GMAC 2025 Survey Reveals Women Surpass Men as MBA Applicants

By: WE staff | Monday, 27 October 2025

• The GMAC 2025 Application Trends Survey indicates that women currently surpass men in full-time MBA applications
• Women's interest in online and flexible MBA programs keeps increasing
• More than 40% of applicants in business master's programmes are women

According to the most recent Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) Application Trends Survey regarding MBA programs for 2025, women are showing improvement in a variety of formats.

Perhaps most notably, in a remarkable reversal of global trends in graduate management education, women comprised a larger share than men, in a candidate pool of full-time MBA programs, for the first time ever.

Based on the GMAC survey results, applications from women to full-time, two-year MBA programs grew by 6 percent in 2025, whereas the increase was just 1 percent for men.

Women’s increases were even greater for traditional full-time MBA and online MBAs, suggesting what might be a shift in preferences related to admissions to graduate management education schools.

Specifically, of full-time, two-year MBA schools, 63 percent saw an increase in applications from women. The increase for women’s applications also saw a 7 percent increase in online MBA schools.

Similarly, among flexible MBA schools, more than half also reported the same increase in women applicants.

While the total number of applications raised, applications for executive MBA, flexible MBA, and part-time MBA courses fell in both genders. The decline, however, was smaller among women, indicating ongoing demand for flexible learning options.

Women are consistently slightly more than 40 percent of applicants in business master's programs across the world, a number that has been consistent for over a decade, and was increased by a single percentage point in 2025.

Women's applications increased most in Master of Accounting programs, where 53 percent of the schools posting increase.

Women represented roughly half of applicants in Master of Accounting and Master in Management programs, and almost two-thirds of applicants in Master of Marketing programs.