Harvard Business School Admits More Women, Fewer Finance Candidates

Harvard Business School (HBS) earlier this month released a preliminary profile for the Class of 2013, revealing a record number of women in the fall entering class and a notable drop in admits from private equity and finance backgrounds.

Women will make up 39 percent of the incoming class, the highest in the school’s history and an increase of 3 percentage points over each of the past two years. The percentage of admits from private equity and investment banking backgrounds, meanwhile, fell – 5 and 2 percentage points respectively. Overall, finance types will make up 25 percent of the fall entering class, representing a small but significant shift for a school where class makeup doesn’t often change much from year to year. Candidates with manufacturing backgrounds gained ground and will make up 14 percent of the entering class, up from just nine percent last year.

A recent PoetsandQuants piece attributes the shifts to the new HBS dean, Dean Nitin Nohria, noting that many believe the school now “appears to be favoring a more diverse set of applicants from manufacturing, healthcare, the military, the government, and non-profits over those from such financial powerhouses as Goldman Sachs, KKR, and Blackstone.”

P&Q went on to note that the shift away from finance could have ripple effects at other top-tier schools, especially those that tend to admit more finance candidates, such as Wharton, Columbia, and Chicago Booth.

In other HBS class profile news, the median Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) score rose this year to 730, breaking last year’s record high of 724. The overall number of applicants fell slightly, from 9,524 to 9,134, and the class size increased slightly, from 910 to 918, resulting in a slightly higher admissions rate, 12 percent as compared to 11 percent last year.

HBS is the first of the top-tier business schools to share Class of 2013 profile data. The school did note when it released the information that it was accurate as of June 1, 2011, and is subject to change.

For the full HBS Class of 2013 profile, click here.