NYU Stern Seats Elite MBA Class Of 2025, But Apps Fall Again (2024)

While the latest U.S. News & World Report list ranks New York University Stern School of Business as the 10th-best MBA program in the United States, Stern’s MBA Class of 2025 demonstrates an elite academic class that rivals the top schools.

Stern’s latest class profile, released October 2, reported an average undergraduate GPA of 3.61 and an average GMAT at 732. That’s higher than the No. 1 school in the U.S. News ranking, the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. At Booth, Class of 2025 MBAs had an average GMAT of 728 and an average GPA of 3.60. You can see Booth’s full Class of 2025 profile here.

In most categories, NYU’s MBA Class of 2025 holds steady for the stats of the Class of 2024. See table below.

BY THE NUMBERS: NYU STERN MBA CLASSES 2021-2025

APPS FALL AGAIN, CLASS SIZE STABLE

Applications fell 13.5% from last year to 3,075, among the biggest drop-offs in 2022-2023 of any leading U.S. B-school (see links below for P&Q‘s coverage of this fall’s MBA classes). That’s on top of a 10% decline in apps from the previous cycle and consistent with a downward trend in domestic applications at top-tier U.S. B-schools as schools continued to grapple with fallout from the pandemic and a relatively strong economy kept prospective students in the workforce.

For standardized testing, 45% of the class reported GMAT scores, 22% reported GRE scores, and 14% reported scores from the Executive Assessment. Some 6% were granted a test waiver.

Stern enrolled a class of 327 MBAs for 2025, up 3 from the Class of 2024. That’s down 9% from two years ago when Stern enrolled 360 for the Class of 2023. Its admission rate of 31% was down slightly from 27% the year before.

(Numbers in Stern’s class profiles do not include students in its one-year MBA programs in Fashion and Luxury or its Andre Koo Tech MBA. You can read more about those program class profiles in the links above.)

WORK EXPERIENCE AND INDUSTRY

No surprise that the greatest share of Stern MBAs (26%) previously worked in financial services. New York City remains the financial center of the world.

Financial services is followed by consulting (12%) and technology (10%) which rose from 7% in the previous class. Overall, the Class of 2025 had 5 years of work experience, which is right in line with the previous five classes.

In terms of educational background, 27% of the class earned an undergraduate business degree; 27% earned degrees in engineering, math, or science; 21% in social science; 17% in economics; and 10% in humanities, arts, or other.

The Class of 2025 is also highly diverse. It reported that 17% of students are underrepresented minorities – U.S. citizens or permanent residents who identify as African American/Black, Hispanic, Native American/Alaskan Native, or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. That compares to 21% for the previous class, but up from 9% for the Class of 2021. Its minority number, which includes Asian Americans and others who identify as non-White and non-Hispanic, is 47%, identical to the last class.

Further, 13% of the Class of 2025 have a military background while 13% identify as LGBT+. Forty-eight percent are international students representing 46 countries.

DON’T MISS: MEET NYU STERN’S MBA CLASS OF 2024 and NYU STERN TO LAUNCH MIDDLE EAST-BASED ONE-YEAR MBA

AND SEE POETS&QUANTS’ COVERAGE OF OTHER LEADING B-SCHOOLS’ MBA CLASSES OF 2025:

STANFORD

HARVARD

CHICAGO BOOTH

WHARTON

KELLOGG

MIT SLOAN

DARTMOUTH TUCK

YALE SOM

VIRGINIA DARDEN

DUKE FUQUA

CORNELL JOHNSON

UCLA ANDERSON

USC MARSHALL