get into, with the acceptance rate dropping from 32.4% to 27.3%. Entrance statistics for the Class of 2018 include an average score of 700 on the GMAT and a median of five years of work experience. The student body is international and diverse, with 38% of students holding citizenship outside the United States. Women comprise 31% of the Class of 2018. The core curriculum consists of one semester, divided into two halves. The first half focuses primarily on the internal aspects of the company and includes the courses Managing and Leading in Organizations 1, Microeconomics for Management, Financial Accounting, and Marketing Management. The first half then culminates in the Marketing Case Competition, sponsored by S.C. Johnson & Son. The second semester focuses on the external aspects and includes the courses Statistics for Management, Managerial Finance, and Strategy. This half culminates each year in the Integrative Case Competition, sponsored by Citi. The elective curriculum can be chosen from over 80 courses within Johnson and over 4,000 offered across the Cornell campus. Within Johnson, the diverse selection includes courses such as Applied Portfolio Management, Behavioral Finance, Estate Planning, Power and Politics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Strategy & Tactics of Pricing, Entrepreneurship & Private Equity, Six-Sigma Quality & Process Implementation, and International Mergers and Acquisitions. Johnson students are allowed to matriculate in graduate-level courses in any Cornell college, including Cornell Law School, Cornell School of Hotel Administration, NYS School of Industrial & Labor Relations, and Cornell College of Engineering. Elective curriculum students can also complete a field study or independent student research project instead of a class. Field studies allow students to work together in a team closely with faculty members to launch a product, develop new businesses, or research a real-world issue. Independent student research projects provide an opportunity for a student to work with a faculty member to develop deep insights on a particular topic of interest. These options allow students to create a second-year curriculum that is aligned with their personal and professional interests. MBA students at Johnson are graded on a curve, with fixed grade point averages set at 3.3 for core courses and 3.5 for electives. In most courses, the grade consists of roughly 10% class participation, 10 percent individual case assignments, 40 percent exams, and 40 percent team presentations or papers. To graduate, students must have grade point averages of at least 2.7 overall and 2.5 in core