International Enrollment Declined At Duke Fuqua This Year – But Domestic Declined More

For the past couple of admissions cycles, MBA programs have braced for a return to normal – a settling after years of pandemic-driven swings in application volume and international enrollment. It hasn’t come. If anything, the swings have gotten harder to predict. Visa uncertainty has picked off applicants from countries that have long fed top MBA programs. Competition for the strongest women candidates has intensified even as overall volume tightens. And more than a few well-regarded schools have found themselves extending extra offers just to protect class size, only to watch yield slip anyway.

Fuqua, Duke University’s business school, is one of many programs navigating that shift this fall.

The incoming Daytime MBA Class of 2028 comes in at 359 students, down 16% from 426 a year ago and the smallest class Fuqua has enrolled since the coronavirus pandemic. The drop comes as applications fell by 944 from a record high of more than 4,000 in the 2024-2025 cycle, a drop of 23%, and despite Fuqua extending admission to more than 100 applicants more than it did the year before (see table below). The class also extends to a second straight year a decline in the share of women and a dip in U.S. students of color.

Robert Swinney, senior associate dean for programs, tells Poets&Quants the smaller class was not a target the school set for itself.

“We didn’t set out to enroll a smaller class,” Swinney says. “This year’s cohort reflects a smaller and changed applicant pool, shaped by application trends across the industry, immigration policy, and a very competitive market, along with our commitment to holding the same high standards we always have.”

DUKE FUQUA MBA CLASSES OF 2022-2028

Source: Duke Fuqua; *Middle 80%

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THE ADMISSIONS FUNNEL BEHIND THE SMALLER CLASS

Duke’s full admissions funnel for the Class of 2028 fills in some additional context. Applications fell nearly 24%, to 3,088 from a record 4,032 the year before. Fuqua admitted more students in absolute terms this cycle – 1,023, up from 862 – which pushed its acceptance rate to 33.4% from 21%, the highest rate the school has posted in the seven-class span P&Q has tracked, back through the Class of 2022.

One dynamic worth noting alongside applicant volume is yield, the share of admitted students who go on to enroll. Yield has drifted down gradually at Fuqua over the past several years, from 61.8% for the Class of 2023 to 49.4% for the Class of 2027, before falling further this year to roughly 35.1%, even as the school extended offers to a larger share of a smaller applicant pool. Had yield held closer to last year’s level, the 1,023 admits would likely have produced a class nearer 500 students instead of 359.

What didn’t slip is the profile of the students who did enroll. The average legacy Graduate Management Admission Test score for the class rose to 730, highest in the last seven years (see table above), and the school reports a GMAT Focus Edition average of 660 (Focus middle-80% range: 605–715). Undergraduate GPA held roughly steady, with a middle-80% range of 3.15 to 3.90, and 48.5% of the class submitted Graduate Record Exam scores, edging up from 48.1% a year earlier. That number has gone up every year since one-third (33%) of the Class of 2023 submitted GRE scores.

Swinney says the outcome is a deliberate trade-off rather than a shortfall: “Admissions is the first act in designing Fuqua’s educational experience and we look for people who can challenge each other with rigor, curiosity, and respect,” he says. “We’re extremely excited about the 359 students who joined us in August and will only ever welcome a class we believe in completely, compared with larger classes we might achieve by compromising on student quality.”

WOMEN’S SHARE SLIDES FOR A SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR

Women make up 44% of the Class of 2028, extending a decline that began after the Class of 2026 became the first in Fuqua’s history to cross the 50% threshold, at 51%. The share fell to 47% last year and now to 44%.

Swinney attributes the drop to a more competitive market for women applicants rather than any change in strategy. “Competition for women applicants intensified this year, including on scholarships, as overall application volume tightened,” he says.

He points to a slate of long-running programs aimed at attracting and retaining women students: Women’s Leadership Weekend, now in its 23rd year, along with the Fireside Chat and LeadHERship series, which connect students with alumnae across Fuqua’s graduate programs.

“Our strategy going forward is to do everything we can to attract and yield the very best applicants from admission through matriculation, and supporting women in business is a deep and longstanding part of how we do that,” Swinney says. “The women in this class and across our alumni network are extraordinary, and Fuqua will always be a place where they thrive.”

THE INTERNATIONAL NUMBER, EXPLAINED

At first glance, Fuqua’s international representation appears to have reversed a two-year slide, rising to 38% from 35%. But Swinney cautions against reading that as growth. “The percentages tell a slightly misleading story,” he says. “The absolute number of international students declined this year, reflecting the visa environment in several of the countries we’ve long welcomed students from, particularly Nigeria, China, and India. The number of domestic students declined somewhat more, despite domestic application volume being essentially flat, which is why the international percentage rose.

“Our international cohort didn’t actually increase,” he says. “The absolute number of international students fell, just less steeply than the domestic count, which is why the percentage rose.”

The same dynamic, he says, explains why U.S. students of color fell to 50% of the class from 55% a year earlier. “The common thread is a smaller applicant pool and intensified competition for it, including scholarship competition, not a change in how or where we recruit,” Swinney says.

He says Fuqua anticipated a difficult year for international admits and moved up its own timeline in response, starting visa paperwork earlier, working closely with Duke’s university visa services to turn around documentation quickly, and pairing individualized support with workshops and step-by-step guidance for incoming students. International alumni also helped, he says, by sharing their experience with prospective students in their home countries.

“Every one of these students exhibited a strong commitment to come to Duke, and we’re delighted they’re here,” Swinney says.

OTHER CLASS OF 2028 NUMBERS

Beyond the headline shifts, Fuqua’s newly released class profile includes several other data points worth noting. Average age holds at 29, with an average of 6.0 years of work experience (middle 80% range: 3.17 to 9.50 years), and first-generation students make up 19% of the class, down from 22% a year ago. The class represents 46 countries and territories, up from 43 last year, and includes graduates of 244 undergraduate institutions and alumni of 253 employers.

Undergraduate majors split across Business & Accounting (34%), Engineering/Natural Sciences (31%), Liberal Arts (19%), Economics (11%), and other fields (4%). The leading pre-MBA industries are financial services (21%), government (15%), health (13%), technology (10%), and consulting (10%), and 14% of the class holds an advanced degree beyond a bachelor’s.

Fuqua’s profile also lists that 25% of the class is partnered, 24% has U.S. military experience, and 7% identifies as LGBTQ+. More details are at the class profile page here.

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