US MBA Applications Plunge 27% as International Demand Drops

It was a brutal nine months for the admissions offices at US MBA programs. Applications for the class of 2028, entering this fall, took a nosedive, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council, a global association of business schools. US business schools reported that applications for full-time MBAs plummeted 27% from the previous cycle. Applications fell across all types of US MBA programs and, indeed, all types of graduate business programs. Even online MBA programs attracted less interest.

Worldwide, according to a new survey by GMAC, more selective schools generally faced smaller application shortfalls. In the US, only two of the few, invariably selective schools that typically publish the number of applications for their incoming class have yet done so this fall, but both reported similar drops: 21% at UCLA Anderson School of Management, and 22% at Georgetown University McDonough School of Business. Duke University Fuqua School of Business saw a similar overall drop, according to the school. “Every admissions cycle brings its own dynamics, and this year was no exception,” Shari Hubert, Fuqua’s associate dean for admissions, said in an emailed statement. “While our entering class is smaller than in recent years, we remain focused on enrolling students who are academically prepared, accomplished, and ready to contribute to the Fuqua community.”

Skittishness abroad — largely the result of the Trump administration’s restrictive visa policies — drove the decline. International applications to Anderson’s MBA program fell about 30%, says Gary Fraser, associate dean of Anderson’s full-time MBA program. But domestic applications also fell, around 10%. “Typically in a down cycle, people generally go to business school thinking things will be better when they graduate,” Fraser says. “But we’ve seen a shift in that trend, where it’s a bigger proposition with this Gen Z population. It’s the first population that isn’t sure if they’re going to do as well as their parents and question things a lot more. I think there’s concern that the economy won’t necessarily turn around in two years when they get their degree.” Anderson’s experience appears to be typical. According to GMAC, international applications across all types of US graduate business programs fell 38%, while domestic applications fell 6%. (Although GMAC has provided Bloomberg Businessweek with changes in both domestic and international applications to US MBA programs in the past, it was unable to do so this year because the data isn’t readily available, according to a spokeswoman.)

As a result, MBA programs are filling fewer seats, to judge by the profiles for the entering classes that have been released this fall. (As of Oct. 26, 12 of the top 35 US schools in Businessweek’s Best Business School Rankings have published class profiles.) “Other schools are going to report a major drop-off,” Fraser says. The declines were smallest at the highest-ranked schools; only MIT Sloan School of Management (tied for No. 9 on the Businessweek list) held class size steady. A school spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, on the other hand, saw its entering class reduced by almost half, from 106 last year to 57. Kelley declined to comment for this story. It’s not clear to what extent schools actively reduced the number of seats they offered. Georgetown’s class shrank in close proportion to applications. Yet Anderson planned roughly the same entering class size as last year — about 300 students — but fell short, Fraser says, as richer schools lured some prospects away with more generous scholarship offers. “We had a lot more people who put down deposits and chose not to come to Anderson because they got a better deal somewhere else.” Some international applicants, meanwhile, had trouble getting visas.

At Duke, too, the size of the entering class didn’t fall as much as the applicant pool. If the effect of this is to make Fuqua and Anderson appear less selective — because they are enrolling a higher share of applicants — it hasn’t translated into a less qualified class, as reported in the schools’ profiles. In fact, Anderson’s mean GMAT score increased 15 points for the class of 2028.

Strikingly, while a third of this small sample of elite schools posted a substantially smaller share of international student enrollment (that is, foreign nationals requiring a visa to study in the US), most managed to keep that proportion relatively steady, or even increased it. At Dartmouth Tuck School of Business, that share jumped 7 percentage points, to 29%. Still, only MIT of these schools has increased the number of foreign students as well as the share: this fall, 203 students from 65 countries have come to Kendall Square.

To the extent they can, many schools try to manage the composition of the class. “Schools absolutely want to preserve the global diversity of the class, so students have exposure to a variety of backgrounds and life experiences,” says Kelly Wilson, an admissions consultant of Accepted, an admissions consultancy for higher ed programs, and a former executive director of masters admissions at Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business. But others don’t or can’t. At Anderson, the share of international students increased slightly, to 36% of the class, but Fraser says, “we didn’t work toward that number. The natural decline internationally sort of gathered at that number. But it feels right, especially with everything that’s going on in the world.” Interest in MBA programs fell worldwide, though not as dramatically as in the US. Applications to European programs fell by only 2%, according to GMAC. At EDHEC Business School in Nice, applications were down 17%. But, says Sandra Richez, global MBA program director, the picture has been mixed. “While applications have fallen in several established recruitment markets, enrollment conversion has remained strong, helping to sustain class recruitment in both quality and quantity,” she said by email. On the other hand, although qualified applications surged by 50% or more from some emerging regions — including Africa, a growing source of applications for US schools throttled late last year by visa bans and other roadblocks — “this growth has not translated proportionately into enrollments, highlighting the gap between candidates’ interest in an MBA and their ability to finance one and obtain the required student visa.” The school, she says, is trying to redress this with more financial aid to African and Latin American students.