Stanford GSB Retains Highest GMAT Average

Stanford University Graduate School of Business – Ethan Baron photo

Among the more noticeable shifts in Stanford’s class profile this year is a decline in students who come from consulting while those with work backgrounds in manufacturing and technology have increased. Consultants fell to just 16% of the incoming class, down four percentage points from 20% a year earlier and equal to the percentage of consultants enrolled at Harvard Business School this fall.

DECLINES IN STUDENTS WITH NON-PROFIT AND FINANCIAL SERVICE BACKGROUNDS

For the first time ever, Stanford GSB students with private equity and venture capital backgrounds now equal those from consulting. PE and VC students account for 16% of the class, up from 15% last year. Only Harvard, where 18% of this year’s incoming students come from private equity or venture capital, enrolled a higher percentage of PE/VC types among the elite MBA programs.

The highest compensation packages for MBAs are paid by private equity shops and venture capital firms, many of which require candidates to have previous experience in their industry. So the especially large group of those students virtually assures very strong salary and placement stats for future classes at both Harvard and Stanford.

Stanford said that 15% of the incoming students had worked for the technology industry, up two percentage points from 13% last year, while 4% hail from manufacturing, double the 2% in 2014. Students with backgrounds in the government, education and non-profit sectors total 13% of the class, while those in financial services account for 8% of the first-year MBAs, down from 10% last year.

FEWER STUDENTS WHO ALREADY HAVE ADVANCED DEGREES

Some 7% of this year’s class come from biotech, health care, consumer products or services (this year the school oddly merged these industry backgrounds), 6% from media or entertainment, 5% from clean tech, energy or environmental fields, 3% from the military, and another 3% from real estate.

In publishing the class profile on its website today, Stanford also noted that 48% of the incoming students have undergraduate degrees in humanities and social sciences, 39% in engineering, math and natural sciences, and 13% in business. Some 13% of the class already boasts an advanced degree, down from 19% for the previous entering class.

DON’T MISS: SNEAK PEAK AT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL’S CLASS OF 2017 or AVERAGE GMATS UP AGAIN AT WHARTON FOR CLASS OF 2017