Average GMAT Scores Jump 11 Points For Wharton’s Fall Cohort

ABOUT A THIRD OF THE CLASS WILL COME FROM THE FINANCIAL SECTOR

The school did not disclose either its acceptance rate, which last year was 23.1%, nor did it report yield–the percentage of admitted students who enrolled in the class which was 63% in 2019.

The largest group of students will come from the world of finance, representing about a third of the new cohort. Some 14% will arrive with a background in private equity and venture capital with an equal percentage from financial services.About 3% of the class worked in investment banking, while 2% come from investment management (see chart below).

Consultants will make up 23% of the incoming MBA class, while 10% will come from the technology industry and another 10% from non-profit and government jobs. Students with backgrounds in healthcare will represent 5% of the class, while those from the energy sector will make up 3%.

A NEW RECORD FOR STUDENTS WHO IDENTIFY AS LGBTQ+

The school also said it will enroll this fall the highest percentage of students who identify as LGBTQ+, at 7%.  The school said that Black/African Americans will account for 8% of the incoming class, a 20% decline from the 10% a year-earlier, while Hispanic/Latinx students will make up 7%, one percentage point higher than last year. One in five students in the new cohort will be Asian American, while 28% identify as white (see chart below).

The mix of students changed in other ways as well. The percentage of new MBA students coming from the humanities rose slightly to 39% from 38%, while those with STEM undergraduate majors jumped to 33% of the class, up from 28% last year. Students who had majored in business fell to 27%, from 34% a year earlier.

LAST YEAR THE RACE TOWARD GENDER PARITY AT BUSINESS SCHOOLS REACHED A PLATEAU

The school noted that its achievement is the result of a years-long effort to promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) throughout Wharton which is led by Dean James and Deputy Dean Nancy Rothbard.

Wharton had fallen behind in what has been a race toward gender parity at business schools in a year when progress for women encountered something of a plateau: Even as the pandemic threatens to roll back women’s economic progress writ large, more women showed concern about returning to school, stalling the steady progress women have seen in growing their numbers in graduate business education.

The percentage of women enrolled in business school overall held its ground last year — or spun its wheels, depending on your perspective. According to the Forté Foundation, a nonprofit focused on gender parity in business and business schools, more schools than ever have 40% or more women in their full-time MBA, but even as B-school applications soared overall, there was no corresponding increase in women’s apps. In the Poets&Quants top 25 — many but not all of which are Forté member schools — more than half reached the 40% threshold this fall, but that is the same as last year and 2018.

Last year, 22 Forté schools – or more than four in 10 – reported 40% or more women enrolled in 2020, up from 19 schools last year and 12 schools five years ago. A decade ago, that number was one. Additionally, a record eight schools reported women’s enrollment at 45% or higher, up from three schools last year and none five years ago. Among those schools are George Washington University, Oxford University Saïd Business School, Washington University in St. Louis Olin Business School, the University of Maryland Smith School of Business, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, Arizona State University Carey School of Business, and — leading all Forté schools and those in P&Q‘s top 25 — Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, which reached the precipice of parity with 49% women in its Class of 2022.

And in the recent past, several prominent schools have reached the milestone of enrolling a class with more women than men. The University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business enrolled a class comprised of 52% women in 2018. A year later, Washington University’s Olin Business School in St. Louis got close with 49% of enrolled students women, just like Dartmouth Tuck’s cohort last year.

DON'T MISS: WHARTON'S RECORD GMAT SCORES: IS THE SCHOOL OVER-INDEXING STANDARDIZED TESTS? or MEET THE WHARTON MBA CLASS OF 2022