Another Major MBA Program Achieves Gender Parity
Credit: Stephen Ehlers / Moment Mobile / Getty Images- Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis achieved gender parity in its MBA program.
- The school roughly doubled its MBA applications year over year and grew its cohort by 25%.
- A growing number of top business schools are achieving MBA gender parity.
- That comes amid a growing number of women applying and getting into MBA programs.
Another top business school has achieved gender parity in its master of business administration (MBA) program.
More than half (53%) of the MBA students in the latest class at the Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) Olin Business School are women, according to data from the school.
That makes it one of only several business schools to achieve that mark so far, alongside major institutions like Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
Evan Bouffides, senior associate dean of graduate programs at Olin, told BestColleges that the gender parity achievement came amid a substantial rise in overall MBA applications. Bouffides said the school roughly doubles its MBA application volume year over year.
“More applications means more of everything,” Bouffides said. “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.”
That increase in applications is part of a larger trend across business education, Bouffides said, although not many other business schools can claim the same dramatic rise as Olin. The past decade has also seen an increased number of women applying to business school.
Women have been making major gains in MBA programs in recent years. In 2023, women made up a historic 42% of enrollment at the Forté Foundation’s member schools, which include some of the most prestigious schools in the world. The number has grown significantly over the past decade, rising from 34% in 2013.
“Our efforts over the past two decades, along with our member schools and companies, have significantly impacted the increase in women interested in business careers and advancing to leadership,” Forté Foundation CEO Elissa Sangster said in a press release at the time.
“Every year, we see about a percentage point gain in women’s enrollment, and, trust me, it’s not easy to achieve.”
Sangster added that gender parity in MBA programs could translate to better gender representation among business owners, executives, and boards.
In addition to Wharton and Saïd, other institutions that have achieved gender parity include the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School, The Pennsylvania State University’s Smeal College of Business, and George Washington University’s School of Business.
Olin also maintained strong diversity in its MBA cohort, as underrepresented students of color made up 34% of the class — the same figure year over year.
Bouffides underscored the importance of having a reflective and representative MBA cohort.
“It traces back to a long history of research about organizations that are either more or less diverse, and the outcomes associated with that diversity,” Bouffides said. “So if we believe that research, which is something I think we do as a business school, and we treat our entering class as an organization of sorts, then we want the best outcomes.”
Olin’s MBA class of 2026 also stood out with a record-setting GMAT score and a 10-year high GRE score. Olin has a test-optional policy, meaning students don’t have to submit the GMAT or GRE to be admitted, although those tests are generally recommended for most students.
Bouffides said the rise in MBA applications, coupled with increasing gender parity and reflectivity, points to a healthy MBA landscape.
It also pointed to the continued relevance of the MBA, even amid the rise of alternative master’s degrees like master in management and business analytics programs.
Bouffides said the MBA is continually evolving, incorporating new elements like experiential or applied learning and responding to market needs from employers to stay relevant.
Bouffides added that he thinks Olin is poised to continue its strong growth over the next year, adding that he’s seen promising application volume from the school’s first-round MBA applications for the current admissions cycle.
“There’s a lot of dimensions of diversity, and so we want representation from lots of countries and lots of industry backgrounds and functional backgrounds,” Bouffides said. “And so right now, Olin, I think, is positioned to continue this march.”