The M7 By The Numbers 2026: What It Takes To Get Admitted To H-S-W Plus

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What does it take to get into, and graduate, from an M7?

Applications may have plateaued, but the academic profile needed to compete for an M7 seat is as competitive as ever. Across the seven schools, the average reported GMAT score slipped just one point, from 733 to 732, while the average undergraduate GPA edged down from 3.69 to 3.68. Among schools reporting GRE results, the average combined score increased from 325 to 326.

In other words, the typical M7 student still arrives with near-perfect grades and a standardized-test score that places them among the strongest MBA applicants in the world.

At the school level, Chicago Booth posted the largest GMAT increase, climbing seven points to 736, while Wharton rose three points to 735 and Columbia gained two points to 734. Stanford held steady at 738, the highest score among the seven, while Kellogg remained at 733. Harvard and MIT Sloan each reported 10-point declines in their median GMAT, to 730 and 720, respectively.

Undergraduate GPAs remained even more stable. Harvard’s average rose to 3.76, tying Stanford for the highest in the group, while Wharton, Columbia, and Booth were unchanged. On the GRE, Harvard and Stanford led with combined scores of 328, followed by Wharton at 327 and Columbia at 326.

So, a strong score alone will not guarantee admission, but academic credentials well below these ranges can make an already difficult M7 application an even steeper climb.

The M7’s Class of 2027 is slightly less balanced by gender and nationality than the class that came before it — at least among the schools that still publish the data. Women made up an average 45% of students across the six schools reporting the figure, down from 46% the year before, while international representation slipped from 38% to 37%.

Kellogg, which reached gender parity a year ago, did not report the percentage of women in its Class of 2027, though the school told Poets&Quants that the figure was down.

Kellogg ended its partnership with the Forté Foundation last year amid Trump administration backlash against DEI-related programs. Forté Foundation is a non-profit network of businesses and business schools that traditionally worked to increase women’s representation in business education and leadership.

Wharton — which in 2021 became the first elite business school to enroll a majority of women in its MBA program and repeated the streak for the next two years — also dropped its Forté membership last summer. It fell 3 points to 44% female.

Columbia and Stanford were the only schools to increase their share of women, with Columbia rising 2 percentage points to 46% and Stanford gaining a point to 45%. MIT Sloan remained closest to parity at 47%, though that was down from 49% from the year before.

International enrollment also softened at four of the seven schools. Wharton posted the steepest decline, falling 5 percentage points to 26%, its lowest share in several years. Columbia dropped by the same amount to 41%, while Kellogg fell to 37% and Stanford to 38%. Harvard, Booth, and MIT Sloan moved in the other direction, with MIT posting the group’s highest international share at 42%.

The picture for U.S. students of color is much harder to interpret. The reported average fell from 46% to 34%, but that comparison is not clean. Kellogg did not publish the metric, while Booth, MIT Sloan, and Wharton reported declines so large that changes in definitions, methodology, or reporting populations are likely part of the story.

Wharton, for example, now presents racial and ethnic data through multiple frameworks, producing sharply different results depending on the methodology used. Kellogg went further, removing several diversity measures from its class profile altogether, including race and ethnicity, underrepresented minorities, LGBTQ+ students, and first-generation students.

Those omissions come as business schools navigate a rapidly changing legal and political environment around diversity, equity, and inclusion. Kellogg and Booth were among four schools to suspend ties with The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management last summer. The consortium works to elevate the number of underrepresented minorities in business education and corporate leaderships.

The missing data does not necessarily signal declines in every category, but it does make it harder for applicants and the public to track how the composition of elite MBA classrooms is changing.

WHAT IT COSTS TO GET AN M7 MBA

For all that world-class candidates stand to gain from an M7 MBA, they will have to pay through the nose for the privilege. The total two-year cost at all seven programs now exceeds $250,000, and is dangerously close to $300,000 at a couple.

The price of an M7 MBA continued its steady climb in 2026, with average tuition across the seven schools rising nearly 3% to about $89,150. Columbia Business School remains the most expensive by tuition alone, at $93,908, followed by Chicago Booth at $89,976 and MIT Sloan at $89,692.

Tuition, of course, is only part of the bill. Once fees, housing, health insurance, books, and other living expenses are included, the average one-year cost of attending an M7 rose 3.2% to nearly $137,000. MIT Sloan now has the highest annual price tag at $146,432, up 5.9% from last year and 34.1% since 2023. Columbia follows at $143,030, while Stanford’s total cost reached $140,940. Even Kellogg, the least expensive by this measure, now estimates one year at just over $130,000.

SEE P&Q’S COVERAGE OF THE CLASS OF 2026 PROFILES OF THE M7

The post The M7 By The Numbers 2026: What It Takes To Get Admitted To H-S-W Plus appeared first on Poets&Quants.