This morning, The Tech, MIT’s “oldest and largest newspaper & the first newspaper published on the web,” reported that MIT Sloan has seen a record number of applications this year. This may not be surprising to applicants, but behind the data is a story—a surge of applications came in the first round, and second round applications remained flat. Indeed, this trend was also seen at Michigan Ross, while Tuck did not experience an increase in either round.
So, what is going on? Did candidates anticipate how competitive the year would be and apply early? As such, should we focus on the record application volume? Or, should we look at the flat second round data as a sign of a relative decline and anticipate that next year will see a downward trend in applications? We think that both effects will continue to reveal themselves: the first round will remain the “big” round, but overall volume will decline next year.
Time will tell…