Harvard Business School has shared the MBA Class of 2027 profile, once again gathering a group of diverse and accomplished students.
HBS received 9,409 applications for the MBA Class of 2027 and 943 ultimately enrolled. The year prior, the MBA program received 9,856 applications and the class size landed at 930.
Diverse Representation in the Harvard MBA Class of 2027
Women make up 44 percent of the HBS Class of 2027 profile, on par with last year’s class. Thirty-seven percent of new members are international, a two percent increase over last year.
In the Harvard MBA Class of 2027 profile, HBS is sharing the racial and ethnic identities of its domestic students in two ways. Federal reporting guidelines allow each individual student to be represented in a single race or ethnic group, whereas HBS also employs multidimensional reporting, allowing students to be counted in each group they identify with. Out of domestic students and permanent U.S. residents, when counted according to Federal guidelines, 26 percent are Asian American, seven percent are Black or African American, nine percent are Hispanic or Latino, and four percent identify as multiracial. Multi-dimensional reporting indicates that 30 percent of students identify as Asian American, nine percent are Black or African American, and nine percent identify as Hispanic or Latino. This method also reveals that 60 percent identify themselves as white as opposed to 49 percent under Federal reporting guidelines.
| Women | 44% |
| U.S. Minority Representation (Federal) | 46% |
| International Students | 37% |
| Average Work Experience | 4.9 years |
Academic and Professional Background
Ten percent of the MBA Class of 2027 are first-generation college students, nearly matching last year’s class. Twenty-four percent of the new HBS class earned undergraduate degrees in engineering. Twenty-two percent hold degrees in business/commerce followed by 19 percent each in economics or math/physical sciences. Eleven percent majored in social sciences and five percent in arts/humanities. Based on U.S. schools with a 4.0 scale, the students averaged a 3.76 GPA during undergrad.
| Average Undergraduate GPA | 3.76 |
| Percent majoring in engineering | 24% |
| Percent majoring in business/commerce | 22% |
| Percent majoring in economics | 19% |
| Percent majoring in math/physical sciences | 19% |
| Percent majoring in arts, humanities, social sciences | 16% |
When it came time to take the GMAT or GRE, 34 percent opted to take the GMAT (Focus), 28 percent the GMAT (10th edition) and 44 percent the GRE, with some submitting both scores. The HBS MBA Class of 2027 landed median scores of 685 and 730 on the GMAT (Focus) and GMAT (10th edition), respectively. The median scores for the Quant and Verbal sections of the GRE came in at 164 each, one point higher than last year.
| Median GMAT (10th edition) Score | 730 |
| Median GMAT (Focus) Score | 685 |
| GRE Quant Median | 164 |
| GRE Verbal Median | 164 |
| Percent Submitting GRE Scores | 44% |
Prior to matriculating, the HBS MBA Class of 2027 averaged 4.9 years of professional experience. Nineteen percent of the class comes from a consulting background. Another 16 percent had worked in private equity/venture capital. Thirteen percent came from the tech industry followed by 10 percent from financial services. Consumer products/retail/e-commerce cover nine percent of HBS students’ pre-MBA work experience.
