It’s surely not an easy thing to get into a business school, let alone to some of the best MBA programs out there. Besides the difficult application process, candidates have to overcome the very difficult task of taking the GMAT. Additionally, applicants to b-schools have to somehow finance their studies and to support themselves while being out of their jobs.
Potential Business School Candidates
Who exactly are those people that universities are dying to get into their ranks? “According to the latest admissions trends, MBA students as a whole are becoming more internationally diverse; also, the men-women ratio is changing unstoppably in the favor of female students”, - Janina Conboye (Financial Times) said.
Dealing with the New Trends
Many top business schools confirm the constantly growing number of students from other countries in the classroom. Additionally, more and more prospective MBAs want to found or join startups shortly after graduation, without waiting for several years.
Even Asian business schools see a drastically growing number of future MBA degree holders planning to stay. More than a half of the students, who went to study in China, envision their professional future there rather than in their native countries. Previously, only a third of such students expressed such long-term plans.
All in all, candidates with more diverse backgrounds are enrolling in business schools: nonprofit companies, healthcare organizations, the legal industry and non government establishments. More students are coming over from Latin-American countries to study in the USA.
Australian universities have noticed a significant raise in the number of applicants coming from the resources industry and the military, with the intention to change their profession and seek for another line of work.
Business educational becomes more popular
Of course, there is no one straight answer to the question of what kind of people is needed in business schools. GMAT results only seem to have stopped being the ultimate get-into-b-school-ticket, and diverse backgrounds have started a new trend for business education.
Admissions directors themselves say that the students they need are not afraid of risk and have a quick-to-learn personality, not averse to challenge and learning new things. First and foremost, people business schools are looking for are curious and want to change the world somehow.
It’s not enough just to be smart to enter a top university – you have to develop your communication skills, be motivated and headstrong. The desired MBA candidates are perfectionists who want to change themselves and the world around them for the better.
Originality and novelty of thinking is also a skill much sought after. Prospective MBAs should be innovative and inquisitive, like scientists. That’s not the least reason why people from different backgrounds are welcome in the business sphere.
Meet the admissions directors of the top 10 Business Schools on MBA25 Event in Astana!
Back to top