Students are preselected according to their academic and personal achievements and are offered a chance to compete for one of the roughly 240 seats per year at the final selection day.

During that day, candidates deliver presentations, are interviewed by representatives of the private business sector and undergo an analytical IQ Test.

In addition, WHU holds accreditations from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and from the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS).

[19] WHU has maintained the first position in Germany in every Master in Management ranking published by The Economist and QS till date.

[30] The name was modified in 1993 to honour WHU's benefactor, the businessman Otto Beisheim, after he donated 50 Million Deutsche Mark.

[30] The business school has been accused of fostering an overly competitive environment, even at the cost of the mental health of its students.

Additionally, they were accused of overly focusing on rankings and grades but insufficiently developing the ability for critical discourse and not succeeding at creating a student body with an appropriate diversity of backgrounds.

[32][33] Additional criticisms, including by former students, often focus on excessive memorisation and a failure to foster a culture of out-of-the-box thinking.