Business School Applications Sputter

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Continuing Application Gluts

Some schools saw continued application growth. Washington University's Olin Business School (Olin Full-Time MBA Profile) in St.Louis was up 26 percent, to 1,531; Duke University's Fuqua School of Business (Fuqua Full-Time MBA Profile) in Durham, N.C., was up 21 percent, to 3,506; and Harvard Business School (Harvard Full-Time MBA Profile) in Boston was up 5 percent, to 9,524.

Evan Bouffides, Olin's assistant dean for MBA admissions, attributed the glut of applications at his school to its No. 19 position in the 2010 U.S. News & World Report business school rankings, up from No. 22 in 2009 and No. 36 in 2005. Olin also eliminated its application fee this year and made its application easier to complete, requiring contact information for references instead of recommendation letters and reducing the number of required essays to one, Bouffides says. "How many essays do you need in order to assess a candidate," he asks.

While Fuqua reduced its $200 fee to $50 for students who attend an information session, Liz Riley Hargrove, Fuqua's associate dean for admissions, says the price cut didn't influence application volume. "If you come to a session to learn about Duke, we are also going to give you something," Hargrove says. She says the lower fee has not adversely affected the quality of Fuqua's applicant pool.

When the City Is a Draw

At the University of Washington's Foster School of Business (Foster Full-Time MBA Profile), No.27 in Bloomberg Businessweek's most recent full-time MBA ranking in 2008, MBA Admissions Director Erin Ernst says rankings did not have much to do with the Seattle school's 16 percent application increase this year, to 770. Instead she cited the completion this year of 135,000-square-foot Paccar Hall, the launch of a revamped website, and the growing appeal of the Seattle area.

Fuqua and Sloan, Nos. 8 and 9 in the Bloomberg Businessweek ranking, saw double-digit application increases as a result of heightened awareness of their programs in the U.S. and abroad, officials of the two schools say.

At Fuqua, Hargrove says, the school's global strategy has helped draw applicants from around the world. Fuqua has representatives in India, China, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, and England, allowing it to conduct more recruiting internationally, Hargrove says, and foreign applications increased significantly from those areas as a result.

Sloan's Garcia says international applications to his school from China, India, and Korea—all countries where MIT's international partnerships have raised the school's profile—have been on the rise as well. "Asia is where the increase is happening," he says.

Tracer is an intern for Bloomberg Businessweek.

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