Linkedin’s Goofy B-School Ranking

MBA Programs with the Most Females

Ever feel alone? Maybe a better word is “outnumbered.” Sure, there are people like you. But most of your peers really don’t understand what it’s like to be you. They pay lip service, sure. When push-comes-to-shove, they don’t take you seriously. They set the rules. They dominate the conversations. They can say what they want and pay what they want. But when you call them on it, they see you as weak or touchy. The wolf’s strength comes from the pack. And that’s what makes you so vulnerable.

Ah, gender disparity. In academia, time-and-time again, studies show that men grab the spotlight. Take law school, for example. Ten years ago, a study at Harvard Law study found that men were 50% more likely to speak during lecture (where women comprised 45% of the class). Maybe you can attribute that to men being more expressive or instructors being more partial to men. Chances are, it comes down to something more human. People are most comfortable around those who are most like them.

If you’re a woman, you understand that you’ll be outnumbered at business school going in. Chances are, only a third of your classmates will be women. And the same applies to faculty too. Talk about putting a damper on your networking prospects. So whichare the schools where women can be more of their female colleagues?

Well, let’s start in the south. At the College of Charleston, which boasts 36 full-time MBA students, 66.7% of the students are women. At $11,500 for tuition, it is among the least expensive MBA programs. And this cost is more than offset by average starting base salaries of $62,000 (not to mention a phenomenal three month placement rate of 97.1%). Overall, the student body is comprised of 11.1% international students (mainly from China) and 2.8% minority students. That said, the school is not overly picky, with a 58% acceptance rate (and an average GMAT of 591).

The University of North Carolina – Greensboro, with 44 students, follows closely behind at 65.9%. Like the College of Charleston, the school maintains a generous acceptance rate (74.2%) and modest GMAT averages (597). And it offers a low annual in-state tuition ($9,441 a year to be exact). However, it’s average starting salaries ($54,000) and three month placement rate (68%) lag far behind Charleston.

Duquesne and Truman State, which (like Greensboro) rank among the schools with the highest acceptance rates,  placed third and fourth among schools with the highest percentage of full-time female MBA students (though both carried even lower enrollments than Charleston and Greensboro).

The same, however, can’t be said for the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Among its 503 students, 43% of its students are women. And Haas, ranked 7th overall by U.S. News, is no pushover. It maintains a 13.2% acceptance rate (far lower than Wharton, Booth, and Kellogg). And its incoming GMAT score – 717 – is higher than MIT and Columbia. Not to mention, Berkeley grads average a starting salary and bonus of $140,935 – sixth highest among all full-time MBA programs ranked. If you’re looking to earn what the boys make, Haas is a good start.

Unfortunately, there are only two top 100 programs where women outnumber men (with the others being Louisiana State and the University of Tulsa. Among the top 15 full-time MBA programs, the discrepancy between men and women is even more jarring, with only Harvard (41.2%) and Wharton (40.9%) joining Haas in cracking the 40% threshold for women.

To see the percentage of women at the top 15 full MBA programs – and the schools with the highest percentage of women overall – go to the tables below.

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Source: U.S. News & World Report

Rank	School	Men	Women
1	Stanford University	61.0%	39.0%
2	Harvard Business School	58.8%	41.2%
3	Wharton	59.1%	40.9%
4	University of Chicago (Booth)	64.3%	35.7%
5	MIT (Sloan)	63.2%	36.8%
6	Northwestern University (Kellogg)	63.3%	36.7%
7	University of California-Berkeley-Haas	57%	43%
8	Columbia University	62.9%	37.1%
9	Dartmouth College (Tuck)	67.6%	32.4%
10	University of Virginia (Darden)	68.9%	31.1%
11	New York University (Stern)	61.9%	38.1%
11	University of Michigan (Ross)	68.2%	31.8%
13	Duke University (Fuqua)	66.6%	33.4%
13	Yale University	61.9%	38.1%
15	UCLA (Anderson)	66.5%	33.5%

Source: U.S. News & World Report

 

Rank	U.S. News Rank	School	Total Students	Percentage of Women
1	RNP	College of Charleston (SC)	36	66.7%
2	RNP	University of North Carolina-Greensboro (Bryan)	44	65.9%
3	RNP	Duquesne University (Donahue)	32	65.6%
4	RNP	Truman State (MO)	33	63.6%
	7	University of California-Berkeley (Haas)	503	43%
6	RNP	Howard University	57	61.4%
7	110	Claremont Graduate University (Druker)	110	58.2%
8	83	University of Tulsa (Collins)	42	54.8%
9	RNP	San Diego State University	300	54.3%
10	77	Louisiana State University	87	52.9%

Source: U.S. News & World Report