University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of BusinessApplications for the full-time M.B.A. at University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business dropped nearly 17%, to 2,436.Demand for an M.B.A. has cooled in recent years. But this year, it’s downright frigid in some corners of the market.
Applications declined sharply at some elite business schools in 2012, with interest in full-time, two-year M.B.A. programs continuing to show weakness as applicants opt instead for shorter or part-time graduate business programs or forego school altogether in favor of on-the-job learning.
Among the hardest-hit top-tier schools was Columbia Business School, where applications for the class that just began fell nearly 19%, to slightly above 2007 levels. The school says the sharp drop comes in the wake of “unusually high” application volume following the financial crisis, peaking at 6,669 last year.
Applications for the full-time M.B.A. at University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business dropped nearly 17%, to 2,436. New York University’s Stern School of Business reported an 11.5% decline in its fall class, to 3,907, while Yale School of Management’s M.B.A. applications fell by 9.6%, to 2,554 and MIT’s Sloan School of Management saw a decline of nearly 8%, to 4,133.
For some schools, the numbers extend a rather bleak pattern. After applications to two-year full-time programs jumped in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis, they have declined since 2009, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the GMAT business-school entrance exam. Across the board, applications to those programs fell 9.9% for the class that enrolled in fall 2011. Results from GMAC’s next survey, measuring volume for the group that entered this fall, will be released next week.
Prospective students initially were eager to bolster their resumes amid a tight job market, but the prolonged economic uncertainty and weak Wall Street employment prospects has more than reversed that trend at many schools. Still, that doesn’t explain the entire picture, because some top schools fared significantly better than their competitors.
For example, applications to the two-year M.B.A. at Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management jumped 14% this year to a near-record high of about 2,100. Applications for the one-year M.B.A rose by 12%. The school attributes some of its increase to more aggressive recruiting efforts; it added about 40 events globally to its calendar last year.
At University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, meanwhile, two-year M.B.A. applications rose by 9%. Sara Neher, assistant dean of M.B.A. admissions, says a new marketing plan and higher rankings has led to more, and better-qualified, applicants.
Meanwhile, applications to Harvard Business School’s M.B.A. fell by 4% this year.
Applications to the M.B.A. at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School remained relatively flat at 6,408 (compared with 6,442 the prior year), with growth among applicants from the social sector and military backgrounds, as well as those with experience in technology and healthcare. Interest in joint and dual-degree programs also increased, says Ankur Kumar, director of admissions and financial aid.
Administrators at some of the schools were stumped as to why their fortunes were better or worse than those of close competitors.
“I think schools have about as much wisdom predicting application volume as economists do predicting employment,” says Derrick Bolton, assistant dean and director of M.B.A. admissions at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Applications to that school’s full-time M.B.A. edged up 1.5% to 6,716, from 6,618 the prior year.
Even for those schools that did post a decline in applications to their flagship M.B.A. programs, it’s not all doom and gloom. Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management saw applications to its two-year M.B.A. drop by 7% to 5,071, but applications to its one-year program rose by 6%. The school increased the class size for that shorter degree to 100 from 85, part of a long-term strategic move to focus more on the shorter option.
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