It is often argued that the top MBA business schools use their reputations and branding to attract the best candidates to their schools. The Stanford Graduate School of Business has a 6% acceptance rate, Harvard Business School has an 8% acceptance rate while Oxford’s Said Business School not only recruits 95% of candidates outside of the UK, the school has a one in four acceptance rate.

Getting accepted into INSEAD, IMD, IE Business School, ESADE or the London Business School are all outrageously difficult – the better the brand, the harder the school acceptance is. The question is, do the best candidates really benefit from MBA education or is the networking opportunities and school reputations the key to success post graduation? It can be strongly argued that the acceptance rate ensures only the top candidates are offered positions, as they are already high flying individuals with financial means. They are not turning base employees into leaders, they are attracting highly connected individuals to their programs that bolster the business school’s reputation and exclusivity.