Business schools in the US are really good at marketing their MBA programs and making them seem compelling and impactful. With so many top notch programs to choose from, many applicants get overwhelmed, and simply rely on rankings and prestige to make their selections. The problem is that there are many different MBA rankings lists published every year, which often have conflicting results.
This is why we encourage our clients to dig deeper to understand which MBA programs are a good fit for their unique background and career path. We challenge our clients to think carefully about criteria they care about such as:
- Which program is best for your industry?
- Which program can help you pivot to a different role and function?
- Which programs match your career goals?
- Which programs offer the kind of class profile and diversity that would suit you?
- Which programs have the specialization you are looking for?
To keep ourselves informed and to provide answers for our clients, we spend each offseason researching and reaching out to our previous clients at more than 50 U.S. MBA programs. The goal of this blog post is to share some real statistics and trends about the class make up and career outcomes of the U.S. MBA programs we have researched in an effort to show that different programs have different strengths. If you still have questions about your target schools after reading this post, we invite you to schedule a FREE 20-minute consultation to discuss your target school list with us. Let’s get to the numbers.
Largest and Smallest MBA Classes
No two MBA classes are created equal. Some people are seeking a huge MBA class with massive networking potential, career specializations, and famous professors. But others prefer to be able to get to know most of their MBA cohort by name and build deeper working relationships. Here are the five largest and five smallest incoming classes of 2024 (Two-Year MBAs only) that we researched.
| Largest MBA Classes | Smallest MBA Classes | ||
| Harvard | 1,010 | Florida Warrington | 52 |
| Penn Wharton | 897 | Penn State Smeal | 55 |
| Columbia | 847 | UT Dallas Jindahl | 55 |
| Chicago Booth | 620 | Ohio State Fisher | 61 |
| Northwestern Kellogg | 508 | Georgia Terry | 62 |
International Students
Some MBA programs are known for being uber-diverse, with some even hosting a majority of their class as international students, while other U.S. universities seem more challenging for international students to gain admission to. Here are the five programs whose class of 2024 are made up of the most and fewest international students (by percentage), respectively.
| Highest International % | Lowest International % | ||
| Columbia | 48% | Notre Dame Mendoza | 15% |
| Duke Fuqua | 47% | Minnesota Carlson | 19% |
| Stanford | 47% | Georgia Tech Scheller | 19% |
| Florida Warrington | 44% | BYU Mariott | 22% |
| Boston Questrom | 44% | Boston College Carroll | 23% |
Women
As in the business world, business schools are competing to balance their classes and churn out female business leaders. Several U.S. MBA programs have nearly achieved a 50/50 balance with Penn Wharton standing out as the only school we researched that has more female students in its incoming class than any other program. Here’s who’s leading in MBA gender equality and who is furthest from achieving parity.
| Highest Female % | Lowest Female % | ||
| Penn Wharton | 52% | Carnegie Mellon Tepper | 21% |
| Northwestern Kellogg | 49% | BYU Mariott | 26% |
| Boston Questrom | 48% | Texas A&M Mays | 26% |
| Duke Fuqua | 47% | Emory Goizueta | 27% |
| Harvard/Michigan/Dartmouth | 46% | Ohio State Fisher | 28% |
Placements By Industry
When applying for an MBA, the industry you intend to work in is likely to strongly impact how you create your target school list. While top-20 programs offer fairly balanced coverage of the most common industries – consulting, finance, tech, health/pharma – our clients are often surprised to find, after doing a little research, many programs that align with their career plan that hadn’t been on their radar initially. Below is a quick snapshot of the MBA programs that graduated the highest percentage of professionals into several of the most common industries from the class of 2021.
| Consulting | Finance | |||
| Georgia Tech Scheller | 38% | Columbia | 36% | |
| Emory Goizueta | 37% | Cornell Johnson | 36% | |
| Dartmouth Tuck | 36% | NYU Stern | 35% | |
| Michigan Ross | 35% | Penn Wharton | 35% | |
| Yale/CMU/Chicago | 44% | Stanford/Harvard | 33% |
| Technology | Healthcare/Pharmaceutical | |||
| Texas A&M Mays | 52% | Minnesota Carlson | 30% | |
| Washington Foster | 45% | Boston Questrom | 29% | |
| BYU Mariott | 40% | Penn State Smeal | 22% | |
| Notre Dame Mendoza | 36% | Vanderbilt Owen | 22% | |
| Berkeley/UT Austin/MSU | 34% | Ohio State Fisher | 19% |
| Manufacturing/Industry | Consumer Goods | |||
| Penn State Smeal | 30% | Minnesota Carlson | 23% | |
| Michigan State Broad | 18% | Georgia Terry | 14% | |
| Arizona State Carey | 11% | Indiana Kelley Florida Warrington BYU Mariott Georgia Tech Scheller | 13% |
[Conclusion]
While this data illustrates in broad strokes why every prospective MBA applicant should do their research to uncover potential MBA program fits, class profiles and career outcomes should be considered alongside other elements on your priority list, such as target market, international experiences, teaching methods, values and more. For more insights as to how to shape your school list, read this article on 5 Ways to Narrow Down Your School List. We encourage all of our clients to take an open-minded approach to creating their target school list because a great education can be acquired at many, many universities, but the one that best fits you might not be on your radar until you do a little digging. If you are curious to know more about how we work with our clients, please schedule a FREE 20-minute consultation today.