THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Thursday, December 3, 2020 |B3
being the most competitive
year ever for M.B.A. appli-
cants,” said Jeremy Shinewald,
founder of admissions consult-
ing firm mbaMission. “I
wouldn’t be the least bit sur-
prised if schools crush their re-
cords for application volume.”
Mr. Shinewald said free
consultations at his firm, a
metric he uses to gauge stu-
dent interest, were up about
30% from July to September.
Space is already limited in
many programs, after some ad-
mitted students put off enroll-
ing earlier in the pandemic.
The deferral rate—the percent-
age of applicants who defer en-
rollment divided by the num-
ber of accepted applicants—for
all students climbed from 2% in
2019 to 6% in 2020, according
to a recent report from the
nonprofit Graduate Manage-
ment Admission Council.
Some schools and admis-
sions coaches are advisingunder 250 new students this
past fall and doesn’t expect to
increase its class size. Applica-
tions to its full-time M.B.A.,
which can cost nearly $200,000
with two years of living costs
and other fees factored in, are
up about 29% for the first
round of 2021, she said.
“It can be nerve-racking for
applicants,” Ms. Heinrich said.
“They are now thinking, ‘Oh
goodness, not only do you
have deferrals who have se-
cured spots in your class for
next year but your applica-
tions are now up significantly,
and so what does that mean
for me?”
The percentage of applicants
that programs are inviting for
interviews fell about 8% at the
top 16 schools, and the rejec-
tion rate rose about 7% com-
pared with a year ago, accord-
ing to data from early August
to mid-November from M.B.A.
advisory company Clear Admit.BUSINESS NEWS
BUSINESS WATCH
LYFT
Covid-19 Resurgence
Weighs on RevenueLyftInc.’s rides fell 50% in
November from a year ago, amid
a resurgence nationwide of
Covid-19 cases, the San Fran-
cisco-based ride-hailing company
said.
The decline is better than the
70% drop seen in May but up
from the 47.4% drop in October.
Lyft said it now expects its
fourth-quarter revenue will likely
come in at the lower end of the
range it had forecast last month.
On Nov. 10, Lyft said it expected
fourth-quarter revenue to rise
11% to 15% sequentially.
Despite the more pessimistic
revenue forecast, Lyft said its
adjusted loss in the quarter will
be shallower than it previously
expected. Lyft now expects an
adjusted loss of less than $185
million, compared with its previ-
ous forecast of $190 million to
$200 million.
Analysts saidthe improved
bottom-line forecast suggested
the company’s cost cuts were
working. Shares of Lyft rose
9.6% Wednesday to $43.40.
—Matt GrossmanROYAL CARIBBEAN
Cruise Sailings
Scrapped Into 2021Royal Caribbean Groupsaid
it is extending its hiatus to the
end of February from December
for most global sailings, and itstretched its suspension for
Australia sailings through April
30.
The company joins major
cruise operators in scrapping
sailings into 2021 in the U.S. and
elsewhere, leaving them with a
revenue drought as they work to
fulfill a long list of requirements
from health authorities, compli-
cating the path to a meaningful
cruising restart.
Norwegian Cruise Line Hold-
ingsLtd. also Wednesday
pushed sailings as far back as
the end of March.CarnivalCorp.,
the largest cruise operator in the
world, has scrapped some U.S.
sailings as far back as November
2021 and canceled some sailings
in Europe amid rising coronavi-
rus cases and differing restric-
tions across ports.
With the extended suspen-
sions, some ships will have been
idle for longer than a year since
Carnival’s Diamond Princess ship
in Japan was hit by a coronavi-
rus outbreak this year, resulting
in more than 700 cases, accord-
ing to data compiled by Johns
Hopkins University.
—Dave SebastianKIND INC.
Deal Is Reached
With Fig-Bar MakerKindInc. said it is buyingNa-
ture’s Bakeryfor an undisclosed
amount, adding to its portfolio
of snack bars. Candy maker
MarsInc. last month said it
would acquire Kind’s business in
North America.Founded in 2011, Nature’s
Bakery makes fig bars and soft-
baked foods, while Kind began
selling nutrition bars in 2004
and offers snacks such as a nut
bar with milk chocolate and pea-
nut butter and a fruit bar with
mango and apple.
Nature’s Bakery Chief Execu-
tive Chris Lansing will retain his
position, reporting to Kind Global
President Juan Martin.
—Dave Sebastian
ALPHABET
Google Adds Backup
To Its Cloud UnitGoogle agreed to purchase a
software company that helps cli-
ents back up and recover data
after disasters.
The technology giant owned
byAlphabetInc. didn’t disclose
the price it will pay to buyActi-
fioInc. in a blog post by Brad
Calder, a Google vice president
of engineering.
Actifio’s offerings automati-
cally back up and protect various
databases used by companies
and allow customers to carry
out disaster-recovery operations
in cloud-software environments,
among other services, according
to Google.
The company had raised
about $461 million and was last
valued at $1.3 billion, according
to PitchBook. As of early Octo-
ber, it had almost 390 employ-
ees. Google has been pushing to
beef up its cloud-computing unit,
where it competes with Ama-
zon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
—Micah MaidenbergDiscoveryInc. said it would
launch a new streaming ser-
vice that will include shows
from all of its major cable net-
works, a move that follows the
media company’s earlier strat-
egy of offering smaller, the-
matic plans catering to groups
from foodies to home-im-
provement enthusiasts.
The new streaming service,
Discovery+, which will launch in
the U.S. on Jan. 4, will cost
$4.99 a month with ads and
$6.99 without, the company
said. It will feature content from
channels including TLC, Food
Network, Discovery Channel and
Animal Planet.
The service will include li-
brary programming licensed
from other companies, including
the BBC, A&E Networks and
Group Nine Media.
Discovery has struck an
agreement withVerizon Com-
municationsInc. to provide the
streaming service free to the
wireless company’s U.S. custom-
ers for a year, with Verizon and
Discovery sharing the cost of
those subscriptions, according
to people familiar with the deal.
Chief Executive David
Zaslav is betting that Discov-
ery, one of the biggest tradi-
tional TV companies, can com-
pete for subscribers with the
likes of Comcast Corp.’s Pea-
cock and Amazon.com Inc.’s
Prime Video by offering most
of its cable-TV shows directly
to streaming subscribers.
Discovery’s streaming strat-
egy used to be radically differ-
ent from its rivals. In an inter-
view last year, Mr. Zaslav said
he wanted to package Discov-
ery’s offerings into niche
plans.
He said Discovery made the
decision to offer a comprehen-
sive service after it surveyed
consumers and found they
wanted a one-stop nonfiction
streaming destination.BYBENJAMINMULLINDiscovery
To S t r e a m
Its Cable
Shows
Carnival joins major cruise operators in scrapping sailings into 2021 in the U.S. and elsewhere.LUCY NICHOLSON/REUTERS
At the top seven schools, the
interview request rate has
fallen by about 11% in the past
year and rejections have
jumped 10% from a year ago.
Applications rose at several
schools that made the main B-
school admissions tests op-
tional this year, concerned
that applicants would face
challenges taking exams on-
line. Some, like the University
of North Carolina’s Kenan-Fla-
gler Business School and the
University of Virginia’s Darden
School of Business, plan to ex-
tend that practice for 2021 ap-
plicants as the pandemic
grinds on. The University of
Michigan’s Ross School of
Business said in November—in
the middle of its application
cycle—that it would offer test
waivers for 2021 and that any-
one who applied in its first
round would be either admit-
ted or waitlisted.
M.B.A. programs could get
another boost in applications
in coming months from inter-
national students who had
held off applying because of
limits the Trump administra-
tion put on student visas.
Some schools say they expect
the incoming Biden adminis-
tration to ease those rules,
lifting demand from abroad.
Some programs are expand-
ing their 2021 class sizes. Har-
vard Business School, which of-
fered deferrals to any student
who wanted one this past year,
aims to enroll about 1,000 stu-
dents for the next two years,
said Chad Losee, the school’s
managing director of M.B.A.
admissions. HBS enrolled a
class of about 730 students
this past fall after offering de-
ferrals, roughly 200 fewer than
its typical 930 or so.
Smaller programs often lack
resources to accommodate
more M.B.A.s, especially after
some reduced class sizes fol-
lowing several years of fewer
applications. Penn State’s
Smeal College of Business
plans to continue capping its
M.B.A. class at 60 due to
space limits, despite seeing
double-digit deferrals—about
triple what it usually gets—in
2020s.Getting into an M.B.A. pro-
gram might be tough in 2021,
following an admissions cycle
that U.S. business schools and
consultants say is shaping up
to be the most competitive in
recent memory.
B-school applications for
fall 2020 surged at the start of
the pandemic as students
sought ways to ride out a ten-
uous job market. Now, full-
time residential M.B.A. pro-
grams continue to report
higher application volumes for
next fall and expect to have
fewer spots to offer than in
years past, since schools have
allowed many international
students to defer enrollment
due to virus-related travel re-
strictions.
Prospective students say
they’re already feeling the
crunch.
Jimmy Lin applied several
months ago to six of the top-
ranked full-time M.B.A. pro-
grams for fall 2021. Five re-
jected him. If Northwestern
University’s Kellogg School of
Management doesn’t accept
him in the coming weeks, he
says he’ll most likely apply
again in 2022.
A cybersecurity data scien-
tist in the San Francisco Bay
Area, Mr. Lin said an M.B.A.
will help him break into man-
agement. He knew this year’s
admissions cycle would be
tough, he said, and banked his
hopes on his several years of
work experience, his masters
in business analytics and a
GMAT exam score of 750 out
of 800.
“I feel the importance of the
whole [application] package
has increased,” he said. “The
bar is higher for applications.”
Applications to American
M.B.A. programs rose for the
first time in five years in 2020,
partly owing to schools’ loos-
ening testing requirements and
would-be students looking to
ride out the economic down-
turn—circumstances expected
to continue through the 2021
admissions cycle that began in
late summer.
“Everything points to thisBYPATRICKTHOMASBusiness Schools Get More Selective
Tips for Applying
To M.B.A. ProgramsHere’s what admissions
counselors and program admin-
istrators say those considering
an M.B.A. program next fall
should know about the process:SHOWCASE EXPERIENCE
Many programs are offering
GMAT waivers in some cases,
in a nod to the challenges of
pandemic exam-taking. Partly
as a result, admissions officers
say they’re putting more em-
phasis on work experience, es-
says and interviews to gain in-
sight into applicants.
UNC’s Kenan-Flagler school
added an essay question this
year prompting students to
share what they’ve learned
about diversity, equity and in-
clusion after the surge in so-
cial-justice activism this year.
“We still receive many test
scores but we are looking at
the whole thing, the holistic
view of an applicant,” said Sarah
Perez, managing director of
M.B.A. programs at the school.BE AUTHENTIC
B-schools are seeing grow-
ing numbers of applicants with
similar work experience in ju-
nior roles at common M.B.A.
feeder firms such as McKinsey
& Co., Goldman Sachs Group
Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., ad-
missions coaches say. As a re-
sult, many programs are look-
ing more closely for soft skills
and other personal traits, such
as applicants’ motivation to
pursue a business degree.
“I try to encourage people
to just worry about putting
their authentic self into the ap-
plication and really articulate
what they are trying to get out
of the business-school process,”
said Chad Losee, Harvard Busi-
ness School’s managing director
of M.B.A. admissions.
Decisions could come down
more to personal stories than
test scores—for example, how
a candidate overcame a layoff
or got creative with their job
during the pandemic, said Gra-
ham Richmond, co-founder of
M.B.A. advisory firm Clear Ad-
mit. He encourages applicants
to cast a wide net to boost the
odds of having good options incase candidates get shut out of
top-tier programs.APPLY ASAP
The M.B.A. admissions cycle
is typically divided into three
rounds, with deadlines through-
out the fall, winter and spring.
In a normal year, schools make
most offers during the first and
second rounds, with fewer ap-
plicants generally accepted in
later rounds. As the pandemic
hit earlier this year, many
schools extended their third
and fourth-round deadlines for
fall 2020 applicants, aiming to
give themselves larger pools in
case fewer overseas students
chose to defer. But that won’t
be the case again.
Some schools and admis-
sions coaches are now encour-
aging students to get applica-
tions in as early as possible.
Because of higher early-round
application volumes, schools
could fill most of their seats af-
ter the second round. Most
second-round M.B.A. deadlines
are in early January, but pro-
spective students should check
individual schools’ deadlines.
—Patrick Thomasprospective students to get
their applications in early.
Shelly Heinrich, the associ-
ate dean of M.B.A. admissions
at Georgetown University’s Mc-
Donough School of Business,
said the school usually ac-cepted more applications from
its third and fourth rounds in
years when applications were
down. This year, Georgetown
could fill most seats after its
second round ends in January,
she said, because of the higher
early-round volume and its
more than 50 deferrals from- McDonough enrolled just
Applications to U.S.
M.B.A. programs
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