Harvard MBA Class Of 2025 Achieves School’s First GMAT Increase In 13 Years

The view that Graduate Management Admission Test scores are less and less important to the success of a business school application occasionally gets shots of validation from the data. That happened again on Thursday (September 1) with the release of Harvard Business School’s MBA Class of 2025 profile.

In it, HBS reports, as most B-schools do, the range of GMAT scores supplied by successful admits to the program during the 2022-2023 cycle was 500-790. In other words, someone — likely more than one person — got into Harvard with a GMAT that lands somewhere in the vicinity of the 20th percentile of all scores. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, the average GMAT score among all test-takers in the three years that ended in December 2022 was 582.34.

So the answer to the question, “What does it take to get into Harvard Business School?” is not “Among other things, you MUST have a GMAT score of more than 700, and closer to 750, to even be in the conversation.” And it is not “Anything south of 600 sinks you.” The answer is: It’s true that adcoms everywhere are committed to a more “holistic” approach to reviewing MBA applications, and strengths elsewhere can overcome weaknesses in GMAT (or Graduate Record Exam) scores. Even very weak scores — Harvard just proved it.

HARVARD BUSINESS BY THE NUMBERS, 2015-2023

Category	Class of 2025	Class of 2024	Class of 2023	Class of 2022	Class of 2021	Class of 2020	Class of 2019	Class of 2018	Class of 2017
Applications	8149	8264	9773	9304	9228	9886	10351	9759	9686
Acceptance Rate	9.2%*	9.5%*	9.0%*	9.2%	12%	11%	11%	11%	11%
Enrolled Students	938	1,015	1010	732	938	930	928	942	948
Yield	89%*	87%*	89%*	87%*	89%	90%	91%	90%	90%
Women	45%	46%	46%	44%	43%	41%	42%	43%	41%
International	39%	38%	37%	33%	37%	37%	35%	35%	34%
U.S. Ethnic Minorities	45%	48%	52%	45%	27%	26%	26%	26%	28%
First Gen	11%	13%	13%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Average Age	27	27	27	27	27	27	27	27	27
Countries Represented	NA	NA	NA	70*	71	69	70	69	64
Median GMAT Score	740	730	730	730	730	730	730	730	730
GMAT Range	500-790	540-790	590-790	620-790	590-800	610-800	580-790	690-760*	510-790
Undergraduate GPA	3.73	3.70	3.69	3.70	3.70	3.71	3.71	3.67	3.66
Median GRE	326	326	326	326	326	328	328	NA	NA
STEM Undergrads	42%	42%	43%	41%	38%	37%	36%	38%	36%
Econ/Biz Undergrads	43%	43%	41%	41%	43%	46%	45%	41%	45%
Humanities/Social Science Undergrads	16%	15%	17%	18%	19%	17%	19%	21%	19%

*Estimate

ANOTHER INTRIGUING GMAT DEVELOPMENT

In their annual MBA class profiles, most business schools report GMAT averages. Harvard has not done so since 2010.

Beginning in 2011, the school only has reported median scores — and always, every year, the exact same score.

Thirteen years ago, Harvard’s entering MBA Class of 2012 reported an average 724 GMAT score; ever since, it’s been all 730 medians, year after year — behind which, no doubt, the undisclosed averages fluctuated by class.

2023 marks the end of an era. In another noteworthy element of its MBA Class of 2025 profile released this week, Harvard reports that its class median GMAT score was 740. It’s one of at least three new school records in the profile.

SEE MORE of Poets&Quants’ coverage of the Graduate Management Admission Test: Are B-Schools Better Off Without The GMAT & GRE? and GMAT Score Inflation: Now Nearly 20% Of Test Takers Are Scoring 700 Or Higher and GMAT Versus GRE: Which Top-50 MBA Programs Prefer Which Test?

APPLICATIONS FALL, BUT NOT SEVERELY, FOR A SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR

Harvard's MBA applications were down again this year, but insignificantly compared with the drop between the previous two application cycles. Apps to HBS declined by 115 or 1.4%, a year after dropping more than 15%, falling from 8,264 last year to 8,149. But the long-term trend is definitely down: MBA apps at HBS are down more than 21% since the school received a record 10,351 for entry to the Class of 2019.

Application numbers in 2022-2023 as revealed school by school this fall have been all over the place, though many B-schools have seen mild to severe year-to-year declines, and most top-25 schools are down a little or a lot in the last five years. Apps to UCLA Anderson School of Management fell off 11.8% and are down almost 30% in two years; they’ve dropped at Duke Fuqua School of Business by 7%; and they’re down about 5% at Yale School of Management. Like Harvard, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania saw a mild decline in apps, only around 2% from the prior cycle.

(Three top-10 B-schools that recently released their MBA class profiles do not disclose app numbers: Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business (story here), Northwestern Kellogg School of Management (story here), and UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business, (story here) — which for Kellogg and Haas was a choice to withhold starting in 2022 after years of disclosure.)

Despite the drop in applications, Harvard increased its median Graduate Management Admission Test score for the class, to 740, the first increase on that measure going back many years. The class reported a median of 42 on the verbal (no change year to year) and 49 on the quant portion of the exam (up from 48). Verbal scores ranged from a low of 25 to a high of 51, while quant scores ranged from 31 to 51. Overall, scores ranged from that low of 500 — 40 points lower than last year's lowest score and 90 points lower than the low in 2021’s intake — to a high of 790, just 10 points shy of a perfect score. Three years ago, in 2020, the lowest score from a successful applicant was 620.

Meanwhile, the percentage off those who opt to submit a Graduate Record Exam test score continued to grow, to 34% from 30% last year, a new record. The median GRE score for this year’s class was 326, same as the last four years (going back to 2018, when it was 328), with a 163 average on both the verbal and the quant — same as last year. The verbal range went from a low of 150 to a high of 170 (last year: 147-170), while the quant score ranged from 145 to 170 (146-170). The GMAT submission rate dipped yet again to 69%, down 9 percentage points in two years.

WOMEN’S & INTERNATIONAL ENROLLMENT STABLE; RACIAL DIVERSITY SLIPS

As it adjusts from two years of 1,000-plus classes bolstered by the sweeping grant of pandemic deferments in 2020, Harvard reports impacts to some other measures, none of them catastrophic. Women’s enrollment is down 1 percentage point from a year ago, but Harvard’s 45% still lands comfortably within the group of schools that all others look to as trailblazers — some of which are also down in that important measure this year. While 2022 was the best year ever for women's MBA enrollment, there were signs of slowing progress, and 2023 may come to be seen as a plateau year, at best, following the report of significant declines at Duke, Yale, and Haas. At USC Marshall, which became the first-ever top-25 B-school to reach gender parity back in 2018, women this fall comprise just 35% of the class, down 11 percentage points in one year.

It’s not all doom and gloom on the MBA gender equity front. Wharton garnered positive headlines by maintaining parity for a third straight year, and Kellogg stayed within 2 points of that long-sought achievement for a second straight year.

Harvard's 39% international composition is the most for the school in recent history, up from 38% in 2022 and 37% in 2021. While most of its Class of 2025 students hail from the U.S. (61%, down from 62%), that number is down 6 percentage points in three years; meanwhile 15% of the new class comes from Asia, up 4 points in three years, and 10% from Europe, up 2 points in 2 years.

In racial diversity, after widely shared fears about the Supreme Court striking down affirmative action in college admissions came true, Harvard followed the enrollment of one of its most diverse classes ever in 2022 with a somewhat less diverse cohort, with White students growing from 48% to 50% of the class according to federal reporting standards. The more inclusive multidimensional accounting pushed the percentage of White students to 63%, up from 60% last year but still well below the 66% of two intakes ago.

Last year, Asian Americans comprised 24% of the class by federal guidelines, a number that slipped to 22% this year. Black and African-American students accounted for 11% last year by federal standards and 13% by multi-dimensional reporting; this year Black students dropped slightly to 10% and stayed at 13%, respectively. After two years of increases, Hispanic and Latino students decreased in both metrics from 13% to 11%. Harvard also reported a slide in another area: 11% of the Class of 2025 are first-generation college students, down from 13% of the Class of 2024.

REGIONAL BACKGROUNDS OF HARVARD MBA CLASSES, 2017-2025

Category	Class of 2025	Class of 2024	Class of 2023	Class of 2022	Class of 2021	Class of 2020	Class of 2019	Class of 2018	Class of 2017
North America	64%	66%	66%	70%	67%	68%	69%	68%	71%
U.S.	61%	62%	63%	67%	63%	63%	65%	65%	66%
Asia	15%	14%	13%	11%	14%	14%	14%	14%	14%
Europe	10%	9%	8%	9%	9%	8%	10%	11%	9%
Latin America	5%	5%	6%	6%	5%	6%	4%	5%	3%
Africa	2%	3%	3%	3%	2%	2%	2%	1%	1%
Oceania	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	2%

MILITARY STUDENTS GROW TO 6% 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 2023. Last year, students with consulting experience represented 16% of the class, which grew to 17% this year. Last year, 26% of the class claimed backgrounds either in “finance” or “venture capital and private equity,” with finance folks making up 10% of the total; this year the combined group comprises 27%, with finance still at 10%. Students with tech backgrounds accounted for 14% of last year’s entering cohort, but dropped to 13% this year. Healthcare/biotech was down by 1 percentage point to 7%; those with government/nonprofit backgrounds were 6%, same as last year.

In consumer products, 9% comprised last year’s class, and that grew to 10% this year. In manufacturing and energy, the total stayed the same at 9%, down from 11% two years ago. MBA students from the military account for 6% of the new class, up from 4% last year.

Average years of work experience came to 4.9 years, down from the 60 months it had been for two years. Three years ago it was 4.7 years.

INDUSTRY BACKGROUNDS OF HARVARD MBA CLASSES, 2017-2025

Category	Class of 2025	Class of 2024	Class of 2023	Class of 2022	Class of 2021	Class of 2020	Class of 2019	Class of 2018	Class of 2017
Venture Capital & Private Equity	17%	16%	15%	16%	16%	16%	15%	15%	17%
Consulting	17%	16%	17%	15%	15%	16%	15%	16%	18%
High Tech/Communications	13%	14%	11%	13%	12%	15%	15%	14%	13%
Financial Services	10%	10%	12%	11%	12%	11%	11%	11%	14%
Consumer Products	10%	9%	9%	9%	9%	6%	7%	6%	5%
Manufacturing/Energy	9%	9%	11%	11%	12%	11%	12%	12%	9%
Healthcare/Biotech	7%	8%	7%	7%	7%	7%	6%	7%	7%
Government/Education/Non-Profit	6%	6%	8%	6%	8%	7%	8%	9%	8%
Military	6%	4%	5%	5%	4%	5%	5%	5%	4%
Media/Entertainment/Travel	3%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Other Services	2%	NA	3%	2%	6%	7%	6%	4%	5%

ANOTHER SCHOOL RECORD: AVERAGE UNDERGRADUATE GPA

In 2022, the largest single chunk of MBA candidates majored in economics or business in their undergraduate degree: 43%, up 2 percentage points from 2021. Some 24% majored in business or commerce, while 19% had studied economics in college. Students who majored in the arts and humanities (5%) and social sciences (10%) totaled 15%, down 2 points from the previous year. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) majors made up 42% of the Class of 2024.

This year, 43% of the class majored in economics or business in undergrad, with business/commerce majors accounting for 22%. Arts and humanities majors declined to 4% and social sciences grew to 12%; STEM majors once again make up 42% of the class.

Altogether, they are a bright bunch of scholars, hailing from 128 domestic U.S. universities and 147 international ones, and reporting an average undergraduate GPA of 3.73 — up from last year’s 3.70 and, like that 740 median GMAT and the percentage of GRE submissions, an all-time school record.

See Harvard Business School's MBA Class of 2025 profile here.

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