Younger and more diverse

Posted by arnold

December 9, 2009

According to the Graduate Management Admission Council MBA students are getting younger. Worldwide testing centers for the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) reported a 161-percent spike in the under-25 set. Also the number of women is increasing – especially in Asia.

Historically, the traditional business school student has been between 25 and 30 years old. The average age in the US and other countries around the world is 27. Many schools, however, are beginning to see younger applicants and accept applicants without job experience. The US saw a 40 percent increase in the younger-than-25 age group, the largest increase of any demographic. At the same time both Canada and the US saw a decrease in the 31-and-above category between 2005 and 2009.

Nearly 40 percent of GMAT exams today are taken by women. 51 percent of test takers in Asia and 49 percent in Eastern Europe are women. In contrast in Central Asia (including India and Pakistan) only 24 percent of the student pipeline is female.

Among citizens of the United States, the number of minorities taking the GMAT exam increased overall in the last five years. In testing year 2009, for example, US minorities accounted for more than 40,000 of the more than 130,000 US citizens that sat for the GMAT exam. Asian Americans show the largest growth, with a 36 percent increase between 2005 and 2009, followed by an increase of 26 percent in African American test takers during the same period.

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