Most of the high MBA packages in the USA had nice admissions cycles resulting in the enrollment of the Class of 2024, particularly within the space of take a look at rating averages. None had a greater yr than USC Marshall College of Enterprise.
The Marshall College enrolled an MBA class with a 732 common Graduate Administration Admission Check rating, up 16 factors from the rating reported for the Class of 2021. In truth, Marshall had an important 2021, too — within the two lessons which have enrolled since 2020, the Southern California B-school has seen its GMAT average jump an incredible 25 points.
The huge leap in a stat that also instructions a substantial amount of consideration from admissions groups and potential B-school college students alike put the Marshall College within the firm of lots of the largest names in graduate enterprise training — and forward of a number of others. Its 732 common was the third-largest reported in 2022, behind solely Stanford Graduate College of Enterprise, which dropped a degree from final yr however nonetheless led all B-schools within the 2022 Poets&Quants ranking with a 737 common, and the Wharton College on the College of Pennsylvania and NYU Stern College of Enterprise, which tied at 733.
MARSHALL’S SECRET? ‘MORE HIGH-QUALITY APPLICANTS’
After its one-year, 16-point leap, USC Marshall’s GMAT common was higher than 4 B-schools that tied at 729 this yr, together with three of the M7 schools: Chicago Sales space College of Enterprise, Northwestern Kellogg College of Administration, Columbia Enterprise College, and UC-Berkeley Haas College of Enterprise. It was even higher than the median rating of 730 reported by two different M7 packages: Harvard Enterprise College and MIT Sloan College of Administration. (See the following web page for knowledge throughout six years for all the highest U.S. B-schools.)
How did Marshall do it? Evan Bouffides, assistant dean and director of graduate admissions, credit a mixture of things.
“At first, Marshall has skilled vital upward momentum over the previous six years on many fronts,” Bouffides tells Poets&Quants, “together with the standard and amount of the applicant swimming pools, curriculum innovation, the power of our profession outcomes, and a subsequent rise in rankings. This yr’s applicant pool is an extension of that pattern.
“As now we have continued to draw extra high-quality candidates, enchancment in admissions metrics has naturally occurred. Due to this fact, the rise, if not the diploma of the rise, was not fully sudden.”
2021 HAS THE EDGE OVER 2022 AS A BANNER GMAT YEAR
2021 was the best year for GMAT average growth in a few years, and 2022 didn’t fairly match it. Twelve of 27 MBA packages examined by P&Q noticed will increase this yr, in comparison with an unbelievable 23 of 26 packages in 2021. However 2022 was, nonetheless, total an excellent yr for takers of the first entrance examination for MBA packages, with 11 B-schools reporting college data (down from 15 final yr). Common rating progress throughout the dozen faculties with positive factors was 5.3 factors; final yr, at practically two dozen, it was 8.7 factors.
Three faculties — Marshall, Carnegie Mellon Tepper College of Enterprise, and UNC Kenan-Flagler Enterprise College — noticed double-digit year-over-year will increase of their class rating common; final yr a outstanding 11 faculties may declare that distinction. Three faculties had been even in 2022, and 6 faculties noticed declines; the largest was at Georgetown McDonough College of Enterprise, which dropped 8 factors to fall out of the 700 membership and land at 697. For perspective, in 2021 just one college out of 26 reported a year-to-year GMAT common decline — and that was by solely a single level.
2022 did, nonetheless, have one statistical edge over its predecessor: The general common GMAT rating at 22 faculties this yr (excluding those who report solely median scores) is 714.7 — greater than the 712.3 at 23 faculties in 2021. And curiously, the variety of faculties with a 700+ GMAT common is identical in each years: 18 — once more, not counting faculties that report medians. In 2021, three faculties reported a median over 700; this yr 5 did so.
SINCE 2020, INDIANA KELLEY’S CLASS GMAT GREW 33 POINTS
Take the large GMAT jumps of 2021 and the midsized jumps of 2022 along with the scores from the primary yr of the pandemic and you discover some fascinating wrinkles. Within the three-year window since 2020, the variety of faculties with GMAT will increase was 24; 13 B-schools had double-digit will increase. The typical improve amongst these 24 faculties was a whopping 10.2 factors. Not one college went backward by shedding factors.
The varsity with the largest GMAT rating improve from 2020 to at present: Indiana Kelley College of Enterprise, the place the category common jumped 33 factors to 685 — which continues to be the bottom common among the many 27 faculties examined this yr. USC Marshall’s 25-point leap is second-largest, and CMU Tepper’s 22 factors, as much as a 702 common, is third.
Since 2017, 15 B-schools have seen total GMAT common will increase, six by double digits. The typical achieve has been simply shy of 10 factors (9.8). USC Marshall leads all faculties in that six-year span with 29 factors gained, adopted by NYU Stern (19 factors to 733) and Emory Goizueta Enterprise College (18 factors to 700). 5 faculties at present are under the place they began six years in the past; the largest deficit is at Rice Jones Graduate College of Enterprise, which misplaced 9 factors to land at 702 in 2022.
See the following web page for six years of GMAT knowledge for 27 of the highest U.S. B-schools.
AND DON’T MISS LAST YEAR’S P&Q STORY ON THE EXPLOSIVE SCORES OF THE MBA CLASS OF 2021 and WOW! USC MARSHALL’S NEW MBA CLASS REPORTS A 732 GMAT
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