The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
Although many U.S. business schools are eager to enroll women, most have not reached gender parity within their student body.
Fewer than 40 percent of full-time MBA students enrolled at ranked business schools were women in fall 2016, and female students were in the minority at 122 of the 130 ranked b-schools that provided gender-ratio statistics to U.S. News in an annual survey.
[Find out the typical traits of MBA students at ranked programs.]
But at the 10 full-time MBA programs with the highest proportion of women who enrolled in fall 2016, females made up at least 48 percent of students. Six of these 10 schools enrolled more women than men.
The full-time MBA program with the highest representation in fall 2016 was the Missouri University of Science & Technology, where 55.6 percent of students were women. In contrast, the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University had the lowest proportion — just 19.4 percent — among ranked full-time MBA programs.
[Consider these 10 resolutions for female MBA applicants.]
Nine of the 10 b-schools where women were most highly represented in full-time MBA programs placed in the bottom-fourth of the 2018 Best Business Schools rankings. These schools are labeled as Rank Not Published; U.S. News calculated ranks for these schools but has decided not to publish them.
According to a 2016 survey of business school applicants conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council, female applicants often prefer non-MBA business master’s programs and one-year MBA programs instead of traditional two-year MBA programs.
“Perhaps wanting to complete a program in the shortest amount of time in order to resume a career or before starting a family may make a one-year master’s program or a flexible, part-time, online, or one-year MBA program more attractive,” the report stated.
Below are the 10 full-time MBA programs with the highest proportion of women in fall 2016. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| School (name) (state) | Percent of full-time female students (fall 2016) | U.S. News b-school rank |
| Missouri University of Science & Technology | 55.6% | RNP |
| Temple University (Fox) (PA) | 55.1% | 32 (tie) |
| Belmont University (Massey) (TN) | 53.6% | RNP |
| Suffolk University (Sawyer) (MA) | 52.9% | RNP |
| SUNY–Oswego | 52.6% | RNP |
| George Mason University (VA) | 52.5% | RNP |
| University of Colorado–Denver | 50% | RNP |
| College of Charleston (SC) | 50% | RNP |
| San Diego State University (CA) | 48.9% | RNP |
| Clark University (MA) | 48% | RNP |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Business School Compass to find male-female ratios, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed 471 schools for our 2016 survey of business programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’ data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Business Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News’ rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The gender-ratio data above are correct as of April 11, 2017.
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10 Business Schools With the Most Women originally appeared on usnews.com
