CEOs to B-Schools: ‘You’re Out of Touch’

Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School

The 10 Most ‘Popular’ Business Schools

There are many ways to measure the top business schools. For some, it is quantifiable data like GPAs and GMATs. Others may value the opinions of academics and recruiters. Salaries and placement rates certainly reflect the market’s opinion. Of course, you’ll find a few holdouts who equate quality with faculty scholarship.

But here is a rubric from students themselves: The percentage students who actually enroll in the schools that accept them. Sure, branding plays a part. Ultimately, these high yield schools are the ones that sold themselves and closed the deal. For students, these schools are a destination, not a fallback.

Last year, it was the University of Wisconsin that was ranked as the most popular business school according to U.S. News and World Report, with a 90.4% yield (i.e. 94 out of 104 accepted students enrolled). Technically, that percentage was even higher due to the school misreporting its acceptances. This year? Well, they tumbled to 66.4%, which was still good for #9 overall.

An aerial view of Stanford's new nine-building complex for its business school.

Stanford’s Graduate School of Business

And who replaced them? Would you believe Harvard? Yes, the crimson top the charts in yet another category. In 2013, they had an 88.8% yield (932 out of 1050 accepted students enrolled). Ironically, their yield was slightly lower from the previous year, when they stood at 89.3%. Stanford ranked #2 at 84.1%, almost identical to the previous year (84.0%). Rounding out the top 3 is Oregon State. That’s right, the Beavers ranked higher in yield than University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), Columbia, MIT (Sloan), Booth, NYU (Stern), and Kellogg. However, their yield dropped from 81.5% for the class of 2015 to 79.5% for the class of 2016.

Brigham Young (Marriott) and the University of Tennessee also returned to the top 10 from last year, averaging 73.6% and 69.9% yield. New entrants to the Top 10 include: Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), MIT (Sloan), and Arizona State (Carey). The University of Kentucky (Gatton), the University of Houston (Bauer), Ohio State (Fisher), and Pepperdine (Graziadio) all slipped out of the Top 10.

Here are the top 10 schools in terms of yield for the class of 2015:

Business School

Students Accepted

New Students Enrolled

Yield

U.S. News B-School Rank

Harvard

1,050

932

88.80%

1

Stanford

483

406

84.10%

1

Oregon State

127

101

79.50%

RNP*

Brigham Young (Marriott)

197

145

73.60%

27

Columbia

1,044

749

71.70%

8

University of Tennessee

103

72

69.90%

65

University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

1,217

837

68.80%

1

MIT (Sloan)

593

406

68.50%

5

University of Wisconsin

152

101

66.40%

27

Arizona State (Carey)

112

74

66.10%

27

*RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one-fourth of all business schools. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.

Source: U.S. News and World Report

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