Some say that anti-immigrant policies — such as threats to reduce the number of international student visas distributed — are to blame for the apparent decline in interest in United States-based business schools. Across programs in the U.S., international applications fell by 10.5 percent, while domestic applications fell by just 1.8 percent.

"There's no doubt that immigration policy is having a negative impact on U.S. business schools," William Boulding, dean of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, tells Poets&Quants. "You've seen growth in business schools outside the U.S., but the U.S. is losing the pipeline of talent. If we are going to maintain our reputation for having the best business schools in the world, we have to be able to attract the best and brightest in the world."

Applications at Fuqua fell by 6.2 percent this year.

Others credit the dip in applications to a potential decline in the value-added ratio — the bump in salary associated with earning a degree compared with the cost of tuition — of an MBA. Even though alumni from the top business schools lead some of the biggest companies in the world and earn well over six figures on average, rising tuition costs and a strong labor market may make going to business school a less-rewarding investment today than in years prior.