MBA News
A collection of news items from MBA programs and about the business school admissions process.
The Glorious New Kellogg Global Hub, in Pictures
A week ago today, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University welcomed students into its glittering new Global Hub, which replaces the aging Jacobs Center as the business school’s main facilities. Culminating a $250-million project that involved 1 million work hours put in by more than 1,500 people, the new 415,000-square-foot building is an architectural triumph designed to bring to life Kellogg’s central values of collaboration and boldness. “In my mind, this building tells the world unequivocally that we are a contender—we are not and have never been a one-generation wonder,” said Kellogg Dean Sally Blount to an
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Babson’s MBA Program Ranked No. 1 for Entrepreneurship 24 Years in a Row
For the 24th year in a row, U.S. News & World Report has named Babson’s MBA Program No. 1 for entrepreneurship. This ranking places Babson College’s F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business ahead of Stanford Graduate School of Business (No. 2), Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management (tied at No. 3), and UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business (No. 5). Twenty-four years is a long time to lead the world in any area, and to do so in entrepreneurship education—a field that is constantly evolving—requires regular innovation.
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Published: March 30, 2017
Fridays from the Frontline: February 2017 MBA Mama of the Month Charanya Kannan
To close out Women’s History Month, we are delighted to feature another amazing woman balancing the demands of pursuing her MBA with the demands of raising a family. Harvard Business School (HBS) second-year MBA student Charanya Kannan was named MBA Mama of the Month for February 2017 by our content partner, MBA Mama. A wife and mother of one, Kannan began her career as a TV anchor in her native India. She went on to earn an engineering degree and a diploma in management from Bombay and to join the Tata Group’s leadership program. Tata sent her to
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Published: March 30, 2017
Getting to Know the New Head of Admissions at Stanford GSB
As we reported here last week, the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) has concluded a seven-month search for its new assistant dean of MBA admissions and financial aid. Stepping into the big shoes left by Derrick Bolton—who led Stanford’s admission team for the past 15 years and is credited with helping the business school establish itself as one of the very best in the world—will be a woman many believe ideally suited to the challenge. In accepting the role, Kirsten Moss becomes the only person to ever lead admissions at both Stanford and its chief
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Published: March 28, 2017
With $10 Million Alumni Gift, Wharton Enters Deferred-Admission MBA Game
Undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania will now have a unique opportunity to gain admission to the Wharton School MBA program as seniors in college thanks to a new program funded by a $10 million alumni gift, the Wharton School announced today. Named for Wharton alums and benefactors Ken Moelis and his wife, Julie Taffet Moelis, the new Moelis Advance Access Program is similar to the deferred-admission MBA program at Harvard Business School (HBS), which admits high-potential college students and reserves a place for them in a future MBA class pending successful completion of required work experience.
Ken and Julie Moelis
In addition to giving Penn undergrads a jump start on the highly competitive MBA admissions process, the program will also provide support in the form of financial aid and a strong pre-MBA community for participants. Ultimately, Wharton plans to expand the program to include promising college applicants from other leading undergraduate institutions around the country and the world.
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Published: March 28, 2017
Real Humans of MBA Admissions: ESADE’s Cristina Sassot
Cristina Sassot joined the admissions team at Barcelona’s ESADE Business School in October 2008, soon after she earned her own MBA there. In 2010 she was promoted to director of admissions and has held the role ever since, helping craft the classes for the school’s 12-, 15- and 18-month full-time MBA programs. ESADE, meanwhile, has been climbing the ranks itself. The Financial Times ranked it the 17th best MBA program in the world this year and second best in the world for career progress. The Economist, for its part, ranked it third best in Europe for salary increase.
We’ll feature an in-depth interview with Sassot in the coming weeks about the school’s admissions process, but today we are happy to share a little bit more about the person who leads that process as part of our Real Humans of MBA Admissions Series. Our thanks to Sassot, and ESADE, for taking part in both.
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Published: March 27, 2017
Prodigy Finance Marks 10th Anniversary by Giving Out $10,000 Scholarships
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, international loan provider Prodigy Finance this month announced a new scholarship program to benefit international students who are accepted to study at business and engineering schools in the United States and the United Kingdom and chose Prodigy as their loan provider.
Five fortunate MBA students will receive $10,000 each to help fund their studies as part of the $100,000 scholarship program, announced March 10th. Another five scholarships will be awarded to students pursuing engineering degrees. Founded a decade ago by three INSEAD MBA graduates who themselves faced hurdles funding their own education, Prodigy Finance was developed to address challenges confronting international students—who can’t always secure a co-signer in their intended country of study and aren’t eligible for federal funds.
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Published: March 23, 2017
Friday from the Frontlines: Why We Need More Women in Business School
This week’s Friday from the Frontlines comes to us from the London Business School’s MBA recruitment and admissions team and addresses the need for—and value of—having more women in business school. Before recently becoming senior director of MBA recruitment and admissions at LBS, Stephanie Kernwein Thrane oversaw the school’s MBA exchange program, which gave her insight into the goings on not only at the London school but also at 34 partner schools around the globe. She is committed to helping promote women in business school and in business and has been actively involved both at LBS and through
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Published: March 22, 2017
After Extensive Search, Stanford GSB Names New Assistant Dean of Admissions
The void created last August when long-time Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) MBA admissions czar Derrick Bolton left has been filled. The school announced today that Kirsten Moss has been named the new assistant dean and director of MBA admissions and financial aid.
Moss is no stranger to Stanford’s admissions office, having served as part of the team from 2004 to 2010, first as a consultant, then as associate director of evaluation and finally as director of MBA admissions. During her time with the Palo Alto school, she managed the evaluation, marketing and operations teams while also developing a new approach to assessing leadership capability. Prior to joining Stanford, she led first career services and later admissions and financial aid at her alma mater, Harvard Business School (HBS), from 1995 to 2001. She preceded Deirdre Leopold, who would go on to hold HBS's key admissions director role for the next decade and a half.
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Published: March 22, 2017
Real Humans of MBA Admissions: Carlson School of Management’s Linh Gilles
Earlier this month, we had the pleasure of getting to know Linh Gilles, director of admissions and recruiting at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. She’s been in admissions at Carlson for the past decade and in the director’s role since 2012, but she also knows the school from the student’s perspective. That’s because she is currently enrolled in the full-time executive MBA (EMBA) program herself—all while working full time and raising two kids. “I suppose at some point working for an MBA program for 10 years, you do just drink the Kool-Aid,” she says with a laugh. But
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Published: March 21, 2017
The Potential Impact of Brexit on U.K. Schools
British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced plans to invoke Article 50 of the European Union Lisbon Treaty on March 29th—triggering the start of the United Kingdom's two-year process of exiting the bloc of nations it has been part of for four decades. Given this, it seems a good time to look at the impact of Brexit on U.K. schools. According to a 2017 GMAC Brexit-U.S. Survey, 45 percent of respondents claimed that Brexit would make them less likely to study in the United Kingdom. But what does that figure mean? Are U.K. schools expecting fewer applications from top international talent, or is everything well?
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Published: March 21, 2017
HBS Admissions Director Encourages Reapplicants
With Round 2 applicants anxiously awaiting the imminent release of decisions from Harvard Business School (HBS) today, this post from January seemed worthy of a reprise. Of course, we know you are all very hopeful that Chad Losee’s words below encouraging rejected applicants to reapply to HBS will prove moot when you get your acceptance at noon. But since that unfortunately simply can’t be the case for everyone, maybe it’s nice to be reminded that one in 10 students in HBS’s class didn’t get in on the first try? Best of luck to you all—whether you’re awaiting word from
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Published: March 20, 2017
Wharton Admissions Dean Weighs in on Topping U.S. News Ranking
Last week, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School tied for first place with Harvard Business School (HBS) in U.S. News & World Report’s closely watched annual ranking of top MBA programs in the nation. Though Wharton has only claimed the top spot once before in the ranking’s 28-year history, it has traditionally been considered part of the “holy trinity” of schools, behind only HBS and Stanford Graduate School of Business in many people’s eyes. That made last year’s fourth-place finish after the University of Chicago Booth School of Business a real blow and this year’s strong showing an important rebound.
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Published: March 20, 2017
Published: March 19, 2017
New Entrepreneurship Opportunities at UW’s Foster School
Entrepreneurship plays a vital role in the U.S. economy. Forbes estimates that approximately 543,000 new businesses are launched each month and, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, three million jobs were created in 2015 by businesses less than a year old. So, it makes sense that entrepreneurship is assuming a more prominent role in business school courses and programming.
Samantha Ogle, the assistant director of the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, reports that roughly 40 percent of that school’s incoming full-time MBA students indicated that they chose UW “because of our reputation in entrepreneurship.” This high level of student interest is one of the reasons that the Foster School introduced a new degree program—the Master of Science in Entrepreneurship—that will open on June 19, 2017.
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Published: March 16, 2017
Fridays from the Frontline: MBA Mama and Stanford GSB Student Valerie Rivera
This week's Friday from the Frontline comes to us via our content partner, MBA Mama, an online platform designed to share the stories of women successfully navigating both motherhood and the MBA. As its January Mama of the Month (MotM), MBA Mama featured second-year Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) MBA student Valerie Rivera. Mom to 11-year-old twin boys, Rivera is also a 15-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, where she held various leadership positions.
Don't miss MBA Mama's exclusive interview with Rivera, below, in which she talks about why she chose Stanford for her MBA and what she's liked most about her time there, some of the time management strategies she employs to keep up with family, school and career, and her plans to open a consulting firm after she graduates. Our thanks to MBA Mama for allowing us to share this interview with the Clear Admit audience.
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Published: March 15, 2017
Exceed Your Expectations with a Georgetown McDonough MBA
Sponsored Content For many people, business school is an additional investment that you have to make to switch careers, obtain the job you want or earn a promotion. But those reasons only skim the surface of the true power of an MBA degree. At Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, earning an MBA is about more than the result; it’s a transformational experience. Discover Your Strength Have you ever wondered what you’re capable of or how much you could achieve? That’s what the Full-time and Evening MBA programs at Georgetown McDonough set out to demonstrate
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Published: March 15, 2017
The Foster School Ranks Highly as Research-Focused Business School
Research universities ask questions, generate knowledge and solve problems. According to the Association of American Universities, research-focused universities perform more than half of the nation’s basic research, the results of which are applied to real-world problems every day.
Why does a school’s research agenda matter for MBA candidates? According to a 2014 Financial Times article by Paul Danos, then-dean of Dartmouth's Tuck Business School, it’s one thing that all great MBA programs have in common: a strong representation of outstanding researchers. The reason for this is that part of the value of earning an MBA from a leading school is the expertise that students glean from their professors.
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Published: March 15, 2017
Round 2 Interviews Complete, HBS Gears Up for Round 3
Harvard Business School (HBS) Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Chad Losee took to his Direct from the Director’s Blog this week to look ahead to Round 3. For any anxious Round 2 applicants out there—don’t worry, you didn’t miss any important announcements! Losee simply shared that his team wrapped up Round 2 interviews last week and loved having the chance to get to know you in person—or at least via Skype. “We are in the midst of the (tough) final decisions and will be back in touch soon—March 22nd at noon Eastern Time via
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Published: March 14, 2017
What Bain & Company Looks for in MBA Hires
Bain & Company—widely considered one of the most elite consulting firms in the world—is a coveted post-MBA destination for students at top business schools in every part of the globe. Headquartered in Boston with 53 offices in 34 countries around the world, Bain employs more than 7,000 people and counts as its clients leading Fortune 500 companies, as well as nonprofit and government organizations. And business is booming. According to Keith Bevans, global head of consultant recruiting, the company has grown at a rate of 15 percent a year for the past 20 years, with no slowdown in
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Published: March 13, 2017
7 Takeaways from the 2018 U.S. News Business School Ranking
The schools making up the top 10 in this year’s U.S. News & World Report ranking of the nation’s best MBA programs—released today—were exactly the same as last year. That said, there are a smattering of surprises in terms of how top schools rose and fell relative to one another—and in movement among schools outside of the top 15. At quick glance, here are this year’s top 10, in order of their 2018 rank (2017 rank in parentheses): 1 Harvard Business School (1) 1 University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School (4) 3 University of Chicago Booth
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Haas Women in Leadership Conference Draws New Audience: Men
When the Women in Leadership (WiL) organization at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business hosts it annual conference tomorrow, things will be different than in years past. This year, every fifth person in the audience is expected to be male—up from the five to 10 men who have historically attended.
“When we got together to decide what we wanted the conference to be about, we just starting writing things down that were important to us—and collaboration and the involvement of men were both very high on the list,” says WiL Conference Co-Chair Shipra Agarwal (MBA ’17). Both she and the conference’s other co-chair, Chiaki Nakajima (MBA ’17), feel that they are where they are today because they had strong male support. “We thought, ‘Let’s make that the focus of the conference because we want men to be part of it as well and to understand how to be better allies,” Agarwal says. The theme they settled on was “Power of Us: Collaborate. Inspire. Lead.”
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Fridays from the Frontline: NYU Stern Student Shares a Recruiting Road Less Taken
Are you considering the luxury retail industry after business school? If so, don’t miss this week’s Fridays from the Frontline, which comes to us from NYU Stern School of Business second-year MBA student Nina Dudhale. New Jersey-native Dudhale worked in digital acquisition marketing at American Express OPEN before coming to Stern, where she has chosen to specialize in luxury marketing and finance. Nina Dudhale, Stern MBA ’17 As she shares in the post below, folks at Stern warned her at the get-go that recruiting in the luxury retail space is less structured than industries like consulting or
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Cambridge Judge Empowers Women to Become Rising Leaders
Currently, only 26 women serve as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies—roughly 5 percent—and only one in six board members are women (17 percent). While the numbers are up from 12 years ago when there were no women CEOs and only 10 percent of board members were women, there’s still a lot of work to be done. Cambridge University's Judge Business School is among the MBA programs working to further bridge the gap with its Cambridge Rising Women Leaders Programme.
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Social Impact at the Marshall School of Business
When talking about career paths one might pursue after an MBA, most people think of areas like finance, consulting or marketing. Over the past several years, however, MBA students have grown increasingly interested in the business of social impact; according to Business as Unusual, a 2014 Net Impact survey, 88 percent of MBA students report that they’re interested in learning about businesses with social missions and environmental emphases. That’s one reason why the USC Marshall School of Business recently hosted its second annual Social Impact Careers Panel.
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