MBA Admission Calculator Officially Launched

MBA Admission Calculator - Business Shool Application ChanceAfter 2 years of effort and over 1,000 hours of work, I have finally launched my MBA Admission Calculator. The calculator uses the logistic regression models that I built to write most of the articles on this website. It only requires you to fill in 10 pieces of information to get a rough idea of how competitive you are at top MBA programs. Each model was built using a minimum of 500 applicants worth of data. The data comes from the forums at GMAT Club.

Building the MBA Admission Calculator

Although launching the MBA admission calculator may not seem like that big of challenge, I did everything from scratch and learned a ton in the process. I had to learn HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, R and MySQL. I also had to build 16 completely separate logistic regression models for each business school. This version is more of a beta version than the final product. I plan to upgrade the results page, incorporate the most recent year of application data into the model and add new functionality. I plan to add a feature where you can adjust your GMAT on the results page rather than hitting back. I also plan to add an application portfolio  tool, so you can predict your chance of getting into at least one school.

Currently the MBA Admission Calculator works for 16 schools including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, MIT, Kellogg, Haas, Columbia, Tuck, NYU, Ross, Yale, Darden, Duke, Cornell and McCombs. However, I plan to finish off the top 25 domestic schools and a few international schools this summer. I would love feedback on how to improve this tool to meet applicants’ needs. So please feel free to leave a comment below.

If your predicted odds are lower than you expected at your dream school, don’t abandon all hope. It probably means that either your scores need to be boosted or there are many applicants who are similar to you applying. Focus on finding a way to differentiate yourself from applicants with similar backgrounds in a way that appeals to the admissions committee. Seek help from students, alumni and other experts.

15 thoughts on “MBA Admission Calculator Officially Launched

  1. Durian Gray

    Interesting! I’m curious to see how this plays out given the low probability I have for the school I applied to this year. Also, taking a second look, I noticed I’ve been had by that special offers checkbox. haha.

    I know GMAT Club data is a little limited, but it would be cool to see some other slices such as international/domestic status, length of time worked on application, etc. if ever that data becomes available at scale.

    Anyway, kudos! 🙂

    Reply
    1. Wayne Atwell

      In the past, I have looked at US vs. India vs. Everyone else due to limited data. In the future, I plan to incorporate region(Asia, South America, etc.) into the calculator when I finish collecting this year’s data. Best of luck with your application. You can always try again next year and apply to more schools.

      Reply
  2. Shrawana

    Hi Wayne,

    I would like to discuss with you regarding my profile. Let me know how we can take this up forward.

    Thanks

    Reply
  3. Justin

    This is awesome.

    It would be helpful if race were incorporated if the data is available. Additionally, being a Veteran and also having private sector experience, I wasn’t sure what to select as my primary industry. Perhaps adding veteran status as an option (like gender) would be helpful.

    Reply
  4. Murillo

    Great tool. Althought you’ve mentioned it is a beta version, it gives a clue of how competitive the candidate is in certain schools. I’m very happy that my top chioce is exactaly the one I’m most competitive. Awsome work, thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    1. Wayne Atwell

      Glad to hear you have a high predicted chance of admission. This is just to give you an idea of your chances. You still need to execute well on the application, the stats can only tell you so much.

      Reply
  5. m

    Hi Wayne,

    Awesome site, and thanks for making this information available. Question about your admission calculator: how robust is your data set for, let’s say, edge case candidates? I’ve got a very high GMAT but poor (sub-3.0) undergrad GPA, and the calculator is giving me odds of admission that seem far above what I’d been led to expect. 62% at Booth, 50% at Colombia, 76% at Ross; is there simply not enough data on this type of candidate to get plausible information?

    Would love to hear your thoughts.

    Reply
    1. Wayne Atwell

      Hi M, that is an excellent question. Around 97% of the data I use comes from applicants with GPA over 3.0. For applicants with a GPA over 3.0, GPA appears to have no impact on Columbia admission rate. I doubt that would hold for below 3.0. Ross and Booth both have a high acceptance rate for people with Liberal Arts degrees, could that be what is bringing up your acceptance rate?

      Reply
  6. OM

    Ditto to the race sentiment. As a URM, I’m sure my chances probably look much different than being from an overrepresented demographic.

    Reply
  7. Rae

    Great tool to have, though I’m not quite sure about the predictive power. For what it’s worth, I applied to B-school last year, R2, and just entered my info (as of when I applied to schools) to see what the calculator would say my odds of acceptance would be. Here are my results:

    Harvard Acceptance Rate: 9% — ACCEPTED
    Stanford Acceptance Rate: 6% — REJECTED, without interview
    Wharton Acceptance Rate: 61% — ACCEPTED
    Sloan Acceptance Rate: 11% — ACCEPTED
    Haas Acceptance Rate: 18% — REJECTED, with interview

    I believe I executed well on my applications and had a fair amount of career success in my field in addition to very good undergrad institution, so that certainly would influence my results. Only one data point, but wanted to share my story, since had I used this calculator before applying, I probably would have been discouraged from applying to HBS and Sloan.

    Love this site — it was really informative and instrumental throughout my MBA journey.

    Reply
    1. Wayne Atwell

      Thanks for telling me about your results. I’m glad that my info helped you. At some point I want to use machine learning and natural language processing to analyze resumes. Unfortunately I don’t have a ton of time right now.

      Reply

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