Acceptance Rates At Top 50 MBA Programs

The schools, moreover, are drawing increasing numbers of applicants from overseas and from women. “As economies around the world struggle, and as social media transcends geographic borders, the thought of actually going overseas to improve one’s life at a leading business school becomes more appealing and achievable,” says Bauer. “A top MBA education is a proven hammer to crack the glass ceiling. As gender inequality grows as a social issue, the appeal of attending b-school to level the playing field only grows with it.”

And finally, he adds, those anxiety-inducing standardized tests have become a little bit less imposing. “Now that applicants can make a low GMAT score vanish by cancelling it, and those with lesser quant skills can opt for the GRE (which schools don’t currently report the average score for admits), standard testing has become more of a speed bump than a mountain. Individuals who previously would have been too intimidated to even take the test are now doing so – and doing well on it.”

PERCEPTION VS. REALITY COMES DOWN TO THE INDIVIDUAL APPLICANT

Whether it’s actually more difficult for a highly qualified candidate to get an acceptance at a top school is also an individual affair. “There are perceptions and then there is reality,” says Jeremy Shinewald, founder and CEO of mbaMission, another leading MBA consulting firm. “It seems counterintuitive but application numbers can go down and overall quality can still go up. Some potential applicants may be discouraged by the sky high GMAT averages and choose not to apply altogether, as an example. So the pool that is truly competing – submitting applications – is broadly speaking better than it ever has been, which is crowding out applicants who never even enter the fray.

“As for perceptions,” adds Shinewald, “it is inevitable that a few truly amazing applicants will be rejected and this leads to the belief that one needs to be a super-hero to get into a top school, which is of course, untrue. After a decision date, there are rumors, ‘Did you hear about the guy with the 780 GMAT, who worked at Tesla, who was rejected by all three programs he applied to?’ But, no one knows whether this person had terrible references or had poor interviews or was just the odd man out that year. Still, it fuels the perception which can obscure the numbers, too.”

Acceptance Rates Fall At The Top 25 U.S. MBA Programs

P&Q Rank	2015 Accept Rate	2015 Apps	2015 Admits	2015 Enrolled	2014 Accept Rate	2014 Apps	2014 Admits	2014 Enrolled
1. Harvard	10.7%	9,686	1,033	937	11.0%	9,543	1,053	935
2. Stanford	6.1%	7,899	485	407	7.1%	7,355	521	410
3. Chicago	24.4%	4,284	1,047	585	23.5%	4,175	982	583
4. Wharton	19.8%	6,590	1,302	856	20.7%	6,111	1,263	859
5. Kellogg	20.6%	4,300	887	492	23.2%	4,652	1,081	691
6. Columbia	18.0%	5,829	1,048	762	18.2%	5,799	1,056	743
7. MIT	14.6%	4,254	623	400	13.8%	4,735	652	406
8. Berkeley	13.0%	3,506	455	246	13.2%	3,475	459	241
9. Tuck	22.6%	2,585	584	286	22.1%	2,434	538	281
10. Yale	20.7%	3,449	713	326	23.7%	2,756	652	323
11. Duke	23.1%	3,424	792	450	25.1%	3,453	865	440
12. Darden	27.8%	2,579	718	334	26.0%	2,717	707	324
13. Michigan	28.3%	3,207	907	407	35.9%*	2,443	878*	447
14. UCLA	19.8%	3,533	699	372	17.8%	4,129	734	354
14. Cornell	32.4%	1,704	552	274	30.0%	1,858	557	293
16. NYU	20.0%	3,696	740	340	18.1%	3,890	706	344
17. UNC	33.8%	2,357	797	276	38.8%	1,912	741	281
18. Texas	29.7%	2,266	674	265	28.5%	2,130	608	270
19. Tepper	30.6%	1,698	519	208	31.2%	1,411	440	205
20. Emory	30.1%	1,384	417	166	30.7%	1,334	409	178
21. Indiana	29.2%	1,471	430	186	33.1%	1,232	408	186
22. Foster	25.6%	1,045	267	128	22.9%	1,025	235	105
23. Olin	30.1%	1,579	476	141	26.7%	1,685	450	139
24. Georgetown	43.3%	1,862	806	270	47.4%	1,649	782	270
25. Mendoza	40.5%	692	280	122	34.8%	735	256	129