App Declines At Two-Thirds Of U.S. Schools

Percentage of MBA Programs Doing Outreach in 2012

Source: GMAC 2012 Application Trends Survey

China and India topped the lists of foreign countries where all MBA programs conducted recruiting activities in 2012 to attract more candidates. Full-time two-year MBA programs also conducted special outreach to prospective students in South Korea. The United States ranked third among the top countries where full-time one-year, part-time, and executive MBA programs targeted outreach efforts. Flexible MBA programs included Saudi Arabia among their top three countries for candidate recruitment.

FEWER THAN 20% OF FULL-TIME MBA STUDENTS WILL GET HELP FROM EMPLOYERS

This year, for the first time, the Application Trends Survey asked respondents for information about anticipated levels of employer funding for incoming students. Overall, 77% of MBA programs indicated that at least some of their students enrolling in the class of 2012–2013 will receive funding (partial or in full) from their employers.

The expected level of employer funding for the incoming class varies widely by program type. About 68% of full-time two-year MBA programs reported they expect some of their students to receive employer funding, but the majority of these programs (56%) reported that fewer than 20% of their students will receive employer funding. Similarly, 81% of full-time one-year MBA programs expect that some of their incoming students will receive employer funding, however, two-thirds (65%) of the programs reported that fewer than 20% of students will receive such funding.

Students enrolled in online/distance MBA programs are more likely than incoming students in all other MBA programs to receive employer funding. The majority of online/distance MBA programs (52%) reported that between 40% and 59% of their incoming class will receive employer funding. And, not surprisingly, nearly half (49%) of executive MBA programs expect that between 40% and 100% of incoming students will receive funding through their employers.

Overall, 492 programs from 229 responding schools were in the United States; 114 programs from 62 schools were in Europe; 50 programs from 27 schools were in the Asia-Pacific region; 34 programs from 18 schools were in Canada; 24 programs from 4 schools were in Latin America, 13 programs from 11 schools were from Central Asia; and 17 programs from 10 responding schools were in the Middle East/Africa.

Geographically, the survey sample represents 46 countries worldwide and 42 states and the District of Columbia in the United States. Combined, participating programs received more than 484,385 applications during the 2012 application cycle. All application numbers and trends in the GMAC report refer to complete applications that contained all documents needed for making an admission decision, which were received on or about July 1, 2012 for the 2012–2013 incoming class.

DON’T MISS: CORNELL AND DARDEN BUCK DOWN TREND IN MBA APPLICATIONS or COLUMBIA MBA APPLICATIONS PLUNGE 19%

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