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The ushering in of a New Year is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the past year and to consider the possibilities ahead. What will this New Year bring? To answer this, one has to consider the events of the past year.

Here are the interesting trends of MBA admissions in 2015.

Extremely High GMAT Test Scores

GMAT Scores have skyrocketed to unbelievable numbers with all top ten programs reporting GMAT averages above 700. Just recently Poets & Quants published an article titled, How Much Higher Can GMAT Performance Go?

The trend for the past two decades has been that GMAT scores have gone from being in the 600+ range to 700+. In this hyper competitive environment, many great candidates will be dinged because of weak GMAT scores.

2016 Prediction: GMAT scores will continue to go up in 2016. MBA programs will still place high emphasis on test scores but will also admit a few exceptional candidates with lower than average GMAT score.

Applicants Have to Do More With Less

Applicants are now required to market themselves with less (fewer essays, reduced word counts, and less recommendation letters) leaving little room for error. This emphasis is producing a different layer of stress that didn’t exist in the past.

Previously, MBA applicants could have a not-so-perfect essay amidst three or more essays and still get admitted. Now, with many schools having only one or two essays, the margin for error is much less, placing greater pressure on applicants to tell a compelling story in the reduced canvas space now available to them.

2016 Prediction: Some schools will stick with the traditional model of asking for more information, as is the case for INSEAD, but the majority of MBA programs are likely to stick with the current trend of fewer essays, shorter essays, and one to two recommendations.

MBA Admissions Continue To Tinker

Whether it’s the video interviews that Yale and Kellogg require of their candidates to complete or the quirky questions about favorite things from MBA programs like Fuqua or favorite music from Haas, applicants are continuing to be stretched to present themselves in interesting and differentiated ways than other graduate programs such as Law or Medical School.

2016 Predictions: Expect less application tinkering by the adcom. While some schools have experimented with trying to introduce quirky essay questions in the past, it is highly unlikely that the majority of business schools will make this move. Most will stick to more traditional essay questions.

MBA School Leadership Changes

Last year Harvard’s managing director of admissions, Dee Leopold, announced that she’s stepping down from HBS after a decade in that role. Stanford GSB’s dean Garth Saloner will be vacating his deanship this year.

2016 Predictions: Those replacements will be made this year with very little fanfare. Replacements at both HBS admissions and Stanford will not result in significant changes to the application policies or application in general this year.

2016 will likely be a “maintaining” year with changes possibly introduced after 2016.

Women Candidates Continue to Grow

The trend in recent years is that top MBA programs are intentionally trying to grow their female population. Many top schools have above 40% female candidates.

Organizations like Forte Foundation and many MBA programs are beginning to reap the rewards of their steadfast investment in encouraging and supporting female candidates to pursue an MBA.

2016 Predictions: While we are unlikely to see female candidates reach 50% this year, we will likely see a continuing increase in female candidates.

Finally, we end by noting that we see 2016 as a year of stability in the admissions space. We invite you to take advantage of our free assessment to lay the right foundation for a successful application this year.

Wishing you great success!

Chioma

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