Application Trends Survey Report 2020

Overview

GMAC’s annual Application Trends Survey gathers intelligence on the current market for graduate management education applicants. The 2020 survey collected applications data from over 1,000 graduate management programs around the world. The report offers timely insights on application volume trends by program type and world region; applicant pool composition by gender, citizenship, and work experience; and expected changes in enrollment rates, acceptance rates, and program size.

You can access related blog, webinar and infographic on the Application Trends Survey main page.

Quick Facts

• One of the key takeaways is that decision-making, for schools and candidates, in this pandemic-induced economic downturn is about hedging risk and managing uncertainty. The reconfiguration of the enrollment funnel in terms of a higher number of applications and a lower yield shows that the 2020 application season for business schools was unlike any other. This data-rich report also uncovered nuances of the global demand for graduate management education and identified growth variations by program locations and types.
• As the economy outlook dwindled, the global demand for graduate management education surged. Proportion of programs reporting growth in applications from domestic and international candidates are significantly up. Overall, 2 in 3 programs report growth in applications based on the relative change—an indicator of increase or decrease in applications for all programs responding to the 2020 survey. Nearly 3 in 4 full-time two-year MBA programs report relative growth in applications. Nearly 80 percent of Online MBA, Master of Finance and Master in Management programs report relative growth in applications.