeting M7 schools and for Quant it is 163.
2) International Candidates
Schools that have strong ties with the local industries; that is Technology and Finance tend to prioritize international candidates. We saw this with NYU Stern and UCLA Anderson. Ross has been on a path to attract a large percentage of international candidates for its predominantly Consulting opportunities post-MBA.
Most of the M7 schools are rigorous when it comes to keeping the balance between women, international and US minorities. They tend to prioritize global citizens with exposure to multiple cities instead of a one-city or a one-country candidate. Of course, there are exceptions depending on the IMPACT of your achievements.
3) Challenges of Reaching Gender Parity
Despite a lot of effort, the gender parity is far from reality in many top schools. Except for Wharton, no Top US MBA programs have crossed the 50% mark, despite promising trends in the previous year. This is a larger challenge and a greater opportunity for international male applicants to apply and target top US schools this year.
4) Consulting and Finance – The Largest MBA Application Pool
Consulting remains the most popular Pre-MBA industry – with close to a third joining a top MBA program. Finance is a second with a representation of a quarter of a class. PE/VC are popular background for candidates entering Stanford, Harvard and Wharton.
5) Surprising and Consistent Representations
There were many surprising industries in top schools. For instance, Harvard had 10% from Consumer Product Goods. Ross had 10% from Real Estate.
For Non-profit. Government and Military – Darden, Yale, Booth, NYU Stern, Haas and Tuck continues to be popular destination.
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