How will application increase affect us?

Question

The word is that most schools have seen a significant increase in applications this year over last year. GMAC is reporting a small increase of GMAT volume, but not a significant increase. I spoke with an Admissions director recently and asked him about this phenomenon. He agreed that it probably has a lot to do with people applying to multiple schools. 

How do you all feel that this will affect admissions? Do schools just accept a large pool and take the yield hit, or do they follow their typical admissions protocol and pray that they have picked a good (interested) bunch? Will final rounds/wait lists be easier in some schools and near impossible in others? Thoughts?

dukes · Answer

Lots of waitlisting.

sm176811 · Answer

Higher competition! These days everyone from India and China wants to goto H/S/W/K!

lhotseface · Answer

Not really. No school is going to admit more than a small x% of students from the same international demographic.

agsfaltex · Answer

I think it does increase international competition, especially from the over-represented countries because thats where the largest increases in application volume have come from. This roots from the fact that GMAT test taker volume has also risen internationally much more so then domestic volume. As far as domestic competition is concerned we may see some small decrease in % domestic student body, which will increase the level of competition slightly. However, this maybe off-setted by the increase in class size that several top schools have seen in recent years.

gogetter · Answer

I haven't seen the evidence that could peg this increased volume squarely with international applicants. Does anyone have concrete data on this? 

I posed the question of applications up/down to many admissions directors and they have all said up 33% to 50% but have not used international applicants as part of their explaination. I asked if that meant yield was going to be down and they look as if that is the most foreign concept they have heard. 

Does this mean there are genuinely more applicants across the board? Perhaps. But either way it is going to be harder to get into B-School this year than the year before, regardless of where you are applying from.

fluffydot · Answer

Do the GMAC numbers include international exams?

If it does, then I think that ppl are applying to more schools per person is very sound reasoning. Then waitlisting and delayed admissions will definitely be common this year.

But I think there definitely should be an increased number of international applicants from the likes of india and china since their economies are booming more than ever.

I would love to see some real hard stats regarding admissions this year...

sm176811 · Answer

If there are larger number of people from Country X applying (and assuming all of them have similar profiles) it will be more difficult for people from X to differentiate themselves from the other applicants!

johnnyx9 · Answer

I've heard the theory that "flat GMAT volume" might indicate that people are applying to more schools. But I wonder what would cause people to apply to more schools? That's as plausible as saying that more people are taking the GMAT, but each individual is taking it fewer times and applying to fewer schools, which would also makes sense in a flat-GMAT increased-application year. 

Hope that made sense. What I'm getting at is I haven't heard any good explanations for the surge in applications.

philkriger · Answer

The surge in applications may also reflect that more and more applicants are ONLY applying to top programs. I'd be interested to see if applications are up at many schools outside the top 20.

gogetter · Answer

WashU Stl (~26) told me applications were *double* from last year.

How will application increase affect us?

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