Duke Fuqua’s MBA Class Of 2023 Profile Sets New Records — And A High Bar

GRE NUMBERS & CLASS BACKGROUNDS

Speaking of the Graduate Record Exam, for the first time in years the percentage of applicants submitting GRE scores to Fuqua’s admissions team dipped, to 33% from 38%. It had leaped from 23% in 2019.

“The percentage of applicants applying with a GRE score was about the same this year versus last year, but we did have more students apply with an Executive Assessment,” Hubert says. She explains that high-yield GRE applicants to Fuqua surged at the end of last year as a result of the pandemic, “so greater test diversity plus greater access to GMAT online testing led to a lower percentage of GRE scores in the class.” The GRE average score did climb, however, from a cumulative 315 to 317 (158 Quant and 159 Verbal).

In terms of the new class’s career backgrounds, the biggest group comes from financial services (14%), with consulting a close second (13%). Eight percent come to Fuqua with a focus in healthcare or health services, while 6% each come from nonprofit/education backgrounds, tech, or analytics backgrounds. The career focus chart below has 21 different categories, plus “Other.”

‘FRESH TIRES ON THE BUS’

The continuing X-factor in all talk about the start of classes, which for Duke MBA students began August 2: Covid-19, which is surging everywhere once again. Hubert says Fuqua’s staff and faculty will continue to remain vigilant in ensuring that students, staff, and faculty are safe. “Our admissions team is conducting interviews virtually this cycle to be fair and consistent to applicants no matter where they are around the world,” she says, “and all admissions events are also virtual through the end of the year as we continue to monitor the situation with the Delta variant. However, we have developed just as many virtual events as we did last year and plan to ensure that prospective students continue to have access to our team and our community as they’re going through the application process.

“This year we returned to pre-Covid deferral policies, which meant for military deployments, personal or family illness, and on a case-by-case basis. The vast majority of people were able to get to campus in time, we only had a handful of people who faced visa issues. We had a few students (four max) who started online and will join us in person in August due to delays in visa appointment availability. In general, our philosophy is to try to work with students on their individual situations, and for those who were having visa difficulties, we worked closely with them. In a limited number of cases, we did defer admission, but also provided the option of starting online for the first couple of weeks.”

Last year, Hubert described the 2019-2020 admissions cycle as “changing the tires on a moving bus.” So how much is the bus still moving in 2021?

“The bus never stops,” she says. “Admissions is a 365-day operation, especially with a portfolio of 10 degree programs. I can never fully express how fortunate I am to be part of an amazing team of professionals who continually pour themselves into the mission of attracting, recruiting, and yielding students who will thrive in our community. The pandemic has definitely stretched our limits, but it has not broken our determination and passion for this profession.

“With that said, as a school we are staying vigilant and responding to the changing dynamics of the pandemic as new information becomes available. During the height of the pandemic in 2020, school leadership formed a weekly Covid-19 Working Group led by our dean, Bill Boulding, and we still meet weekly to discuss the changing dynamics so that we ensure our students, staff, and faculty remain safe, while continuing to provide our students with a value-added and transformational learning experience that they expect and deserve. We feel very good about the safety protocols we have in place. This year, we are requiring that all students be vaccinated in order to attend classes, with the plan being to hold 100% of classes in-person. Similarly, our staff and faculty are expected to be vaccinated by September 1st. In addition, we have entry and surveillance testing in place to identify and contain asymptomatic cases, and we recently re-instituted the requirement for everyone, regardless of vaccination status, to wear masks when inside our buildings.

“So, we continue to roll along — and after successfully changing out the tires last year, we are thrilled to have fresh tires on the bus for the next academic year!”

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