At MIT Sloan, Higher MBA App Volume Helps In Many Ways — But Diversity Lags

The 2023-2024 turnaround in MBA applications was keenly felt at MIT Sloan School of Management. The M7 school reports that after being inundated with more than 6,000 apps, it has enrolled a class that is 49% women, a school record. The Sloan School’s MBA program had 46% women each of the last two years.

Sloan had 6,181 total applications for the Class of 2026, which is not a record — that occurred three years ago, when the Covid-19 pandemic caused a surge in applications at top programs amid a general loosening of admissions standards. But Sloan’s total in the most recent application cycle represented a 16% increase over the previous cycle and a reversal of two years of declines.

The flood of talented applicants allowed Sloan to admit a larger class than it has in three years, up nearly 6% to 433 students, and set a new record GPA (3.7). And the school did it while being more selective than it has since 2021, with its admit rate falling to 14%.

MIT SLOAN MBA CLASSES 2020-2026: BY THE NUMBERS

Stats	Class of 2026	Class of 2025	Class of 2024	Class of 2023	Class of 2022	Class of 2021	Class of 2020
Applications	6181	5317	5349	7112	6350	5260	5560
Enrolled	433	409	408	450	484	416	409
Admit Rate	14%	17.8%	14.8%	12.1%	22%	14.6%	12.1%
International	40%	40%	40%	43%	33%	42%	38%
Countries Represented	53	60	63	64	51	54	49
Women	49%	46%	46%	44%	38%	41%	42%
URM	15%	28%	32%	23%	NA	NA	NA
Average Work Experience	5 years	5 years	5 years	5 years	5 years	5 years	4.9 years
Average Class GPA	3.7	3.61	3.62	3.59	3.54	3.58	3.48
Median Class GMAT	730	729	730	730	725	730	730
Mid-80% GMAT Range	690-760	700-760	690-760	690-760	690-760	700-760	700-760
Median Class GRE	NA	327	325	325	NA	NA	NA
Mid-80% GRE  Quant Range	159-170	157-168	158-169	158-169	156-168	156-168	158-169
Mid-80% GRE Verbal Range	157-168	155-167	157-168	157-168	154-168	156-168	154-169
% GRE	39%	34%	32%	24%	NA	24%	NA

Source: MIT Sloan

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SLOAN’S URM STUDENTS DROP BY NEARLY HALF

In one key area, though, the Sloan School could not avoid a significant hit: diversity. In August, The New York Times reported that MIT as a university saw a precipitous drop in Black and Latino enrollment. Sloan’s class profile shows that graduate business enrollment did not escape the decline. After reaching a high of 32% of the class four years ago (see table above), underrepresented minorities dropped to just 15% of Sloan’s MBA Class of 2026.

Some U.S. schools have adjusted better than others to the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision ending affirmative action in college admissions. NYU Stern School of Business reported an increase in URM students — that is, Black, Latino and other non-Asian minorities — in 2024, as did Dartmouth Tuck School of Business. Duke Fuqua School of Business reported that URM students jumped from 27% of the class to 40%, and Michigan Ross School of Business saw a 10-point jump in URM students, to 29%. Meanwhile, Wharton had a mixed bag (Hispanic students up, Black students down) and Yale School of Management saw a small decline.

“At MIT Sloan, our academic leadership strongly believes in the value of diversity in our community — both in its importance to our students’ experience and because it contributes to the generation of new ideas and solutions to complex problems,” a Sloan School spokesperson tells Poets&Quants. “Although we faced new constraints this year as a result of the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling on the use of race and ethnicity in admissions, we will continue to explore ways to ensure we are able to attract and enroll talented students from all backgrounds, including those underrepresented in graduate business education, within the constraints of the law..

One bright spot for Sloan: Enrollment of U.S. minorities, which includes Asian-American students, did not drop as steeply, falling to 50% of the class from 52% last year. And international enrollment stayed steady at 40% — an achievement considering the sharp decline in foreign students reported by some peer schools.

MIT SLOAN MBA CLASSES 2020-2026: UNDERGRAD MAJORS & PRE-MBA INDUSTRIES

Background	Class of 2026	Class of 2025	Class of 2024	Class of 2023	Class of 2022	Class of 2021	Class of 2020
INDUSTRY
Consulting	30%	26%	23%	22%	22%	26%	21%
Financial Services	21%	17%	23%	21%	17%	17%	19%
Technology	20%	23%	14%	16%	15%	18%	18%
Government/Education/Nonprofit	10%	10%	14%	12%	13%	13%	14%
Pharma/Healthcare/Biotech	6%	7%	6%	7%	9%	9%	6%
Consumer Products/Retail	5%	2%	3%	4%	4%	4%	5%
Other	3%	7%	7%	NA	NA	NA	NA
Media/Entertainment/Sports	2%	1%	0.5%	2%	1%	NA	NA
Manufacturing	1%	3%	3%	4%	4%	4%	8%
Energy	1%	2%	4%	5%	5%	4%	7%
Automotive/Transportation/Defense	1%	2%	2%	2%	4%	NA	NA
UNDERGRAD MAJORS
Engineering	29%	33%	29%	33%	33%	33%	31%
Business	22%	16%	23%	18%	16%	18%	20%
Economics	15%	18%	17%	19%	19%	21%	21%
Computer Science	9%	6%	2%	3%	2%	2%	2%
Math & Science	8%	12%	15%	9%	10%	11%	7%
Social Sciences	6%	5%	10%	6%	8%	8%	NA
Other	5%	6%	1%	NA	NA	NA	NA
Humanities	4%	3%	2%	4%	4%	5%	NA
Law	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	NA

Source: MIT Sloan

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BIG APP JUMP IS IN LINE WITH PEER SCHOOLS

MIT Sloan’s successful application cycle is by no means singular. Among fellow M7 schools, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania’s 2023-2024 MBA app total of 7,322 missed being a school record by just 16 apps while representing an 18% bounce-back from the previous cycle, and Harvard Business School saw a 21% increase in apps. Other top schools that have reported their class profile data include:

• Yale School of Management was up 21.5%
• Dartmouth Tuck School of Business was up 36%
• NYU Stern School of Business saw an amazing 48% jump in apps
• Duke Fuqua School of Business was up nearly 16% to an all-time app record
• The Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis doubled its apps
• Michigan Ross School of Business, one of the leading public B-schools in the country, was up more than 35%.

Nor was the phenomenon restricted to the U.S.: In Spain, IESE Business School reported record apps, allowing the school to enroll its biggest-ever class and highest-ever percentage of women.

CONSULTING STILL KING OF PRE-MBA INDUSTRIES 

Consulting has long been the top pre-MBA industry for Sloanies, and that did not change in 2024. In fact, it was even more so: 30% of the new class hails from the industry, up from 26% last year. It’s the highest percentage of the class for consulting, or any industry, since at least the Class of 2022. Finance, at 21% from 17%, is second, up from third last year as tech tumbled from 23% to 20%.

For undergrad majors, engineering dropped form fully one-third of the class to 29%, while business jumped to 22% from 16%. Economics fell to 15% from 18%. See table above for details.

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