Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management saw a record average GMATs for its two-year MBAs 2018 class along with a record number of students from the technology sector. International students dropped by 5%.
The rise in average GMAT scores was four full points to 728, the 96th percentile of all GMAT testers. The previous year had also marked an eight-point increase. The middle 80% GMAT range was 690-760, the same as last year.
With this rise, Kelloggs may get placed just behind Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business (733) and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School (732).
The class with 474 students has 41% women. The students’ average age was 28. They had 5.2 average work experience.
While 45% of the class had majored in Economics/Business, 29% were from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics background. Humanities constituted 28% of the class.
As far as industry background is concerned, 22% were from Financial Services and 19% from Consulting. Tech/Communications constituted 14%.
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Meanwhile, Kate Smith, assistant dean of admissions, attributes the increase in GMAT scores to the rise in quality of applicants. The number of applications for the 2-year MBA program went up to 4553 from 4300 in the previous year, a 6% increase.
Students with tech background comprise 14% of the class, an increase of 6% from the previous year’s 8%. Consulting, however, saw a 6-percentage-point decline to 19%, from 25% last year.
International students came down by 5 full percentage points, to 35% this year from 40% last. The class had students from 53 countries or regions, the top four being India, Asia, Latin America, and Canada.
US minorities represent 26% of the class, up 3 percentage points from 23% a year earlier.
