NYU Stern admitted 24% of a record 4,933 applicants into the Class of 2027, enrolling 336 students with an average GMAT of 737, the highest in the program’s history, and an average GPA of 3.64. International citizens make up 43% of the class, the largest share of any US top-15 program this cycle, and women 45%. The 2026-27 first-year cost of attendance is $140,668, with tuition of $92,658 accounting for two-thirds of it. The Class of 2025 earned a $175,000 median base salary, investment banking took 28% of graduates, and 96% of hires were in North America, 82.4% in the Northeast.

TL;DR

• NYU Stern’s MBA Class of 2027 has 336 students admitted at a 24% rate from 4,933 applications
• A record 737 average GMAT
• A 3.64 GPA
• 43% international citizens
• 45% women
• First-year cost of attendance for 2026-27 is $140,668, up from $135,840
• 78 scholarships include 19 military awards
• 60-credit MBA curriculum
• $175,000 median base salary; 28% entering investment banking, 32.8% consulting
• McKinsey and J.P. Morgan tied at 14 hires each

NYU Stern MBA - Overview

NYU Stern School of Business stands in Greenwich Village, a subway ride from Wall Street, and has awarded management degrees since 1900, when it opened as the NYU School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance. Alongside the two-year Full-time MBA, Stern runs a part-time MBA, an Executive MBA, the one-year Andre Koo Technology MBA, and the Trium Global Executive MBA.

While the rest of the top US MBA programs took a defensive stand against the government's protectionism, NYU Stern set a record in accepting international applicants with a high GMAT score as a filtering criterion. The analysis covers Class of 2028 total cost of attendance, the Class of 2027 class profile, the curriculum structure for the Class of 2028 and the Class of 2025 placement outcomes.

NYU Stern MBA Class Profile

Main Article: NYU Stern MBA Class of 2027: Profile and Analysis

From 4,933 applications, the largest pool in the program's recent history, NYU Stern admitted 1,161 candidates and enrolled 336, an admission rate of 24%^[1]. The average GMAT (10th Edition) reached 737, a school record, up from 733 in the Class of 2026, and admits who submitted the GMAT Focus Edition averaged 682. The average GPA held at its record 3.64, and average work experience stayed at 5.1 years.

Women and International Representation

Women make up 45% of the Class of 2027, close to the 47% of the Class of 2026. International citizens reached 43%, the highest share of any US top-15 program in this cycle, at a point when most peer schools recorded declines tied to stricter visa processing. Students come from 43 countries, and underrepresented minorities account for 18% of the class. Stern keeps the strongest military presence among its direct peers, with veterans and active-duty students at 9% and a military scholarship program covered in the funding section below.

Pre-MBA Education

Business undergraduates have been favored for the incoming class as 30% were from this group, followed by STEM at 25% and Economics at 19%. The high quant bias favors Stern's strong placements in Consulting and Finance.

Pre-MBA Industry

Financial Services candidates entered the class in higher rate - 31% up from 22% last year - showing the school's caution against accepting technology candidates.

Consulting eased to 15% and technology to 8%. Entertainment and media (6%) and military and government (5%) round out the five largest prior-industry groups, a mix that matches the strength of New York and Stern's placement in finance, consulting, and media.

NYU Stern MBA Cost

At NYU Stern, Tuition was the largest component of the 2026-27 cost of Attendance at $92,658 with the nine-month cost of living adding close to $50,000 to the budget. The total cost of $140,668 is an increase from $135,840, driven by a $4,828 tuition fee rise. The full MBA program cost of $280,000, place Stern just behind Columbia among New York's top MBA programs.

There is no fee difference between domestic and international students.

Scholarships and Funding

Stern offers 78 scholarships, among them 19 military awards, the most of any top US MBA program, plus awards for women, LGBTQ+ students, and entrepreneurs.

Scholarships ranged from a few hundred dollars to full tuition with a living stipend, and the Dean's Scholarship, the William R. Berkley Scholarship, and the Fertitta Veterans Scholarship constituting the merit awards.

The Consortium Fellowship and the Forte Fellowship support candidates through partner programs. The Fertitta Veterans program also reduces fall and spring tuition for eligible veterans and active-duty students to $72,496. For international candidates, Stern lists no-cosigner loan options through MPower Financing and Prodigy Finance.

NYU Stern MBA Curriculum

Main Article: NYU Stern MBA Curriculum Analysis

60 credits are required for NYU Stern MBA program. The two-year MBA opens with LAUNCH where the emphasize is on using business for societal impact and Change:Studio - the flagship leadership development program with Change management as the primary theme. From the core curriculum four are required (Financial Accounting and Reporting, and Statistics and Data Analysis), from the nine in total where the rest of the themes cover Data Science, Marketing, Operations Management, Strategy, and Foundations of Finance. Among the core, a capstone - Professional Responsibility, or Ethical and Legal Challenges of the Modern Corporation, cannot be waived and is mandatory for every student.

After the core, the program gives students one of the widest menus among top MBA programs: more than 600 electives, up to three specializations from a set of 27, and the option to take up to a quarter of credits across other NYU graduate schools in law, medicine, and the arts. Electives reach into FinTech, Business Analytics, Sustainable Business, and AI.

Specializations

With one of the highest Investment Banking placements, Stern prioritizes the Finance specialization with option for four more specializations - The Banking, Corporate Finance, Quantitative Finance, and Financial Instruments and Markets. Students will also get to work on a live portfolio of around $1.8 million with the Michael Price Student Investment Fund.

NYU Stern MBA plays by the strength of New York with popular specializations in Brand Management, Business Analytics, Entertainment and Media, Luxury Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and Tech Product Management.

Experiential Learning

NYU Stern's Experiential Learning is designed based on post-MBA function and industry with Technology, Consulting, Finance and Board management receiving higher priorities.

For instance, Tech and the City places students inside early-stage New York startups for customer-centric strategy work.

Consulting Lab: Branding and Innovation runs as a professional consulting engagement for corporate clients.

The Golub Capital Board Fellows Program places MBA candidates as non-voting board members of New York non-profits, and the NYU Impact Investment Fund, run jointly with the Wagner and Law schools, gives students a role in sourcing, due diligence, and investment decisions on social enterprises.

Global Programs

Doing Business in (DBI) is NYU Stern MBA's flagship global experiential learning program. Students work in a foregin country for one to two weeks, and work with faculty in partner school, visit companies and understand the culture.

With DBI designed around learning markets in Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, the faculty-led travel courses are limited to two niches - real-estate and film.

For students, who want to gain access to two alumni network, the semester exchange program places second-year students at more than 30 partner schools. For students who are interested in shorter courses, the summer programs during the summer break is the third option^[3].

Dual Degrees

The Dual Degree programs offered at NYU Stern cover medicine, law, public service, mathematic/finance, biology, and dentistry.

The dual degree conferred include - NYU: MD/MBA with the Grossman School of Medicine, JD/MBA with the School of Law, MBA/MPA with the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, MBA/MFA with the Tisch School of the Arts, MS in Mathematics in Finance/MBA with the Courant Institute, MS in Biology/MBA with the Graduate School of Arts and Science, and DDS/MBA with the College of Dentistry.

Specialized MBAs and Entrepreneurship

Although traditional Technology careers are disrupted with AI, Andre Koo Technology and Entrepreneurship MBA is one-year program targeted for experienced technologist interested to pivot into the AI-driven economy or consulting careers. Despite the slowdown in the Fashion industry, The Fashion and Luxury MBA is a popular option through the NYU Stern MBA Fashion and Luxury MBA which positions students to gain expertise in marketing and strategy.

Military MBA candidates gain extra support through the The Fertitta Veterans MBA Program, which runs a a summer bridge in accounting and statistics for military veterans and active duty students, before they join the full-time MBA class.

For the entrepreneurially oriented candidates, even those who have a long-term goal in entrepreneurship, the Endless Frontier Lab (prototyping), the Stern Venture Fellows Program (for future investors) and the Leslie eLab, a co-working space for startups are three avenues to translate their entrepreneurial dreams to working prototypes in the short-term.

NYU Stern MBA Salary and Placements

The three month offer metric - a measure of school's placement prowess was strong at Stern with the Class of 2025, attracting offers for 86.3% of students. The school's network was strong, given 74% of all hires were through the channel. The median base salary was $175,000 with bonus at $35,000 (media).

North America, unsuprinsigly was ahead with 96% of hires even for the international class (48%), demystifying the myth of international hiring slowdown.

Salary by Industry

Main Article: NYU Stern MBA Salary: By Industry (2025)

Financial Services, investment banking in particular and Consulting led in Median Base Salary with $175,000 each with IB rececing $57,448 average signing bonus.

Consulting despite attracting a similar median base salary was behind in signing bonus - only $29,321 close to $30,000 difference while Technology struggled to reach $160,000 in median base but earned a healthy $34,352. Law was the outlier with $235,000 median base but attracted only 3.4% of the class.

Entertainment/Media/Sports was a surprisingly strong industry with $200,000 median base salary despite the recent consolidation and cannibalisation of streaming platforms, showing demand for Finance talent despite the choice of the industry.

Salary by Job Function

Main Article: NYU Stern MBA Salary: By Job Function (2025)

The hypothesis that Finance and IB drove the industry remuneration was confirmed when, the bulk of the class (28%) accepted offers in Investment Banking, Stern's highest levels in percentage of students accepting offers in the function, over the past six years. Banks were recovering from a deal draught with AI deals opening up expertise in execution. Base pay held flat while signing bonus improved, showing a late-stage calibration of pay packages to manage the sudden surge in deal due-diligence demand. Standalone strategy openings shrunk as evident in the signing bonus. Talent was short in implementation - a trend that could reverse once the AI bubble bursts.

Employment by Region

Stern's hiring is concentrated by geography. North America took 96% of full-time hires at a $175,000 median base, and the Northeast alone absorbed 82.4%, the center of investment banking, diversified finance, and consulting for US clients. The West accounted for 7.0% at a lower $163,750 median, a gap produced by the smaller, skill-gated technology intake in the region. The South was small at 1.8% but paid the highest regional median, $192,000, a sign that those placements were senior or specialized roles. International hiring was 4%, led by Asia and the Middle East at 3.1%.

Top Employers

Hiring consolidated among a short list of consulting and financial institutions. McKinsey and Company and J.P. Morgan tied as the top recruiters at 14 hires each, followed by Bain and Company at 10 and EY-Parthenon at 8. Bank of America and Goldman Sachs took 7 each, and Boston Consulting Group 6. The spread across multiple banks, each at mid-single-digit volume, points to a fragmented hiring market. Payments and regulated-technology employers (Mastercard, Capital One, Fiserv) and professional-services firms (Infosys Consulting, Strategy&, Kearney) fill out the list, with Pfizer the one healthcare employer in the top tier.

NYU Stern MBA Deadlines

The Fall 2027 application runs over three published rounds, and Stern reviews applications on a rolling basis between deadlines. The dates below are for applicants targeting entry in Fall 2027.

Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the deadline day, and the application fee is $250. International applicants are advised to apply earlier in the cycle to allow time for visa processing.

NYU Stern MBA Application Process

To complete the NYU Stern MBA Application, you must submit - a GMAT/GRE or an accepted alternative score, undergraduate transcript, resume, short-answer and essay response and EQ endorsements with a $250 non-refundable application fees.

The primary endorsement comes from a professional supervisor, and Stern is the only top US program that lets an applicant add a second endorsement from a personal, non-family connection.

Each recommender is asked to speak to the candidate's emotional intelligence, from self-awareness to how the candidate responds to feedback, with a concrete example.

NYU Stern MBA Essay Tips

Main Article: NYU Stern MBA: Essay Tips, Analysis, and Strategies

For the 2026-27 application, NYU Stern MBA Demands an essay on goals, the Pick Six Essay where you must submit six images with caption for each, and an optional essay^[4].

The Live Prompts

Essay 1 (500 words). What are your short-term career goals? Why is the Stern MBA the necessary next chapter in your professional story? Please be specific.

Essay 2, Pick Six. Introduce yourself to the admissions committee and your future classmates using six images and corresponding captions. Choose six images that illustrate your interests, values, motivations, perspective, or personality, and write a one-sentence caption for each explaining why it was selected.

How to Approach Each Essay

Make the goal specific and feasible.

Check the role you quote in Essay 1 against Stern's Class of 2025 placement data before you commit to it: a goal in investment banking or management consulting should be as credible given where the class places them, while a goal outside Stern's deepest markets needs more evidence that the program can get you there. The backstory matters even more^[2].

Treat the Pick Six as curation of your story with special focus on captions as an impressive image with bland caption can jeopardize the impact of the Pick Six narrative. Don't use the images to restate your resume.

Use the second EQ Endorsement with intent - evaluate the biggest commitment outside work, before choosing a strategy.

A personal, non-family recommender who has seen you outside work can speak to the self-awareness and empathy that a professional letter cannot fully capture.

Related Resources

• NYU Stern MBA Class of 2027: Profile and Analysis
• NYU Stern MBA Curriculum Analysis
• NYU Stern MBA Salary: By Industry (2025)
• NYU Stern MBA Salary: By Job Function (2025)
• Columbia vs NYU Stern vs Cornell MBA Class of 2027
• Chicago Booth vs NYU Stern MBA for Finance
• Top 70 MBA Programs: GMAT and GPA Scores
• How to Fund an M7 and T20 MBA

References

1. NYU Stern Full-time MBA (official) ↩
2. F1GMAT's NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide ↩
3. F1GMAT's Career Planning Service ↩
4. Essay Editing Service ↩
5. Mock Interview Service