How MBA Acceptances Vary By Round

Round 3 MBA Acceptance Rate Ranking

This is the the same table as the first one but ranked by round 3 acceptance rate from highest to lowest. Some schools have a round 4 that I did not include, because the sample size was too small. I combined round 4 applications with round 3 except for Tuck because Dartmouth actually had a large number of round 4 applicants.

ROUND 3 RANK	SCHOOL	ROUND 1	ROUND 2	ROUND 3	ROUND 4
1	Kenan-Flagler	36%	40%	60%	–
2	Tepper	24%	38%	43%	–
3	Ross	41%	42%	38%*	–
4	Johnson	39%	36%	37%	–
4	Emory	26%	40%	37%	–
6	McCombs	38%	36%	28%	–
7	Tuck	28%	29%	22%	9%
8	NYU	29%	27%	21%
8	Duke	31%	33%	21%	–
10	Kellogg	26%	23%	20%*	–
11	Darden	32%	33%	16%	–
12	Booth	29%	25%	15%	–
13	Yale	24%	27%	9%	–
13	Anderson	26%	34%	9%	–
15	Haas	17%	17%	6%
16	Harvard	12%	6%	4%	–
17	Stanford	8%	5%	2%	–
18	Wharton	19%	16%	0%*	–
19	MIT	16%	11%	–	–
19	Columbia	23%	20%	–	–

The most surprising number is UNC Kenan-Flagler’s round 3 acceptance rate of 60%, which is significantly higher than that of round 1 and 2. I looked at the GMAT and GPA for each round to see if they would explain the high admissions in round 3, however they were both slightly lower than other rounds. I can’t explain why UNC round 3 acceptance rate is so high, but it is a great school to apply to in the third round.

By request, below is the GMAT, GPA and age for Harvard and Booth by round. Round 3 data does not have a ton of data, so take this with a grain of salt.

SCHOOL	VARIABLE	R1	R2	R3
Booth	GMAT	735	739	728
Booth	GPA	3.61	3.62	3.58
Booth	Age	27	28	29
Harvard	GMAT	735	728	720
Harvard	GPA	3.61	3.57	3.54
Harvard	Age	27	27	27

* Sample size is 30 or fewer applications.

Wayne Atwell’s data analysis are certainly entertaining

Author Wayne Atwell is a second-year MBA student at New York University’s Stern School of Business and a new guest contributor of Poets&Quants. Passionate about numbers and analysis, he analyzes info from GMAT Club forums, plugs them into Excel spreadsheets and comes up with all kinds of odds and stats. He blogs at MBADataGuru.com.

DON’T MISS: MBA INTERVIEW ACCEPTANCE RATES? or ACCEPTANCE RATES FOR THE TOP 20 SCHOOLS BY COUNTRY