Columbia Business School Completes The M7 Picture: Apps Way Up At All 7 Elite B-Schools

Columbia Business School reported a 27% increase in MBA applications in the 2023-2024 cycle, reversing three years of declines and setting a new school record.

With the flood of nearly 7,500 apps (up from 5,895), Columbia enrolled its largest-ever MBA class of 972 students across two intakes. The MBA Class of 2026 also set a new school record with a 732 average score on the Graduate Management Admission Test, up from 730 last year. Columbia’s GMAT average has grown by 6 points since 2020.

Columbia maintained its percentage of women in the class at 44%, where it has been for three consecutive years now, while growing its share of U.S. minorities to 44% from 43%. International students dipped only slightly, to 46% from 47%, but have declined for two years in a row.

COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL MBA COHORTS 2019-2024: BY THE NUMBERS

Columbia Business School	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019
Applications	7,487	5,895	6,177	6,535	6,971	5,876
Admits	NA	NA	1,363	1,215	1,130	1,122
Acceptance Rate	NA	22.4%	22.1%	18.6%	16.2%	19.1%
Class Size (2 intakes)	972	900	844	847	782	754
GMAT Average	732	730	729	729	726	727
GPA Average	3.6	3.5	3.60	3.50	3.60	3.60
Women	44%	44%	44%	41%	40%	38%
International	46%	47%	51%	48%	44%	47%
Minorities	44%	43%	42%	40%	33%	NA

Source: Columbia Business School

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LIFE IS GOOD IN M7 ADMISSIONS; CBS CLASS SIZE BALLOONS

In terms of application growth, 2023-2024 was a banner cycle for all the M7. Chicago Booth School of Business received the most applications to the program in school history, 5,125, eclipsing the previous record set in 2020-2021 by 88 apps. 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. Stanford Graduate School of Business reports an 18% jump in apps, and MIT Sloan School of Management saw a 16% increase that allowed it to enroll a school-record 49% women and a class that set a new school record for undergraduate GPA (3.7). Northwestern Kellogg School of Management reported a 23% jump in admissions, putting it in the neighborhood of 5,300 apps in 2023-2024, which would make 2023-2024 the most successful cycle on record.

Even as its apps declined from 2021 onward, Columbia’s class sizes remained fairly stable. This year’s app rebound saw CBS’s class size explode.

Columbia has two intakes per year, in August and January. The former had gradually grown over the previous four years, from 551 in 2019 to 571 in 2020, 614 in 2021, and 629 in 2022, then ballooned to 681 in 2023 before expanding again to 734 this fall, divided into 10 clusters. The January cohort was also on the upswing for three straight intakes, from 203 in 2019 to 211 in 2020 to 233 in 2021, but was capped at 215 for January 2022; in January 2023 it rose again, to 219, and in January 2024 it grew to a new high of 238.

The end result is, for the second straight year, the biggest MBA class in Columbia history: 972 students, up 8% from last year, which itself was up 6.6% from the fall of 2022. Columbia’s class size overall has grown nearly 30% since 2019. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic it has grown its percentage of women 4 percentage points and its minority enrollment 11 points.

BIG JUMP IN STUDENTS FROM THE CONSULTING SECTOR

Nearly one-quarter of Columbia’s new class (24%) identifies as Asian American according to federal reporting guidelines, about the same as last year, while Black students comprise 7% (down from 8%) and Hispanic/Latinx are 9% (same as last year). International enrollment — long a strength for a school based in the heart of world capital New York City — is 46%, down 1 point from last year and 5 points from the school high of 51% set in 2022, but still among the leaders of all U.S. B-schools.

The big class also helped Columbia hit a new record GMAT score average of 732, up 2 points in one year and 3 in three. The range of GMAT scores indicates that someone gained admission with a 600, which according to the Graduate Management Admission Council is around the 50th percentile of all test-takers.

Columbia has had an interesting arc in terms of the previous industries of its MBA students. In 2021, the largest group of CBS students came from the financial services sector, accounting for 31% of the entering class — hardly a surprise since Columbia sits in the middle of Wall Street. Consulting backgrounds made up 22% of that class, while marketing and media represented another 12%. Students from the tech industry made up 9% of the class, while those with healthcare backgrounds represented 5%.

In 2022, finance ticked downward to 29%, and consulting, marketing/media, tech, and healthcare all were flat at 22%, 11%, 9%, and 5%, respectively. In 2023, financial services was flat at 29%, consulting dropped a point to 21%, marketing/media was flat at 12%, and tech gained 2 points to 11%. Healthcare was flat at 5%, matched by military/government.

This year (see above), finance was up again to 30%, while consulting jumped to 25% of the class and tech gained again, to 13%. Marketing/media dipped to 10%, and healthcare was flat again at 5%.

TECH DOUBLES TO 4% OF CLASS

For class undergraduate majors, in 2021, business was the runaway leader at 37%, followed by economics (18%), engineering (15%), social sciences (13%), sciences (7%), humanities (6%), and tech (2%). In 2022, business dropped slightly to a third of the class (33%), while economics grew to 20% and engineering to 16%. In 2023, business rebounded to 35%, economics was unchanged at 20%, and engineering ticked upward to 17%. Social sciences accounted for 11% of the new class, followed by sciences (8%), humanities (6%), and tech (2%).

This year, business saw its biggest decline, to just 30% of the class, and economics dipped slightly to 18%. Engineering was also down, to 16%, while social sciences was up to 13%. Sciences was up to 10%, while humanities were flat at 6%. Tech doubled to 4%.

DON’T MISS COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL MOVES FROM ROLLING ADMISSION TO ROUNDS FOR ITS FALL COHORT and IN 2024, SOMEONE WITH A 2.36 UNDERGRAD GPA GOT INTO THIS M7 B-SCHOOL