Chicago Business Schools Need To Up Their Female Recruitment Tactics

Business schools in the Chicago area need to get aboard the East Coast ladies train. Earlier this month the enrollment numbers for business graduate programs at Harvard and Wharton showed that female enrollment is up at these prestigious East Coast schools. Harvard showed a gain of 39% while Wharton came in at 45% for female students in the last year.

Schools in Chicago however are not showing as impressive numbers. Female enrollment has been flat with the exception of DePaul University’s Kellstadt School, where women accounted for 40% of last year’s first-year students versus 35% the year before. Female enrollment at University of Illinois at Chicago’s Liautaud School dropped to 33% in 2010 from 37 % in 2009. Loyola University Chicago’s business school fell to 41% this summer from a high of 48% in the fall of 2008. Illinois Institute of Technology’s Stuart School saw the number of women drop to 38% last fall from 39% the previous year. Northwestern’s Kellogg School has held steady in the 32%t-to-33% range for the three years starting in 2008.

The explanation appears to be that the East Coast schools are working harder to recruit women admission events and conferences. John Byrne, editor of Poets & Quants and a former executive editor of BusinessWeek, said of the East Coast institutions “They worked very hard on it. It was a very conscious goal to get a higher percentage of women.”

Chicago schools should try to ramp up their female enrollment tactics as this is an opportune time. There is more general interest in going to business school for women now. Approximately 10% more women now take the GMAT then a decade ago, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council. DePaul University’s Kellstadt School is also seeing more women enrolling in its master’s of science program, particularly in accounting, marketing and real estate analysis