About two decades ago, an MBA degree was obtained by attending physical classes at traditional business schools. Sounds simple enough but getting admitted into these schools can prove to be extremely difficult. According to a 1996 article by The Harvard Crimson, admissions were so hard to come by way back then that out of the 18,190 students who applied to Harvard, only 1,985 of them made it to the Class of 2000 – a mere 10.9% acceptance rate. As expected, women only made up 45.4% of this number and minority applicants accounted for 35.1% of those admitted that year.

Although a lot has changed since the 90s, admission rates at Ivy League Colleges and other top universities seems to have gone from bad to worse. An analysis of the declining admission rates over a 20-year period, which was conducted by Spark Admissions, showed that the numbers have gone down from an average of about 27% in 1990 to approximately 6.5% in 2019. However, according to a report by Poets & Quants, even the lowest acceptance rate among the top 25 online MBA programs in the United States was 25% in 2020. This is a far cry compared to the dwindling rates recorded by its Ivy League counterparts who offer residential MBA programs.

Why is it so difficult to get into traditional business schools?

Besides the fact that residential MBA programs, especially those from Ivy League Schools are expensive− with the average cost of studying in one of these schools being $176,000 and the MIT Sloan School of Management’s MBA program still maintaining its position as the world’s most expensive MBA at a cumulative cost of $241,984 in 2021, the application requirements and process can be exhausting in itself.

For many traditional business schools, application requirements such as GMAT/GRE, English Language test (TOEFL, PTE or IELTS), essays, application fee, academic transcript, letters of recommendation and applicant’s resume have become the gold standard. Apart from the last two requirements, the others come at additional financial costs, and they usually require several months of preparation to obtain. In fact, according to a blog post by Poets & Quants, most applicants will need at least four months to complete their application process – with those applying to top business schools like Harvard and Standard needing at least two years of prior preparation to successfully complete their application. Add this level of preparation (and stress) to the exorbitant tuition fee for these residential 24-month MBA programs, and you already have the answer as to why it’s so hard to get into these traditional business schools.

Nexford has higher MBA admission rates via its learner-centric application requirements and process

By simplifying its MBA application process, Nexford makes it possible for more people to acquire in-demand skills and develop the competencies needed to thrive in today's highly competitive business environment. Let's look at the institution’s application requirements and process below.

Nexford's MBA applicants only have to provide three basic requirements, and these include:

1. A government issued means of identification: This could be a driver’s license, international passport, or other relevant and acceptable forms of identification.

2. A proof of English proficiency: Nexford accepts the result of an applicant’s EF SET (a free English Proficiency Test) or other valid proof of English proficiency including an applicant’s personal statement, article, CV, or pervious employment with an English-speaking company. Additionally, Nexford also considers the successful completion of its learners' 1st month of the MBA program as enough proof of English proficiency. As such, the proof of English proficiency is not mandatory during the application stage

3. Applicants must provide their undergraduate degree certificate and academic transcript. However, Nexford understands that the process of requesting a transcript can take weeks with some universities. Hence, applicants have 60 days to provide this document, thereby making the submission of transcripts optional during the application stage.

Interestingly, Nexford also gives applicants who do not have a business-related bachelor's degree the opportunity to enroll for its MBA degree program. It does this by offering them two admission pathways: an MBA foundation course path (for those without prior business experience) or the Prior Learning Assessment path (for those who have business experience).

Consequently, the Prior Learning Assessment path allows learners to potentially skip all four MBA foundation courses, saving them six to eight months in time and at least $960. Thankfully, this assessment does not require any elaborate preparations, as prospective learners only need to set aside 15-20 hours in total to build their presentation.

Similarly, the Nexford University’s MBA application process only consists of six simple steps and can be completed in about seven minutes. Given the institution’s application requirements and application process, it is not surprising that applicants usually get feedback in no time – way sooner than the official seven-day response timeline.

Business schools need to rethink their values and promote inclusive admissions

Having considered the importance of business education, the different application requirements and the distinctly huge gap between the MBA admission rates of online MBA and residential MBA programs, which of the statistics below will make our world a better place:

“Only 1,000 applicants were admitted out of the 10,000 people who applied to business schools globally.”

Or

“Millions of people from different works of life are now finding their voices and acquiring the skills they need to transform their personal and national economies through a valid business education.”

Personally, I would go with the latter as the more that people (women and men alike) are able to access quality business education, the better our chances of reducing and/or preventing social issues like high unemployment rates, crimes, corruption, and poverty will be.

Therefore, business schools need to start asking themselves if they exist to maintain a reputation for exclusivity, or to focus on promoting upward socioeconomic mobility for the many individuals who seek the education they provide. Without this deliberate evaluation of their core purpose, admission rates may continue in its downward spiral − keeping a quality business education out of reach of most applicants.