MBA News
A collection of news items from MBA programs and about the business school admissions process.
Published: September 21, 2015
MBA Application Volume Up Around the Globe, According to Latest GMAC Survey
At the annual Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) conference in Denver this past June, the admissions directors we talked to from leading business schools were almost giddy. It was still early in the cycle, but application volume had been high—and applicants had been strong—making preliminary profiles for the Class of 2017 look very exciting.
As students have come to campus and schools have shared their actual Class of 2017 profiles, the cause of that excitement has become clear. The average GMAT score for this year’s first-year students at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management jumped from 716 last year to an all-time high of 724. At Wharton, the mean score for the incoming class this year is 732, up from last year’s record-setting 728. At Harvard Business School (HBS) the median GMAT score rose from 724 last year to 730 this year. (HBS does not publish mean GMAT scores.)
Today, GMAC, which owns and administers the GMAT, released figures from its 2015 Application Trends Survey , revealing that the giddiness at last June’s conference was warranted—MBA application volume was indeed up around the globe, with a majority of full-time MBA programs reporting an uptick in applicants. GMAC consulted 641 graduate business programs at 306 universities worldwide to arrive at its findings.
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Published: September 20, 2015
New Podcast Series Distills HBS’s Signature Case Method
We spoke with Harvard Business School (HBS) Director Dee Leopold back in June, when she shared that an updated version of the Inside the HBS Case Method video—which every prospective applicant to the school is strongly encouraged to watch—is in the works this year. As far as we know, it hasn’t yet debuted, but in the meantime, HBS has announced the launch of a new podcast series that helps demystify the legendary pedagogy for which the school is known.
Called Cold Call, the podcast series breaks down HBS’s signature case method into twice monthly snippets that help listeners feel as if they are right there in the middle of the HBS classroom. Hosted by Chief Marketing and Communications Office Brian Kenny, each podcast is led by an HBS professor who gives listeners back-stage passes, if you will, to a case he or she has written. The podcast explores what inspired the case and why it matters in the world of management practice. Added bonuses include interesting anecdotes the professor chooses to share that emerged as part of researching and then teaching the class to students.
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Published: September 18, 2015
Yale SOM Expands Integrated Core to Include Course on Global Teamwork
How to effectively work on teams has long been an integral part of what many leading business schools teach their students. This year, Yale School of Management (SOM) is upping the ante by launching a new core curriculum course that will focus not only on teamwork but on global teamwork. Called Global Virtual Teams, the new course will feature research on what makes global teams succeed or fail. A requirement for all MBA students in the Class of 2017 and beyond, the new core course is designed to help every Yale SOM graduate develop skills to prepare them to work on projects with teams around the world.
Set to debut in January 2016, Global Virtual Teams was developed in part in response to challenges students shared upon returning from summer internships that involved working on global teams.
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Published: September 17, 2015
Fridays from the Frontline: Kellogg Second-Year Shares Advice on Making the Most of the First Year
Welcome back to Fridays from the Frontline, a weekly column where we'll feature guest MBA student and applicant bloggers, as well as original pieces that incorporate multiple perspectives from applicants, students and recent alumni on all things MBA. As always, we welcome your contributions! Please email Jeanette or Marianne if you would like to add your voice to the mix. Many thanks to this week's guest blogger, Rohan Rajiv from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management.
This post has been republished in its entirety from "Inside Perspective," a blog featuring contributions from the school's full-time MBA students. Kellogg Second-year student Rohan Rajiv blogs there once a week about important lessons he is learning at Kellogg. You can read more of his posts here.
A few months ago, I wrote a letter to an incoming MBA student in an attempt to help incoming students prepare for their two years at school. I tried staying away from specific advice in that post, as the assumption was that the framework ought to work for everyone.
Today, however, I’m going to dig into my first year process and provide specifics on how I spent my first year.
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Published: September 16, 2015
Generous Columbia Alum Donates Additional $25 Million for New Manhattanville Campus
Columbia Business School (CBS), already in the throes of a year-long celebration of its centennial anniversary, has even more cause to pop the champagne thanks to an additional influx of $25 million toward development of its new Manhattanville campus, the school announced on Friday. Billionaire private-equity investor Henry Kravis ’69, who in 2010 pledged $100 million toward CBS’s new campus, has upped his donation to $125 million, building upon the school’s significant fundraising momentum.
“Manhattanville will be transformative for the business school,” Kravis said in a statement, stressing the collaborative nature of how business is done today. “The business school is being designed to take advantage of [this], as well as have the flexibility to adapt to whatever changes are going to be necessary to teach business courses in the future,” he continued.
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Published: September 15, 2015
Haas School Partners with Philanthropy University to Offer Free “Mini MBA” for Social Impact Leaders
The Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, in partnership with UK-based charity Stars Foundation, has launched an innovative new online education platform that will provide free courses in leadership and management to hundreds of thousands of people and organizations working toward social good, the school announced earlier this month.
Coined Philanthropy University, the first-of-its-kind learning platform will feature a range of dynamic online classes taught by renowned professors and social impact practitioners from around the world. It is the brainchild of Amr Al-Dabbagh, a Saudi businessman and founding chairman of the Stars Foundation, which since 2001 has been investing in organizations working to address the issues faced by disadvantaged children and their communities.
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Published: September 14, 2015
Ross School of Business Receives National Honor for Diversity and Inclusion
INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine has awarded the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business a top national honor for its efforts to ensure that diversity and inclusion are infused into all its activities, the business school announced today.
One of 91 recipients of the 2015 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award, Ross is the only business school to make the list, according to Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of the St. Louis-based magazine. INSIGHT Into Diversity annually recognizes U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion following a comprehensive application process, and Ross is the first business school to ever receive the honor, Pearlstein says.
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Published: September 13, 2015
Stanford Dean Resigns Amid Contentious Litigation Involving Current, Former Faculty
The dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) today announced that he will resign at the end of the current academic year, just one year into his second term as dean, according to a post today in the Stanford Report.
"I have decided that it is in the best interests of Stanford and the GSB, two institutions that I love, that I step down," Saloner said in an email that went out to the GSB community today. Since Saloner assumed his role in 2009, the school has raised more than $500 million in private support, opened the new Knight Management Center campus and adopted a new MBA curriculum, among other achievements, the Stanford Report noted.
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Published: September 10, 2015
Does Working For The Family Business Hurt Your MBA Potential?
This post has been republished in entirety from its original source, metromba.com.
Working for the family business can be an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling experience. Building a family legacy that will last for generations is the main goal of many family businesses. And often, to achieve that goal, additional education, such as an MBA, is necessary to move the company to the next level. However, it’s not always easy to head into an MBA program when you work for the family business and plan to continue working for the family business.
Letters of recommendation, work history, application essays, and interviews can all become awkward when you suddenly mention that your experience is all connected to your family. But that shouldn’t stop you from pursuing your MBA. In fact, many MBA applicants that come from family businesses can make their experience work to their advantage. After all, no one can be more difficult to work for than family.
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Published: September 7, 2015
How To Make Sure Your Job Enhances Your MBA Application
This post has been republished in entirety from its original source, metromba.com.
MBA candidates most often apply to business school because they are seeking more rapid career advancement, or they want to dramatically change their career path. However, for many full-time MBA candidates, job dissatisfaction is just as likely a reason—otherwise they wouldn’t be applying for an MBA. But no matter the reason behind the MBA, every applicant should remember that their application is a chance to sell their skills and demonstrate the value that they will add to the program. To do this, it’s important to learn how to spin your work experience.
We reached out to Julie R. Barefoot, the associate dean of MBA admissions at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, for her advice on making the most out your job experience. Here’s what she had to say:
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Published: September 4, 2015
HEC Paris Launches New “Leading with Sense” Online MOOC Specialization
Last year, HEC Paris became the first business school in France to launch a massive open online course (MOOC) on Coursera. This year, the school is taking things to a new level—offering its first online specialization, in inspirational leadership.
The specialization features three MOOCs building up to a capstone project in which participants progressively improve their interpersonal skills by connecting more deeply with themselves and others, the basis of “le Savoir-Relier” or "Leading with Sense" methodology.
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Published: September 3, 2015
No Universal “Right Time to Come” to HBS, Admissions Director Says
With less than a week to go before Harvard Business School (HBS)’s Round 1 deadline, lots of anxious applicants are fretting over how their candidacy will stack up against the competition. Cognizant of this fact, HBS Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Dee Leopold yesterday shared some interesting details about recent incoming classes as food for thought.
On her Direct from the Director Blog, Leopold published a “years from college” histogram, revealing that the mode (the value that appears most often in a data set) is 4 years. “Plenty of incoming students coming before and after, but wanted you to see this,” she wrote.
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Published: September 2, 2015
Tuck Tops Forty Percent Women for First Time Ever
Gender equity in top MBA programs—which seemed like a nearly impossible feat just a few short years ago—is looking more and more like a wholly attainable goal. Leading business school after leading business school has been proudly announcing record percentages of women in their incoming classes this past month. The latest: Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Management.
In a letter to the Tuck community on Tuesday, freshly-minted Dean Matthew Slaughter shared that Tuck tops 40 percent women in its incoming class this year for the first time in the school’s history. The actual figure—42 percent—places Tuck shoulder to shoulder with schools like Haas, Wharton, Harvard, Chicago Booth and Kellogg, all of which have 41 percent or more females in their incoming classes or overall MBA programs this year. Stanford GSB, historically among the leaders in terms of female enrollment, has yet to make public its Class of 2017 profile.
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Published: September 1, 2015
The Inside Scoop on the Forté Forums: Great Networking for Prospective Female MBA Applicants
From Atlanta to Seattle and back, Forté Forums have been taking place around the country, giving prospective female MBA applicants a terrific opportunity to connect with admissions staff from dozens of leading business schools, hear from current students and alumnae and meet fellow applicants.
The Forté Forums are an annual event series put on by the Forté Foundation, a consortium of leading companies and business schools committed to helping launch women into fulfilling careers in business. Taking place in 10 U.S. cities as well as Toronto and London, these free events kicked off on August 17th and will culminate with a final event in October.
To truly understand what prospective female MBA applicants can hope to gain from attending a forum, we dropped in on one ourselves late last month in Boston. The cluster of professionally dressed young women in the lobby of the Liberty Mutual Building on St. James Avenue provided a preview of what we would discover upstairs. After a brief and efficient check-in process, attendees were given a package of materials and welcomed into a large banquet hall, where admissions staff, current students and alumnae from leading business schools stood ready to answer their questions.
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Published: August 31, 2015
Social Media as a Window to Your Soul? Stanford GSB Prof Says Yes
So last week we shared some tips and cautionary tales from admissions directors at leading business schools about MBA applicants and their social media presence. In a nutshell, we found that different admissions committees use social media to varying degrees as part of the MBA admissions process, but a general rule of thumb is to not be an idiot. In fact, recent research out of the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) suggests that monitoring an applicant's social media behavior over the long run could actually reveal more intimate traits and core personality than face-to-face interviews. Adcoms: take note.
Assistant Professor Michal Kosinski, who teaches organizational behavior at Stanford GSB, was surprised to learn as part of research he conducted recently just how much what an individual “likes” on Facebook can reveal about a person.
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Published: August 30, 2015
Haas Welcomes New Class with Multiple Week Zero Surprises
Orientation week at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business—better known as Week Zero—was chock full of surprises for the 246 incoming students in the full-time MBA Class of 2017. For starters, while working on their very first case study on Virgin America, the students got a shock when Virgin America CEO David Cush walked into the auditorium.
Who better to learn from about the company’s decision to enter the airline market? Discussing the move made by Virgin Group founder Richard Branson in 2007, Cush described the decision—which was based on Branson’s belief that airlines were poorly run and flights were too expensive. Amid intense competition and despite a rocky start, the company is taking on the big airlines and adding new destination cities, he said, and has moved from the bottom quartile to the top half of airlines. Students then got to quiz Cush on the company’s culture, how it hires, its strategy for innovation and the challenges it still faces.
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Published: August 27, 2015
$641,000 Grant Beefs Up Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics
Boasting a new director, visiting professor and junior fellows, the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics (GISME) will offer expanded courses and research for business school students interested in learning more about ethical issues as they impact the functioning of markets, the school announced earlier this month.
“The expanded team at the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics will greatly enhance our efforts to convene the best minds for conversation and debate about the market society,” John Hasnas, GISME executive director, said in a statement. “By advancing research and teaching methods surrounding professional ethics, we hope to educate both business students and the broader business community about a range of topics, including the ethical issues inherent in the market society.”
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Published: August 26, 2015
Social Media in the MBA Admissions Process: How Careful Should You Be?
While presidential candidate Donald Trump has shown that decorum on social media is not necessarily a prerequisite for running for the highest office in the land, admissions directors at leading MBA programs suggest that prospective applicants might do well to show a little more caution when it comes to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
Just what is the role of social media in the MBA admissions process, you ask? We wondered that, too. To get a clearer picture, we checked in with some of our sources in the admissions offices at leading business schools. We discovered that different schools take different approaches when it comes to checking out a candidate’s social media presence—and protocols are still evolving.
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Published: August 25, 2015
Incoming Ross First-Years Help Detroit’s Brightmoor Community Rebound
What better way to get to know your business school classmates than by working together to make an impact on a local community? At the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, first-year MBA students are doing just that as part of the school’s annual Impact Challenge. The unique, immersive leadership development program, organized by the Sanger Leadership Center, brings together the entire class of incoming Ross first-years for a week-long, intense business challenge designed to make a difference in Detroit’s Brightmoor community.
As part of the 2015 Impact Challenge, incoming Ross first-years will work together with close to 60 local high schools students, helping them develop business plans and products for the brand-new Brightmoor Maker Space—a community workshop and incubator where ideas generated by teens and community residents will come to life. The Ross MBA students will also organize a Maker Faire and pitch competition for the teens.
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Published: August 24, 2015
HBS Draws More Women, Adds Six Points to GMAT Median
When it released its preliminary class profile in June, Harvard Business School (HBS) was expecting its incoming class to be 41 percent female, a record for the school. In August, with students preparing to move in on campus, things look even better.
HBS DRAWS MORE WOMEN THAN PRELIMINARY PROFILE SUGGESTED
Dee Leopold, HBS managing director of admissions and financial aid, posted the final Class of 2017 profile on her Direct from the Director blog today, revealing that women will in fact make up 42 percent of the class, a two point increase over last year. While this still trails Kellogg and Wharton—each reported earlier this month that 43 percent of their incoming classes will be women—it puts HBS ahead of last year’s leader of the pack, UC Berkeley’s Haas School, which this year slipped to 41 percent, from a high of 43 last year.
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Published: August 24, 2015
MBA Interview Jitters? Don’t Miss Clear Admit’s Latest Interview Guides
We know. The interview can be one of the most nerve-wracking components of the entire MBA application process. But it doesn’t have to be. Clear Admit’s in-depth Interview Guide Series provides expert advice and insider tips on what to expect and how to prepare—helping you quash the MBA interview jitters and ace the interview.
A sample page from one of the guides.
With interview invites already rolling out at schools like Columbia Business School and Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, now’s the time to check out these valuable guides. Five in the series have just been updated for the 2015-16 application season: CBS, Tuck, INSEAD, HBS and Fuqua.
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Published: August 23, 2015
Chicago Booth Re-Ups with Dean Sunil Kumar
Just as business schools like Tuck and Darden bid adieu to long-time deans, Chicago Booth is saying “Play it again, Sunil.” University of Chicago President Robert J. Zimmer and Provost Eric D. Isaacs announced last week that Dean Sunil Kumar has been appointed to a second five-year term at the school’s helm.
Zimmer and Issacs praised Kumar’s commitment to the success of Booth’s faculty, students and alumni in Chicago and around the globe in a message to the Chicago Booth community. “We look forward to working with Sunil in the years ahead to ensure that Booth remains a preeminent destination for business education and scholarship,” they wrote.
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Published: August 20, 2015
Percentage of Female MBA Students at Haas Dips Slightly, but Total Number of Women in Program Reaches New High
The Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley last year made headlines when it enrolled a record-setting 43 percent women in its incoming class, besting all other leading business schools and representing a 14-point gain over the year before, when female MBA students at Haas made up just 29 percent of the class. This year, Haas saw a slight decline in women in its incoming class—to 41 percent. But combined with the women in last year’s class, the program as a whole now counts more total women than ever before, the school points out.
Overall, the full-time MBA program still hovers at almost 43 percent female, making it a frontrunner for top MBA programs. “School and student leaders say the class composition both reflects and builds on their push for gender equity,” read a recent article on the Haas website.
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Published: August 17, 2015
Columbia Business School Centennial Celebration to Include 15 Months’ of Activities
Columbia Business School is turning 100! Yesterday marked the kickoff of a Columbia Business School centennial celebration designed to mark a century of developing leaders who impact both business and society. As part of the celebration of the century, the school has unveiled a new website that captures the achievements of the past 100 years through stories, photographs, a comprehensive timeline and more. CBS has also announced 15 months of events and programming and debuted a brand-new video series that showcases the school’s achievements while looking forward to its future impact.
“Since 1916, Columbia Business School has been shaping the landscape of the modern business world as a producer of cutting-edge research and ideas, innovator in the way education is delivered and developer of a global network of extraordinary influence,” CBS Dean Glenn Hubbard said in a statement. The school will call together that global network over this year and next to celebrate, he added. “Together, we will help usher in a new century of impact, innovation and community.”
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Published: August 14, 2015
Record Alumni Giving at Tuck Raises More Funds than Any Prior Year
Record alumni giving at Tuck again? Yes, you read that right. Tuck alumni have outdone themselves once more this year as part of the annual Tuck Annual Giving (TAG) campaign, raising an all-time high of $6.4 million. For five years running, more than 70 percent of Tuck graduates have contributed to the campaign—a participation rate that dwarfs even the closest competitors among other business schools.
“Once again, our alumni have shown their satisfaction with and loyalty to Tuck as a truly special place like no other,” says John Torget T’00, director of Tuck Annual Giving. While Tuck did not publicly release an actual donor count, Torget says more alumni than ever before gave this year. Last year, 6,332 alumni took part, according to the school’s reports.
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