MBA In Decline? Not At Top-Tier Schools

Applications, Class Size & Academic Quality For The Class of 2019

While the top tier has the highest yields, the next highest yields are at Tier 4 (ranks 51-130) schools while schools in Tiers 2 and 3 are at the bottom, with roughly equal yields.

The big takeaway? Yield by itself is not a good measure of the school’s quality because schools can obtain high yields by offering admission to less competitive applicants. The chart below also suggests that applicants self-segregate themselves into roughly three groups. The most ambitious group applies to the Top 20 schools in Tiers 1 and 2 and among these applicants Tier 1 schools mostly win the competition for applicants who have admission offers in both tiers. That is why the dark blue line dominates the light blue one.

The second group applies to Tier 3 schools ranked between 21 and 50, and the competition among these schools seems internal to the tier. The third and last group applies to Tier 4 schools, and the high admit rate in this tier implies that these schools don’t have to attract too many applications which keeps yield rates high.

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