Diversity of backgrounds and perspectives adds to the business school classroom experience. In the words of Jindal School of Management professor Sheen S. Levine and David Stark of Columbia University in a December 2015 New York Times op-ed: “Diversity improves the way people think. By disrupting conformity, racial and ethnicity diversity prompts people to scrutinize facts, think more deeply and develop their own opinions.”
US business schools continue to work towards enhancing the level of diversity in their incoming classes through a variety of diversity recruitment initiatives. According to our annual Application Trends Survey, last year nearly 2 in 3 US full-time MBA programs (65%) conducted special recruitment and outreach to increase the number of applications they receive from underrepresented populations (URPs), including African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans.
To help schools in their efforts, last week GMAC Research published a series of data briefs to inform their work. Compiling data from GMAT examinees and the mba.com Prospective Students Survey, the Key Diversity Statistics series includes four data briefs: one on URPs collectively and individual briefs on African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans. Each report has sections on:
The data briefs are available now to professionals from GMAT-accepting schools.