More women than ever are considering pursuing an MBA, which has led to some unexpected pipeline trends revealed by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) in this month’s Graduate Management News.

GMAC has reported that the number of GMAT tests taken by women surpassed 100,000 for the first time ever last year. Exams taken by women in the testing year ending June 30, 2009 represented 39.5% of all exams taken, a figure that has changed only one percentage point in 10 years.

However, Lamia Walker, GMAC regional director for Europe, Middle East and Asia,  points out some major shifts by region, age, and career intent. “When we break down gender distribution by regional citizenship, we find a wide range – from 56.1 percent of exams in Eastern Europe to just 24.6 percent in Central Asia,” she says.

(source: Graduate Management Admission Council)

Key findings from the 2010 mba.com Registrants Survey Report indicate that:

Schools need to recruit women sooner. The average woman first considers business school less than two years after finishing her undergraduate degree, almost nine months earlier than the average man. Women also sit for the GMAT exam sooner than men and submit their first business school application more rapidly than male counterparts.

Women typically submit fewer applications. Female applicants considering full-time MBA programs submitted an average of 2.4 applications, compared with 3.0 for men. Women in Central Asia and in Asia Pacific submitted the greatest number of applications on average, 3.7 and 3.3 respectively.

Don’t write off the female quants. Female prospective students are more likely than men to consider MA/MS in Accounting programs, and the average number of submitted applications reported by women to any graduate management education program type is highest among those applying to MA/MS Finance programs (3.2 applications on average in 2009).

The survey report found numerous differences between men and women when it comes to preferred study location, financing plans, information sources, business school preferences and employment outcome, as well as significant differences by gender in the skills that prospective students hope to improve in business school.

Armed with this information, MBA programs should be able to more effectively outreach to talented female applicants.

The number of European citizens taking the GMAT is on the rise, and these individuals are sending their scores to management education programs in Europe–not America–according to an analysis of GMAT testing trends released Wednesday by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC).

In fact, non-U.S. citizens accounted for more than half of all exams taken worldwide during testing year 2009–the first time this has happened since the GMAT’s creation more than 50 years ago.

“Earning a business school degree provides a critical edge in today’s complex and challenging economy, and more and more Europeans are recognizing that high-quality management education is available in their own back yard,” says Julia Tyler, executive vice president of member services and school marketing for GMAC.

Researchers attribute the surge in popularity to an increasing interest in such schools by Europeans themselves, who are sending a significantly smaller share of their GMAT scores to the United States and more score reports to programs in Europe.

So, to which programs are Europeans applying? The most popular MBA programs for testing year 2009 were at INSEAD, London Business School and IESE Business School.

This data reflects the fast-rising interest in MBA and other graduate management education programs around the world in recent years. More details about GMAT testing and score-sending trends among European citizens are in GMAC’s latest European Geographic Trend Report for GMAT Examinees, available online at www.gmac.com/geographictrends.

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Classroom demographics will undergo a noticeable shift as world economic and population trends, and GMAT volume data, seem to have permanently altered the student pipelines for B-school programs.

In the February issue of Deans Digest, Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) president and CEO David A. Wilson addressed the boom in demand for graduate business education, citing the record number of GMAT exams taken in the testing year ending June 30, 2009. For the first time in GMAT history, non-US citizens lead all test takers by 51%.

Wilson identified five macro forces which have influenced the channels of students interested in graduate management education:

• Economic growth and job creation. Growing economies create jobs and career advancement opportunities. GMAC research finds that some 70% of employers expect their business will improve in 2010, which also tracks with broader global indicators, Wilson said.

• Population changes. Africa expects a 50% increase in the student-age population (20-29) over the next two decades. The student population in Asia is expected to be stable until 2025. Europe, meanwhile, expects a nearly 25% decline in student-age population.

• Population shifts within regions. India will gain 28 million people in the student-age group over the next two decades, China will lose 76 million. Similarly, Germany expects to lose nearly 2 million, while France expects a gain of almost a quarter-million. In the US, a rise of some 4.8 million potential students is expected by 2030.

• Age range diversity. GMAT test-takers worldwide are largely in the 24-30 age bracket, but those examinees younger than 24 increased 132% between testing years 2005 and 2009.

• Student mobility. GMAT scores sent to non-US destinations jumped to 170,000 in 2009, up from about 90,000 in 2005. Score-sending patterns shifted away from US programs in nine of 10 global regions. US business schools  still received 78% of all GMAT scores sent in 2009, though, due to the fact that 98% of US citizens send score reports to US schools.

How will these changing demographics play out in the classroom? Wilson says business schools will need to assess how a potentially younger cohort with less work experience might affect class discussions, team projects, and school dynamics.

For more on this issue, check out GMAC’s new World Geographic Trend Report 2005 to 2009, which takes a look at schools outside the United States that have become increasingly attractive to business students.

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If you are feeling stumped by your application essays and need some additional guidance, check out our NEW series of essay guides for MBA applications. Columbia, Harvard, Kellogg, Stanford and Wharton available now. They are seriously terrific and we are proud to say that almost every person who has ordered one has come back for more!

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The Round 2 deadline for Chicago Booth School of Business is just days away (January 6th), so if you have some last-minute questions that need answering, you may find what you’re looking for in this transcript from a recent chat with full-time admissions.

Rose Martinelli, associate dean for student recruitment and admissions, updated her Rose Report Blog yesterday with some Round 2 reminders…check those out here.

And now, for a sampling of the Q&As of interest to anyone applying in an upcoming round…

I have taken the GMAT test late, therefore it is very difficult for me to apply in Round 2. Do the chances of an admit drop in R3?

If you have taken the GMAT by the Round 2 deadline, you can still apply in Round 2. That said, you are welcome to apply in Round 3 as well. We do admit fewer applicants in Round 3, as we have fewer spots available. We suggest that you apply when your application is at its best.

Please highlight the difference between the two rounds, R1 and R2.

There are very few differences between Rounds 1 and 2. Round 1 starts the entire process, and the slate is clean when we begin. Round 2 is typically our largest round, and as a result, we make the most offers of admission.

I don’t see any limit about the number of words for the optional essay. In your opinion, how long should the optional essay be?

There is no limit; however, we encourage you to keep the optional essay brief, and to be judicious about how to use this portion of the application. It should be utilized to explain any anomalies in the application, or to talk about some aspect of your candidacy that can’t be discussed elsewhere.

I have heard that a few MBA programs avoid people with more experience due to difficulty in placing them. I have nine years of experience in IT , a GMAT score of 760, and am currently a project manager. How would you look at my CV?

To be candid, we do not focus a lot of attention on years of experience, rather an applicants ability to convey their sense of urgency for enrolling in an MBA program at this stage of their career. Why is now the essential time for you to get an MBA? For some they come to that realization early in their career for others it takes longer, but we need to understand why this makes sense for you at this stage of your career and why it makes sense at Booth.

Could you please elaborate on the slide presentation? Should it take form in a picture format? Essay? What is rewarded for this task? Creativity? Innovative thinking? What exactly is a slide presentation? Can it simply communicate our interests and goals?

The slide presentation is an opportunity for you to share additional information with us in a format that bests suits you. There are no strict guidelines for this, as we would like to give you the freedom to express yourself. The only restrictions to the slide presentation are including sound or motion graphics, as we print out the presentation (in color). Our best advice for the presentation is to use it strategically within your application. Make sure that the information you choose to share is not included elsewhere in the application, and that it answers the question posed.

How long does it generally take for interviews to get scheduled after the second round application deadline?

Invitations for interviews will begin after 1/20/09. If you choose to conduct an alumni interview it can take a few days for you to connect to one of our alums.

Are Early Career Applicants at a disadvantage to regular applicants? Do you have any recommendations to someone who is planning on applying to Booth early in their career?

Early career candidates are not at a disadvantage. We are looking for the best applicants. Many of our early career candidates do a great job explaining their career path, work experience (if any), level of maturity and reasons for getting an MBA from Chicago Booth.

For more from this live chat with admissions, see the complete transcript here.

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If you are feeling stumped by your application essays and need some additional guidance, check out our NEW series of essay guides for MBA applications. Columbia, Harvard, Kellogg, Stanford and Wharton available now. They are seriously terrific and we are proud to say that almost every person who has ordered one has come back for more!

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