A method of providing rate adaptation in a multi-user wireless communication system including single-user beamforming (SU-BF) and multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) is described. In this method, a master rate, which is a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for the SU-BF, is determined. An MCS for each transmit mode is derived from the master rate using a rate mapping. Using the results from the mapping, the master rate, instead of the MCS for each transmit mode, is tracked. In one embodiment, a mapping calibration is periodically performed.