Management education combines a large undergraduate applicant base with renewed graduate-program demand. The latest figures show 877,000 undergraduate applications to AACSB-accredited business schools in 2023–24, while total graduate business-school applications increased 12% from 2023 to 2024. Costs, funding, delivery format, geography, technology, and candidate composition all shape how that demand reaches schools.
Contents
- Business school demand
- Funding and financial scale
- Undergraduate study costs
- MBA costs by location
- Graduate applications and AI
- GMAT participation and candidate profile
- Geographic and gender signals
Business school demand
AACSB undergraduate applications were relatively stable at 672,000 in 2018–19, 673,000 in 2019–20, and 673,000 in 2020–21. Demand then rose to 736,000 in 2021–22, 823,000 in 2022–23, and 877,000 in 2023–24. These are application counts, not unique applicants or enrollments, and the measurement period is the academic year identified by AACSB.
The increase is also visible in the Americas. AACSB reported 289,000 undergraduate applications in the region in 2018–19, followed by 283,000 in 2019–20 and 310,000 in 2020–21. The count reached 325,000 in 2021–22, 353,000 in 2022–23, and 375,000 in 2023–24.
| Academic year | AACSB undergraduate applications | Americas applications |
|---|---|---|
| 2018–19 | 672,000 | 289,000 |
| 2019–20 | 673,000 | 283,000 |
| 2020–21 | 673,000 | 310,000 |
| 2021–22 | 736,000 | 325,000 |
| 2022–23 | 823,000 | 353,000 |
| 2023–24 | 877,000 | 375,000 |
The GMAC Application Trends Survey 2024 provides a separate view of graduate demand. It covered nearly 1,100 graduate business-school programs worldwide. Total applications increased 12% from 2023 to 2024, and 56% of graduate business-school programs reported application growth in 2024. Because AACSB and GMAC measure different populations and reporting systems, their counts should be read as complementary indicators rather than combined totals.
Funding and financial scale
AACSB-accredited business schools reported average operating funds of $49,747,849 in 2023–24. The median was $27,664,914, while the maximum was $354,774,000 and the minimum was $264,700. The gap between the minimum, median, average, and maximum indicates that operating resources vary substantially across accredited schools. These figures describe operating funds, not tuition prices or student aid.
Tuition and fees accounted for 55% of business-school available funding in 2018–19 and 52% in the most recent data reported by the AACSB 2025 State of Business Education Report. The two percentages describe different reference points, so they show a change in funding composition rather than a direct estimate of a school’s total revenue.
For readers comparing programs, the funding figures provide institutional context. A school’s available operating funds can support a broad range of activities, but the data does not identify how much any particular institution spends on faculty, facilities, technology, scholarships, or career services. The tuition-and-fee share likewise does not establish what an individual student will pay.
Undergraduate study costs
AACSB’s reported average online study-year costs for undergraduate programs were $17,300 in-state in 2021–22, $16,900 in 2022–23, and $16,400 in 2023–24. The corresponding out-of-state costs were $11,900, $11,300, and $11,400. Out-of-country online costs were $16,900 in 2021–22, $16,200 in 2022–23, and $16,600 in 2023–24.
These categories should not be interpreted as a universal ranking of affordability. “In-state,” “out-of-state,” and “out-of-country” describe the AACSB reporting categories, and the figures are averages across the reporting population. They are also study-year costs, not necessarily the total cost of completing a degree.
Face-to-face undergraduate study-year costs were higher in each listed in-state comparison: $30,700 in 2021–22, $30,100 in 2022–23, and $30,800 in 2023–24. Face-to-face out-of-state costs were $20,300, $20,900, and $21,200 across those same academic years. Out-of-country face-to-face costs were $31,500 in 2021–22, $32,000 in 2022–23, and $31,100 in 2023–24.
| Undergraduate format and category | 2021–22 | 2022–23 | 2023–24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online, in-state | $17,300 | $16,900 | $16,400 |
| Online, out-of-state | $11,900 | $11,300 | $11,400 |
| Online, out-of-country | $16,900 | $16,200 | $16,600 |
| Face-to-face, in-state | $30,700 | $30,100 | $30,800 |
| Face-to-face, out-of-state | $20,300 | $20,900 | $21,200 |
| Face-to-face, out-of-country | $31,500 | $32,000 | $31,100 |
The online and face-to-face figures move differently by category and year. For example, online in-state costs reported by AACSB declined across the three years, while face-to-face in-state costs ended slightly above the 2021–22 figure. That variation is a reason to compare delivery format and residency category separately.
MBA costs by location
For face-to-face MBA programs, AACSB reported an average in-state cost per program of $63,100 in 2021–22, $62,800 in 2022–23, and $63,300 in 2023–24. The out-of-state averages were $51,700, $53,100, and $51,600. Out-of-country averages were $64,700, $64,200, and $62,800.
| Face-to-face MBA category | 2021–22 | 2022–23 | 2023–24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-state | $63,100 | $62,800 | $63,300 |
| Out-of-state | $51,700 | $53,100 | $51,600 |
| Out-of-country | $64,700 | $64,200 | $62,800 |
The MBA figures are costs per program, while the undergraduate figures above are study-year costs. That distinction matters when comparing the two sets. A per-program figure covers the reporting unit used by AACSB; it should not be converted into an annual price without additional duration information.
The out-of-country MBA average was the highest of the three location categories in 2021–22 and 2022–23, but the in-state average was higher in 2023–24. The figures therefore describe year-specific averages rather than a fixed ordering among locations.
Graduate applications and AI
Graduate management education is also changing in how programs respond to technology. Just 22% of GME programs said they had not integrated artificial intelligence into learning experiences in some way in the GMAC Application Trends Survey 2024. This means the survey reported that 78% had integrated AI in some way, but it does not specify that the integration was equally extensive or that it used the same tools.
The GMAC 2024 Application Trends Survey was a worldwide survey of nearly 1,100 graduate business-school programs. Its application-growth result—12% growth in total applications from 2023 to 2024—sits alongside the finding that 56% of programs reported growth. The first is a change in the total application volume; the second is the share of programs reporting an increase. They measure related but different aspects of demand.
The GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey 2024 Report was based on responses from 931 recruiters across 38 countries, including 575 corporate recruiters and 356 staffing-firm recruiters. This is a recruiter sample, not an applicant count, so it provides a separate labor-market perspective on graduate management education. The reported sample composition also shows that staffing firms made up part of the respondent base rather than the entire group.
GMAT participation and candidate profile
Global business-school candidates sat for 115,286 GMAT exams in testing year 2024, according to the GMAC GMAT Geographic Trend Report 2024. That was down 33.4% from 173,176 exams in testing year 2020. Candidates sent 189,671 GMAT score reports to programs worldwide in testing year 2024, a measure of score-report activity rather than the number of exams.
Women represented 42% of global GMAT exams in testing year 2024, down from 46% in testing year 2020. Candidates younger than 25 represented 47% of global GMAT exams in testing year 2024, down from 52% in testing year 2020. These percentages describe the composition of exams in the cited testing years, not the gender or age distribution of every graduate management applicant.
The 2024 profile also included score-percentile groupings. More than 20,000 GMAT test takers had percentiles higher than 89% in testing year 2024, while 40,000 examinees had percentiles in the 55%–89% range. The categories are not a complete distribution of all test takers, so they should not be treated as a full count of every percentile band.
Across testing years 2020–2024, more than 675,000 GMAT exams were taken by people interested in graduate management education, according to the GMAC Profile of GMAT Testing: North America, TY2020–TY2024. The GMAT exam is used in admissions for more than 8,000 graduate management programs worldwide. The five-year exam total and the global program-usage figure use different scopes and should remain separate.
Geographic and gender signals
The GMAC Profiles of the Pipeline: Global Graduate Management Education Study surveyed 10,000 respondents across 21 countries and identified eight mutually exclusive candidate segments. Those figures describe the scale and structure of that segmentation study; they do not represent the number of candidates in the global market.
Regional application results also differ. In India, 83% of programs reported domestic application growth in the GMAC Advisor report “How Business School Applications Surged With Rise in Domestic Interest.” In Canada, 32% of programs reported application growth in 2024 in the GMAC Application Trends Survey 2024: Canada. Since the figures refer to separate country-level reporting, they should not be read as a direct comparison of national applicant totals.
Gender-related results vary by program type. Seventy percent of Flex MBA programs reported growth in female applications in the GMAC report “Surge in women’s interest for business education degrees.” A separate GMAC finding in that report states that female applicants remained at around 42% of the overall applicant pool over the past decade. The first figure measures the share of Flex MBA programs reporting growth; the second describes the approximate share of the overall pool over time.
Together, these measures point to a management-education market with several simultaneous patterns: undergraduate applications reached their highest supplied AACSB level in 2023–24, graduate applications grew in 2024, AI integration was reported by most surveyed GME programs, and GMAT participation was lower than in testing year 2020. The figures remain most useful when their definitions, geographies, delivery formats, and measurement periods are kept explicit.