A more up-to-date analysis of MBA waitlist acceptance rate has been completed which include admissions data for the class of 2019.
At this point in the year many applicants have been placed on the waitlist for the school of their dreams. It is a frustrating experience that I personally have experienced. This articles shows the MBA waitlist acceptance rates for the top US MBA programs. The data for this analysis comes from GMATClub. These acceptance rates are meant to give a rough idea of the waitlist acceptance rate and should be taken with a grain of salt. The sample sizes vary by school; Olin, Emory and Stanford have the lowest sample sizes.
MBA Waitlist Acceptance Rate by School Rank
| US News Rank | School | Waitlist Acceptance Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stanford | 9% |
| 2 | Harvard | 2% |
| 3 | Wharton | 6% |
| 4 | Booth | 15% |
| 5 | Sloan | 8% |
| 6 | Kellogg | 6% |
| 7 | Haas | 4% |
| 8 | Columbia | 6% |
| 9 | Tuck | 10% |
| 10 | Darden | 16% |
| 11 | NYU | 3% |
| 11 | Ross | 11% |
| 13 | Duke | 4% |
| 13 | Yale | 3% |
| 15 | Anderson | 18% |
| 16 | Cornell | 11% |
| 17 | McCombs | 8% |
| 18 | Kenan-Flagler | 46% |
| 19 | Olin | 30% |
| 20 | Tepper | 13% |
| 21 | Emory | 4% |
MBA waitlist acceptance rates ranges widely from 46% to 2% depending on the school. It tends to vary quite a bit from year to year, so these acceptance rates should only be used as a guide. For example Dartmouth’s average waitlist acceptance rate is 10%, however for the class of 2016 it was only 2%. The top ten schools on average have a slightly lower waitlist acceptance rate coming in at 8% while the next ten schools average a noticeably higher acceptance rate of 14%.
MBA Waitlist Acceptance Rate Rank
| Acceptance Rank | School | Waitlist Acceptance Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenan-Flagler | 46% |
| 2 | Olin | 30% |
| 3 | Anderson | 18% |
| 4 | Darden | 16% |
| 5 | Booth | 15% |
| 6 | Tepper | 13% |
| 7 | Ross | 11% |
| 8 | Cornell | 11% |
| 9 | Tuck | 10% |
| 10 | Stanford | 9% |
| 11 | Sloan | 8% |
| 12 | McCombs | 8% |
| 13 | Kellogg | 6% |
| 14 | Wharton | 6% |
| 15 | Columbia | 6% |
| 16 | Emory | 4% |
| 17 | Duke | 4% |
| 18 | Haas | 4% |
| 19 | Yale | 3% |
| 20 | NYU | 3% |
| 21 | Harvard | 2% |
The schools with the highest MBA waitlist acceptance rates are Kenan-Flagler, Olin, and Anderson. At the other end are Harvard, NYU and Yale with the lowest waitlist acceptance rates. Although NYU has the highest interview acceptance rate, it rarely accepts anyone off the waitlist.