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26 Apr 2012, 19:46
Kudos
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Hi all:
I've attached an excel sheet which is a sortable data set for a large number of traditional part time MBA programs in the country. These schools are part of the list:
1. The Top 75 Part Time MBA Programs according to US News in the 2013 edition.
2. Nationally Ranked Programs according to BusinessWeek that was updated in late 2011.
Obviously, there's a big overlap between these two sets, so if a school made it to at least one of these rankings, it's on this list. Some Businessweek ranked schools weren't ranked in the Top 75 for US News part time, but I went ahead and put in their US News rankings anyway, even if a school was in the Top 50 for BW but let's say Top 150 for US News.
Rankings That You Can See
1. The 2013 US News Part Time Ranking
2. The 2013 US News Full Time Ranking. Given that the Full Time rankings generally are the best barometers on a school's reputation, they're here.
3. The Businessweek 2011 National Rank, Region, and Regional Ranks.
GMAT STATS
There are two sets of GMAT stats here. One for the applicant pool, and the second for the incoming class.
Within the GMAT spreads for the applicant pool and the incoming class, you will see rankings for the 10th, 25th, median (50th), 75th, and 90th percentiles. The best part of the Business week rankings is that most schools listed their applicant pool's stats, AND the 25th and 75th percentile ranks in the applicant and incoming pools. Note that the 25th, median, and 75th percentile stats are in BOLD while the 10th and 90th percentile ranks are not. Why?
Pretty simple. The 25th-75th percentile spread is the middle 50th percentile, and this is the true middle range for a school's class, and it probably won't go up or down that drastically from one year to the next. It could also give you a better expectation of your admissions chances with a certain GMAT score, based on a recent pool and its incoming class because the students in the middle 50 percentile are the bread and butter of the class that comes in year after year.
Also, the 10th and 90th percentiles tend to be borderline outliers to me. The 10th percentile is likely there to encourage relatively lower scoring applicants to apply and of course, many, if not most of those applicants just end up helping the school's acceptance rates. The 90th percentile is kind of a "show-off" stat, likely intended to lure higher scoring applicants, in particular for lower ranked schools. Somebody has to be the big fish in the pond GMAT-wise at the end of the day, and 26 schools on this list have a 90th percentile GMAT of 700 or more according to Businessweek.
Not all schools provided detailed applicant pool and/or incoming class breakdowns. Also, some schools listed percentile stats at a number like 615 or 541. In this case, I rounded up to the next scoreable score in all cases. A 619 turned into a 620 and a 611 also turned into a 620 on this sheet.
UNDERGRADUATE GPA STATS FROM US NEWS
The 10th and 90th percentile spreads are given with the average. In your GMAT quant review, remember than average is NOT the 50th percentile/median. It is not uncommon that the 50th percentile may be higher than the average. However, as we all know, college GPA doesn't count quite as heavily as it does for other grad schools.
APPLICATION ACCEPTANCE AND YIELD STATS
Nearly every school had this on US News except Kellogg and Booth. It shows the number of applicants, accepted applicants, and total applications. The Admit and Yield Rates are also provided.
As a general trend, acceptance rates for most Part Time MBA programs are above 50%, and yields are also mostly above 50% across the board. These programs, especially evening programs are very regionally based, so schools in the same metro area may have a pecking order of some sort. The LA and Chicago areas have multiple top schools and other good programs on this list and you can see the "pecking order."
WAITLIST STATS FROM BUSINESSWEEK
There weren't many schools that provided such stats and this is a stat that is admittedly very variable from year to year. The stats here are the total number of students waitlisted, the total number of waitlisted students who were ultimately accepted. Unfortunately I'm not sure if the stat of waitlisted business school applicants means if these were students offered a spot, or students who actually took that spot. Safer to assume the former than the latter.
Extra Notes
I listed some schools to be in different cities than their traditional main campuses. For example, the University of Maryland's campus was listed as Washington, DC because that is where most part time students take their classes. There are also two additional campuses in Rockville, MD and Baltimore, MD too. In fact, no part time student takes classes at College Park. Another school I can think of is UConn, where students take their classes in satellite campuses throughout the state, rather than the main campus in Storrs. And I can't forget Northwestern University, where the Kellogg part time MBA program is in Chicago rather than the main campus in Evanston, which is where the full time MBA program is. Northwestern's Chicago campus also has the law school, the medical school, and the school for continuing studies fyi. Other notes I stumbled on while piling on this data set are sprinkled in.
Concluding Notes
I hope you guys find it helpful for those of you applying to part time programs. A tool of this type could help as well for the full time programs, in particular when folks are thinking about how good my GMAT is for example.
The notes in particular by no means are exhaustive. Note that I didn't put in average months of experience before matriculation, etc. One more thing I did not add was the types of part time programs there are. However, so you can familiarize yourself with these types, here are the general formats schools offer:
1. Evening Lockstep Cohort MBA
This is a program where a student comes into a cohort of other students and takes all of his or her core classes with them. Classes are typically two days a week from a time like 6 to 9 PM for example. Evening programs pretty much draw all of their students who live in the metropolitan area of the university or where classes are held. So if you apply to let's say Michigan's Evening MBA program, but you live in Philadelphia, well, you better have a good reason (like you're moving to Detroit) as to why you're applying to Michigan's program that's for local students.
Many if not most schools allow some flexibility to allow a student to accelerate the program or to slow it down, but the cohort core is NOT flexible. From what I've seen, very few programs do NOT allow any flexibility to accelerate/lengthen the program after core classes are done, but they are out there. You can expect to take three years to complete a lockstep MBA, but some schools have a two year accelerated program which may be entirely lockstep.
2. Evening Flex MBA
Students take courses at their pace, but generally must start out with core courses. Given that other students are matriculating into the flex program the same year you do if you join a flex program, you still will have a cohort of sorts. Like the evening lockstep MBA format, classes are two days a week.
Most students will finish these programs in about three years, but some may take up to five years, while others may try to accelerate the program to even 18 months! I've heard that it's not adviseable for most flex MBA students to lengthen their programs to the time limit, because it may not signal a positive vibe to prospective future employers. Remember, there are many flex MBA students who will finish in just three years or even less too.
3. Weekend MBA - Students take classes on Saturdays only, usually from morning until late afternoon. From programs I have looked at, they are usually held twice a month or so, such as every other Saturday. These programs allow a school to attract students who don't live in the metropolitan area of the university where students drive in or fly in (yes, they do fly in) to the area of the campus. I have no idea how they can muster up the money to fly in, but I've only seen top tier schools have weekend only MBA's generally speaking.
In MBA programs with a flexible or accelerated format, schools may allow evening students to take weekend classes as well, usually if these students want to accelerate their studies.
Weekend programs tend to be pretty lockstep from what I've seen, because these schools draw a good number of students from outside the metro area. They also will take about three years to complete.
Errors
Also, there could be some errors on here, if so, let me know. Hope this tool helps.
I've attached an excel sheet which is a sortable data set for a large number of traditional part time MBA programs in the country. These schools are part of the list:
1. The Top 75 Part Time MBA Programs according to US News in the 2013 edition.
2. Nationally Ranked Programs according to BusinessWeek that was updated in late 2011.
Obviously, there's a big overlap between these two sets, so if a school made it to at least one of these rankings, it's on this list. Some Businessweek ranked schools weren't ranked in the Top 75 for US News part time, but I went ahead and put in their US News rankings anyway, even if a school was in the Top 50 for BW but let's say Top 150 for US News.
Rankings That You Can See
1. The 2013 US News Part Time Ranking
2. The 2013 US News Full Time Ranking. Given that the Full Time rankings generally are the best barometers on a school's reputation, they're here.
3. The Businessweek 2011 National Rank, Region, and Regional Ranks.
GMAT STATS
There are two sets of GMAT stats here. One for the applicant pool, and the second for the incoming class.
Within the GMAT spreads for the applicant pool and the incoming class, you will see rankings for the 10th, 25th, median (50th), 75th, and 90th percentiles. The best part of the Business week rankings is that most schools listed their applicant pool's stats, AND the 25th and 75th percentile ranks in the applicant and incoming pools. Note that the 25th, median, and 75th percentile stats are in BOLD while the 10th and 90th percentile ranks are not. Why?
Pretty simple. The 25th-75th percentile spread is the middle 50th percentile, and this is the true middle range for a school's class, and it probably won't go up or down that drastically from one year to the next. It could also give you a better expectation of your admissions chances with a certain GMAT score, based on a recent pool and its incoming class because the students in the middle 50 percentile are the bread and butter of the class that comes in year after year.
Also, the 10th and 90th percentiles tend to be borderline outliers to me. The 10th percentile is likely there to encourage relatively lower scoring applicants to apply and of course, many, if not most of those applicants just end up helping the school's acceptance rates. The 90th percentile is kind of a "show-off" stat, likely intended to lure higher scoring applicants, in particular for lower ranked schools. Somebody has to be the big fish in the pond GMAT-wise at the end of the day, and 26 schools on this list have a 90th percentile GMAT of 700 or more according to Businessweek.
Not all schools provided detailed applicant pool and/or incoming class breakdowns. Also, some schools listed percentile stats at a number like 615 or 541. In this case, I rounded up to the next scoreable score in all cases. A 619 turned into a 620 and a 611 also turned into a 620 on this sheet.
UNDERGRADUATE GPA STATS FROM US NEWS
The 10th and 90th percentile spreads are given with the average. In your GMAT quant review, remember than average is NOT the 50th percentile/median. It is not uncommon that the 50th percentile may be higher than the average. However, as we all know, college GPA doesn't count quite as heavily as it does for other grad schools.
APPLICATION ACCEPTANCE AND YIELD STATS
Nearly every school had this on US News except Kellogg and Booth. It shows the number of applicants, accepted applicants, and total applications. The Admit and Yield Rates are also provided.
As a general trend, acceptance rates for most Part Time MBA programs are above 50%, and yields are also mostly above 50% across the board. These programs, especially evening programs are very regionally based, so schools in the same metro area may have a pecking order of some sort. The LA and Chicago areas have multiple top schools and other good programs on this list and you can see the "pecking order."
WAITLIST STATS FROM BUSINESSWEEK
There weren't many schools that provided such stats and this is a stat that is admittedly very variable from year to year. The stats here are the total number of students waitlisted, the total number of waitlisted students who were ultimately accepted. Unfortunately I'm not sure if the stat of waitlisted business school applicants means if these were students offered a spot, or students who actually took that spot. Safer to assume the former than the latter.
Extra Notes
I listed some schools to be in different cities than their traditional main campuses. For example, the University of Maryland's campus was listed as Washington, DC because that is where most part time students take their classes. There are also two additional campuses in Rockville, MD and Baltimore, MD too. In fact, no part time student takes classes at College Park. Another school I can think of is UConn, where students take their classes in satellite campuses throughout the state, rather than the main campus in Storrs. And I can't forget Northwestern University, where the Kellogg part time MBA program is in Chicago rather than the main campus in Evanston, which is where the full time MBA program is. Northwestern's Chicago campus also has the law school, the medical school, and the school for continuing studies fyi. Other notes I stumbled on while piling on this data set are sprinkled in.
Concluding Notes
I hope you guys find it helpful for those of you applying to part time programs. A tool of this type could help as well for the full time programs, in particular when folks are thinking about how good my GMAT is for example.
The notes in particular by no means are exhaustive. Note that I didn't put in average months of experience before matriculation, etc. One more thing I did not add was the types of part time programs there are. However, so you can familiarize yourself with these types, here are the general formats schools offer:
1. Evening Lockstep Cohort MBA
This is a program where a student comes into a cohort of other students and takes all of his or her core classes with them. Classes are typically two days a week from a time like 6 to 9 PM for example. Evening programs pretty much draw all of their students who live in the metropolitan area of the university or where classes are held. So if you apply to let's say Michigan's Evening MBA program, but you live in Philadelphia, well, you better have a good reason (like you're moving to Detroit) as to why you're applying to Michigan's program that's for local students.
Many if not most schools allow some flexibility to allow a student to accelerate the program or to slow it down, but the cohort core is NOT flexible. From what I've seen, very few programs do NOT allow any flexibility to accelerate/lengthen the program after core classes are done, but they are out there. You can expect to take three years to complete a lockstep MBA, but some schools have a two year accelerated program which may be entirely lockstep.
2. Evening Flex MBA
Students take courses at their pace, but generally must start out with core courses. Given that other students are matriculating into the flex program the same year you do if you join a flex program, you still will have a cohort of sorts. Like the evening lockstep MBA format, classes are two days a week.
Most students will finish these programs in about three years, but some may take up to five years, while others may try to accelerate the program to even 18 months! I've heard that it's not adviseable for most flex MBA students to lengthen their programs to the time limit, because it may not signal a positive vibe to prospective future employers. Remember, there are many flex MBA students who will finish in just three years or even less too.
3. Weekend MBA - Students take classes on Saturdays only, usually from morning until late afternoon. From programs I have looked at, they are usually held twice a month or so, such as every other Saturday. These programs allow a school to attract students who don't live in the metropolitan area of the university where students drive in or fly in (yes, they do fly in) to the area of the campus. I have no idea how they can muster up the money to fly in, but I've only seen top tier schools have weekend only MBA's generally speaking.
In MBA programs with a flexible or accelerated format, schools may allow evening students to take weekend classes as well, usually if these students want to accelerate their studies.
Weekend programs tend to be pretty lockstep from what I've seen, because these schools draw a good number of students from outside the metro area. They also will take about three years to complete.
Errors
Also, there could be some errors on here, if so, let me know. Hope this tool helps.
Attachments
File comment: 2012 Part Time US MBA Rankings
2012 Part Time US MBA Rankings.xlsx [39.56 KiB]
Downloaded 630 times
