How are PE firms doing at MBA admissions now?

Saw an employee from Bain Capital say on Fishbowl that only 5 of 15 Associate applicants from Bain Capital got an interview at HBS this year. I thought they were supposed to have decent admissions, but that rate is very rough and probably bottom tier for most MF/UMM in any other year. Is it just them or are most MF/UMM PE funds struggling with admission acceptance rates? 

 
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Yeah, it's been tough for the last few years now. I think part trying to avoid overrepresentation in class make up, part # of PE professionals has just gone up as the industry has scaled, and part it's a tougher sell to admissions - you fairly definitively don't need an MBA in this industry anymore and vast majority of people coming in with PE are going to leave with PE. I think what they're looking for are people who will really get something more out of the program besides a resume boost and friends. But I don't know, I'm not on adcomms. I'm just a salty HBS reject :)

 

I've also found there's some sort of cyclicality to it. One year maybe 8/8 get HBS interviews, 5 get in, 2 go to GSB and 1 applies again next year or stays on indefinitely. The following year, either H/S wanted to lay low at KKR or WP or (my theory) the next class of associates saw the Associates the year above them seemingly effortlessly get into H/S and think it's a foregone conclusion. As a result, they are less dialed in and therefore convert at a lower rate. The following year, the next class of Associates is like oh shit, I better turn over every rock, cross all my t's and dot all my i's -- not surprisingly they do better. 

 

Also just a function of class sizes. My rough intuition is the same # of associates get into HBS/GSB from the usual suspects but PE associate class sizes are 3x bigger than they were 10-15 years ago so acceptance rates are way lower

You're ignoring mix. The mix who get in are from the right demographics according to the social planners. So the effective admissions rate of the wrong demographic is quite low

 

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