Against a backdrop of sustained economic turmoil worldwide, graduate business schools enjoyed three years of strong growth in application volume through 2008. GMAC’s 2009 Application Trends Survey shows that even though application volume remains high, the growth of the last few years may be leveling off. Based on historical patterns, this year’s numbers may signal the beginning of a less robust cycle in the flow of applications to MBA and other graduate management programs.
There is considerable good news in the 2009 data. Overall, more than half of graduate management programs saw increases in application volume. With the exception of part-time and executive MBA programs, more graduate management programs exceeded their 2008 application benchmarks in 2009 than those that failed to reach them.
At the same time, though, the data show a change in the marketplace for graduate management education. With the exception of Master of Accounting and Master of Management programs, for example, a smaller percentage of programs reported increases in application numbers in 2009 over 2008, than those that did so in 2008 over 2007. EMBA programs, for example, had the largest percentage of programs reporting a decline.
Insights from the 2009 Application Trends Survey become clearer when viewed by program type.
MBA Programs
Among all forms of graduate management education, one-year full-time MBA programs reported the strongest application volume. Nearly 7 in 10 programs (69 percent) received more applications in 2009 than in 2008. The average number of applications per program increased by 21 percent.
Flexible MBA programs also continued to attract more applications. Two-thirds of surveyed programs (66 percent) reported an increase in application volume. On the average, programs received 14 percent more applications than in 2008.
Application trends were not as strong for EMBA programs. Just over half (51 percent) of EMBA programs experienced declines in applications. The average number of applications per program declined by 25 percent.
Part-time MBA programs experienced somewhat mixed results. While slightly fewer programs reported an increase in applications than those that reported a decline, overall application volume for part time programs rose 7 percent. Nearly half (45 percent) of part-time programs reported an average decline of 22 percent in applications, and 42 percent had an average increase of 40 percent. Overall, trends in application volume appeared to be more positive for part-time lockstep than for part-time self-paced programs and for part-time programs with more than 100 students as opposed to fewer students.
The data also show a shift abroad in the strength of MBA programs. While in 2008 the United States spearheaded the growth in the number of applications to full-time MBA programs, growth in 2009 was driven primarily by programs in other world regions. That held true across all MBA program types.
