MBA News
A collection of news items from MBA programs and about the business school admissions process.
Published: September 18, 2024
Dartmouth Tuck MBA Class of 2026 Profile: Record GMAT & Diverse Experience
The Dartmouth Tuck School of Business has released its profile of the MBA Class of 2026. The 296 incoming first-year students have again broken the school’s record for average GMAT score. They bring a wealth of professional experience and academic achievement to the MBA program. “The academic experience at Tuck is intentionally designed to challenge students in a trust-based environment and foster transformative personal development,” said Lawrence Mur’ray, executive director of admissions and financial aid, in the school’s press release. “Tuck MBA candidates need strong intellectual aptitude,
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Published: September 17, 2024
UVA Darden MBA Class Profile of 2026: Diverse Backgrounds and Experiences
The University of Virginia Darden School of Business MBA Class of 2026 profile has been released, showcasing the achievement and potential of its 355-member class. This year, 38 percent of the class are women. Twenty-three percent represent a U.S. racial minority, a nine percent jump from last year. LGBTQ+ students make up 11 percent of the class, a four-percent increase over last year. Recruitment of U.S. servicemembers in the MBA program remains steady at 14 percent, and 14 percent are also first-generation college students. This
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Published: September 12, 2024
Yale SOM MBA Class of 2026 Profile: Diverse Representation in a Small Class
The Yale School of Management welcomed 347 new students to its MBA Class of 2026 this August, marking the start of an exciting new chapter for these future business leaders. Read on to learn about their impressive academics, varied professional histories and diverse backgrounds. Academic and Professional Achievements Twenty percent of the new Yale SOM class were the first in their families to earn a college degree. During their undergraduate years, the MBA Class of 2026 earned an average GPA of 3.68.
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Published: September 10, 2024
Cornell Johnson Two-Year MBA Class of 2026 Profile
Ithaca is Gorges and 282 new MBA students will be enjoying the scenery as they begin their two years of academic studies at Cornell University’s S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management in New York. Here are some key elements of the latest MBA class profile: Cornell MBA Class Profile: Student Characteristics Women 41% Countries Represented (by citizenship) 34 International Students 35% Average Work Experience 5.3 years The Cornell Johnson MBA Class of 2026 brings a mix of talent and diversity to the program, even as some demographics shift. Twenty-two percent of the class comprises
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Published: September 9, 2024
Michigan Ross MBA Class of 2026 Profile: Broad Spectrum of Perspectives, Experiences and More
The University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business MBA Class of 2026 profile has once again demonstrated a commitment to bringing together an accomplished cohort with diverse experiences. Out of a class numbering 396, at least 40 percent across the board are women, U.S. minorities, or international students. The average GMAT score also jumped nine points compared to last year’s class. Diversity and Life Experience The Michigan Ross MBA Class of 2026 is a truly global and diverse community, with international
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Published: September 5, 2024
Registration Opens for the GMAC Business Writing Assessment
MBA programs demand rich analytical and strong communication skills — the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) is providing another way for MBA applicants to prove these abilities in the admissions process with the new GMAC Business Writing Assessment. What Is the GMAC Business Writing Assessment? The GMAC Business Writing Assessment is a 30-minute writing exercise. Test takers are given an argument to analyze, critiquing the argument’s reasoning and evidence objectively and clearly. It is designed to measure analysis, reasoning, and written communication skills. It costs $30 to take and results can be sent to target MBA programs for free. Filling
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Published: September 4, 2024
LinkedIn Ranking Expands to 100 Full-Time MBA Programs for Career Growth 2024
The LinkedIn ranking goes global this year, as their list of full-time MBA programs expands from its inaugural 50 U.S.-based schools to 100 with the inclusion of international business schools in 2024. Like last year, the ranking is based on job placement (hiring rate and labor market demand), career advancement, network growth and strength, leadership potential, and gender diversity. Eligibility criteria required accreditation by AACSB or EQUIS, a full-time program structure, and a minimum of 1,500 alumni. They lowered the required number of graduates from 500 last year to at least 400 graduates
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Published: August 25, 2024
Duke Fuqua MBA Class Profile: Daytime MBA Class of 2026 Achieves Gender Parity
Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business reached gender parity for the first time with its Daytime MBA Class of 2026. Of the 427 new students, 51 percent are women. The school also posted impressive representation of U.S. minorities, seeing 10+ percentages increases in underrepresented students of color and students of color over their MBA Class of 2025. Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke Fuqua, Shari Hubert, remarks, “I am proud to share that Fuqua received a record-high number of applications, experienced an increase in yield,
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Published: August 20, 2024
Looking Back at the 2024 Olympics: The Athletes Who Attended Business School
You would be hard pressed to find someone more impressive than an Olympian. Years of dedicated training and mental commitment, displays of unimaginable athletic ability and stories of sacrifice across the board. With the closing ceremony drawing a line under the 2024 Olympic games earlier this month, we’ve been reflecting on just how incredible the teams who went to Paris were. What if we told you that, on top of all the hard work of which you already know, many of the people you saw compete in the 2024 Olympics have also earned business school degrees?
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Published: August 19, 2024
MBA Famous Alumni: Finance & Philanthropy
Famous MBA Alumni in Finance And Philanthropy Our series on famous MBA alumni has uncovered the stories of tech giants and retail innovators, leading us through fast tracks to fame as well as quirky success stories. To wrap it all up, we’ll be looking at two of the largest names of them all. The heads of JP Morgan and the Gates Foundation – two very famous organizations, with worldwide impact and influence, and with potentially very different outlooks. Two organizations where, once again, the professional journeys of
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Published: August 15, 2024
Famous MBA Alumni: Automotive & Energy
Below in our series about famous MBA alumni, we meet leaders in the automotive and energy industries. You can learn about other famous alumni from tech & media and healthcare & retail in our other installments. Our series on famous MBA alumni has plucked diverse and impressive names from across the world of business and traced their successes all the way back to their MBAs. In this article, we’ll be looking at some of the top names in the automotive and energy industries, detailing the educational histories of people wielding
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Published: August 14, 2024
MBA Degrees & Majors with a STEM Designation
The past few years have seen a surge in business schools that run MBA programs with a STEM designation. MBAs, that is, that are now classified as a science, technology, engineering or mathematics degree. The new STEM MBA designation is promising students a multitude of new opportunities – but what is it, really? Read on to find out what a STEM MBA is, which schools offer it, and what this all might mean for you. What Is a STEM MBA? The structure of a STEM MBA is relatively simple. The foundational knowledge and core concepts of
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Published: August 7, 2024
UCLA Anderson MBA Class of 2026 Profile: Higher GMAT Scores & Women Representation
The UCLA Anderson School of Management has released its class profile for their incoming MBA Class of 2026. This year, UCLA Anderson has assembled a high-performing class of 305 out of the 3,079 applications received, a significant increase over last year’s 2,180 applicants. Academic and Professional History The class’s mean undergraduate GPA is 3.5, in the same middle-80 percent range as last year (3.1 – 3.8). The two most common undergraduate majors are unchanged: business, in which
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Professor Jennifer Chatman Appointed Interim Dean of Berkeley Haas
Professor Jennifer Chatman, Interim Dean at Berkeley Haas UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Ben Hermalin announced that Professor Jennifer Chatman, renowned for her pioneering research in organizational culture, has been appointed interim dean of Berkeley Haas. Chatman’s appointment will take effect on August 1, 2024, following Dean Ann Harrison’s decision to step down at the end of July after a successful five-year term. Harrison will continue as a half-time faculty member at Haas, focusing on teaching and research. Harrison expressed strong support for Chatman’s new role, highlighting her
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The HBS MBA Earns STEM Designation
Harvard Business School (HBS) announced that their MBA now qualifies as a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degree. Due to this designation, starting with the Class of 2025, international students on an F-1 visa now qualify for a 24-month extension, allowing up to three years of eligibility to work in the U.S. after graduating. If You Build It… “What the world’s businesses need from their leaders evolves,” said Matt Weinzierl, Joseph and Jacqueline Elbling Professor of Business Administration and senior associate dean and chair of the MBA Program, in the
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How Top Business Schools Are Going AI
“We are once again answering society’s call,” said Nancy Rothbard, Deputy Dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in an announcement last month, “to address the needs of tomorrow.” The “need” of which she speaks is the ever present question of AI; the “tomorrow,” a futuristic concept turned fast-approaching reality; and the “answer,” the school’s new collaboration with OpenAI. The collaboration is the latest in a steady stream of business schools going AI. The move is no surprise – the statistics
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The Consortium Expands to 25 Member Schools
The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in graduate business education and American business, recently expanded to 25 member schools. The Consortium partners with top-ranked MBA programs across the U.S. to increase the representation of underrepresented minorities in business education and corporate leadership. Following the addition of Duke Fuqua earlier this year, Chicago Booth was subsequently selected to become its 25th member school. A Long History at Fuqua In its announcement of the nomination of Duke Fuqua,
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NYU Stern Announces Updates to Specialized MBA
NYU Stern’s one-year MBA in luxury is changing: after a five-year stint as the ‘Fashion and Luxury’ MBA, it has been refreshed and given the new name of NYU Stern Luxury & Retail MBA. Stern is rolling out updates for the one-year program – promising to put its wildly-popular experiential learning firmly at the front and center, to rebrand in order to better reflect program content, and to imbue its curriculum with ever more industry contact. What Prompted These Changes? The industries with which
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Coming to Grips with the New GMAT Scores
In late 2023, the GMAT got an overhaul. It got an overhaul that changed it completely – scrapping a section, ramping up flexibility and cutting completion times by nearly an hour. Along with the altered format and edited content came a new scoring system, meaning that both the number of marks available and the number of marks scored on the exam shifted. What does this mean for you as an applicant? Well, anyone taking the GMAT is likely to be comparing their own performance with the average GMAT scores that students in their
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UCLA Anderson MBA Class of 2023 Employment Report: Rising Salaries in California and Across the U.S.
The UCLA Anderson Class of 2023 MBA employment report is out, and the cohort made some significant gains in the job market. Out of 365 graduates, 312 (or 85.5 percent) sought employment. Roughly 75 percent of those seeking employment received job offers by graduation, and nearly 87 percent received an offer by three months of graduation. Job acceptances reached 85.6 percent by three months after graduation. Out of the 11 percent reporting not seeking employment, 4.4 percent were starting their own businesses.
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Duke Fuqua Students Win $22k Prize in US Department of Energy Competition
Duke Fuqua’s student team, OptiGen, took home a $22,000 award from the EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP) 2024’s National Pitch Event in April. “The EnergyTech University Prize provides a unique opportunity for students to think creatively and deeply about how to translate cutting-edge energy technologies into successful businesses,” says Professor David Brown of Duke Fuqua. “We must have this kind of entrepreneurship in spades to solve the climate crisis: climate tech innovations can only make their needed impact if supported by sound business models.” Announced by
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Published: April 14, 2024
Stanford GSB Announces New Assistant Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid
Stanford GSB officially appointed Erin Nixon, who earned both her undergraduate degree and MBA from Stanford, to the role of Assistant Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid. Jamie Schein has been holding the position on an interim bases since Kirsten Moss left at the end of 2022. Nixon begins her term on July 1, 2024. Erin Nixon, Assistant Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid, Stanford GSB Nixon brings a wealth of experience with her to the role, which she says is “about identifying and connecting with smart, highly
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Published: April 11, 2024
ROI of the Georgetown University MS-ESM Program
Sponsored Content The Georgetown University Master of Science in Environment and Sustainability Management (MS-ESM) is a transformative program that merges scientific expertise with business acumen, empowering individuals to tackle pressing environmental challenges and contribute to a more sustainable future within diverse organizational settings. Developed collaboratively by the Earth Commons Institute, the McDonough School of Business, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the MS-ESM program recognizes the pivotal roles of both scientific understanding and business principles in advancing sustainability goals worldwide. In this article, we hear from two MS-ESM alumni who are now making waves in
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U.S. News 2024 Best Business Schools: Wharton & Stanford GSB Share Top Spot
The 2024 U.S. News Best Graduate Programs Rankings rolled out and we’re taking a closer look at the Best Business School list. Stanford GSB jumps five spots from last year to join The Wharton School in the top spot. These two replace last year’s #1 school, Chicago Booth, which now ranks third along with Northwestern Kellogg. Clear Admit Co-Founder Graham Richmond notes, “For the second year in a row, the US News ranking methodology favors career outcomes (salaries, rates of employment, recruiter
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Published: March 19, 2024
Esade to Open New Madrid Campus in 2025
Esade, which has three campuses located in Barcelona, Sant Cugat, and Madrid, Spain, now plans to open an additional campus in Madrid in early 2025. The new campus facilities will be located in the northern Mirasierra district, which already includes several educational institutions, improving the area’s status as a hub for research, education, and talent development. Xavier Mendoza, Esade’s director general, stated in the school’s announcement, “This new campus is in response to the increased demand for our Executive Education programs and we will bolster this campus as a meeting point
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