Indian and Chinese MBA applicants more likely to be turned down by the US B-schools

According to a survey conducted by Poets&Quants, Indian and Chinese MBA applicants face higher rates of rejection in many top B-schools which is much higher than domestic candidates or candidates from Europe or Latin America. The rejection rate for Indian and Chinese candidates is four to five times higher than U.S. candidates in some cases.

In prominent B-schools like MIT Sloan, Duke University's Fuqua School, and Michigan's Ross School of Business, non-U.S applicants outnumber the domestic candidates. For instance, at Purdue University's Krannert School, approximately 80% of the latest MBA applicant pool was international whereas Washington University's Olin School of Business witnessed 70% non-U.S candidates in last year's 1,490 applicants to its full-time MBA program.

However, the difference in the percentage of the international applicants in these prestigious B-schools and the percentage of applicants admitted and enrolled is abysmal. At Olin School of Business, 70% of the School's applicant pool was international candidates out of which only 35% were admitted to the latest entering class. On the other hand, only 30% of the students admitted to Faqua's full-time MBA programme were non-U.S even though 53% out of 3,452 applicants were international candidates.

Top B-Schools Reveals Rare and Unusual Information on Applicant Pools

Bloomberg BusinessWeek acquired a very uncommon data for the first time from B-schools on the creation of the MBA applicant pool on the contrary to the actual students enrolled. Most of the business schools agreed to provide the information on their applicant pools whereas Harvard, Stanford, Wharton and Columbia were among the top institutions that declined to provide this information.

Even if these schools disclosed information for all the international candidates, the major problem, according to admission officials, is the copious number of Indian and Chinese MBA applicants. This fact is affirmed by a top ten B-school in an internal admissions report obtained by Poets&Quants. According to this report, Indian and Chinese MBA applicants face higher rates of rejection during admissions more than four to five times as compared to either domestic applicants or those from Europe, Latin America, Africa or the Middle East.

For instance, in 2010, the school received 20% of the applications from China and other Asian countries while it received 22% applications from India only. The acceptance rate for the Chinese and Indian applicants was 10% and 8%, respectively whereas for U.S. citizens, it was 39%, which is four to five times higher. On the contrary, International applicants from other regions of the world were received well as compared to the Asians. The school accepted 39% of its European applicants, and 26% of its applicants from Latin America and the Middle East, with an overall acceptance rate hovering around 25%.

As per the admission officials, there are various reasons for the inconsistency between the size of the international applicant pool and those who get admitted at their schools. Some of the reasons include:

• A need to craft more balanced and diverse classes
• Language inefficiency making international students less attractive in the job market
• Difficulty in acquiring work visas in the U.S after graduation

The table below shows the percentage of international students in the most recent applicant pool for each business school and the percentage of international students who enrolled in the latest entering class in the fall of 2011 according to a report developed by Bloomberg BusinessWeek:

Non-US Students Selected from the Recruiters' Point of View

According to John Roeder, admission director at Vanderbilt University's Owen School of Business, students are selected through the point of view of the recruiters who are hiring the class after 2 years. At Owen, only 25% of the class comprises international students whereas 45% of the 1,013 applicants are made up of international applicants. He reasserts the language difficulties faced by the international applicants with are a major hurdle for them to overcome. Moreover, he feels that any international student coming into a U.S. school has more hurdles to overcome than a domestic student in terms of the job search as it is a highly competitive process.

B-Schools in the U.S Avoids Creating Expectations among International Students which are Impractical

According to Shantanu Dutta, vice dean for graduate programs at Marshall, Chinese and Indian candidates form the largest applicant pools be it business school or college. Nevertheless, he acknowledges the quality of these applicants and shows the possibility for filing up the whole international pool by just one of these countries. But it is vital to maintain the diversity in the class. There are students from 18 countries where candidates from China and India make up the largest number of international students.

Mr. Dutta also acknowledges the major challenge faced by international students-- getting work visas to stay in the U.S. Even if the international students are aware of the tough market environment, they still believe in the American dream and thinks that can overcome the odds. Therefore, Marshall follows stringent selection procedure on the international front and avoids creating expectations that the school can't meet.

According to MBA admissions consultants, most B-schools try to maintain a balance in diversity of an entering class on the basis of the merit of the applicants. Dan Bauer who is the founding and managing director of The MBA Exchange, an admission consulting firm, reveals that while creating an MBA class, top B-schools face the challenge of establishing ‘a meritocracy with diversity.' The admission process gets diluted when a balance is not stroked between these two variables.

Source: Ningombam Biswamitra (Shiksha Team)