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How COVID-19 Is Impacting B-Schools

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How COVID Fueled An MBA Application Surge

The coronavirus pandemic has wrought chaos on the U.S. and world economies, but for graduate business education, it has been a blessing in one very important way. Because while Covid-19 upended classroom strategies and devastated campus and co-curricular life — with a still-unknown impact on networking and career services — it has undeniably benefited B-schools by helping them turn around a prolonged slump in MBA applications. After a three-year slide, apps are up at most of the top 25 U.S. B-schools — and at some schools, they’re way up.

Coronavirus hit in March, shutting down campuses just as most schools were wrapping up their final admissions rounds of the 2019-2020 application cycle. That prompted most top schools to extend their final rounds or add new ones, as well as lower (or scratch) testing requirements — and the result for most was an app windfall: an average increase of 22.6% app volume, and more than 550 apps, at 21 schools, which in turn led to increased class sizes (in some cases record class sizes) at many.

Twelve schools enjoyed double-digit percentage increases in applications, led by USC’s Marshall School of Business, which saw an amazing 66.4% jump in apps; Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business, close behind at 63.4%; and CMU Tepper School of Business (60.2%), Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management (53.8%), and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School (43.8%).

“It’s definitely one for the books,” Danielle Richie, senior associate director of MBA admissions and student recruitment at Kenan-Flagler, said of the 2019-2020 cycle. “We increased the size of the class because we had so many strong, quality candidates that we really wanted to build a diverse class out of the increased pool.”

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Nov. 20: Another Top 25 MBA Program Is Waiving GMATs & GREs Indiana Kelley joins a growing list of test-optional MBA programs
Nov. 17: Michigan Ross Will Waive GMATs & GREs For MBA Applicants Due To COVID. Will also admit or waitlist all Round 1 MBA applicants
Nov. 17: Columbia Disciplines 70 MBA Students For COVID Violations. Student trip to Turks and Caicos during fall break sparked action
Nov. 17: A Covid Surge Causes Harvard Business School To Go Remote.. HBS had 24 positive COVID cases last week and 114 in quarantine
Nov. 15: How MBAs Can Strengthen Their Networks In The COVID Era. Wharton Analytics Accelerator event goes virtual for the first time
Nov. 12: Despite COVID, Global MBAs Still Mostly Satisfied With Degree: Poll. Teaching quality and degree’s value earn particularly high marks
Nov. 12: Pandemic Fears About B-School Enrollment Mostly Didn’t Pan Out. AACSB survey shows that many schools planning hybrid delivery went all-online
Nov. 10: Two-Thirds Of U.S., Global Business Schools Saw Application Growth In 2020. Annual GMAC poll shows deferments jumped but yield was flat at U.S. B-schools
Nov. 9: Harvard Business School To Boost Size Of Next Two MBA Classes. Will add a section to the Classes of 2023 and 2024, enrolling about 1,000 first-year MBA students
Nov. 8: Covid Stories: How This Stanford MBA Student Overcame A Triple Whammy Of Hardship. Covid-19 hit Dan Mandelman harder than most. After a leave, he’s back with a new outlook
Nov. 2: More Business Schools Going Test Optional This Year. More MBA programs open up waiver policies on standardized tests
Oct. 31: COVID Cases Among MBAs At Kellogg Now Total 17. At Northwestern University, COVID cases have more than tripled in the past two weeks
Oct. 29: Impact Of Covid Written Clearly In New Stern MBA Jobs Report. 2020 job offers & acceptances slip, but salaries climb faster
Oct. 28: Why Covid-19 Shouldn’t Pause Your MBA Plans. The future is looking much brighter for MBAs than it did this past spring
Oct. 23: Confirmed COVID cases climb at Northwestern University after Kellogg School shifted MBA classes online after an on-campus gathering initially resulted in four MBA students with positive cases. Confirmed students cases more than triple in the past seven days.
Oct. 22: Harvard University discloses that it will lose $90 million in executive education revenue this year in large part to coronavirus-related program cancellations and enrollment declines. Covid-19 hit Dan Mandelman harder than most. After a leave, he’s back with a new outlook
Oct. 19: Booth Report Offers A Window On The 2020 MBA Jobs Landscape. The report only accounts for 394 hires, which means nearly 200 members of the MBA Class of 2020 are as-yet-unhired, or at least unaccounted for. And that may be the biggest commentary of all on the pandemic’s effects on the MBA job market.
Oct. 17: Off-Campus MBA Gatherings Force Kellogg To Go Remote. Four MBA students tested positive and 50 more are in quarantine
Oct. 15: Party Pushes Chicago Booth To Remote Learning. More than 100 MBAs will quarantine for two weeks after ‘large gathering’
Oct. 12: Massive 54% Jump In MBA Apps At Northwestern Kellogg. Admission accommodations at the onset of the pandemic helped to fuel record applications and enrollment in Kellogg’s MBA program.
Oct. 5: The Secrets Of Kellogg’s Hybrid Learning Success. How the elite B-school’s teaching evolution makes a return to ‘how things were’ impossible
Sept. 30: Coronavirus Tangles Plans At China’s Premier B-School. About a quarter of MBAs will begin studies at CEIBS’ Zurich campus, a first for the school.
Sept. 26: First-Year MBA Reflects On Business School During COVID-19.
Sept. 25: The B-School Students Who Refused To Surrender To Covid-19. Six stories of B-school determination to overcome the challenges of a world pandemic
Sept. 21: Harvard Vs. Stanford: How They Virtually Welcomed MBAs To Campus. Virtual welcomes reinforce cultural stereotypes about HBS and the GSB.
Sept. 21: After MBA Hiring Drop-Off In 2020, A More Optimistic Outlook For 2021. A new GMAC survey shows recruiters’ estimation of MBA skills & value hasn’t dimmed
Sept. 19: UK B-Schools Ready To Contend With COVID This Fall. Reduced class sizes, frequent testing, and lots of hand gel among 5 schools’ preparations
Sept. 18: MIT Sloan’s MBA Program Goes Test-Optional This Year. Sloan says MBA applicants without a GMAT or GRE score will be reviewed ‘without negative inferences’
Sept. 17: Covid-19 Sparks B-School Budget Cuts: Survey. Some 65% of schools say their departmental budgets have been slashed since March
Sept. 16: After MIT Sloan Students Caught Partying, School Moves All Instruction Online. The temporary move made ‘with regret’ after reports of pandemic rulebreaking
Sept. 16: An MBA Program Built Around Global Travel Evolves In The COVID Era
Sept. 16: Half Of Residential MBAs Question The Value Of Online Learning
Sept. 15: The Rice Report: Recruiting Lessons Learned From Our New Virtual Reality
Sept. 12: Two Stunning Photos Of A Harvard Business School Classroom Show The Impact Of COVID. HBS installed 19 miles of plexiglass, put up 6,000 signs, & moved 5,000 pieces of furniture to prepare for a COVID fall
Sept. 2: Why You Should Apply For An MBA In The Midst Of COVID. Online classes and a weak MBA job market: Why it’s a perfect time to apply
Aug. 31: A Post-Virus Paradigm Shift For B-Schools? This School Has The Recipe. EGADE’s ‘Decalogue’ lists 10 guidelines for a more conscious model of doing business.
Aug. 28: Stanford GSB Dean Jon Levin On MBAs, COVID, Racial Injustice & The Future. Levin opens up in a podcast done with a Stanford alum
Aug. 24: Stanford GSB Will Now Start The Fall Quarter Mostly Online. Hopes to have a couple of outdoor in-person classes for first-year MBA students in leadership and ethics.
Aug. 20: Harvard bans all university-related travel for faculty and staff. University cuts off funding, including research budgets for faculty and doctoral students, that can be used for travel in any location—even if the COVID incidence rate in that location may be low, and even if the researcher already is in the region for personal or family reasons.
Aug. 19: Stanford GSB Inches Toward A Remote-Learning Autumn. In messages & meetings, leadership prepares students for an all-online quarter
Aug. 18: Another Top B-School Changes Course, Will Go Remote This Fall. On-campus coronavirus explosion forces UNC online; USC, Notre Dame, MSU have setbacks, too
Aug. 17: Despite Covid, The Incoming MBA Class At Berkeley Haas Has Already Bonded. Here’s How. Group creates Instagram filters to promote mask-wearing & social distancing during Week Zero
Aug. 17: How Yale SOM Is Going Hybrid For MBAs This Fall.
Aug. 13: More Than A Third Of 2021 MBA Employment Already Impacted By Covid-19. In survey, 36% report offers rescinded or changed, up from 20% for Class of 2020
Aug. 13: Harvard Business School Adopts A Parental Tone, Asking MBAs To Behave When Campus Reopens. Deans concede ‘the fragility of our endeavor’ to reopen during COVID
Aug. 11: This Survey Fully Captures MBA Discontent In The Age Of COVID Eight Powerpoint slides that tell a story of MBA frustration & disappointment
Aug. 10: Wharton MBA Admits & Second Year MBAs Say School Is Failing Them Due To Pandemic-Caused Changes In The Delivery Of The MBA Program
Aug. 5: Wharton R1 Applicants Can Apply Without Immediate GMAT & GRE Results. Giving some applicants more than a month longer to submit a GMAT or GRE
Aug. 3: A ‘Silver Lining’ For MBAs During The COVID Recession. Some 85% of business schools now expect employer info sessions to be 100% virtual.
July 31: Wharton Ditches Plans For A Fuller Hybrid Re-Opening In The Fall & Will Offer Mostly Online Classes.
July 31: Harvard Business School Moving All MBA Admissions Interviews For The 2020-2021 Application Cycle Online. Putting face-to-face interviews on campus on hold due to COVID-19.
July 29: Georgetown University and its McDonough School of Business will be fully online this fall. The school had planned to use a hybrid approach to instruction.
July 22: UCLA Anderson To International MBA Admits: No Deferrals. School says it would be unfair to decide MBA deferrals on a case-by-case basis.
July 21: UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business reverses plans for a hybrid opening and will begin the fall semester with fully remote instruction due to increasing cases of COVID-19 in the community. Berkeley says it will continue to prepare for select in-person activities as soon as public health conditions allow..
July 21: Harvard Expects On-Campus MBAs To Take COVID Tests Every Three Days. Self-administered nasal swab tests will be done in Harvard Stadium
July 20: Fall 2020 Reopening Plans At The Top 100 U.S. Business Schools
July 16: Stanford Opens Door To Deferrals For International MBA Admits. Policy change due to difficulty of students to obtain visas to come to the U.S.
July 15: How Yale Brought Its First MBA Students Back To Campus. The pandemic forced a rethinking of in-person classes
July 9: A B-School Produces A Video Showing What Campus Life Will Now Be Like. At Spain’s IE Business School, thermal imaging cameras & robots to disinfect classrooms
July 6: Harvard Business School Decides Against Starting Fully Online. Plans hybrid return but the MBA student experience will vary from student to student with every possible permutation.
July 6: Georgia Tech Scheller Faculty Push Back Against Reopening Plans
July 1: The University of Texas-Austin has announced that it will offer both in-person and virtual instruction this fall and will require face coverings in indoor facilities to slow the spread of coronavirus. All courses will be either in-person, online, or in hybrid format throughout the university, including at the McCombs School of Business. “To the entire UT community, I look forward to seeing many of you back on campus in the fall,” Jay Hartzell, dean of the McCombs School and interim UT-Austin president, wrote June 29. “For those of you who stay home and learn or work remotely, just know that you will be every bit as much a part of Longhorn Nation as you have always been.”
June 26: Harvard Business School says it will end its daily coronavirus updates. Plans to publish updates twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
June 26: Britain’s Business Schools Plan To Reopen In Fall. Here’s How. Hybrid, yes, but some schools are pushing back start dates, one by three full months.
June 25: At-Home GMAT Can Now Be Taken Until Aug. 14, GRE Until Sept. 30. Test-takers can now take advantage of extended appointments.
June 12: Stanford GSB Plans To Start And End Its First Autumn Quarter Early. School asks first-year MBAs to be on campus by Sept. 4 for its blended online and in-person start to the new school year.
June 11: Emory University Goizueta Business School has announced its plan for fall MBA classes: Classes will start early and finish before Thanksgiving. Goizueta School faculty will deliver a mix of in-person, hybrid, and remote classes, beginning August 19 and wrapping up November 24. Because of the condensed schedule, classes will be held on Labor Day, Rapp writes, and there will be no fall break. Finals will be held remotely in December.
June 8: MBA Classes This Fall: Daily Temperature Checks, Masks, Plexiglass & Smaller Classes. IMD in Switzerland began in-person MBA classes today. Here’s how it went.
June 4: Survey: 9 in 10 B-Schools Have Seen MBA Hiring Freezes. MBA group finds tech, healthcare & financial services have escaped the freeze better than other industries
June 2: Harvard Business School’s Next MBA Class Will Be More Than 200 Students Short. HBS expects to enroll a class of only 720 MBA students this fall
June 1: Exclusive Study: Nearly Half Of MBA Employment Start Dates Delayed Almost 40% know someone at their B-school who had a job offer rescinded.
May 27: With Internships Being Disrupted, Michigan Ross Launches A Consulting Corps.
May 27: Exclusive Survey: Most MBA Summer Internships Impacted By Pandemic
May 27: IESE Business School says it plans to gradually resume in-person classes at its Madrid and Barcelona campuses starting from this coming June 15. In New York, IESE expected to offer normal classroom instruction beginning in September. The school says it will place emphasis on “controlled campus access and widespread testing, to minimize any risk of infection.”
May 21: Haas & Anderson Plan To Open Campus This Fall With Hybrid Formats. But students should expect testing, contact tracing, face masks & social distancing
May 21: Cambridge Judge Business School will welcome students to campus after all — A BBC report which led to some confusion about the university’s plans earlier in the week has been clarified. Plans mix of small in-person classes, with social distancing, and online learning to its first term for MBAs in October.
May 19: London Business School plans to open its campus on Sept. 7 with online classes and will then move to a hybrid model starting Sept. 21.
May 15: INSEAD will push back the start date for its next class from the end of August to October 5, after the French government announced it would permit on-site teaching from Sept. 1. “We believe an October start date will provide plenty of time for arrival, quarantine, and settling in before commencing Launch Week in late September, wrote Urs Peyer, dean of degree programs, in an email. To accommodate the change, the school is reducing its core curriculum and extending the final period of the program into July so MBAs can take more electives then. INSEAD said it is waiting for word from the government in Singapore before resuming classes on its campus there.
May 14: Columbia Business School today said it is planning a hybrid model for its incoming class this August with both in-person and virtual learning for those who may not be able to get to campus in time. In a webinar for admission consultants, CBS said it is examining classroom space for social distancing options as well as exploring spaces off-campus for potential face-to-face classes. CBS is the second major MBA program after Wharton to announce that it is going forward with a blended model.
May 13: UC-Berkeley Haas Launches Undergrad-To-MBA Pipeline Without A GMAT or GRE Score.
May 13: Big Impact: Coronavirus To Hasten The Rise Of MBA ‘Alternatives.’ Covid-19 is ushering In a new era of flexibility, according to annual study
May 11: Business Schools Continue To See Cancelled Internships, Hiring Freezes. A survey of MBA career offices shows a short-term bleak trend.
May 8: Yale SOM To Keep Tuition Rates Stable Due To The Economic Disruptions Caused By The Pandemic. Will forego a previously announced 3.25% rise in tuition
May 7: Half Of B-Schools Expect Enrollment To Decline In 2020 due to the health crisis and recession. One in five schools predict an enrollment drop of at least 10% this year.
May 7: Bloomberg Businessweek Agrees To Cancel Its MBA Ranking This Year. The magazine’s decision comes after the Graduate Management Admission Council led an effort to get ranking organizations to take a rankings pause due to the disruptions caused by the pandemic.
May 6: Candidates preferring an MBA seem to be consistently reporting more concern about the job market, according to a GMAC survey snapshot. Though nearly a month old, concern skyrocketed from just 13% in mid-March to 53% in the middle of April.
GMAC snapshot survey
May 6: How Coronavirus Has Impacted Part-Time MBA Programs.
May 5: Harvard Business School May Increase Class Size In 2021 To Accomodate This Year’s Deferrals & An Expected Increase In MBA Applications Next Cycle As The Recession Takes Hold
May 4: Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business has announced that it plans to welcome students to campus in Hanover, New Hampshire in the fall as scheduled. Deferments will be handled on a case-by-case basis, says Luke Anthony Peña, director of admissions.
May 1: GMAC Launches At-Home Executive Assessment Test. Test Takers can sit for the exam in their homes or offices starting May 5th.
May 1: Georgetown University McDonough School of Business has moved the start date of its Master in Management program from July 6 to August 24. The school also has extended the application deadline to July 1.
April 29: Wharton To Have Blend Of In-Person, Virtual MBA Classes In The Fall. Following Harvard Business School’s lead, Wharton will also give a deferral to every MBA admit who asks for one.
April 28: London Business School is extending its Round 4 deadline of April 22 to June 4. Admissions Chief David Simpson made the announcement at the CentreCourt MBA Festival. IESE Business School also giving applicants until early June on a rolling basis. Also announced at CentreCourt.
April 28: HBS says it will grant a deferral to every MBA admit who wants one and opens the door to enrolling a smaller class this fall. In a private webinar for admitted applicants, Dean Nitin Nohria asked admits to take a “leap of faith” and come to HBS whether the fall semester starts online, in the physical classroom or something in-between.
April 27: HBS To Add ‘Flexibility’ To MBA Withdrawal Policy. Harvard is also planning more financial help for returning MBAs
April 27: The University of California-Berkeley Haas School of Business has added a Round 3 extended deadline of June 1 for its full-time MBA program. The normal Round 3 deadline of April 2 has already passed but applicants impacted by COVID-19 have an extra two months to gather necessary materials. Extended Round 3 deadline applicants will receive a decision on July 2.
Stanford GSB Dean Jonathan Levin

April 26: Stanford GSB says it plans to start the fall quarter on schedule in September, and to enable students to live in the GSB residences. “Our intent is to work toward in-person instruction and social activity, putting in place precautions and protocols to ensure the safety of the community,” writes GSB Dean Jon Levin. “We hope to have expanded testing, contact tracing, and isolation protocols that will limit the number of infected people interacting in the community. Stanford continues to ramp up testing capacity, and is looking to health monitoring apps to enable contact tracing. These are important both for restarting campus research and in-person education.”
April 24: In a move that will cause reverberations across the graduate business education universe, Harvard Business School has announced that it will offer deferment to incoming MBAs should they decide against attending fall classes that may be taught partially or entirely online because of the coronavirus pandemic. In an email to accepted applicants, MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Director Chad Losee and Jana Kierstead, executive director of the MBA and doctoral programs, write that admits will have a window between May 15 and June 1 to request a deferral to start the full-time MBA program in 2021 — or even later — instead of this fall. “We realize that the world has changed significantly since you applied — your employment, health, visa, or financial situation (or that of your families) may have shifted in the past few months,” Losee and Kierstead write. “To provide you as much flexibility as possible, we will consider allowing you to defer your offer of admission.”
April 24: The University of California-Berkeley Haas School of Business has launched an MBA summer internship stimulus fund. Once first-year MBAs have a written job offer for a paid summer internships, they can apply for a $5,000 living stipend from the Haas School. The $5,000 packages will be offered to qualifying MBAs from the full-time and evening and weekend programs on a “first-come, first-serve” basis.
April 23: The Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia announced an alternate start date in January for members of the Class of 2022 who need additional time due to student visas or travel restrictions as well as domestic students who have “altered professional or personal circumstances” due to the pandemic. The delayed start option is for a limited portion of the incoming class which will start first year core classes in January 2021, but will begin other Darden activities such as career support ahead of their arrival. “Those with a January start will take first year classes into summer 2021, before completing an abbreviated summer internship or field project. Upon returning to Grounds for the Second Year in August 2021, all students will merge onto the same schedule and graduate together.”
April 23: Amid Controversy, GMAC Rolls Out A Practice Whiteboard For Its At-Home GMAT. It’s now available on the GMAT website along with a tutorial on how to use the virtual tool during the exam
April 23: The Graduate Management Admission Council Leads A Call For A Pause In MBA Rankings. Joined by AACSB and EFMD, the leaders of those three organiations are asking U.S. News, the Financial Times and other major ranking organizations to postpone their work on thei rrankings and the publication of their lists due to the pandemic.
April 22: The Graduate Management Admission Council has canceled its big annual conference in Baltimore and is instead doing a virtual event on June 18 and 19th. GMAC has discounted the registration fee to $849 for the online alternative.
April 22: IESE Business School in Barcelona will accept applications to its MBA program beyond its final May 5th deadline on a rolling basis. The school said it would begin to process applications without a GMAT, GRE or TOEFL “until the situation is back to normal. Final admission decision will come once the score is presented.” IESE has cancelled all in-person admission events, including its assessment days for invited candidates.
April 22: HBS Expects Revenue To Plunge $115 Million, Causing A $22 Million Loss — Severe fall in executive education revenue among other operations hit by the pandemic-induced recession.
April 22: The Economist is delaying the deadline for its MBA ranking survey to business schools to alleviate pressure on B-school staffs for providing information to the publication. The annual ranking typically comes out at the end of October.
April 20: For the first time ever, prospective MBA students take the GMAT exam in their own homes. Here’s a detailed account of a professional test-taker who sat for the exam today.
April 20: UVA Darden announces plans for a virtual degree ceremony in May with in-person final exercises later. The virtual celebration is set for May 16th. The university is holding the weekend of Oct. 9-11 for the in-person exercises. “Because we do not yet know whether it will be safe to have a large gathering in October, we are also holding May 28-30, 2021, as a backup, which is the weekend after the Class of 2021 will walk the Lawn,” said UVA President Jim Ryan.
April 17: COVID-19 Survey Of B-Schools Shows Recruitment Standstill: 79% of schools report reductions in internship hires, 60% report employers rescinding internship offers, 45% report delays in internship start dates
April 16: Harvard Business School freezes pay of faculty and exempt staff and eliminates morale and rewards and recognition budget to bring costs in line with falling revenue.
April 16: Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business is delaying the start of its fall semester for both full-time and flex MBA programs to Sept. 8 from July 27. “We also are hopeful this maximizes our ability to open the year in person for these students,” a spokesperson says. “It also will give new students more time to relocate and, for international students, to secure their visas. Returning students will have more time to complete internships that may have had a delayed start and to settle back into the school year. ” The school will also accept expired test scores as well as the Executive Assessment, LSAT, and MCAT for MBA admission in round four which closes on June 24.
April 16: The University of Texas-Austin McCombs School of Business will offer standardized test waivers to MBA applicants across all of its MBA programs for applicants directly affected by COVID-19. Applicants who have been diagnosed with coronavirus or have had immediate family members diagnosed can apply for a test waiver. In addition, applicants living in a country where standardized testing is not available online or have had at-home technological issues taking the tests can also apply for a waiver. McCombs will also accept applications from U.S. and Canadian citizens to its full-time MBA program on a rolling basis until all spots are filled after the Round 4 deadline of April 28. Round 4 is also only open to U.S. and Canadian residents.
April 16: MBA Applicants Express Frustration Over The New At-Home GMAT Even Before It Can Be Taken. Controversy stems over the use of a virtual whiteboard and a ban scratch paper or physical whiteboards while test takers do the virtual version of the test.
April 15: Kellogg’s Chief MBA Gatekeeper Explains Why The School Is Waiving GMATs and GREs through its extended round and allowing applicants earlier rejected to appeal the decision in this admissions cycle
April 14: The At-Home GMAT Can Be Taken Starting April 20. The cost of the test will be slashed to $200 from $275 in the U.S. and will not include the 30-minute section on analytical writing.
April 14: Enter The Rank-Climbers’: The Newest MBA Applicants During The Pandemic
April 14: Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management will offer a test waiver for the GMAT/GRE/TOEFL/IELTS for applicants submitting Round 3 applications. Kellogg has already extended its Round 3 deadline to June 1 from April 8 for its full-time MBA program. Kellogg also said that candidates who had been either waitlisted or denied in Rounds 1 or 2 will be able to submit an appeal to have their applications reconsidered. “We know that the online options for the GMAT and GRE that became available recently do not accommodate everyone and present the added challenges of studying in a crunched timeline,” said admissions chief Kate Smith. “Nothing about the disruption you are experiencing should hold you back. So we’re removing what you and your future classmates have identified as a potential barrier to finalizing your applications in time for the extended deadlines.”
April 14: Duke University Fuqua School of Business has added a fourth admissions round for its full-time MBA. The deadline for the new round is May 19, up from March 11.
April 13: Harvard MBA students join a growing number of students across the world in petitioning for a tuition refund after courses moved to online-only during the spring 2020 semester amid the coronavirus pandemic. At Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, about 80% of MBAs have signed a petition and that number is nearing 1,000 MBAs at The Wharton School.
April 10: An AACSB survey of more than 300 business schools found that administrators are more likely to agree that their faculty were willing and able to transition online than to agree that students had transitioned comfortably due to the coronavirus pandemic. One big concern: the financial impact of reduced student enrollments.
April 10: Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management announced changes to its executive MBA admissions, including now accepting the GRE along with the GMAT and EA. The program also will allow prospects to provide expired GMAT and GRE scores. The Owen School also will offer conditional admission to qualified candidates pending submission of an official test score.
April 9: Harvard Business School encourages students to consult a new website that projects country-by-country and state-by-state what to expect in terms of hospital resource use (beds, ICU beds, and invasive ventilators), deaths per day, and total deaths. The forecasts by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation are sobering. It predicts that deaths from COVID-19 will surpass the 2,000 per day mark in the U.S. today and peak at 2,212 on April 12. It won’t fall below 2,000 deaths per day until April 18th.
April 9: The Wisconsin School of Business is waiving the GMAT or GRE for MBA candidates who apply with five or more years of work experience with a GPA of 3.3. The school also will waive the test for applicants with a terminal degree, including a JD, MD or PhD. The R5 deadline is July 1.
April 8: More than 70% of U.S.-based college presidents responding to a survey are considering laying off staff amid fears of an economic hit resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. According to the same survey, 70% of college presidents also expect a revenue decrease of 10% or more for fiscal year 2021.
April 8: Two UK business schools, Imperial College Business School and Alliance Manchester Business School, have announced changes related to their MBA programs. Imperial has relaxed requirements around GMAT/GRE test scores to apply for the Full-Time MBA and MSc International Management programs to allow candidates to submit an application without their score, and also will offer conditional offers to the program where necessary. Alliance is continuing to offer both their Global MBA and Full-Time MBA to applicants. For the Global MBA, applications are continuing virtually, and those who are offered places for the July intake will also have the opportunity to defer their studies to January 2021 at no additional cost if they choose to not start their MBA studies in July.
April 8: Acknowledging that the lockdown ordered by France and many other European countries to tackle the spread of COVID-19 has hit some students extremely hard, KEDGE Business School has decided to take extraordinary action by releasing €100,000 from its emergency funds to help students facing significant financial difficulties relating to the health crisis. The €100k will be used to provide financial support to KEDGE students who find themselves in highly precarious positions as a result of the crisis.
April 7: Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business says it is prepared to start students online if they are unable to make it to campus in Durham, North Carolina by September 3. “Our goal is to offer an option in which individuals can begin the program online, with their classmates who are on campus, and then join everyone in Durham as soon as they are able,” the school’s site says.
April 7: UNC Kenan-Flagler will delay the official start of its full-time MBA program to Aug. 31 from Aug. 3 and has extended the Round 4 MBA program deadline through July 13 from the original April 6 R4 cutoff. Admission decisions will be made on a rolling basis. GMAT/GRE waivers are available for new applicants who also can submit other standardized test scores (e.g., SAT/ACT/LSAT/MCAT/etc.). For those receiving waivers, formal offers of admission may be based on the successful completion of an Analytical Skills Workshop prior to the start of the program.
April 7: MIT’s Sloan School of Management is extending its round three MBA application deadline of April 9th by 66 days to June 15th. Decisions will be made on a rolling basis. Applicants who apply by the original R3 deadline will receive a decision by May 7.
April 7: Washington University’s Olin Business School is pushing back its start date for full-time MBAs two full months from June 23 to August 24. After a recent retooling of its full-time MBA program, Olin now normally begins its program with a global immersion trip that runs for a month-plus during July and August. That trip will be shifted to the 2021 spring semester. “As a global business school, we’re continuing to press forward with our commitment to a global business experience for our incoming full-time MBA students,” Olin Dean Mark Taylor said in a statement. “We’re also practicing what we preach, as agile business leaders who respond to global circumstances. We’re shifting our three-continent global immersion from the summer of 2020 to the spring of 2021, with full-time MBA students starting the program on August 24. They’ll engage in the global immersion to Washington, D.C., Barcelona, Paris and Lima in the spring.”
April 7: Rutgers Business School is adding a round five deadline of July 5, 65 days beyond its original May 1 R4 cutoff date. Yet, after that date, Rutgers said it would still accept applications on a rolling basis. The school also said it would be willing to waive the application fee for its MBA program and make merit scholarships available to qualified applicants through July 5.
April 6: Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business is waiving MBA application fees through July 31. Tepper will also include a new rolling admissions round from June 1 to July 31. CMU will also admit some applicants with “robust quantitative backgrounds” without GMAT or GRE scores but those admitted will need to successfully complete the Tepper Mathematics Prep course, attend the Math Skills Workshop, and maintain at least a 3.0 GPA in the first semester. Tepper is also reducing deposit amounts to hold a seat in the class this fall.
April 6: Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business has announced a new Rice MBA Early Admit Program for undergraduate seniors. For those applying by the June 30 deadline, SAT or ACT scores may be submitted in lieu of GMAT or GRE scores. Applicants wanting to submit GMAT or GRE scores can apply by June 30 without test scores but must submit GMAT or GRE scores by July 31.
April 4: Some 29% of employers plan on moving their summer internships to a virtual format, according to an ongoing survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). When NACE first began conducting the survey in mid-March, less than 2% of employers indicated they’d move summer internships to online only.
April 3: At-Home GRE Can Now Be Taken Worldwide. So far several thousand prospective students have taken the test in the past week.
April 3: The University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business is adding an additional round of application deadlines for several of its graduate degree programs in response to challenges posed to prospective students by the coronavirus pandemic. The new deadline for the Mendoza one-year MBA is April 14, and for the two-year MBA May 1, with rolling admissions through June 15.
April 3: The University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business will be providing a standardized testing waiver process for applicants to its full-time MBA program. Those applying to the program by June 1, which is the final deadline, will not have to submit a GMAT or GRE. “The GMAT or GRE is an important assessment, but we review candidates holistically,” Pasquale Quintero, senior director of full-time MBA and specialty master’s programs at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business said in a statement from the school. “We will take into consideration academic history, work experience, industry certifications, and other factors that will strengthen one’s application.” More information can be found here.
April 2: Remote instruction could last longer than originally expected if Stanford University’s move today is any indication. The school said that its summer quarter will be online only, and the university does “not expect to be able to offer on-campus residential programs this summer.” Stanford is also freezing faculty and staff salaries, while the university president and provost take voluntary base pay cuts of 20% each
April 2: Stanford’s Graduate School of Business is postponing the start of the 2021 MSx program, scheduled to begin this summer. “Limits on travel and visa processing played a key role in this decision, as well as the possibility of continuing restrictions on gathering,” said Dean Jonathan Levin. “We are in communication with admitted students as we look to potential start dates later in the year.” All in-person Executive Education courses have been canceled through June 15.
April 2: Effective immediately, Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business will waive some standard application requirements, most notably the GMAT/GRE, for all graduate programs beginning May 2020 and August 2020. Additionally, the school will extend its Fall 2020 deadline for MBA and Master of Science applications to Monday, August 2, 2020.
April 1: UCLA’s Anderson School of Management is extending its round three deadline to June 1 from April 16th. Candidates who file by the original R3 deadline will receive a decision as planned by May 21. Otherwise, decisions will be released on a rolling basis through July 6. UCLA said it would evaluate apps without a score but cannot issue a final decision until a GMAT or GRE score is in.
April 1: The University of Michigan Ross School of Business has extended its full-time MBA round 3 deadline to May 29 from March 30th and will accept online GMAT/GRE test scores. Final deadline for applications to the Master of Management is June 1, and July 1 for domestic applicants to the Master of Accounting and Master of Supply Chain Management programs. The Ross online MBA application deadlines have also been extended, with a final deadline of June 15, with limited GMAT/GRE waivers available for some candidates applying to start in Fall 2020.
April 1: Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business will accept applications to its MBA program 57 days beyond its round four deadline on April 27th. The last day to submit an application will now be June 24 with decisions based on a rolling basis. For its R4 deadline and beyond, moreover, the school said it would accept an Executive Assessment score or an LSAT or MCAT score in lieu of a GMAT or GRE–as well as an expired GMAT or GRE test result.
April 1: The University of Minnesota’s Carlson School is adding a new admissions round, allowing MBA applicants an extra 60 days to apply by June 1, up from its original final deadline of April 1.
April 1: Study: A majority of deans believe COVID-19 will accelerate B-school closures, with a fifth of them predicting that 10% to 20% of business schools will shutter.
March 31: Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business officially announces it will accept applications on a rolling basis after its April 15 deadline up until June 1. Poets&Quants had previously reported the change. Kelley will also accept applications without standardized test scores but those scores must be submitted before a final decision is made.
March 31: Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management will now include a Round 3 application extension. The R3 deadline remains April 8, but after that, the school will move to a rolling admissions cycle until June 1, according to Senior Director of Admissions Renee Cherubin. Kellogg will also accept GMAT and GRE scores submitted through virtual testing.
Andrew Ainslie, Dean of the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business

March 30: Making The Case for Business School, Right Now. Andrew Ainslie, dean of the Simon School at the University of Rochester, argues that there has never been a better time to apply to a top-ranked MBA program. “Apply NOW, and apply to schools that a year ago you couldn’t dream of getting into. This is the opportunity of a lifetime to get an extraordinary education.”
March 30: A Third Of Fall 2020 Admits May Defer; Nearly Half Want Tuition Reduction. A Poets& Quants survey of nearly 800 registered users found that a third of prospective students already admitted to top business schools say they may want to defer their admission this year if classes fail to return to campus in the fall. Even more worrisome for B-schools, 43% believe tuition fees should be cutback by an average of 37.5% if the first part of their MBA program is shifted online due to the pandemic.-
March 30: Duke University Fuqua School of Business has pushed back the start date for its full-time MBA program to Aug. 31st from July 28th when orientation was set to begin. The school also postponed graduation ceremonies for a year. The change to start dates was made “because of the combination of delays in visa processing along with appropriate social distancing practices,” the school announced. The school’s graduation ceremonies will now occur a few weeks after Duke-wide ceremonies take place in early May 2021.
March 30: After 47 years of live performances, the Harvard Business School Show will move online on April 15th at 7 p.m. EST. One of the school’s longest-running traditions, the HBS Show is written, produced and performed by MBA students. The theme for this year’s online show will be James Bond: From Allston With Love.
March 27: The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business extended its R3 deadline by more than three months to July 15th from April 6th with the explicit reason to enlarge this year’s MBA applicant pool. “We have just come off one of the most robust job markets of the post-World War II era and now there is a greater degree of uncertainty for some people,” Dean Scott Beardsley says. “Maybe now is a good time to go back to school. I think an MBA will be a very strong option for many people who are unsure of what will happen in the next few years. For some people, the opportunity costs of attending school have just dropped. So we want to be able to be here for some of those outstanding people.”
March 27: A leaked document from a top U.S.-based business school to P&Q revealed companies that are currently freezing or rescinding internship and job offers. Notable companies that are freezing or rescinding internship and job offers include AB inBev, Adobe, Delta, Mariott, NBC Sports, and StubHub. Even tech giant Facebook is canceling internship interviews, according to the document which was built by the school’s Career Management Center after discussions with employers and other top MBA programs in the U.S.
March 27: MIT Sloan will consider round three applications to its MBA program without a test score. The school also is accepting expired GRE or GMAT scores. But if you gain an admit, your admission will be conditional “upon achieving a certain test score” set forth in your decision letter.
March 26: The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business decided it will accept MBA applications for an extra eight weeks beyond its existing April 2nd round three deadline through May 31. Decisions for this extended application period will be released on a rolling basis. Booth also will begin an initial review of apps without test scores, agreeing to accept a GMAT or GRE through July 1. But will not make any admissions decisions until the required scores are received.
March 26: Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management announced a new application round with a deadline of May 15. Whitman will also accept Duolingo English tests in lieu of the TOEFL test.
March 26: Prospective students in select areas can now take the TOEFL test at home. ETS, the company that creates and administers the TOEFL test will use ProcterU to conduct remote monitoring.
March 25: The At-Home GMAT: What To Expect. This week’s news of a shift from test center to home is upping the stakes for prospective students waiting to take the tests. “In terms of the volume of questions I’m getting, it rivals the change from paper to computer,” says Stacey Koprince, content and curriculum lead at Manhattan Prep, the well-known test prep firm. “Everybody is talking about and everyone is concerned about it. And this is already a stressful experience in general.”
March 25: Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management will accept GMAT or GRE test scores up until June 1 for candidates who apply by its April round deadline of April 8 for its two-year MBA program. Applicants to its one-year MBA option who meet the April 15th deadline have until April 30th to submit a test score. Otherwise, their application will move to the 2020-2021 admissions season.
March 25: UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business has added a round 4 admissions deadline of May 4th with decisions on June 4. Those without a test score yet are encouraged to apply in the late-round and to take advantage of the ‘GRE at Home’ and forthcoming GMAT online options.
March 25: Emory University’s Goizueta Business School has extended the application deadline for its One-Year MBA to April 15 and its Two-Year MBA to July 1 from March 20th. Application fees also will be waived.
March 24: UVA’s Darden School announces the most sweeping admission changes of any business school to date. The school effectively opens admissions to candidates who had no plans to apply this cycle. The school says it would now accept undergraduate entrance exam scores on the SAT and ACT in lieu of a GMAT or GRE, “transition” its round three deadline of April 6 by more than three months to July 15th and even nudge writers of recommendation letters on behalf of candidates.
March 24: Stanford Graduate School of Business will maintain its round 3 deadline of April 8 but will allow applicants to submit unofficial test scores with the expectation that an official score is received up until Aug. 1. If an applicant cannot submit a score before Stanford posts decisions on May 21 and is considered a competitive applicant, the GSB may invite you to join the wait pool until the school receives a score.
March 24: The Yale School of Management announced that it is extending its round 3 deadline by six weeks to May 27. Applicants who submit complete materials by April 14 will still receive admission decisions on May 19. Those submitting applications on April 14 will also receive a standardized test score extension of 10 days to April 24th.
March 24: The Wharton MBA Admissions office has extended its Round 3 deadline by two weeks to provide applicants with additional flexibility in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. The new MBA application deadlines are Wednesday, April 15 for Round 3 and May 27 for Advance Access, both moved up from April 1.
March 24: Harvard University President Lawrence S. Bacow and his wife, Adele, have tested positive for COVID-19. In an email to the Harvard community, Bacow wrote that he and his wife learned Tuesday afternoon that they tested positive after experiencing coughs, followed by fevers, chills, and muscle aches on Sunday. “We were tested yesterday and just received the results a few minutes ago,” Bacow wrote. “We wanted to share this news with all of you as soon as possible.”
March 24: The University of Washington’s Foster School of Business has added a round 4 application deadline of May 19th. Candidates will get a decision in that round on July 10.
Harvard Business School. Photo by John A. Byrne

March 23: Harvard Business School moves all of its MBA classes to remote instruction today. Dean Nitin Nohria says that more than 125 faculty members teaching classes this spring “have learned from experienced colleagues to leverage the Zoom platform for effective case-method teaching. Dozens more have volunteered to step in should a colleague need help.” On V-Day, which quickly became the lingo for the shift to virtual, 54 classes transitioned online, with two experiencing issues getting started, a handful experiencing difficulty with the breakout rooms feature, and a few challenges with file sharing. Dean Nohria urged patience for the adjustment. “As thoroughly as we have prepared, not everything will work as planned. When this happens, allow yourself and others to recover and adapt. We will have a steep learning curve, and your patience and forbearance will help us move along it faster.”
March 23: In the wake of GRE’s at-home option, the General Management Admission Council says it is “actively working” to launch an interim online proctored GMAT alternative that would cost less than its current GMAT exam and is targeted to be available in mid-April.
March 23: Prospective students can now take the GRE at home under the eyes of a human proctor who will monitor the process via your computer camera. The at-home option costs the same as taking the exam in a test center and is available in the U.S. and eight other countries.
March 23: Warwick Business School shuts buildings, including its London base at The Shard, as all lessons and staff move online. As of 4 p.m. on Friday, March 19 all staff have been working remotely from home, while students have already been told that teaching will continue online for the whole of the summer term with no face-to-face sessions. Andy Lockett, Dean of WBS, said: “As we enter a new stage of this pandemic, the UK Prime Minister shared a hopeful message that there is potential to turn the tide within 12 weeks, but only if we all play our part in taking the necessary steps to curb the transmission of the virus. As a result, home working is going to be necessary for all of us for the foreseeable future.”
March 21: The University of California-Berkeley changes default grading for undergraduates to Pass/Not Passed and Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory, according to a statement from the university. Similar to Michigan Ross, faculty are still required to track and report letter grading. Undergraduate students may request their actual letter grades to appear on permanent transcripts instead of P/NP up until May 6. Graduate students have until May 8 to request their grades are changed from traditional letter grades to S/U. UC Berkeley is also considering lifting the cap of S/U courses allowed for graduation higher than the current limit of one-third.
March 20: ‘Beyond Darkness There Is Light:’ Admission Consultants Weigh In On COVID-19 with insights for current and future applicants to business school