For the last six years, but especially since 2019, business schools from the upper tier of the rankings to the unranked have galloped to establish STEM tracks, concentrations, pathways, and more in their MBA and other graduate degree programs. The University of Wisconsin Business School was the first school to “go STEM” — to designate part of its MBA a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math degree, with implications not only for visa eligibility but for long-term employability, too — and dozens of B-schools have followed (for a complete list, see the next pages). In a recent business school admissions officers survey, global educational services company Kaplan and its sister company Manhattan Prep found an increasing percentage of full-time MBA programs across the U.S. securing STEM designation — but they also found that universal adoption appears to be a long way off.
Leaving aside Galloway’s arguable declaration about affirmative action’s popularity, the man whom Poets&Quants once named one of the world’s 50 best B-school professors definitely hit on a popular idea for a new way to ensure the diversity of college classes. According to a recent Intelligent.com poll, 1 in 3 Americans supports income-based admissions to higher education institutions, as more than half — 57% — agree that poor students have a more challenging time achieving high test scores.
U.S. STEM MBA Programs: An Overview Restrictions on work visas during the 2019-2020 academic year–when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its height–depressed numbers