As the MBA class of 2017 heads back to campus at many top schools, there will be record breaking numbers of women in the ranks of several programs.

Business schools have traditionally struggled to attract women.

But with an eye toward increasing the diversity of their students, many have honed their focus on initiatives geared to attract female applicants.

How Women Make Up 40% of the 2017 MBA Class at These Top B-Schools

The University of California’s Berkeley Haas School, for example, announced last week that women make up 43 percent of the incoming class, up from 29 percent just two years ago.

The school attributes its success to the efforts of a group of male and female students from the class of 2015, who took the lead to work to change admissions, the student culture and academic culture to better serve and support women.

MIT Sloan School of Management also noted recently that its class of 2017 will have a greater percentage of women than ever before, with 41 percent of the class being female compared to the two previous classes, which were made up of 39 percent and 34 percent women.

The school recently boosted the number of recruiting events for women and added alumni and networking events tailored toward women.

It also added two campus visiting days geared toward female applicants.

The Kellogg School of Management will see more women in the class of 2017, with 43 percent of incoming MBA students being female, compared to 38 percent last year.

Women Are 40% of the Class at the Top Three B-Schools

The increases in this year’s incoming class bring the percentage of female students at these schools to the level of the top three schools:

– Stanford Graduate School of Business, 42 percent female (class of 2016, latest data available)

– Harvard Business School, 41 percent female in class of 2017

– The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 43 percent female in class of 2017

It’s important to carefully study the class profiles of schools as you design your list of target schools, so that you can identify the schools where you may fit the best.

The top schools have begun to release their class profiles for students entering in 2015, so look for more posts from us noting changes in the types of students schools are admitting.

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