To help your decision-making, Bloomberg Businessweek’s Diversity Index sheds light on the most diverse MBA programs in the US in 2023.
Best US business schools for diversity
The East Coast dominates the top 10 most diverse MBA programs, with many of the top-ranked schools based in New York and Washington DC.
Historically black research institution Howard University takes the top spot, with a diversity score of 97.6 out of 100. Placing 40th in the overall MBA rankings, the DC-based school boasts a 100% black and 60% female or nonbinary class.
Florida International University’s Chapman Graduate School of Business is next, with a diversity score of 94.8. The class is comprised of 55% Hispanic students, 18% black students, and 9% Asian students, with a majority of students being women.
George Washington University’s MBA class places third, displaying a similar gender split with 61% of students identifying as women or nonbinary.
The East Coast is less well-represented in the rest of the top 20, with Southern states and California-based schools making themselves known.
How does Bloomberg calculate diversity in MBA programs?
To generate a diversity score for each school, Bloomberg looks at the percentage of students who belong to a racial or ethnic category that is underrepresented among GMAT takers. An example is Hispanic students, who make up 18% of the US population but just 8% of test-takers.
This percentage makes up 50% of the program’s diversity score. The other 50% comes from the percentage of students in a program who are women or nonbinary students.
In addition to these figures, Bloomberg also surveys students about whether the school provides an inclusive atmosphere, however, these responses are not used in the final score.
How does the Diversity Index compare to Bloomberg’s overall MBA ranking?
Only seven of the top 20 US schools in Bloomberg’s overall rankings appear in the top 20 most diverse MBA programs. Stanford Graduate School of Business, which ranks first in the overall rankings, takes the 20th spot on Bloomberg’s list of diverse MBA programs, with a diversity score of 71.2.
The other top ten schools that appear in the Diversity Index are MIT Sloan (8th for diversity; 10th overall), Wharton (10th for diversity; 8th overall), Berkeley Haas (16th for diversity; 10th overall), and Harvard (18th for diversity; 6th overall).
Part of the reason for the limited overlap between the top-ranked schools and the Diversity Index is that diversity is given the least weight of the five ranking indexes when calculating schools’ overall rank.
Compensation comes first, with 38% of the weighting, followed by learning at 26%, networking at 18%, entrepreneurship at 11%, and finally diversity at 7%.
To find out more about top business schools, head to our MBA Rankings hub.
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