MBA program admissions trends

Women’s Enrollment in MBA Programs Continues to Climb

MBA matriculation is inching closer to gender parity. According to new data released by the Forte Foundation and reported by the Wall Street Journal, women make up 42 percent of 2023 MBA enrollees. This is up slightly from last year’s 41 percent and up significantly from 34 percent in 2013.

Five MBA programs did achieve gender parity: George Washington University’s School of Business, Oxford Said, Johns Hopkins Carey, U Penn Wharton, and Penn State Smeal. An additional 15 programs came close with women making up at least 44 percent of total enrollees. Among this group are some of the world’s most prestigious MBA programs. They include Northwestern Kellogg (48 percent), Stanford GSB (46 percent), MIT Sloan (46 percent), and Harvard Business School (45 percent).

Notably, two of the five programs that achieved gender parity, Oxford Said and Penn State Smeal, are one-year programs. Administrators from both schools told the WSJ that this shorter time commitment appeals to women, particularly those who carry family responsibilities.

Programs with the Highest Percentage of Female Matriculants (Fall 2023):

  • George Washington University (65 percent)

  • Oxford University-Saïd (51 percent)

  • Johns Hopkins University-Carey (51 percent)

  • University of Pennsylvania-Wharton (50 percent)

  • Penn State University-Smeal (50 percent)

  • University of Rochester-Simon (49 percent)

  • University of Toronto-Rotman (49 percent)

  • Northwestern University-Kellogg (48 percent)

  • University of Washington-Foster (47 percent)

  • Stanford Graduate School of Business (46 percent)

  • Queen's University-Smith (46 percent)

  • MIT-Sloan (46 percent)

  • Duke University-Fuqua (45 percent)

  • Harvard Business School (45 percent)

  • Alliance Manchester School of Business (45 percent)

  • Arizona State University-W. P. Carey (44 percent)

  • Columbia Business School (44 percent)

  • Dartmouth-Tuck (44 percent)

  • ESADE (44 percent)

  • Michigan State University-Broad (44 percent)

Don’t Rule Out “Reach Schools” on Your MBA Program List Just Yet

If you’re on the fence about applying to an MBA program this year or still considering your school list, we have an update for you. Based on 2022 admissions data, it looks like the window for gaining acceptance to a “reach school” hasn’t closed quite yet. A recent Poets & Quants analysis states that the “...2022 acceptance rate data is remarkable for the encouragement it provides anyone considering an MBA at a top-10 school, every one of which saw their acceptance rate climb last year.” 

The analysis goes on to describe that in 2022 the P&Q Top-10 ranked schools averaged an acceptance rate of 22.2 percent, an increase of 3.8 percentage points from 2021 and 7.7 percentage points from 2016. 

The 2023 admissions data (released by schools in the fall) will, of course, provide the most accurate picture of admissions trends. However, the 2022 admissions statistics among elite MBA programs were so applicant-friendly that P&Q walked back it’s pronouncement from last Spring (based on 2021 data) that the window to obtain a spot in a “reach” school is closing.

Here are a few key callouts from the P&Q analysis. You can find the full analysis and findings here. 

  • The top-10 ranked schools all saw increases in their admissions rates in 2022. Chicago Booth, ranked first by U.S. News & World Report, saw the biggest increase in acceptance rate, which spiked from 22.6 percent in 2021 to 30.1 percent in 2022. Similarly, UPenn Wharton, ranked first by P&Q, saw a jump from 18.2 percent to 22.8 percent. 

  • In 2021 there were no top-10 ranked MBA programs with an acceptance rate over 30 percent, whereas in 2022, there were three (Chicago Booth, Northwestern Kellogg, Dartmouth Tuck). Cornell Johnson and Virginia Darden (ranked 13th and 14th by P&Q) also reported acceptance rates over 30 percent.

  • The top-10 ranked schools also saw a sharp decrease in application volume. P&Q reported that eight of the top ten schools saw double-digit percentage decreases in the number of applications between 2021 to 2022. 

  • For the 15 schools ranked outside of the top 10, but within the top 25, the admissions data painted a less dramatic picture. In line with the elite programs, all of the schools ranked from 11 to 17 reported increased year-over-year acceptance rates. However, six of the schools ranked between 11 and 25 did report application increases (Cornell Johnson, UNC Kenan-Flagler, Washington Foster, Emory Goizueta, Indiana Kelley, and Carenegie Mellon Tepper). Among these schools, four also saw lower acceptance rates compared to 2021; most notably Emory Goizueta’s acceptance rate plummeted from 53.1 percent in 2021 to 37.1 percent last year. 

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