The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) just released its 2020 application trends survey report, The Global Demand for Graduate Management Education. The survey data, which was collected over an extended period to include pandemic-related effects, shows that while demand for business education is up, matriculation is slightly down.
The findings reflected the unusual nature of the 2020 application season during which many business schools introduced greater flexibility—the extension of deadlines and liberal deferral policies—into the admissions process. As such, schools, both international and domestic, reported that the 2020 admissions cycle brought an increase in the number of applications received, as well as acceptance rates, but also a corresponding increase in deferral rates and a decrease in yield when compared to the 2019 cycle.
In the US, over two-thirds of MBA programs (70 percent) reported an increase in application volume for the 2020 application period compared to the prior year (only one-third of programs reported increases in 2019). But despite increased application volumes, the median acceptance rate in 2020 was slightly higher than in 2019 (76 percent and 74 percent, respectively). And the median deferral rate—the result of schools’ more lenient policies as applicants grappled with obtaining visas, online schooling, and travel amid COVID-19—doubled from three percent in 2019 to six percent in 2020. Both Canadian and European MBA programs reported even higher median deferral rates of 11 percent, likely due to their higher numbers of international applicants, who were three times more likely to defer than their domestic counterparts (15 percent and 5 percent, respectively). Median yield rates in the US decreased by two percentage points between 2019 and 2020 (68 percent and 66 percent, respectively).
It remains to be seen how program acceptance rates for the upcoming cycle will be impacted as students who chose to defer their start to next year begin enrolling. It is important to note, however, that Harvard Business School just announced plans to matriculate the largest MBA cohorts in its history over the next two years (approximately 1,000 students each year). In a blog post announcing the plan, Chad Losee, Managing Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid, wrote, “In April, when we announced our one-time deferral policy for those admitted to the Class of 2022, we were already thinking ahead to those of you applying in the next two years. We did not want you to be disadvantaged by spots already reserved for those who deferred from the Class of 2022.”
Though other elite programs have not yet made similar announcements, they may follow suit in welcoming larger classes in the near-term.
