Why It’s Easier To Get Into A Top School by: John A. Byrne on October 24, 2011 October 24, 2011 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit Most Selective Full-Time MBA Programs in the U.S. School 2011 Acceptance Rate 2010 Acceptance Rate % Change in Apps 2011 Apps 2010 Apps Stanford 7% 6% -8.1% 6,618 7,204 Harvard 12% 11% -4.1% 9,134 9,524 Berkeley (Haas) 12.2% 12.0% -5.0% 3,444 3,627 MIT Sloan 13% 13% -6.1% 4,490 4,782 New York (Stern) 13.6% 13.0% -1.9% 4,416 4,501 Columbia 16% 15% +0.5% 6,669 6,666 Dartmouth (Tuck) 18% 20% +7.5% 2,744 2,528 UPenn (Wharton) 19.0%* 16.9% -5.7% 6,442 6,809 Yale 19% 17% -4.7% 2,823 2,963 Northwestern 20% 19% -5.6% 4,974 5,270 Chicago (Booth) 22% 22% -3.0% 4,169 4,299 Carnegie Mellon 24% 27% +0.3% 1,544 1,540 Rice (Jones) 25% 36% +36.9% 715 544 Texas (McCombs) 25.3% 24.0% -0.3% 2,253 2,259 Georgia Tech 26% 21% -18.7% 362 445 Duke (Fuqua) 26% 24% -1.5% 3,452 3,506 Virginia (Darden) 26% 26% -9.8% 2,269 2,515 USC (Marshall) 27% 22% -7.9% 1,826 1,983 Cornell (Johnson) 27% 23% -10.5% 1,791 2,001 Texas A&M (Mays) 27.4% 23.0% -3.2% 554 537 UCLA (Anderson) 29% 29% +10.9% 2,727 2,458 Michigan (Ross) 32% 25% +7.6% 2,929 2,722 Emory (Goizueta) 35% 33% -6.7% 968 1,037 Michigan State 36% 29% -15.6% 508 602 SMU (Cox) 37% 35% +7.3% 606 565 UNC (Kenan-Flagler) 38% 36% -2.5% 1,720 1,764 Notre Dame 37% 33% -10.8% 969 1,086 Indiana (Kelley) 38% 42% -3.1% 1,179 1,217 Minnesota (Carlson) 41% 30% +19.0% 538 452 Brigham Young 52% 47% -15.8% 401 476 Source: Bloomberg BusinessWeek data from schools. Bold percentages indicate an increase in applications for a school. * indicates an estimate because the school declined to provide specific data. DON’T MISS: AN INTERVIEW WITH WHARTON’S MBA GATEKEEPER or HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL’S MBA GATEKEEPER Previous PagePage 2 of 2 1 2 © Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.