Women & GMATs Fall At UC-Berkeley

After raising the percentage of women to a record 43% in last year incoming class, UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business saw a slight decline in women this year to 41%. The school also said the average GMAT for the Class of 2017 also slipped two points to 715.

Applications to Haas’ full-time MBA program climbed 3.4% to 3,592, from 3,475 a year earlier. Though the school did not provide an acceptance rate, the slight increase suggests that last year’s 13.2% selectivity rate will likely hold true for the 2014-2015 admissions season, making Haas one of the most highly selective MBA programs in the world.

The slight decline in women in the new class is not surprising. In the previous year, Haas successfully raised the representation of women by 14 full percentage points from only 29%. At 43% last year, Haas had more women in its MBA class than any other highly ranked business school. So far this year, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School have claimed leadership for enrolling the highest percentage of women in leading MBA programs: 43%.

FIRST HIGHLY SELECTIVE BUSINESS SCHOOL TO REPORT A DECLINE IN AVERAGE GMATs

Haas, which said the middle-80% range of accepted GMAT scores was 680 to 760, is the first school this year to report a decline in average class GMATs. At Wharton, Kellogg, and Chicago Booth, average GMAT scores have risen, in Kellogg’s case substantially. Harvard Business School’s median GMAT of 730 remained stable.

But Dean Rich Lyons has told Poets&Quants that the school turns down for admission more than 80% of the applicants in its pool with GMAT scores of 750 or above. “We are trying to find the most balanced candidates who bring a lot to the dynamics of a class,” he says. “The GMAT is just one element of the application.”

The school released its latest numbers with the publication of a class profile for this fall’s entering class.

Despite the slight dip in GMATs, the average undergraduate grade point average edged a wee bit higher at 3.66, up from 3.62 a year earlier. Haas said the middle-80% range of GPAs are 3.42 and 3.90. Haas said that the median age at enrollment is 28, with students having a median of five years of post-university work experience.

AN INCREASE IN INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN THIS YEAR’S INCOMING CLASS

The percentage of international students in this year’s incoming class rose two percentage points to a record 40%, with the average TOEFL score of 109. Class of 2017 students from overseas will represent 46 different countries. Haas classified 36% of the new students as “U.S. minorities,” a category that includes Asian Americans as well as Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

The largest single percentage of incoming students (24%) have racked up experience in consulting, with banking and financial services second at 19%. Students with industry backgrounds in consumer products and retail will represent 8% of the class, while both non-profit and military students each account for 6% of the class.

Surprisingly, considering the school’s Bay Area location, only 5% of the incoming MBA candidates have worked in high technology or electronics. Some 4% are from education, with another 4% from healthcare. Students from the energy field compose 3%, while government, entertainment and hospitality each claim 2% of the incoming MBAs.

THE MOST POPULAR UNDERGRADUATE MAJOR: BUSINESS

Business is the most popular major of the incoming class, with 26% of the students having majored in the subject, followed closely by economics, represented by 23% of the class. Exactly one in five–20%–boast undergraduate degrees in engineering, while 12% hail from social sciences and 9% from the humanities.

Some 13% of the class already have a master’s degree, while 1% boasts PhD degrees.

DON’T MISS: THE MBA GATEKEEPER TO BERKELEY’S HAAS SCHOOL or HAAS TO INCREASE CLASS SIZE BY 15%

Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below.