MBA admissions changed notably in 2024. Global graduate business school applications rose 12 percent from 2023 to 2024, while the strongest growth was concentrated in full-time two-year MBA, flex, online, and hybrid formats. Testing data also shows that both GMAT and GRE results remain relevant to the admissions process.
Contents
- Application growth in 2024
- MBA format comparisons
- Women and geographic application trends
- How large the survey is
- GMAT participation and score reports
- GRE acceptance and school examples
- GRE percentile benchmarks
Application growth in 2024
The GMAC 2024 Business School Applications press release reported a 12 percent increase in global graduate business school applications from 2023 to 2024. This is an applications trend across graduate business education, rather than an acceptance-rate measure. It indicates that the volume of people seeking business-school admission increased, but it does not by itself show how many applicants were admitted.
Full-time MBA formats were especially strong. Eighty percent of full-time two-year MBA programs reported application growth in 2024, the highest share recorded in the past decade according to the GMAC 2024 Business School Applications press release. The same source reported application growth at 64 percent of full-time one-year MBA programs.
The GMAC U.S. Application Trends 2024 report adds a U.S.-specific perspective: more than half of U.S. programs reported application growth for a second consecutive year in 2024. It also reported that the full-time two-year MBA reached application levels similar to the pandemic-related peak in 2020. These figures describe program-level application patterns, not the probability of admission for an individual candidate.
When using these statistics, keep the measurement scope in view. The global 12 percent figure covers graduate business school applications, while the U.S. findings concern U.S. programs. The program shares describe the percentage of programs reporting growth, not the percentage increase in applications at every program.
MBA format comparisons
The GMAC 2024 Application Trends infographic reported different application-growth shares across flexible and nontraditional MBA formats. Flex MBA programs had 69 percent reporting total application growth in 2024. Online MBA programs had 63 percent reporting growth, executive MBA programs had 25 percent, and part-time MBA programs had 13 percent.
The GMAC 2024 Business School Applications press release reported 52 percent of hybrid programs with application growth and 58 percent of online programs with application growth. Because the online figures come from two named GMAC sources, they should be retained as source-specific measures rather than treated as a single reconciled estimate. The sources use different presentation contexts, and the supplied figures do not establish that their definitions or program samples are identical.
| MBA format | Share of programs reporting application growth in 2024 | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time, two-year | 80% | GMAC 2024 Business School Applications press release |
| Full-time, one-year | 64% | GMAC 2024 Business School Applications press release |
| Flex MBA | 69% | GMAC 2024 Application Trends infographic |
| Online MBA | 63% | GMAC 2024 Application Trends infographic |
| Hybrid | 52% | GMAC 2024 Business School Applications press release |
| Executive MBA | 25% | GMAC 2024 Application Trends infographic |
| Part-time MBA | 13% | GMAC 2024 Application Trends infographic |
The GMAC 2024 Business School Applications press release summarized the pattern by saying that roughly two-thirds of online and flexible MBA programs reported application growth in 2024. That description is directionally consistent with the separate flex and online figures in the Application Trends infographic, though the rounded wording should not be used to calculate an additional rate.
Women and geographic application trends
Women represented 42 percent of the applicant pool for graduate business programs in 2024, according to the GMAC 2024 Business School Applications press release. The same source reported that 55 percent of programs experienced growth in applications from women.
The pattern varied by program type. Seventy percent of flex MBA programs experienced growth in applications from women in 2024. Roughly two-thirds of full-time MBA programs experienced growth in applications from women, according to the same GMAC press release. These are program-level growth measures; they do not mean that women made up two-thirds of full-time MBA applicants.
Domestic and international application patterns also differed by location and program category. Domestic applications to surveyed graduate business programs grew 30 percent in 2024 for business master’s programs. The source specifically identifies this as a business master’s figure, so it should not be presented as a universal domestic-growth rate for every MBA format.
The United Kingdom recorded a 45 percent drop in domestic applications in 2024. The GMAC 2024 Business School Applications press release also reported a 12-point dip in international applications in the United Kingdom. A percentage drop and a percentage-point change are different measurements: the first describes relative decline, while the second describes a change in a reported rate or share. The supplied data does not provide the underlying denominators, so no further conversion is supported.
How large the survey is
The GMAC 2024 Business School Applications press release says its 2024 survey covered 1,090 graduate management programs from 297 business schools across 40 countries. GMAC describes the survey as the largest and most widely cited survey of its kind for admissions and program leaders.
Those scope figures help explain why the report is useful for identifying broad admissions patterns, but they do not turn every percentage into a school-specific benchmark. For example, an 80 percent reporting share for full-time two-year MBA programs describes the surveyed programs that reported growth. It does not predict whether a particular school will receive more applications or whether its admissions standards will change.
The survey scope also matters when comparing categories. A global program statistic, a U.S.-program statistic, a country-specific result, and a format-specific result answer different questions. Applicants should match the statistic to the kind of decision they are making: format selection, geographic planning, or preparation for an individual application.
GMAT participation and score reports
The GMAC Profile of GMAT Testing: North America, TY2020-TY2024 reports that more than 675 thousand GMAT exams were taken over the five-year period by people interested in graduate management education. The source also says GMAT is an important part of the admissions process for more than 8,000 graduate management programs worldwide.
For testing year 2024, 115,286 GMAT exams were taken worldwide. Those examinees sent 189,671 GMAT score reports to management programs. Exam counts and score-report counts are different measures: one person can send score reports to more than one program, so the figures should not be interpreted as a count of unique applicants or applications.
| GMAT measure | Reported figure | Measurement period or scope |
|---|---|---|
| GMAT exams | More than 675,000 | Five years, TY2020-TY2024; people interested in graduate management education |
| GMAT exams worldwide | 115,286 | TY2024 |
| GMAT score reports | 189,671 | Sent to management programs by TY2024 examinees |
| Programs for which GMAT is important to admissions | More than 8,000 | Worldwide |
These numbers show continued use of standardized testing in graduate management education, while leaving individual schools’ testing policies outside the scope of the supplied figures. They also do not provide a median, average, or minimum GMAT score for admission.
GRE acceptance and school examples
The ETS GRE vs GMAT page says that 92 percent of business schools accept the GRE alongside the GMAT. ETS also says GRE scores are accepted by graduate programs in more than 160 countries. In addition, ETS reports that four times more test takers chose the GRE over the GMAT in 2023. This comparison is a test-taker choice statistic for 2023, not an admissions-outcome statistic.
For the Class of 2027, ETS’s GRE vs GMAT page reports that 44 percent of Harvard Business School’s incoming class submitted a GRE score. Chicago Booth reported 42 percent GRE score submission for the Class of 2027, while Stanford GSB reported 44 percent. These figures describe incoming-class score submission at named schools and are not acceptance rates or claims about the relative strength of GRE and GMAT applicants.
The school examples show why an applicant should check a program’s current requirements and reporting practices. A high share of incoming students submitting GRE scores indicates that the exam is represented in that class, but the supplied data does not show how applicants were evaluated, how many submitted GMAT scores, or whether test scores affected admission decisions.
GRE percentile benchmarks
The ETS GRE MBA aspirant table provides percentile benchmarks for MBA aspirants. Percentiles show how a scaled score compares within the table’s reference population; they are not admission probabilities. The supplied figures cover Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Analytical Writing.
| GRE scaled score | Verbal percentile | Quantitative percentile |
|---|---|---|
| 170 | 99 | 96 |
| 169 | 98 | 93 |
| 168 | 97 | 90 |
| 167 | 96 | 87 |
| 166 | 94 | 85 |
| 165 | 92 | 82 |
| 164 | 89 | 78 |
| 163 | 86 | 75 |
| 162 | 82 | 72 |
| 161 | 78 | 68 |
| 160 | 74 | 63 |
| 159 | 70 | 59 |
| 158 | 66 | 55 |
| 157 | 61 | 51 |
| 156 | 57 | 47 |
| 155 | 51 | 43 |
| 154 | 47 | 39 |
| 153 | 42 | 35 |
| 152 | 37 | 32 |
| 151 | 33 | 29 |
| 150 | 29 | 25 |
The verbal and quantitative scales do not have identical percentile patterns. For example, a 165 is at the 92nd percentile in Verbal Reasoning and the 82nd percentile in Quantitative Reasoning. A 160 is at the 74th verbal percentile and the 63rd quantitative percentile. These comparisons can help applicants read a score report accurately without treating one section as a substitute for the other.
Analytical Writing percentiles in the ETS GRE MBA aspirant table range from 99 at a 6.0 score to 1 at a 1.5 score. The intermediate figures are 95 at 5.5, 83 at 5.0, 69 at 4.5, 41 at 4.0, 26 at 3.5, 9 at 3.0, 4 at 2.5, and 2 at 2.0. These are score-to-percentile reference points, not published MBA admission cutoffs.
Taken together, the admissions statistics point to a growing and varied market in 2024: application growth was strongest in several full-time and flexible formats, women accounted for 42 percent of the graduate business applicant pool, and both GMAT and GRE data remain visible in the admissions landscape. The figures are most useful when read with their source, geography, format, and measurement period attached.