The M7 fascinates. What does life look like at one of the (self-appointed) most elite schools in the United States — and, let’s be honest, the world?
Even those who will never attend one of the so-called Magnificent 7 schools wants to know — which is why every year, in addition to the many human interest stories Poets&Quants publishes about life in the hallowed halls of Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, Chicago Booth School of Business, and Columbia Business School, we also offer a portrait of the schools through their key data: a mosaic of illustrative, if not always illuminative, metrics set side by side, a compendium for comparison purposes.
As we begin a new school year when a flood of Class of 2024 MBA class profile and employment data will imminently be available (and in some cases already is), we offer this collection of the most vital data from the previous year at the M7, a window into the elite of the elite. You’ll also find links throughout this story to our past coverage.
SNAPSHOT: ELITE TALENT IN ITS INCUBATION
The M7 was set in stone after a legendary — which is not say apocryphal — meeting of the seven schools’ deans many years ago. Details remain murky, and it's fun to imagine cigar smoke and the clink of whisky glasses. What emerged clearly, however, is a compact that to this day affects interactions at every level of the seven schools and other schools that do business with them — which is to say, most of the world's top business schools, and thus the vast majority of the graduate business education universe.
The M7 framework impacts more than the twice-yearly meetings among the seven deans; it also impacts meetings among vice deans, admissions directors, career management directors — even PR and marketing types — and partnerships and programs between the schools that have created student leaders for decades.
From the outside, the world of the seven schools will always fascinate, even (maybe especially) for those never have a shot at gaining admission. Employment data from the M7 MBA Classes of 2021 and profile data from the M7 Classes of 2023 contained in this story, like the data from previous stories and prior classes, are a snapshot of some of the world's most talented leaders in their incubation. The new data is particularly interesting as a portrait of those who, respectively, ended and started classes in a pandemic environment, with studies that were conducted partly or entirely online. Compared to their predecessors, what were class GMATs, GREs, and GPAs? What were the levels of women and international students admitted at each school? What industries did they matriculate to, and what did they earn?
Here is where you will find the answers. See the table above for a few of them, the table below for more, and the many tables in the ensuing pages for yet more. And bookmark this story to observe this group’s fascinating evolution in coming years.
A RETURN TO NORMALCY
There was no more noteworthy development for the M7 schools in the admissions cycle of 2020-2021 than what appears to be a full recovery from the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic. But it certainly left some marks. Applications were down at three of the seven schools in 2020-2021 (a trend that likely continued in the 2021-2022 cycle, for which data has yet to be reported): In total, 47,794 people applied for admission to the M7 schools, down just 85 apps from 2019-2020, a cycle that saw a late boom from the onset of coronavirus in March 2020. Meanwhile, class sizes stabilized in 2021, dropping back — or in Harvard's case, ballooning — to 2019 levels. (See table above.)
In fact, across the board, key data points returned to normal for the M7: Graduate Management Admission Test scores rose (the GMAT total in the table on this page is for the five schools that report averages), Graduate Record Exam scores also climbed, and even the group's collective GPA ticked upward. Perhaps most notably, the percentage of women in every M7 school crossed 40% together for the first time, rising by more than 3 percentage points cumulatively to a group average pf more than 45%. Wharton led the way with 52% women, the first M7 school — and one of the first in the United States and the world — to achieve gender parity in its MBA.
The 2020-2021 admissions cycle and subsequent enrollment saw the M7 climb out of a major, existential trough, as international students returned in greater numbers. The rebound was especially striking at Wharton, which saw its international students increase as a percentage of the class to 36% from a dire 19% — but it was up at all seven schools, including by double digit percentage points at Stanford, Kellogg and MIT Sloan, growing cumulatively from an average of 31.4% to 40.8%.
See the next page for tuition, total cost, ROI and industry choice data for the M7.
AND DON'T MISS POETS&QUANTS' PAST COVERAGE OF THE M7:
HOW THE M7’S MAGNIFICENCE WAS TESTED IN 2020
THE M7: STILL (MOSTLY) THE MOST MAGNIFICENT OF THEM ALL
NEW M7 DATA, FAMILIAR MAGNIFICENCE
M7 SCHOOLS: THE 2018 DATA IS IN & THEY REMAIN MAGNIFICENT
THE M7, ELITE OF THE ELITE, BY THE NUMBERS
PLUS THESE DATA-PACKED STORIES:
APPLICATIONS AT THE TOP 25 U.S. MBA PROGRAMS
ACCEPTANCE RATES AT THE TOP 50 U.S. MBA PROGRAMS
GMAT AVERAGES AT THE TOP 50 U.S. MBA PROGRAMS
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