Business school applicants often wonder how they compare with their peers and what they can do to stand out to admissions officers.
U.S. News published the 2018 Best Business Schools rankings today, providing information that MBA applicants can use to navigate the admissions process.
U.S. News data show how much work experience MBA students usually have when they enroll and what types of college majors are most popular among them. The data also include the male-female ratios at various MBA programs.
[Learn about the top business schools.]
These statistics contribute to a detailed profile of the MBA students who enrolled at the 131 ranked full-time MBA programs, the 301 ranked part-time MBA programs and the 23 ranked executive MBA programs in fall 2016.
MBA programs vary widely in the amount of work experience their students possess. Generally speaking, students in executive MBA programs, which are geared toward midlevel and senior-level professionals, have the most work experience.
Although full-time MBA students tend to have less work experience than those in part-time or executive programs, they typically start business school with several years of postcollege work experience. At ranked business schools, incoming full-time MBA students had an average of 4.3 years of experience.
However, business schools vary widely in the amount of work experience their students possess.
For instance, entering full-time students at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst had 7.8 years of work experience on average, which is significantly higher than the norm. The typical student at UMass–Amherst has more work experience than the typical student at any other ranked MBA program.
[See photos of the Best Business Schools.]
Although business school officials often strive for gender balance among MBA students, there are significantly more men than women in ranked MBA programs — in fall 2016, fewer than 40 percent of incoming MBA students at these programs were women. Part-time MBA programs tend to have a higher representation of women than either full-time or executive MBA programs.
Some business schools have more women than men in their MBA programs. The Missouri University of Science & Technology had the highest proportion of women in its full-time MBA program, at 55.6 percent.
By contrast, the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University had the lowest among full-time programs, at 19.4 percent.
Learn how to choose among [accelerated, executive and online MBAs.]
Many business schools are aggressively recruiting women to increase gender parity.
Another kind of diversity that business schools often seek is in the college majors of their applicants.
More than 60 percent of full-time MBA students at ranked programs majored in something other than business and commerce.
The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania had the highest proportion of humanities majors of any ranked business school — 45.5 percent of its entering students in fall 2016 were humanities majors. Among Wharton MBAs, humanities majors were the most common.
Searching for a business school? Get our complete rankings of Best Business Schools.
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U.S. News Data: A Portrait of the Typical MBA Student originally appeared on usnews.com
