Graduate Business School Applications Rise After 2 Years of Decline
Credit: SDI Productions / E+ / Getty Images- Graduate business school applications are up globally, according to new research from the Graduate Management Admission Council.
- That follows two years of decline.
- The U.S. is a top destination for international business students, according to the report, and domestic applications in several countries also grew.
- The GMAC also found an increase in applications from women.
Applications to graduate business schools are showing meteoric growth globally after years of decline.
A new report from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) found a 12% increase in applications to business schools from 2023 to 2024. That follows two consecutive years of decline, according to a GMAC press release.
That application growth was driven by students wanting a full-time, in-person education, according to the release, with well over half of institutions surveyed by the GMAC reporting application growth in those programs.
“This year’s record growth in applications hints at a pendulum swing toward graduate business education, especially staple programs like full-time MBAs (master of business administration) and accounting and management master’s degrees,” GMAC CEO Joy Jones said in the release.
That reflects a larger trend of student interest following the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous GMAC research, as well as reports from the consulting firm CarringtonCrisp, have shown a renewed interest in in-person programs from prospective students.
In-person programs weren’t the only graduate business format to report growth: The GMAC also found that online and hybrid programs largely saw applications increase year over year.
Increased interest in graduate business school could reflect rising economic uncertainty and instability worldwide, Jones said, as well as recent innovations at business schools.
“While the phenomenon could give proof to the countercyclical trend long observed between interest in graduate business school and the strength of the economy, I would give much credit to global business schools and their tremendous efforts to continue innovating with new technologies, new delivery tactics, and new ways of operating that satisfy the latest interests and needs of students and their future employers,” Jones said.
Business schools have increasingly invested in artificial intelligence (AI) and rolled out MBA programs and standalone degrees in growing fields like cybersecurity and sustainability over the past year.
Applications from women to graduate business programs also showed an increase to 42% after largely staying at roughly 40% for a decade. More than half of programs reported application growth from women, compared to roughly 45% in 2023.
“I’m excited to see this kind of growth in applications from women,” Forté Foundation CEO Elissa Sangster said in the release.
“I believe in the value of business education and the doors it opens for people, particularly women. As more women invest in themselves through business education, the healthier the pipeline becomes for business leadership, and the more likely we are to close the gender gap.”
MBA programs were most likely to see a jump in applications from women.
That finding isn’t surprising: More top U.S. business schools have achieved gender parity in their MBA class of 2026.
The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, for example, recently announced that half of the students in its latest MBA class are women.
“A record high 50% of these students are women, making this class the first in the Two-Year MBA program’s history to reach that milestone,” Emily Haydon, Kellogg assistant dean of admissions and financial aid, wrote in a release.
“As they join the community of women at Kellogg, they will find advocates, programming, resources and a supportive network, all dedicated to helping them grow into impactful leaders, both as students and long after graduation.”
Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis also achieved gender parity this year, a mark that Evan Bouffides, senior associate dean of graduate programs, attributed to a major rise in overall MBA applications.
“More applications means more of everything,” Bouffides said in a previous interview. “And while we did increase our class size, we didn’t increase it by double. We increased it by 25%, so that creates a fair amount of flexibility, too.”
The Forté Foundation found last year that women made up an historic 42% of MBA enrollment at its member institutions.
U.S. a Top Destination Globally
The GMAC found that the U.S. is still a top study destination for international talent and that an “overwhelming majority” of prospective students said that the upcoming election wouldn’t affect their plans to study in the country.
That’s a shift from previous election cycles, according to recent GMAC research.
That finding mirrors recent CarringtonCrisp research, which found that the U.S. reclaimed its spot as the top destination for international business students. Students pointed to factors like the number and quality of U.S. business schools, as well as post-graduation work opportunities, in rating the country as a top spot for study.
A growing number of U.S. business schools are landing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) designations for their MBA programs and other degrees. That designation allows qualified international students to stay in the U.S. for up to three years after graduation.
While international students eye the U.S. for study, several countries saw their domestic applications rise.
Domestic applications drove application increases in Asia, the U.S., and Europe. The United Kingdom was an exception — it experienced a drop in both international and domestic applications.
“There is no doubt that high-quality educational offerings are increasing in major markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, giving candidates historically inclined to studying abroad more options and opportunities at home,” GMAC board member François Ortalo-Magné, professor of management practice and executive dean of external relations at London Business School, said in the release.
“In this context it is critical for business schools to encourage regional and international mobility and build diverse, multicultural cohorts on campus, knowing that it brings tremendous educational benefits in our classroom, future boardroom, and beyond.”