This document summarizes the key findings of the 2015 Application Trends Survey of full-time two-year MBA programs. The survey found that a majority (57%) of programs reported increased application volumes compared to the previous year. Full-time MBA programs receive more applications and have lower acceptance rates than other MBA program types. The typical applicant pool has slightly more international (54%) than domestic candidates, and women now make up 40% of applicants. Interviews, exam scores, and transcripts carry the most weight in admissions decisions. Most programs offer merit-based scholarships but less than a third offer need-based aid. Employer funding supports less than 30% of each graduating class.

1. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
SlideShare Focus:
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
Application Trends Survey

2. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
I. Application Volume Trends

3. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Relativechangein
applicationvolume
Up significantly
Down significantly
No change
Relative Year-on-Year Change in Application Volumes,
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs, 2005-2015
Globally, full-time two-year MBA programs continue to
experience positive growth in application volumes.

4. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
28% 43% 50% 61% 57%5%
6%
4%
4% 4%
67%
51% 46% 35% 39%
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Percentageofprograms
Up Flat Down
For the third year in a row, a majority of full-time two-year MBA
programs worldwide report stable or increased application
volumes compared with the previous year.
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs Reporting
Year-on-Year Change in Application Volume, 2011-2015

5. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
12%
15%
29%
4%
23%
7%
9% Decrease significantly
Decrease moderately
Decrease slightly
No change
Increase slightly
Increase moderately
Increase significantly
Detailed Year-on-Year Application Volume Change,
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs, 2015
39%
of programs
report
decreased
volumes
57%
of programs
report
increased
volumes*
*Total does not equal sum of parts due to rounding.
The majority of programs
(56%) indicate their
application volume either
did not change or
increased/decreased slightly
compared to last year
(+/- 1 to 10%) .
A greater share of programs
report moderate or
significant increases in
application volume (27%)
than moderate or significant
decreases (16%).

6. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs Reporting Year-on-Year Change in
Application Volumes, by Citizenship, World Region*, & Overall, 2012-2015
52%
38%
56%
62%
48%
65%
57% 59%
51%
39%
50%
44%
55%
36%
55%
90%
70% 70%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Percentageof
programs
Overall Domestic International
United States United States United StatesAsia-Pacific Asia-Pacific Asia-Pacific
2013
2013
2013
2013
2013
2013
2014
2014
2014
2014
2014
2014
2015
2015
2015
2015
201
5
2015
*Other world regions could not be displayed due to insufficient sample.
A domestic candidate refers to any applicant who is a citizen of the country where a program is located.
An international candidate refers to any applicant whose citizenship differs from that of the country where the program is located.
Most full-time two-year MBA programs in the US and Asia-Pacific
regions report growing application volumes. Notably, 59% of US
programs report a year-on-year increase in domestic application
volumes.

7. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
44%
68%
47% 64%
4%
7%
6%
5%52%
25%
47% 32%
Northeast South Midwest West
Percentageof
programs
Up Flat Down
By US geographic region, the majority of programs in the South
and West report year-on-year application volume increases,
whereas the majority of programs in the Northeast report
decreases.
*Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.
Percentage* of US Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs Reporting
Year-on-Year Change in Application Volume, by US Region, 2015

8. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
Application Summary Data, MBA Programs, 2015
FT
2-yr.
FT
1-yr.
PT Lock-
step
PT Self-
Paced
Flexible EMBA Online
Number of programs reporting 113 85 36 54 58 52 22
Median # of applicants 360 120 96 82 103 50 45
2015-2016 estimated class size (median) 80 45 84 66 71 38 85
2014-2015 actual class size (median) 79 44 69 63 64 34 61
Median applications per seat 4.5 2.7 1.1 1.3 1.4 1.3 0.5
Median estimated acceptance rate* 39% 51% 75% 75% 71% 84% 79%
Median estimated enrollment rate** 52% 65% 79% 80% 72% 84% 79%
*Acceptance rate is calculated as the number of acceptance offers divided by the number of total completed applications.
**Enrollment rate is calculated as the number of accepted applicants who enroll divided by the number of all accepted
applicants times 100.
Full-time two-year MBA programs, on average, receive more
applications and have the lowest acceptance rates of all MBA
program types.

9. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
II. Applicant Profile

10. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
48% 51%
11% 9%
41% 40%
Men Women
Up Flat Down
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs Reporting Year-on-
Year Change in Application Volume, by Gender, 2015
Men
60%
Women
40%
Applicant Pool by Gender, Full-Time
Two-Year MBA Programs, 2015
A majority of full-time two-year MBA programs (51%) report
increases in the number of women applicants compared with last
year. On average, women account for 40% of the applicants to
these programs (up from 35% in 2011).
Percentageofprograms

11. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
56% 50%
12%
8%
32% 42%
Domestic International
Up Flat Down
Domestic
46%International
54%
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs Reporting Year-on-Year
Change in Application Volume, by Citizenship Status, 2015
Applicant Pool by Citizenship, Full-
Time Two-Year MBA Programs, 2015
Globally, 56% of full-time two-year MBA programs report
increases in year-on-year domestic application volume. On
average, international candidates account for 54% of applicant
pools.
Percentageofprograms
A domestic candidate refers to any applicant who is a citizen of the country where a program is located.
An international candidate refers to any applicant whose citizenship differs from that of the country where the program is located.

12. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
No experience Less than one
year
1 to 3 years 3 to 6 years 6 to 10 years Ten or more
years
Percentageofapplicants
Years of work experience
Asia-Pacific
United States
Distribution of Candidate Work Experience, Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs,
by World Region*, 2015
*Other world regions could not be displayed due to insufficient sample size.
Asia-Pacific-based full-time two-year MBA programs receive a smaller
share of applications from candidates with no work experience than
US-based programs and a greater share of applications from
candidates with six or more years of work experience.

13. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
III. Candidate Outreach and
Selection Criteria

14. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
Top Candidate Types Targeted for Outreach,
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs, 2015
International candidates
Women
Working professionals
More than 2 in 3 full-time two-year MBA programs perform
targeted outreach for women and international candidates.
Percentage of programs
57%
59%
63%
67%
73%
Military
Underrepresented US populations
International candidates
Women
Working professionals

15. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
21% 20%
18%
15%
11%
8%
4% 3%
1%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
Average Weight of Admissions Criteria in Decision-Making Process,
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs, 2015
Respondents were asked
to distribute 100 points
among nine categories
Survey respondents indicate that interviews, standardized exam scores,
and academic transcripts are weighted the most heavily in assessing full-
time two-year MBA applications.
Sort these results for other program types and specific world regions here.

16. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
IV. Tuition Assistance and
Employer Funding

17. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
94% 91%
50%
37%
28% 27%
19% 19%
3% 0%
Percentageofprograms
9 in 10 (91%) full-time two-year MBA programs offer merit-based
scholarships, compared with just 1 in 4 (27%) that offer need-
based scholarships. All responding full-time two-year MBA
programs offer some form of tuition assistance.
Percentage of Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Offering Tuition Assistance, by Type of Funding, 2015*
*Percentages do not sum to 100 due to multiple selections.

18. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
20%
74%
4%
Percentageofprograms
90% to
100%
60% to
89%
30% to
59%
1% to
29%
None
Up
10%
Flat
80%
Down
10%
Percentage of Class Expected to
Have Employer Funding, Full-Time
Two-Year MBA Programs, 2015
Year-on-Year Change in
Percentage of Class
Receiving Employer
Funding, Full-Time Two-
Year MBA Programs, 2015
Most full-time
two-year MBA
programs (94%)
anticipate less
than one-third of
their incoming
class will receive
employer funding,
on par with last
year.

19. 2015 Application Trends Survey
Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
Research Services
Download the full report:
gmac.com/applicationtrends
The 2015 Application Trends Survey
analyzed data from a total of 641
graduate business programs located
at 306 universities worldwide.
Participating programs are located
in 35 countries around the globe,
including 42 US states and the
District of Columbia.
About this report:
Participate in our surveys:
gmac.com/surveysignup
Research Services gmac.com/research
Contact our team:
research@gmac.com
GMAC Research Services conducts
ongoing survey research and
market analysis to give school
professionals the tools to make
data-driven admissions decisions.
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