The number of people taking the Graduate Management Admissions Test has decreased by 33 percent since 2009, suggesting interest in MBA programs in particular may be faltering among American students, according to a Bloomberg report.
Approximately 87,000 U.S. citizens took the GMAT between July 2013 and June 2014, a third less than in 2009, when more than 130,000 took the exam, the report said.
Since 2009, the only year that saw an increase in test takers was 2012, when students rushed to take the exam before the Graduate Management Admission Council added a new "integrated reasoning" section, Rich D'Amato, a spokesman for the organization, told Bloomberg.
Mr. D'Amato also explained the decrease in GMAT applicants could be partially due to the improved economy. When the job market is unstable, more people show an interest in graduate school.
According to the report, applications increased at more than 60 percent of the 469 MBA programs surveyed by GMAC in 2014, a significant rise from 2012, when about 40 percent of schools indicated an increase of applications.
However, this growth likely has less to do with Americans' interest in MBAs than schools' enhanced efforts to attract international students. Despite the overall rise in applications, nearly two-thirds of the surveyed programs reported foreign applications rose in 2014, while less than half said domestic applications increased.