Contact:
Geof Becker
412-268-3486

For immediate release:
October 19, 2006

Tepper School's New Class Has 696 GMAT Score; Highest Yet at Nation's No. 3 Business School

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, the nation's No. 3 business school according to the 2006 Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive poll of corporate recruiters, enrolled 137 new full-time MBA students this fall with an average Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) score of 696 out of a possible 800. The score reflects the fifth consecutive year of increasing test scores for the Tepper School's incoming class.

Overall, 28 percent of Tepper students are international, with students from 25 countries in this year's class compared to 21 last year. Women represent about one-fifth of Tepper's entering class and underrepresented minorities (African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans) continued at about 10 percent.

About 92 percent of incoming students held full-time jobs before entering the MBA program, and the average number of years on the job held steady at just more than four years. Included among the incoming students are a neurosurgery resident, a member of the Peace Corps who worked in Cameroon, a patent examiner and a member of the U.S. Coast Guard.

"Tepper's focus on the intersection of technology and business teaches future leaders of any background the analytical skills for solving complex problems in an interdisciplinary and collaborative environment. That experience develops the confidence to make an immediate and strategic impact on their organizations," said John Mather, executive director of the Tepper School's master's programs.

This year also saw a large increase in enrollment in Tepper's FlexTime program, offered to Pittsburgh-area students who want to earn their MBA while continuing to work. The FlexTime program has 68 new students this year compared to 55 last year — a 24 percent increase. In addition, 61 new students enrolled in Tepper's corporate-sponsored FlexMode program, in which professors teach students at companies throughout the country via live video conferencing. Students receive the same MBA curriculum from the same instructors in each of the three methods of delivering the program (full-time, FlexTime and FlexMode).

Tepper's innovative Master of Science in Computational Finance (MSCF) program — taught both at the Tepper School in Pittsburgh and in New York — welcomed 83 new students for 2006. The interdisciplinary MSCF degree is a 17-month program that draws its course content from four Carnegie Mellon colleges: the Mellon College of Science (math), the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (statistics), the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management (information technology), and the Tepper School (finance). Tepper also enrolled 20 new Ph.D. candidates, representing 10 countries. Of the new doctoral candidates, eight (40 percent) are women.

Enrollment in the Tepper School's Bachelor of Science in Business Administration program numbers 82, representing eight different countries, with an average SAT score of 1360. About 43 percent are women.

Tepper is one of 27 U.S. schools to maintain membership in the Forte Foundation, which aims to increase the number of women in business by encouraging their admission into graduate business programs. It is also one of 13 U.S. schools that belong to the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, a 40-year-old organization that promotes diversity and inclusion in American business.

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MBA Full-Time Class Profile	2006	2007	2008
Class Size	151	165	137
Women	20%	22%	21%
Minorities*	3%	9%	10%
International	27%	30%	28.5%
Countries represented	15	21	25
Average years of full-time professional experience	4.3	4.2	4.3
Percent with full-time professional experience	92.7%	91.5%	92%
Academic Background
Undergraduate GPA average	3.3	3.38	3.4
3.5 or higher	28%	42%	40%
3.0-3.49	50%	45%	49%
2.5-2.99	19%	12%	8%
2.49 or below	3%	1%	3%
GMAT Average	691	692	696
700 or higher	47%	53%	56%
600-699	52%	45%	43%
Less than 600	1%	2%	1%

* Includes African American, Native American and Hispanic only

About the Tepper School of Business: Founded in 1949, the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon (www.tepper.cmu.edu) is a pioneer in the field of management science and analytical decision-making. The school's notable contributions to the intellectual community include six Nobel laureates and a consistent presence in the top tier of business school rankings. The Wall Street Journal recently ranked the Tepper School as the third-best business school in the United States.