You may have already seen the Real Humans of Vanderbilt Owen's MBA Class of 2021, and now we are back to hear directly from the admissions office. In this edition of our Admissions Director Q&A, we head back to Nashville for an interview with Associate Dean Sue Oldham.
Working closely with colleagues in the dean’s office, faculty, staff and student leaders, Oldham strives to enhance the end-to-end student experience from the moment a prospective MBA student becomes interested in Owen until they graduate. This includes oversight of Admissions, Academic Programs and Student Life, Shared Services, Extracurricular Learning, and the Career Management Center (CMC).
Oldham joined Vanderbilt Business from Rice University, where she was most recently the Executive Director of Alumni Engagement, External Relations. Previously she was Executive Director of Recruiting and Admissions for all five MBA programs at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. She had joined the Jones School in 2008. Prior to her job at Rice, Oldham had a 10-year career in information technology consulting spanning several companies and cities from Los Angeles to Charlotte to Dallas. Oldham earned a BA in English at Rice University and an MBA ’93 in Marketing from Vanderbilt Owen.
Oldham’s community involvement is extensive, as she continues to be very involved with leadership positions at her church, children’s schools, and neighborhood. Sue currently serves on the board of directors for Avondale House and Friends of Fondren Library and is an active leader in the National Charity League. Sue and her husband Ted have two children.
Oldham took time to chat with Clear Admit about Vanderbilt’s STEM-designated finance concentration, reflections 4,000 essays deep into her career, and the emphasis Vanderbilt places on PERSONAL SCALE.
Clear Admit: What’s the single most exciting development, change, or event happening at Owen in the coming year?
Sue Oldham, Associate Dean at Vanderbilt Owen
Sue Oldham: The Vanderbilt MBA program is excited to announce that, effective Fall 2019, its finance concentration has been designated as a STEM degree program. The STEM designation allows international students the eligibility to prolong their post-completion Optional Practical Training (OPT) in the US by 24 months.
This STEM designation is a direct result of the leadership team here listening to what our students are saying, specifically our international students. Under the leadership of Dean Eric Johnson, we were able to work with our faculty to ensure that this STEM designation in the Finance concentration is one that would have an immediate impact, not only for our current students but for all prospective students.
This exciting development is at the crux of what Vanderbilt Business is about: PERSONAL SCALE. We heard our students. We hear the prospective students. We recognize the changing landscape of the MBA market especially for our international students and we are proud to say that we responded to you.
CA: What is the one aspect of your program that you wish applicants knew more about?
SO: Two humbling moments immediately come to mind:
We had a record year in terms of our employment offers and salary for the Class of 2019. For the class of 2019, 97% had job offers (95% acceptance) with an average salary of $119K which are all-time record highs for Vanderbilt Business. We are grateful for all of those companies who find their top talent here at Vanderbilt Business and are reaffirmed by their confidence in our program and our students.
We received a #1 Ranking by AIGAC (Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants) for The Human Connection: The “school that got to know their applicants the best.” Such a humbling accolade that resonated the most with our teams where this business of “recruiting and admissions” is still a personal one that ties back to our school mission of “PERSONAL SCALE” and is reflected in our record-high employment numbers because the relationship building continues when you step foot on this campus and actually grows in your two years here.
CA: Walk us through the life of an application in your office from an operational standpoint. What happens between the time an applicant clicks “submit” and the time the committee offers a final decision (e.g. how many “reads” does it get, how long is each “read,” who reads it, does the committee convene to discuss it as a group, etc.)?
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