Acceptance Rates, Yield & Apps At The Top 100 U.S. MBA Programs

After a couple of sluggish years, more candidates applied to U.S. MBA programs in fall 2025 than in the previous two admission cycles.

Two years ago, U.S. MBA programs were navigating a noted drop in demand, with lower applications for two straight cycles.

Of all the talk of AI, economic uncertainty, and fewer international students looking to U.S. programs amid less-than-friendly policies from the current administration, applications largely rebounded last year, and generally held that ground in the latest cycle. 

Poets&Quants’ analysis of U.S. News data for the 2024-2025 admission cycle finds that 50 of P&Q’s 100 top-ranked B-schools reported application growth, compared to 70 top 100 programs during the previous cycle. Across all 100 ranked programs, 3,686 more applications were submitted in the latest cycle than in the previous, a 3% increase. The number of applications is 22,247 higher than two cycles ago, a whopping 21.3% jump.

Apps at Chicago Booth rose 705  to 5,876 for the 2025-2026 admission cycle after rising by 942 the previous year. That is a 1,6292 increase in three years, 40.4%, and the highest of any M7.   

Wharton apps also jumped 291 over the previous cycle to 7,613. Its app volume jumped 1,420 over the last three cycles, a 22.9% jump.  

Northeastern (D’Amore-McKim) saw the single highest application jump year-over-year – from 439 to 1254, according to U.S. News data. That’s a  whopping 185.7% increase. Northeastern enrolled 34.6% more students this cycle, growing its MBA class from 55 to 74. 

The increase in apps didn’t necessarily lead to larger class sizes. Enrolled students rose at just 32 of the top programs compared the prior class. The numbers fell at 50 MBA programs.  

While Wharton’s MBA class size rose by 22 after its application jump, Chicago Booth’s fell by 18.

The table below shows application volume for the last three admission cycles of the top 50 MBA programs ranked by Poets&Quants. Data comes from U.S. News’ latest MBA ranking.

APPLICATIONS AT THE TOP 50  

See the next pages for tables showing the acceptance rates, yield, applications, admits & class sizes at the top 100 U.S. business schools.  

SELECTIVITY RISES AT 47 OUT OF 100 U.S. MBAs 

Across the top 100 B-schools, 47 were more selective than the previous year, cutting their acceptance rates from the 2024-2025 cycle. Six had the same acceptance rate and 37 increased the percentage of students they accepted. 

The acceptance rate at University of Miami (Herbert) dropped 32.4% from the previous cycle. The school accepted 51.9% of its applicants in the 2024 cycle compared to just 19.5% of the 2025 cycle. Interestingly, the school also posted a 100% yield rate for 2025, meaning every applicant extended an offer to ended up enrolling. 

Among the top 15 schools in our 2026 ranking, acceptance rate fell or stayed steady at 9 schools. That means competition is still high for the limited seats at top tier programs.

YIELD UP AT 31 OF 100 MBAS

Yield — the percentage of admitted students who choose to enroll — rose at 31 of 100 programs. The highest jump was at University of Kansas School of Business,  rising 24.5% from 66.7% to 91.2%. Five other schools saw yield rise by double digits: Texas Christian (Neeley) at 17%, Utah (Eccles) at 14.7%, Arkansas (Walton) at 13.6%, Detroit Mercy at 12.6%, and Iowa State at 12%.  

Among the M7, yield increased 5% at Harvard Business School, 4.9% at Pennsylvania (Wharton), and 2.6% at Stanford GSB. It fell at the other four: 0.8% at Northwestern (Kellogg), 7.1% at Columbia Business School, 7.7% at MIT (Sloan), and 5.2% at Chicago (Booth). 

Yet despite gains at some schools, yield rates remain low across much of the MBA landscape. Twenty-five schools had yields under 30%, compared to 14 the previous cycle. Stevens Institute of Technology has posted the lowest yield of the top 100 the last two years,  12.9% and 11.5% respectively.  In fact, nearly half of all ranked programs — 48 of 100 — had yields below 40%, and 63 were under 50%.

The table below shows acceptance rates and yields for the last three admission cycles of the top 50 MBA programs ranked by Poets&Quants. Data comes from U.S. News’ latest MBA ranking.

ACCEPTANCE RATES & YIELDS AT THE TOP 50  

RISE IN APPS DOESN’T MEAN RISE IN CLASS SIZE 

Despite the progress made on applications over the last two years, fewer schools have used the opportunity to increase cohort sizes.  

Just 33 of the 100 highest ranked programs increased their cohort sizes over the previous enrolled class. That includes Columbia Business School which enrolled 760 students in the 2024 cycle compared to 804 for 2025, a 44-student increase. It’s also up 121 since enrolling 683 in the 2023 cycle. CBS increased enrollment despite holding pretty steady on applications – 7,123 for the 2025 cycle compared to 7,134 for 2024, a difference of just 11.  

University of Miami (Herbert) more than doubled its class size, from 31 MBAs enrolled in 2024 to 72 in 2025, an increase of 41 students. 

On the other end of the spectrum, 52 schools cut class size.  North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) the largest drop at 43 students, from 249 enrolled MBAs in 2024 and 206 in 2025. It was followed by Southern California (Marshall)  which enrolled 35 fewer students (211 to 176) and Maryland (Smith) with 29 fewer (67 to 38).  

The table below shows enrollment  numbers for the last three admission cycles of the top 50 MBA programs ranked by Poets&Quants. Data comes from U.S. News’ latest MBA ranking.

MBA ENROLLMENT AT THE TOP 50 

See the next pages for acceptance rate, yield, application volume, admits, and enrollment data for the P&Q top 100 U.S. business schools.

AND DON’T MISS LAST YEAR’S STORY ON ACCEPTANCE RATES & YIELD AT THE TOP 100 B-SCHOOLS