MBA Programs are Changing Their Game

This could be the best possible year to apply to top MBA programs in the past decade.

As the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) confirmed in their annual report in late October, MBA and graduate business program applications are down 3.4% overall from last year and down 2.2% for full time MBA programs.

What does that look like for the most recent 2021-2022 year?

Duke Fuqua Applications down 6%

Georgetown McDonough Applications down 5.4%

Harvard Business School Applications down 15%

MIT Sloan School of Management Applications down 24.8%

Stanford Graduate School of Business Applications down 16.5%

University of Texas McCombs Applications down 11.2%

University of Chicago Booth Applications down 13.6%

University of Michigan Ross Applications down 9.3%

University of Pennsylvania Wharton Applications down 14%

Yale School of Management Applications down 16.9%

As the Wall Street Journal reported in October, MBA programs are no longer just competing against other top MBA programs for candidates, they are also competing against strong job offers and pay raises in the past year.

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In our own Graduate School Analysis and Guidance Program last year, I worked with two students who secured full time MBA admissions acceptance to universities that are consistently ranked in the top five nation-wide. One student received a job offer that, for him, blew the MBA program’s offer out of the water and right off the table. The other had a supervisor at another university who countered with a big promotion, salary bump and the ability to avoid moving; she jumped at it.

Even the very top MBA programs must continually work to develop new ways to attract the very high caliber MBA students they hope to secure (especially former employees of tech giants like Twitter who have faced layoffs).

MBA: CHANGING THEIR GAME

Spoiler alert: top business schools do know a thing or two about business. So, what are they doing?

In November, Northwestern Kellogg (who strategically declined to report just how low their apps were down last year) revealed they’re getting creative with their approach. Associate dean Greg Hanifee announced that, for the January 2023 round two deadline, tech sector workers who have been laid off are eligible for a unique test waiver.

UC Berkeley Haas is following suit by offering full time MBA applicants a one-month extension for round two applicants (the application is due February 2^nd instead of January 5^th, 2023) from any field, plus a fee waiver if they’ve been laid off.

Georgia Tech is offering laid off employees select fellowship funding opportunities plus a fee waiver for their round two January 5^th deadline.

NYU Stern joined in on the outside-the-box recruitment fun too. In their one-year Technology and Entrepreneurship MBA program, they’re waiving the GMAT/GRE for their May 2023 start date (applies to their third-round deadline of January 15 and their final round deadline, February 15).

The above four programs include some of the best MBA programs in the country and they are opening their doors a little bit wider this year. They are mindful of the thousands of laid-off tech workers this fall, trying to calm the fears of applicants who feel they cannot afford an MBA right now, listening to those who don’t have the time or patience for a GMAT or GRE, and reflecting on the many percentage points that their applications tumbled down last spring.

MBA: STRIKE WHILE IT’S HOT

So, what can you/should you do? If you’re considering an MBA, strike while this panicked iron is hot:

Examine the worth (to you) of the MBA programs you are considering.
Pinpoint what your application really needs. Is there a deadline extension? Use it if you need it.
Is that GMAT really necessary?
Might a program be more forgiving of the Bs on your transcript?
Are there new fellowships to consider?

We’re tracking the changing 2023 MBA admissions trends and offers for applicants very closely. Let us help.

Author
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Dr. Kristen Willmott

Senior Private Counselor & Graduate School Admissions Director at Top Tier Admissions

Having worked as an Admissions and Financial Aid Officer for Harvard University for four years, Kristen brings a depth of experience to Top Tier Admissions. She has over 20 years of experience working in higher education. Kristen has a PhD in Education with a concentration in Higher Education from the University of Rochester, an M.S. in Business Management from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and a B.A. in English from Ithaca College. Her PhD dissertation won the International Susan B. Anthony Institute Dissertation Award. In her role at Harvard, Kristen oversaw admissions for 17 departments and was also responsible for distributing funding from the National Science Foundation Fellowships Program and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Student Research Fellowship Program. Kristen has previously worked as a substitute K-12 teacher, as adjunct faculty at three universities in MA and NY, and as an educational researcher having recently (Oct. 2020) published a book on faculty in academia and in academic journals such as the Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs, Academic Leadership Journal, and the American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences Journal.

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