Minorities At The Leading U.S. MBA Programs: 2/3 Of The Top 30 Report Declines

‘THERE’S JUST NOT ENOUGH SEATS FOR EVERYONE’

B-schools’ determination to embrace diversity will be tested, and doubtless the path forward will involve fits and starts. Barbara Coward, founder and principal of MBA 360 Admissions who has worked in both MBA and Executive MBA admissions, says it’s an “opportunity to innovate, rather than just saying, ‘Hey, this sucks.’

“Absolutely, for certain demographics, it’s worrying: What does this mean? But then many Asian Americans are seeing it as a victory in some ways. And so if schools are saying, ‘Hey, this is all bad news’ — I have worked with clients who are Asian American who would be like, ‘Should I not apply now?’

“So it’s really tough. It always comes back to the tradeoff between being elite and also being accessible. And the fact of the matter is, there’s just not enough seats for everyone.”

After years of gathering data on ethnicity with increasing enthusiasm and granularity, will B-schools continue to collect it for internal uses only, leaving it out of MBA and other degree program class profiles? Or will they find a new way to measure and ensure the diversity of their classes?

“I think if they can collect it, they will,” Coward says. “At least for internal reporting, you have students or alums coming in to say, ‘Tell me what’s going on.’ When I worked in executive MBA programs, at the end of recruiting season, I always dug through the data because I wanted to come up with trends to be able to say to the class, ‘Hey, guess what? This is what’s going on. Do you know that we have this percentage of …’

“And so I think, especially in a data-driven world, there will always continue to be the desire for that.”

AN INFLECTION POINT

Building a diverse MBA class is “like a puzzle,” Coward says. “Putting that all together, how are you going to do that?”

“You look at the socioeconomic side of things to make sure there’s diversity represented in that. And then I go back to personal stories. One example is from a story Poets&Quants did, and he still is the person I mention everywhere all the time because he’s just so impressive and amazing: Jerome Fulton, who went to HBS. From his mother to being murdered at the age of 5, how did he end up at HBS? It’s just so inspiring.

“The fact is, we have all sorts of statistics. I just think we are at such an inflection point, and there’s all different kind of angles to it. Some people are kind of like, ‘Ugh, what does this mean for me? Do I have slightly less chance?’ And other people will say, ‘Well, why aren’t they celebrating this? Because I see this and the positive.’ So I just think it’s going to be really interesting to follow.

“At the end of the day, I always tell people, ‘Have some empathy for the poor admissions officers because they’re building a class with not enough seats for everyone in on that plane.'”

DIVERSITY ‘PART OF B-SCHOOLS’ CORE RESPONSIBILITIES TO SOCIETY’

Even in the wake of the SCOTUS rulings that effectively ended affirmative action, U.S. business schools may continue to collect race data — or find a new way to reflect the diversity of their classes — for one very good reason: to demonstrate to potential applicants that the place they hope to spend a significant chunk of their lives is a diverse and welcoming one.

Regardless of the Supreme Court ruling, says Peter Johnson, former assistant dean of the MBA program and admissions at the University of California-Berkeley Haas School of Business and current director for admissions consultancy Fortuna Admissions, diversity will continue to be an admissions priority “as educational institutions will still have a compelling interest in creating student populations that reflect the diversity of our country and which help to overcome long-standing inequities.”

Petia Whitmore, former dean of MBA admissions at Babson College and founder of My MBA Path admissions consultancy, says that enrolling and educating truly diverse MBA classes is a core aspect of the value proposition of graduate business education — and will remain so. “As a former dean of graduate admissions, I also believe it’s part of business schools’ core responsibilities to business and society. Yet, meeting this obligation might become more complicated now that affirmative action has been struck down.

“If there is a silver lining to all this, it will be that business schools might end up having a much stronger impetus to consider ways to assess and bring more socio-economic diversity into their classrooms.”

Adds Linda Abraham, founder of Accepted admissions consultancy: “Admissions offices still value diversity, equity and inclusion, and admissions offices for years have maintained that diversity doesn’t exclusively mean race and ethnicity. Instead of relying on a box ticked with a specific race or ethnicity, adcoms will seek the qualities and experiences that contribute to diversity and inclusiveness. They will still strive to create the rich and diverse learning environment that they value.”

B-schools, she says, have been girding for the end of affirmative action since well before the Supreme Court agreed to hear the two Students For Fair Admissions cases last fall. “They have prepared by asking questions that don’t ask about race but do ask about the attributes and character strength that come from overcoming challenges, prejudice, and/or hardship or about experiences contributing to or creating an inclusive environment,” she says, pointing to several current applications at top schools that promote diversity without mention of race, including at Virginia Darden School of Business, UC-Berkeley Haas, Chicago Booth School of Business, Columbia Business School, and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

“In addition, several schools require video essays,” Abraham adds, “so ethnicity and race will be known by those programs even if the adcom can’t see the box. And of course there are interviews.”

See the next page for a table showing minority levels at the MBA programs of the top 30 U.S. B-schools.