10 B-Schools Where Accepted Students Enroll
The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College and The Short List: Grad School to find data that matters to you in your college or grad school search.
Cost, reputation, prestige: They're just a few of the factors admitted MBA students must consider before deciding to enroll in business school.
If many students commit to attending a specific b-school, the institution can boast about its high yield rate -- the percentage of admitted students who enroll.
But some schools have more bragging rights than others.
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At the top 10 business schools with the highest percentage yield rates in 2013, an average of 73.7 percent of admitted full-time MBA students for fall 2013 chose to enroll, according to data reported to U.S. News by 127 schools in an annual survey.
The two schools with the highest yield rates are in a three-way tie for the No. 1 spot in the U.S. News rankings of business schools. Harvard University had the highest yield rate, with 88.8 percent of its 1,050 accepted students deciding to attend. Stanford University was just on its heels, enrolling 84.1 percent of its accepted students.
The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, also ranked No. 1, took the seventh spot on the list. The school enrolled 68.8 percent of accepted students in 2013.
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The following business schools had the highest percentage yield of accepted full-time students who chose to enroll for fall 2013. Schools designated by U.S. News as Unranked were excluded from this list. U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for Unranked programs because the program did not meet certain criteria that U.S. News requires to be numerically ranked. In the table below, U.S. News did not include schools that accepted fewer than 100 applicants.
Business school (name) (state) | Students accepted | New students enrolled | Yield | U.S. News b-school rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Harvard University (MA) | 1,050 | 932 | 88.8% | 1 |
Stanford University (CA) | 483 | 406 | 84.1% | 1 |
127 | 101 | 79.5% | RNP* | |
Brigham Young University (Marriott) (UT) | 197 | 145 | 73.6% | 27 |
Columbia University (NY) | 1,044 | 749 | 71.7% | 8 |
103 | 72 | 69.9% | 65 | |
University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) | 1,217 | 837 | 68.8% | 1 |
593 | 406 | 68.5% | 5 | |
152 | 101 | 66.4% | 27 | |
Arizona State University (Carey) | 112 | 74 | 66.1% | 27 |
* RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one-fourth of all business schools. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.
Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Business School Compass to find yield rates, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed 453 schools for our 2013 survey of business programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News's data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Business Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools. The acceptance and enrollment data above are correct as of March 25, 2014.
