See the Duke Fuqua MBA Class of 2023 profile here.
The Class of 2022 profile for Duke’s Fuqua School of Business reflects the hard work that the admissions team carried out this year. Despite the uncertain climate, the school experienced a 10 percent increase in applications from which to assemble its 408-member class.
Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions, credits much of the success to the nearly 200 worldwide events held by the school, pre-pandemic travel to other countries for recruiting, as well as the efforts of the Team Fuqua network.
Here are some key elements of the profile:
| Average Undergraduate GPA | 3.5 |
| Percent majoring in arts, humanities, social sciences | 19% |
| Percent majoring in science, technology, engineering, and math | 28% |
| Percent majoring in business | 31% |
| Average GMAT Score | 702 |
| GMAT Score Range (Middle 80%) | 660-740 |
| Women | 46% |
| Countries Represented (by citizenship) | 44 |
| International Students | 38% |
| Average Work Experience | 5.6 years |
Fuqua’s Focus on Diversity
International students makeup 38 percent of the class and represent 44 countries.
Forty-six percent of the class are women, up from 43 percent last year. The school’s commitment towards increasing access for women includes working with the Forté Foundation to increase the number of Forté Fellows across the Daytime and Executive MBA programs from 120 to over 170.
Thirty-eight percent of U.S. citizens and permanent residents in the class are minorities, identified as those U.S. students whose race and ethnicity are Asian American, African American, Hispanic, and Indigenous North American, Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander. Underrepresented minorities make up 23 percent of U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
Professional and Academic Backgrounds
The Duke MBA class profile features a well-rounded array of industries for their pre-MBA professional experience. Fifteen percent came from consulting, and another 15 percent were working in financial services. Eleven percent worked in healthcare, 7 percent in analytics, and 6 percent worked in the non-profit sector.
Thirty-one percent of the class completed their undergraduate degree in business and accounting, while 28 percent completed their degree in engineering and the natural sciences. Economics degrees make up 16 percent of the class, and liberal arts another 19 percent.
Communication is Key
Hubert traces much of the increased interest in the school to its Management Science and Technology Management Program (MSTeM), now in its third year. The MSTeM track carries a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) designation that not only provides students with technological expertise in addition to their traditional MBA curriculum, but also has an added benefit for international students who want to work in the U.S. after graduation. As a result, even though the school offered deferrals this year due to the pandemic, not nearly as many were taken as were expected.
“I think it was a function of our ability to continue to communicate with our incoming students and be as transparent as possible,” Hubert added. Among other efforts, the school held Team Fuqua Tuesdays during the admissions season, inviting incoming students to meet virtually with current students, faculty, and staff to discuss support measures and what to expect when the semester started. “It helped to eliminate some of the uncertainty that people originally had.”
