Harvard Business School MBA Class Profile: Apps Down 15%, But HBS Again Enrolls Largest-Ever Class

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ONLY SMALL CHANGES IN PRE-MBA INDUSTRY BACKGROUNDS OF THE NEW CLASS

Very little significant fluctuation occurs in the background industry makeup of Harvard MBA students year to year, and that appears to be the case again in 2022. Last year, students with consulting experience represented 17% of the class, while those with government/nonprofit backgrounds were 8% — both sectors saw 2 percentage point gains from the previous class. This year, the latter reverted back to 6% while the former dropped back by half to 16%.

In 2021, as in previous years, the largest industry represented in the class was financial services, at 27%, unchanged from the year before. This year, counting those in “finance” and those in “venture capital and private equity,” the number drops to 26%, with finance folks making up 10% of the total. Students with tech backgrounds accounted for 11% of last year’s entering cohort, but jumped to 14% this year, the biggest total in four years. Healthcare/biotech was also up, by 1 percentage point to 8%, a new high.

In consumer products, 9% comprised last year’s class, and that was unchanged this year. In manufacturing and energy, the total decline to 9% from 11%. MBA students from the military accounted for 5% of the entering class each of the last two years but dipped to 4% this year.

Average years of work experience came to 5.0 years — 60 months — for the second year in a row. Two years ago it was 4.7 years.

GROUP WITH SIGNIFICANT GROWTH: HISPANIC/LATINX STUDENTS

Last year’s MBA class at Harvard may well have been the school’s most diverse ever, with White students, by federal reporting standards, representing less than half (47%) of the class, down from 53% the previous year. The more inclusive multidimensional accounting pushed up the percentage of White students to 59%, still below the 66% of the previous year. This year, the school can claim to have maintained most of its gains in diversity, with the White student population growing only slightly, to 48% and 60%, respectively.

Last year, Asian Americans composed 24% of the class by federal guidelines, up from 19% a year earlier; that number stayed the same this year. Black and African-American students, however, accounted for 12% last year by federal standards, up a single percentage point, and 14% by multi-dimensional reporting, also up a point; this year Black students dropped slightly 11% and 13%, respectively.

But where Asian and Black representation flattened or reversed, Hispanic and LatinX students have increased, from 11% of the class in 2021 (up from 9% the previous year on both metrics) to 13% this year in both calculations. And Harvard maintained progress in another area: 13% of the Class of 2024 are first-generation college students, same as the Class of 2023.

CLASS GPA TICKS UPWARD

In 2021, the largest single chunk of MBA candidates majored in economics or business in their undergraduate degree: 41%, exactly the same as in 2020. Some 21% majored in business or commerce, while 20% had studied economics in college. Students who majored in the arts and humanities (4%) and social sciences (13%) total 17%, down one percentage point from 18% the previous year. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) majors made up 41% of the Class of 2023.

This year, 43% of the class majored in economics or business in undergrad, with business/commerce majors accounting for 24%. Arts and humanities majors grew to 5% and social sciences slipped to 10%; STEM majors make up 42% of the class.

And they are a bright bunch of scholars: hailing from 134 domestic U.S. universities and 160 international ones, they report an undergraduate grade point average of 3.70, up from last year’s 3.69.

DON'T MISS WHARTON'S MBA CLASS OF 2024 PROFILE and DARTMOUTH TUCK'S MBA CLASS OF 2024 PROFILE