Acceptance Rates & Yield At The Top 100 U.S. MBA Programs

Acceptance Rates At The Top 100 U.S. MBA Programs

Harvard Business School enrolled the largest MBA class of any top U.S. B-school in 2023; among the smallest was the University of Miami’s Herbert Business School, which downsized from 60 seats in 2022 to just 27 last fall

Business schools confront a challenging environment in several ways. One key way to deal with a decline in applications and yield: Take in more students. It’s why we saw most of the leading U.S. B-schools make more admission offers in 2023, and it’s why many grew their class sizes, too.

Five of the top 10 and 15 of the top 25 B-schools upped enrollment in 2023; of the more than 50 schools analyzed by P&Q, about half — 25 — increased class sizes by a little or a lot. The biggest jump: No. 4 Columbia Business School grew its Class of 2025 by 54 seats, to 683. Interestingly, across four years, Columbia still reports the biggest decline in class size, down nearly 100 seats since 2020.

The biggest two-year drop in class size is 33 seats at No. 73 Miami Herbert Business School, dropping its class size to just 27.

The biggest four-year gain in MBA class size has been at Harvard, up more than 200 seats since 2020, to 938, though that has to do mostly with HBS’s offer of deferment during the pandemic, which swelled its ranks in 2021 and 2022 and from which the school is gradually drawing down its numbers. Aside from HBS, the biggest four-year increase in class size has occurred at No. 11 Chicago Booth School of Business, up 36 seats to 657.

Overall, the biggest class of any school is Harvard’s, followed by Wharton (874), Columbia, Chicago Booth, and No. 12 Northwestern Kellogg School of Management (529). The smallest is Florida’s Hough MBA, with just 18 students. Twenty-four schools out of 52 have fewer than 100 in their MBAs — same as 2022. In 2021, it was 20 of 51 schools.

MBA CLASS SIZES AT THE TOP U.S. B-SCHOOLS: 2020 TO 2023

2024 P&Q Rank	School	Enrolled 2023 (Class of 2025)	Enrolled 2022 (Class of 2024)	Enrolled 2021 (Class of 2023)	Enrolled 2020 (Class of 2022)	2-Year Trend	4-Year Trend
1	Stanford GSB	431	424	426	436	+7	-5
2	Harvard Business School	938	1,015	1,010	732	-77	+206
3	Dartmouth (Tuck)	297	287	294	289	+10	+8
4	Columbia Business School	683	629	614	782	+54	-99
5	Yale SOM	339	347	349	350	-8	-11
6	Duke (Fuqua)	385	399	447	408	-14	-23
7	Cornell (Johnson)	283	303	304	292	-20	-9
8	Virginia (Darden)	352	348	351	409	+4	-57
9	Michigan (Ross)	376	378	398	358	-2	+18
10	New York (Stern)	327	324	360	317	+3	+10
11	Chicago (Booth)	657	634	620	621	+23	+36
12	Northwestern (Kellogg)	529	503	508	559	+26	-30
13	UCLA (Anderson)	296	322	372	360	-26	-66
14	MIT (Sloan)	409	408	450	484	+1	-75
15	UC-Berkeley (Haas)	244	247	291	331	-3	-87
16	Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)	171	192	231	141	-21	+30
17	Washington (Foster)	111	96	126	110	+15	+1
18	Rice (Jones)	157	160	178	180	-3	-23
19	Texas-Austin (McCombs)	241	220	270	242	+21	-1
20	North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)	253	242	296	344	+11	+9
21	Vanderbilt (Owen)	160	147	182	182	+13	-22
22	Southern California (Marshall)	199	190	218	217	+9	-18
23	Emory (Goizueta)	125	113	165	145	+12	-20
24	Georgetown (McDonough)	258	249	283	247	+9	+11
25	Florida (Hough)	18	24	26	33	-6	-15
26	Rochester (Simon)	82	85	100	102	-3	-20
27	Georgia Institute of Technology (Scheller)	70	76	79	66	-6	+4
28	Washington (Olin)	83	89	86	90	-6	-7
29	Georgia (Terry)	65	69	62	73	-4	-8
30	Notre Dame (Mendoza)	104	96	137	166	+8	-52
31	Pennsylvania (Wharton)	874	894	897	916	-20	-42
32	Brigham Young (Marriott)	99	99	141	148	Even	-49
33	Texas-Dallas (Jindal)	46	45	55	60	+1	-14
34	William & Mary (Mason)	90	108	116	112	-18	-22
35	Arizona State (Carey)	56	62	58	60	-6	+4
37	Indiana (Kelley)	96	125	157	92	-29	+4
38	Michigan State (Broad)	63	60	65	65	+3	-2
39	Maryland (Smith)	55	34	55	79	+21	-24
40	UC-Irvine (Merage)	36	41	51	42	-5	-6
41	Boston University (Questrom)	113	154	162	159	-31	-36
42	George Washington	49	56	NA	NA	-7	NA
43	Texas A&M (Mays)	57	33	74	86	+24	-29
44	Minnesota (Carlson)	87	67	88	74	+20	+13
46	Southern Methodist (Cox)	74	62	65	100	+12	-26
49	Rutgers Business School	34	32	31	36	+2	-2
50	Ohio State (Fisher)	49	56	61	59	-7	-10
52	Pittsburgh (Katz)	40	39	82	40	+1	Even
53	Wisconsin	69	71	85	94	-2	-25
55	Utah (Eccles)	29	37	45	50	-8	-21
62	Tennessee-Knoxville (Haslam)	42	53	51	55	-11	-13
72	Alabama (Manderson)	195	188	184	NA	+7	NA
73	University of Miami (Herbert)	27	60	52	NA	-33	NA