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 matters to you in your college or grad school search.
Most business schools don’t have to worry about recruiting new students — applicants are already clamoring to get in.
In 2015, 60 percent of two-year MBA programs received more applications than in 2005, according a report from the Graduate Management Admission Council. Some schools have as many as four or five times the number of applicants as there are seats.
Harvard Business School received 9,543 full-time applications for the MBA class that started in the fall of 2014. It usually accepts just 12 or 13 percent of applicants. The Massachusetts school received the most applications among the 125 institutions that submitted data to U.S. News in an annual survey.
[Know when and how to apply for business school by following this timeline.]
Harvard ranked No. 2 in U.S. News’ business school rankings, and most other schools with a large applicant pool for the class starting in 2014 also ranked within the top 10. The three schools that received the most applications were also ranked as the top three business schools.
Of the 10 schools with the most applicants, the average number of applications received per school was 5,386.
For fall 2014, Truman State University in Missouri received the least applications: 34. The school, however, also has a small total enrollment with just 33 enrollees in fall 2015.
[Decide if you’re ready to apply to an MBA program.]
Below are the 10 business schools with the most applications for fall of 2014. 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) | Full-time applications | U.S. News b-school rank |
|---|---|---|
| Harvard University (MA) | 9,543 | 2 |
| Stanford University (CA) | 7,355 | 1 |
| University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) | 6,111 | 3 |
| Columbia University (NY) | 5,799 | 8 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan) | 4,735 | 5 |
| Northwestern University (Kellogg) (IL) | 4,652 | 6 |
| University of Chicago (Booth) | 4,175 | 4 |
| University of California–Los Angeles (Anderson) | 4,129 | 15 |
| New York University (Stern) | 3,890 | 11 (tie) |
| University of California–Berkeley (Haas) | 3,475 | 7 |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Business School Compass to find application data, 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 464 schools for our 2014 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 come 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 application data above are correct as of Dec. 8, 2015.
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10 Business Schools With the Highest Number of Full-Time Applicants originally appeared on usnews.com