Average GMATs Up At Wharton Again

Locust Walk on a beautiful fall day  just outside the Wharton School of Business

Locust Walk on a beautiful fall day just outside the Wharton School of Business

WOMEN ALSO UP AT WHARTON TO 43% OF CLASS

In what is shaping up as another admissions race–the effort to enroll more women into top MBA programs–Wharton also said it increased the percentage of women in its incoming class to 43%, up from 40% last year. While the increase didn’t beat Wharton’s own record of nearly 45% of the incoming class in 2011, that level of representation would equal the current high mark achieved by UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business last year and Northwestern this year.

Both Kellogg and Booth have already reported increases in women, with Kellogg at 43% for this year’s class, up from 35% a year earlier, and Chicago Booth at 41%, up from 36%. Harvard had maintained its percentage of women at 41% for the Class of 2017.

Some 32% of Wharton’s new class is international, up slightly from 31% a year earlier. The non-U.S. contingent in the class represents 73 countries. Exactly the same percentage as last year–30%–will be U.S. students of color, a definition that includes Asian-Americans.

Wharton said the class averaged five years of full-time work experience, though the range varies from zero to a high of 16 years.

Wharton said the mix of industry backgrounds for its incoming students shifted somewhat. The school is taking in more consultants and investment bankers. This year, 23% of the class is coming from a consulting background, up three percentage points from 20% last year, while 11% of the class are investment bankers, up from 9% last year.

All told, MBA students with finance backgrounds will comprise 34% of the class–exactly the same percentage as last year. Wharton attracted fewer private equity and venture capital types this year. They make up 10% of the class, down two points from 12% a year earlier. Students from consumer packaged goods, health care and energy companies also were down a bit, comprising 10% of this year’s incoming class versus 12% last year.

As to undergraduate backgrounds, Wharton said that 42% of its incoming class have degrees in the humanities, while 29% have business undergraduate degrees, 25% have STEM degrees in science, technology, engineering and math, and 4% were classified as other.

DON’T MISS: RECORD GMAT SCORES AND WOMEN AT KELLOGG or SNEAK PEAK AT HARVARD’S CLASS OF 2017

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