NYU Stern MBA Class Profile

As NYU Stern welcomes its MBA class of 2025, we break down the latest NYU Stern MBA class profile covering GMAT scores, diversity stats, and more

A stone's throw away from Greenwich Village, NYU Stern School of Business is known for its strengths in finance and fashion, with students reaping all the benefits of life in central NYC. Ranked among the top 25 MBA programs in the world, NYU Stern has just welcomed its MBA class of 2025.

If you're considering applying to NYU Stern, you need to understand what kind of students fill the MBA class and how to leverage your own experience and background in your application.

NYU Stern received 3,075 applications, admitted 966 students, and enrolled 327, with an admission rate of 31% this year. Applications to NYU Stern were down 13% on the previous year.

Students in the NYU Stern MBA class of 2025 include professionals from financial services, nonprofits, the arts, and education, technology, engineering, law, the military, and more. 46 nationalities are represented in the class.

In this BusinessBecause Breakdown, we explore the NYU Stern MBA class profile, covering class GMAT scores, diversity statistics, and students' previous experiences.

NYU Stern MBA Class of 2025 | Overview

The entering MBA class of 2025 is academically impressive. There are students with a range of undergraduate majors from engineering, math, and science, to social science, economics, and the humanities. The class also has an average GMAT score of 732, one of the highest in NYU Stern's history, and consistent with the last cohort's average score of 733.

The average age of the MBA cohort is 28, with the youngest in the class aged 21 and the oldest 37. To enroll in the MBA class at NYU Stern is to also enroll in a classroom fueled by diversity. Female representation sits at 43% in this cohort, slightly down from last year's 45%, which was the highest in NYU Stern's history.

There are 46 countries represented, 47% of students are from minority backgrounds, 17% of the class are from underrepresented minorities. 48% are international.

Read: NYU Stern’s Dean Talks Big Data, Machine Learning, And The Tech MBA

GMAT scores

As the standardized admissions test for business schools, the GMAT scores of an MBA class are a good benchmark for assessing a class's quality.

Looking at the GMAT...

e range you should be aiming for. It also gives an indication of the caliber of students you'll be surrounded by in the classroom.

The NYU Stern class of 2025 boasts an impressive average GMAT score of 732, which puts the average NYU Stern MBA in the top 4% of test-takers. The full range of scores in the class falls between 650 and 780. This means students are surrounded by academically sharp professionals. The work needed to achieve a GMAT score of over 700 also implies the MBA class of 2025 at NYU Stern is not just academically smart, but ambitious and hungry for a challenge.

GMAT is not everything however and admissions staff will want to see a full package of academic strength, personality, emotional intelligence, and long-term ambition.

Undergraduate majors/GPA

MBA admissions staff are tasked with recruiting an academically as well as professionally diverse cohort. After all, one of the major pull factors of an MBA is being surrounded by like-minded professionals with an array of backgrounds that broaden your perspective and push you to think differently.

There is also an emphasis on recruiting students from 'non-traditional' backgrounds, that is backgrounds that don't align symmetrically with the business world. Bringing in students from the humanities, for example, can contribute to better in-class discussion, as these students may have already learned to see things from multiple perspectives and have developed empathy during their degrees.

Engineering students too are a plus, bringing in the technical knowledge that can help solve complex business problems. Being able to work effectively with diverse teams is also a prerequisite for many post-MBA jobs.

The NYU Stern MBA class of 2025 is filled with such diversity. There are of course students with business and economics degrees, but they are equalled by the number of engineering, math, and science undergrads. Those from a social science background make up nearly one-fifth of the class, and students from the humanities and the arts account for 10%. The average GPA among the class is also a strong 3.61; the highest scores are an impressive 4.00.

This doesn't just mean that in class you have a varied, diverse base for strong group discussion, it also means if you're looking at studying an MBA at NYU Stern, your 'non-traditional' background shouldn't put you off.

Work experience

Graduating from an MBA you want to feel like you've been academically challenged, and given ample opportunity for practical experience, but also that you've spent the time in class building up an array of industry perspectives and developing the ability to think cross-functionally and approach complex business problems with a new way of thinking.

The NYU Stern MBA class of 2025 delivers on that front, with incoming students entering the class from a wide range of industries. Most students enter the class from financial services, with consulting following next in second place.

Then there is an eclectic mix, with 8% of students from the military and government, 6% apiece from entertainment and media, nonprofit, arts, and education, and healthcare and pharmaceuticals. Consumer products/retail and real estate are each represented by 5% of the class.

3% of the class hails from advertising and public relations; 2% each comes from manufacturing, law, and engineering. 1% of the class comes from the energy industry.

Despite a drop in applications, NYU Stern has enrolled a class similar in size and caliber to previous years. The classes of 2023 and 2024 set records for their GPA and GMAT attainment and these have held steady for the incoming class.

The program, with its diverse mix of undergrad majors, means that it's an option for students from both traditional and 'non-traditional' backgrounds. It's the program for you whether you're a consultant with a few years of experience, working in finance, or embedded in the arts or nonprofit sectors. Nearly half of the class are from minority backgrounds and nearly half are international.

Despite the strong in-class diversity, the career destinations for the MBA class of 2023 fell into the traditional MBA triumvirate of consulting, finance, and tech. 31.2% of students entered consulting, 34.4% entered finance, and 17% tech.

If you're looking to enter more niche sectors, like healthcare or entertainment, you may be better suited looking elsewhere—although a handful of students do enter these industries from the NYU Stern MBA: 3.6% went into healthcare, and 4% went into entertainment.