Stanford: International Student Record

“The industry mix changed slightly, but the absolute number both of schools, (especially non-U.S. institutions), and of organizations represented, reached an all-time high,” Stanford said. “With our small class size, even two students can, and do, shift a percentage here or there. But the most relevant factor is that our candidate pool is ever-changing.”

The school said the average GMAT for the class was 729, down two points from the 731 average for the Class of 2013, while the range of scores for enrolled students was 550 to 790. At Harvard this year, the median GMAT was 730, while the range for enrolled students was 570 to 790. Harvard reports median numbers, while Stanford reports averages.

Work experience in the class increased slightly to 4.2 years from 4.0 years. “This is a peak for the last decade,” the school said. The amount of work experience for enrolled students ranged from zero to 14.1 years.

Some 46% of the class had undergraduate majors in the humanities and social sciences, 37% in engineering, math, and natural sciences, and 17% in business. “This year, a few more engineers and humanities majors joined the MBA program, with a handful fewer students who studied business,” the school said.

The largest single percentage of enrolled students come from consulting, which supplied 18% of the class, followed by private equity and venture capital (17%), and financial services 12% as well as government, military and non-profits (12%. Stanford said 11% boast a background in technology, 8% in consumer products and services, 7% in clean tech, energy and the environment, 4% in manufacturing, and 2% in biotech and health care.