MBA programs at elite universities around the United States reported a significant decline in applications this year. International students are reportedly headed for Canada or Europe because the U.S. is not “welcoming.”
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, prestigious MBA programs around the United States saw a substantial drop in applications over the past year. Applications to United States MBA programs were down 9.1 percent overall over the past year. Harvard University saw a 6.7 percent drop in applications, its lowest since 2005.
Sangeet Chowfla, the chief executive of the Graduate Management Admission Council, claims that international students opt for programs in Europe and Canada because they feel that the United States is not “welcoming.”
“There’s perception, which we absolutely pick up in our data, that the U.S. is not a welcoming environment,” Chowfla said. “It’s not happening in a vacuum: It’s happening at a time when these global alternatives in other parts of the world are also emerging.”
Now, admissions officers at prestigious American universities are coming up with unusual methods of marketing their MBA program. Michael Robinson, the director of admissions at Columbia University, has been using Game of Thrones references to market to potential students.
To counteract the decline in applications, many schools are stepping up recruitment efforts and searching for creative ways to reach future students. This spring, Columbia Business School streamed a class from its popular “Leadership Through Fiction” course, which gleans leadership lessons from works such as HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” said Michael Robinson, a director of admissions.
Breitbart News reported in August that Boston University is offering an online MBA program that costs $30,000 less than its on-campus counterpart. The online program strips away unnecessary elective courses that make the on-campus MBA program expensive.
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