The Harvard MBA program is renowned for bringing together some of the best young minds in business. In the Harvard MBA class of 2026, you’ll find professionals from the world of financial services, consulting, technology, and manufacturing rubbing shoulders with those from healthcare, the nonprofit sector, and the media.
If you envision yourself joining the ranks of HBS’ notable alumni, our Harvard MBA Class Profile Breakdown* will help you understand what kind of candidates get accepted into the program and maximize your own chances of joining HBS.
Harvard MBA | Class of 2026 Overview
The Harvard MBA program received 9,856 applications in the 2023-2024 academic year, more than 1,000 above the year before. In the end, 930 students enrolled at the school, which is in keeping with the school’s typical MBA student count.
Most of the class (65%) hailed from the United States. Within this, there was a diverse range with 25% of US students identifying as Asian American, 10% as Hispanic or Latino, and 6% as Black or African America.
The large proportion of Americans on the course is higher than in recent years, with the percentage of international students falling from 39% to 35%.
The most popular non-US regions for students were Asia (13%), followed by Europe (8%), and Mexico, Central, and South America (5%).
In total, 45% of the class of 2026 are women, the same as the previous year, though an increase on the year before.
Harvard MBA | GMAT & GRE Scores
The GMAT is consistently the most popular entrance exam to HBS, with 63% of the class submitting GMAT scores compared to 41% who submitted scores from the GRE. This means that to earn your place at the school, you should start preparing to take the test.
Historically, looking at average GMAT scores has been a way to gauge a rough score to aim for. However, as of 2024 GMAT scoring has changed as part of a new iteration of the test, meaning a good GMAT score for your MBA will now look different to in previous years.
The median GMAT for the HBS MBA class of 2026 was 740, based on the GMAT scoring scale that was in place in previous years. (This equates to around 685-695 for candidates taking the GMAT after February 2024, which is achieved by the top 4% of all GMAT takers.)
While Harvard has always been a school where GMAT scores can hit the very highest percentiles, a sky-high GMAT score isn’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to your business school application. Exceptional candidates without a top GMAT score can still find a place at HBS.
To maximize your chances, continue to focus on other areas of your application, ensuring that your passion, personality, and academic rigor shine through.
For GRE takers, verbal and quantitative scores range from 146-170. The overall median verbal score is 163, while the median quantitative is 163.
Harvard MBA | Undergraduate Majors & GPA
An MBA class made up of a diverse community of learners enables students to contemplate business issues from various perspectives.
The 930 enrolled students come from a wide variety of undergraduate educational backgrounds including business and commerce, economics, engineering, and math. However, not all areas are business-related as arts and humanities and physical and social sciences are represented among the cohort.
With the diverse range of academic backgrounds in the class, having a non-business undergraduate major shouldn't deter you from entering the Harvard MBA program. Harvard wants to educate future leaders of the world, and those who switch their academic route are likely to be invested in change.
You’ll need to be at the top of your game, though. Among the HBS MBA class of 2026, students were some of the best in their undergraduate departments—the average GPA among students of the HBS MBA is 3.69.
Harvard MBA | Pre-MBA Industry
Business schools strive for a classroom that mirrors the realities of the business world. To achieve this, top schools enroll experienced students from diverse industries who bring with them a variety of approaches to problem-solving. Harvard’s case method thrives on this diversity of thought.
The average student in the class of 2026 has five years of work experience behind them. The most common pre-MBA industry is consulting, where 18% of students have previous experience. Next is venture capital and private equity, accounting for 16% of students in the HBS MBA.
Technology is the third most common field at 12%, followed by financial services (10%), consumer products (9%), manufacturing, industrial, and energy sectors (9%), and healthcare and biotech (8%).
Although the traditional MBA industries of consulting, finance, and tech are well-represented within the Harvard MBA program, you'll also find students from less conventional MBA backgrounds. The military accounts for 5% of the class, while the nonprofit, government, and education sectors account for a larger proportion at 6% of the class. Meanwhile, 4% of students come from careers in media, entertainment, or travel.
Harvard MBA | Student Stories
Think that MBAs are a pack of money-oriented wolves of Wall Street? Think again. For many HBS students, diversity and social impact factor high up the agenda.
Amy Hernandez Turcios—Latinx leader and former Wall Street banker—joined the HBS MBA in a bid to boost her confidence, public speaking, and assertiveness through an MBA. As a first-generation student, she recognized that these skills would help her advocate for diversity in the corporate sector.
Now a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Amy intends to use the leadership skills that she strengthened in her MBA to elevate other leaders of color.
“I hope it will help me take this high-level problem around the lack of Latinx representation in leadership positions, break it down, and figure out how to tackle it,” she says.
The MBA can also be a catalyst for entrepreneurial thinking. Four HBS graduates founded LivelyHood—a COVID-19 relief initiative set up to combat inequalities within society by matching volunteers with vulnerable community members. Co-founder Justin Lee says that he and his fellow co-founders apply finance, entrepreneurial, and leadership competencies that they learned in their MBA to guide their startup’s successful running.
Looking to follow in these graduates’ footsteps? Find out how one MBA grad aced the HBS application.
Who is the Harvard MBA for?
Within in the HBS MBA you’ll learn among an academically gifted class, typically with strong GMAT scores and GPAs. But this isn’t the defining feature of the class of 2026.
Although selective, the diversity figures from the incoming class show us that HBS actively seeks out difference with a mix of undergraduate majors, nationalities, and near gender parity in the MBA class.
What do you need to get into Harvard? HBS MBA admissions director Chad Losee confirms that your diverse background is valuable to the school. And you don’t have to be outstanding in every category to join HBS.
Chad explains that his team approaches the candidate review process holistically, considering your impact, work experience, as well as your academic scores.
For Harvard Business School, the future leaders of the world are a dynamic group of students invested in altering their academic and industry paths and the world around them.
*The data in this article is based on the Harvard MBA Class Profile / this article was updated in September 2024 to reflect the new HBS MBA class.
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