MBA News: Changes in Wharton’s Class Profile

Last month, mbaMission Founder Jeremy Shinewald was quoted in the Wall Street Journal discussing changes in the composition of Harvard Business School’s (HBS’s) entering class—namely a reduced (but still notable) emphasis on students coming from finance and an increased focus on students from manufacturing and technology backgrounds. Well, the Wharton School does not appear to be following HBS’s lead and has in fact accepted more finance students in its Class of 2013: 42% in 2013, up from 37% in 2012. Also, Wharton accepted a record number of women this year: 45%, up from 40% last year. Overall, the class is larger this year, at 845 students, up from 817 in the Class of 2012. With HBS and Wharton both changing up their class profiles (albeit in very different ways), will we see either trend followed by other top business schools? We will have to wait until September, when most schools release their class profiles, to see.