MBA Acceptance Rates at Top 20 Schools

Question

Hello GMATClub!! Good luck to all who are applying this year.

We would like to present you analysis acceptance rates and impact of factors such as GMAT score, GPA, region, etc. on acceptance at top schools.

This analysis is based on our user data, which is self reported. We analysed application records of close to 26K GMATClub users who applied to top business schools between 2013 -2017. It's advised to use findings of this analysis with discretion. They are meant to give only a general idea of admission scenario. Don't presume that these findings will hold true all the time.

We shortlisted top 19 business schools (16 US Schools, 2 European Schools, and 1 Indian School) for this analysis. We welcome any comments, opinions, suggestions or anything else that you might have to say about the findings of this analysis.

Acceptance of Domestic and International Applicants at Top Schools

This analysis compares acceptance rates of domestic and international applicants and their spread from overall acceptance rates. As we can see every school, except for Stanford, has higher acceptance rate for domestic applicants. Stanford and Tuck have minimal difference between domestic and international acceptance rates. 
 
  Sample Size: 26K Applicants  
 https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Acceptance_Domestic_vs_International.png

For rest of the analysis we classified schools in to 2 categories. First category includes 7 most prestigious business schools in US, popularly called as M7. In second category we included other elite business schools.

M7 Schools:  Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, Kellogg, MIT Sloan, Columbia.
 Elite Schools:  Haas, Tuck, Yale, Darden, Fuqua, Ross, UCLA, LBS, INSEAD, Stern, Johnson.

Now let's take a look at admission trends at M7 and other elite schools.

Admission Trends at M7 Schools 
These seven are most competitive schools. Every year thousands of applicants apply to these schools but only few get admitted. Last year Harvard had received 7899 applications of which only 485 were admitted; Numbers speak for themselves! These are the most coveted MBA programs on the earth. Since their admission stats are very different than all other top schools, we decided to keep them in a different category.

Getting admitted in to a M7 Bschool is tough and the chart below clearly shows the intensity of competition. At best you can have 17% chance of acceptance if your GMAT score is lower than 780
 
  Among the 10K applicants that we considered for this chart, 85% had GMAT score of 700 or above. 
 
  From 660 to 770, with every 10 point increase in GMAT score one can increase his/her acceptance chance by 1%

Sample Size: 10029 Applicants  
 https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/M7_Acceptance_by_GMAT.png

https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/M7_Interview_Acceptance.png

Sample Size: 12340 Applicants  
 https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/M7_Acceptance_by_Educational_Background.png

Sample Size: 12983 Applicants  
 https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/M7_Acceptance_by_Industry.png

Sample Size: 12468 Applicants  
 https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/M7_Acceptance_by_Region.png

Admission Trends at Other Elite Schools

Schools included in this category are Haas, Tuck, Yale, Darden, Fuqua, Ross, UCLA, LBS, INSEAD, Stern, Johnson, and ISB.

Sample Size: 11038 Applicants  
 https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Elite_Acceptance_by_GMAT.png

https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Elite_Interview_Acceptance.png

Sample Size: 13982 Applicants  
 https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Elite_Acceptance_by_Educational_Background.png

Sample Size: 14703 Applicants  
 https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Elite_Acceptance_by_Industry.png

Sample Size: 13723 Applicants  
 https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Elite_Acceptance_by_Region.png

As I said earlier, we welcome your views, counter-views, suggestions, etc on the analysis. We do not claim that the findings of above survey are 100% correct. We are aware of the limitations of survey sample and self reported data. The objective of this survey is to analyse general admission trend. If anyone disagrees with above findings, we respect their opinions. The idea behind this topic is to generate a thoughtful discussion which will shed light in various components of MBA application process. Thank you!

See also.....   
 
   Admission Chances for U.S. MBA Applicants  
   MBA Admission Chances for Indian Applicants - Top 50 Analysis  
   Chances of Getting Admitted After an Interview  
   2017 Round1 Admission Trends: Impact of GMAT/AGE/Nationality on Acceptance!  
   Admission Trends at Top Bschools Over Last 5 Years!  
   Top 20 Bschools: Strengths and Weaknesses

adkikani · Answer

Excellent compilation  Narenn

This list includes top 20 as per usnews.com?
I think we can add filter for 1 year mba too. Love to see how three iims A, B and C fare with most EU schools like LBS, HEC Paris and NUS.

Posted from my mobile device

Narenn · Answer

Thanks for your comments.

Yes.

I would have liked to compare 1 year MBA acceptance rates too but we don't have sufficient data of 1yr MBA applicants on forum so the outcome of this analysis would not be representative of the actual admission scenario.

danielarasan · Answer

Very, vey good stuff! Thanks a lot!

Regenerate · Answer

This is some pretty cool stuff, Narenn. I'd never seen this before.

In an effort to only add (and not detract), for the rest of the community ... in GMATClub's recently published FT MBA Ranking of US programs, there is a subscore ("Cohort Strength") that considers the relative competitiveness of the applicants at each school. While it doesn't split it by domestic / international applications (or by major or any other sub-score), it does provide a window into which schools are more exacting in their admissions requirements.

There is also another subscore ("Brand") that is nearly entirely influenced by analysis on total applicants, total admits, total matriculants, and ratios of the same ... across schools in the top 40 ... and the relationships of these scores between the various schools. This is intended to give a more holistic view into which schools are in greatest demand by the market of MBA applicants.

Here's a link to the ranking -- hopefully it will help give some additional insight for aspiring applicants to US programs --> https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-club-mb ... 35846.html

MBA Acceptance Rates at Top 20 Schools

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