Meet the Georgetown MBA Class of 2016

Georgetown

McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

What do you get when you combine a race car driver, a former Saturday Night Live intern and an Olympic weightlifting coach? The potential cast of a daytime sitcom and a portion of this year’s incoming class of MBA students at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

McDonough prides itself on providing a global business education experience—from the professors to the internship placements to the students. The MBA class of 2016, which showed up on Aug. 13 for a three-week immersive course in global business, proves to be the fruit of the admissions and marketing department’s labor–and shows yet again that the top business schools continue to attract extraordinarily accomplished people.

“While bringing in a class with the highest average GMAT score in our history is important, it is equally as important to us to provide a learning environment for our students that includes diversity on numerous levels — ranging from culture, gender, and ethnicity to industries and experiences,” says Shari Hubert, McDonough’s associate dean and director of MBA admissions. “This is a key to providing a business education that both fits our Jesuit heritage and prepares students to work in a global marketplace.”

YALE ALSO REPORTING DIVERSITY AT OR NEAR ALL-TIME HISTORIC HIGHS

Hubert and cast are doing their jobs well. The stats of this year’s class have increased from last year’s in mean GMAT scores (688 to 691), median GMAT scores (690 to 700), U.S. minority groups (29 to 32%) and international students (from 34 to 41%).

The amount of international students and the number of countries they represent are both at an all-time high for Georgetown. Hubert said a broader international recruiting push, specifically into India, has led to students in this class from 39 countries. Over half of the class has non-native language proficiency, including even Mazandarani, spoken in Iran. Three fourths have non-native business and academic residency experience.

Yale's incoming MBA students in the Class of 2016

Yale’s incoming MBA students in the Class of 2016

Georgetown, moreover, is not alone in enrolling a class that is arguably its best ever. Yale University’s School of Management is also reporting that its diversity numbers are at or near historic highs for Yale. Some 39% of its entering class of MBAs are from outside the U.S., representing 35 different countries, while 37% are women, 25% U.S. minorities and 13% U.S. underrepresented minorities.

With an average GMAT score of 719, five points higher than a year earlier, and an average GPA over 3.5, Yale’s incoming MBA students are academically accomplished. Yale said that students hail from more than 150 different schools, the most common being Yale, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, the Indian Institute of Technology, and Princeton. The class includes university valedictorians, class presidents, and recipients of Rhodes, Fulbright, Soros, and Humanity in Action Scholarships and Fellowships.

Among the members of Yale’s new class is a former nationally #1 ranked table tennis player in England; someone who has participated in more than 50 plays and musicals as an actor, director, stage manager, or crew member; someone who was sponsored to play in the 2013 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event; many travelers, including one person who has visited more than 30 countries and another who has visited 26 countries and 47 U.S. states; someone who dived with great white sharks and bungee jumped over Victoria Falls in the same week; a semiprofessional skateboarder, and several mountain climbers.

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