<p>I recently checked the acceptance rates of elite business programs (Harvard, Oxford, London School of Economics, etc) and saw that their acceptance rates are over 40%! Average GMATs are also around the 700 mark, which is about the 90th percentile. Does this make it much easier to get into their schools for MBA programs compared to undergraduate, which have acceptance rates of much less than 10%, with SATs required to be above the 95th percentile to even be considered? I know that there are other things considered like interview, work experience, etc but why are their acceptance rates much higher than their undergraduate admissions?</p>
<p>Less people are applying, you still have to be qualified to get accepted.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s easier to get into prestigious universities for grad school. You can’t really compare the acceptance rate for grad schools and college. The acceptance rates for colleges are much lower because so many students apply to lots of different schools. A majority of high school seniors apply to college making the number of applicants huge. Most college students don’t apply to grad school. Usually only reasonably qualified applicants apply to grad school. If a student didn’t have good grades in college, they’re probably not too interested in academics and will probably just choose not to go to grad school. That’s what makes the acceptance rates a lot higher.</p>
<p>It also depends on what program you’re applying to. Certain programs are ranked higher than others. You might have a school where their undergrad program isn’t ranked too high, but perhaps they have a well ranked law school or vice versa.</p>
<p>I consider college to be the great equalizer. The college a student goes to is often affected by their family’s socioeconomic background. The richest families can get their children tutors and send them to exam prep programs and elite private schools. Some elite private schools send dozens of students to ivy league colleges each year. If you look at the other end of the spectrum, low ranked public high schools never send any students to ivy league schools (not even the valedictorian - these kids never had a chance). When students reach college, regardless of what college they go to, they have a chance to make it in to the best grad schools if they work hard and get good grades. This is why some might believe undergraduate admissions are harder - because they were at a disadvantage when trying to get into college. The playing field evens out when it comes time to apply to grad school though.</p>
<p>Prestigious universities for less popular programs, most definitely.</p>
<p>Prestigious universities for their highest rank programs, could be more difficult.</p>
<p>(and the GREs and other standardized tests for grad school are easier)</p>
<p>I dont think harvard, haas, or stanford’s MBA programs have acceptance rates that high</p>
<p>Your statistics appear to be completely wrong. I’m not sure where you got them from. Here are the correct acceptance rates: Harvard - 12%; Stanford - 7%; LSE - 10%.</p>
<p>LSE doesn’t have a MBA program, but the ‘MSc Management’ is often considered its alternative. </p>
<p>The University of Oxford hasn’t published its MBA acceptance rates, but the average GMAT score for the FME program is 740, higher than both Harvard and Stanford.</p>