Business schools teach portfolio theory to more than 100,000 students a year.

Judged as of 2008-04-03. True: credible data shows that more than 100,000 students a year at business schools (MBA, finance and related programmes) were taught modern/mean-variance portfolio theory around 2008. A rough figure is fine: any credible estimate clearly above 100,000 counts. Mostly true: credible estimates put the number near 100,000 (roughly 80,000–100,000), or above 100,000 only when closely related finance courses are counted. Mixed: estimates vary widely around the threshold and none is clearly more credible. Mostly false: portfolio theory is widely taught, but credible counts are far below 100,000 (e.g. under 60,000). False: evidence shows business schools did not commonly teach portfolio theory, or that the numbers are an order of magnitude lower. The pejorative word 'brainwashing' is opinion and is not tested.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 How Many Students Are Studying For An MBA? Poets&Quants · 29 April 2022

   “finds that 250,389 students were studying for an MBA worldwide during the 2020-2021 academic year.”

2. E2 An upturn in the downturn for MBA graduates worldwide Times Higher Education · 12 May 2011

   “More than 260,000 people take the test each year, which Dr Wilson estimated was very close to the annual number of those graduating from all the world's business schools.”

3. E3 Application Trends Survey 2008 Survey Report Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) · 2008

   “The GMAT exam is an important part of the admissions process for more than 4,000 graduate management programs around the world.”

4. E4 MBA Course Descriptions The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (Finance Department) · 13 August 2026

   “The primary objective is to provide the framework, concepts, and tools for analyzing financial decisions based on fundamental principles of modern financial theory.”

5. E5 MBA Course Descriptions The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (Finance Department) · 13 August 2026

   “This course will cover methods and topics that form the foundations of modern asset pricing. These include: investment decisions under uncertainty, mean-variance theory, capital market equilibrium, arbitrage pricing theory, state prices, dynamic programming, and risk-neutral valuation as applied to option prices and fixed-income securities.”

E2 (2011) cites an estimate that about 260,000 people graduate from the world's business schools each year. E1 counts about 250,000 MBA students worldwide in 2020-21, and E3 says more than 4,000 graduate management programmes used the GMAT in 2008, but neither gives a 2008 enrolment figure. The only evidence on what is taught comes from Wharton's 2026 course pages (E4, E5): one course based on 'modern financial theory' and one covering mean-variance theory. None of the evidence says how many students across business schools were actually taught portfolio theory around 2008, so it does not establish whether that number was above 100,000.