MBA News
A collection of news items from MBA programs and about the business school admissions process.
Published: October 15, 2014
UNC Kenan-Flagler Publishes New MBA Application Guide for Prospective Applicants
MBA@UNC, the online MBA program at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, has just released a new MBA application guide designed to aid prospective applicants in the admissions process. Though produced by Kenan-Flagler, the guide was designed to serve as a resource for students applying to any business school.
Through a series of online articles, MBA@UNC has compiled best practices along with tips and advice for preparing the strongest possible MBA application. Articles in the series delve into topics ranging from choosing between the GMAT and the GRE to how to secure strong letters of recommendation. You’ll also find posts devoted to strengthening your resume, writing compelling essays and acing the interview.
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Published: October 14, 2014
Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business Announces Semi-Finalists in Inaugural Rural Entrepreneurship Challenge
Entrepreneurship has certainly become a buzz word at business schools, but “rural entrepreneurship” is a term you don’t hear quite as often. Unless you’re at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, where rural entrepreneurship is currently front and center.
McDonough yesterday hosted the National Summit on Rural Entrepreneurship, which included the announcement of 10 national semi-finalists in the first-ever Rural Entrepreneurship Challenge. The challenge – a joint venture between the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), McDonough’s Global Social Enterprise Initiative (GSEI) and the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative’s Startup Hoyas – is an opportunity for individuals to showcase innovation taking place in rural regions of the United States.
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Published: October 13, 2014
Chicago Booth Releases Interview Notification Timeline
Did you apply to the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business Round One this year? Tyler Smith, an Assistant Director of Admissions at Booth, has written a post titled “Behind the Scenes of Round One,” where he provides crucial details of Booth’s admissions process for Round One applicants, including Booth’s timeline for Round One interview notifications. The Admissions Committee at Booth is currently reviewing Round One applications. Applications are read in random order and interview decisions will be made on a rolling basis. Booth will notify candidates whether they have been invited back
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Published: October 8, 2014
Yale School of Management to Host Online Career Panels for Prospective Applicants
The Yale School of Management (SOM) admissions team will kick off a new series of online events later this month designed to showcase for prospective applicants the many MBA career paths the school’s students choose to follow. The live events will each focus on a different industry and will feature relationship managers from the Career Development Office joined by current SOM students.
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Published: October 7, 2014
LinkedIn Launches New University Rankings Tool Charting Career Placement Success
LinkedIn has launched an innovative new rankings system that analyzes career and education data shared by its more than 300 million users to rank undergraduate institutions according to where their graduates land jobs. Violà! You can now use LinkedIn not only to network for jobs following graduation, but also to assess which schools will best position you for the jobs you want before you even reach the job search phase.
Using its vast troves of employment data, LinkedIn analyzes the patterns of individual career choices to define the most desirable jobs, the most desirable companies within professions and the most relevant graduates for those jobs. It then uses these data points to rank universities based on the percentage of relevant graduates who have obtained desirable jobs.
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Published: October 5, 2014
New Loan Program Launches for International MBA Students at U.S. Schools
A new pilot loan program will provide expanded options for international MBA students at a number of top programs in the United States, according to a recent report in Poestandquants. The program, offered by Prodigy Finance, will extend to international students and U.S. residents with non-permanent status who are studying at 16 top schools, including Harvard Business School, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and MIT Sloan School of Management.
Especially in recent years, banks have been reluctant to lend to students who are studying internationally. Prodigy Finance seeks to fill this need using a “community finance” model. Basically, alumni from participating schools fund loans for current students, banking on the value of a degree from their alma mater and the likelihood that future alums will repay. Interest rates on the loans vary between 6 and 12 percent, depending on the school, the individual borrower’s profile and current rates.
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Published: October 5, 2014
Admissions Director Q&A: Itziar de Ros of IESE
Itziar de Ros has been leading the charge since 2011 as MBA admissions director and president of the MBA Admissions Committee at IESE in Barcelona, Spain. She is responsible for global marketing, student selection and administration of scholarships for the IESE MBA class of 280 students.
No stranger to the school, de Ros herself obtained an IESE MBA in 2006. She worked as a marketing and sales consultant at DuPont before returning to IESE in 2007, where she held roles in admissions, marketing and communications and development before stepping into her current role.
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Published: October 1, 2014
Kellogg School of Management Launches New “Inspiring Growth” Brand Strategy
The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University wants to be known for educating leaders who inspire growth, and it’s rolling out a new brand strategy with this in mind, the school announced earlier this month. Part of a larger strategic plan launched four years ago, the new “inspiring growth” theme is intended to capture both what the school has achieved since the overarching Envision Kellogg plan was first implemented and what’s still ahead.
Kellogg Dean Sally Blount noted in a statement that while growth is a challenge faced by every organization, bigger is not always better. "Sometimes growth means pulling back to attain greater clarity and focus,” she said. Kellogg’s new brand strategy – “brave leaders inspire growth in people, organizations and markets” – is intended to spotlight this focus on developing growth-minded leaders, which Kellogg believes sets it apart from its peers.
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Published: September 30, 2014
GMAC Reports Application Volume Growth for Full-Time Two-Year MBA Programs
The number of people applying to full-time two-year MBA programs increased for the third consecutive year, according to recent data from the Graduate Management Admissions Council. GMAC’s 2014 Application Trends Survey, released earlier this week, showed that as two-year programs enjoyed application volume gains, other graduate management programs saw flattening or decreasing numbers of applicants.
The survey also revealed an increasingly global applicant pool, with GMAT testing trends showing that more students are seeking to study outside their country of citizenship. According to GMAC, these candidates make up a sizeable portion of the applicant pool for many MBA and non-MBA graduate management programs.
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Published: September 29, 2014
UPenn’s Wharton School Welcomes Exceptionally Entrepreneurial Class
Students entering the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School this fall bring with them record levels of entrepreneurial experience and aspirations, according to a recent blog post by Nadine Kavanaugh, associate director of Wharton Entrepreneurship.
“We’re especially excited because the Class of 2016 is already incredibly entrepreneurial,” wrote Kavanaugh. “We can’t wait to see what amazing startups they’ll start.”
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Published: September 28, 2014
Johnson’s Career Management Dean Shares How to Accelerate Your Job Search Before Business School
Fred Staudmyer, assistant dean for career management at Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, has more than 25 years of experience in executive recruitment, human resources, human capital consulting and entrepreneurship. Before joining Johnson in 2009, he led the Garrett Sayer Group, an executive search and specialty staffing firm focused on technology, financial services and consulting industries. Prior to that, Staudmyer held a range of other senior positions including human resources officer for Ziff Communications focused on human resources and recruitment and head of worldwide talent management for Chase Manhattan Bank. He also happens to be a “dual Cornellian,” having obtained both his undergraduate and MBA degrees from the university.
“I’ve always been a career geek,” Staudmyer confessed in a recent interview with Clear Admit. Indeed, he knows a thing or two about helping people shape their careers. We caught up with him last week, when he generously shared some top tips for prospective MBA applicants to jump start the career search before arriving at business school. Read on and take note – you might even discover that some of Staudmyer’s advice will help you in the MBA admissions process, too.
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Published: September 23, 2014
CEIBS Partners with Cornell to Launch Dual MBA-MMH Degree
The China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) and the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University will launch a new dual Master of Management in Hospitality (MMH) and MBA degree program, the schools announced earlier this week. The first cohort of students will begin classes in fall 2015.
The new program will give students the opportunity to complete both the MMH and the MBA over the course of two years. Students will earn their MMH from Cornell and their MBA from CEIBS. They will have the option of beginning at either school and completing the second year of the program at the alternate campus.
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Published: September 22, 2014
Stanford Graduate School of Business Welcomes New Faculty, Lectures
Seven new tenure-line faculty have joined the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), and another 17 lecturers are scheduled to share their real-world experiences with students as well, the school announced earlier this month. In all, Stanford GSB has more than 250 professors, adjunct faculty, visiting faculty and lecturers teaching students in its MBA, PhD, Master of Science (MSx) and other business programs.
“Our new tenure-line faculty bring a diverse set of research interests to Stanford, which will enhance our ability to contribute to the growing body of knowledge about business, management and the global economy,” Stanford GSB Dean Garth Saloner said in a statement. The many lecturers, meanwhile, help the school pair academic rigor with best practices in the classroom, he added.
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Published: September 21, 2014
ESADE Names New Dean and Other Top Management
Spain’s ESADE Business School today announced several new appointments among its top leadership team. Professor Josep Franch will be the school’s new dean, Professor Jonathan Wareham will serve as the new dean of faculty and research and Professor Francisco Longo will assume the newly created role of associate director general, the school announced.
Eugenio Bieto, who was recently re-appointed as ESADE’s director general, made the new appointments among the leadership team, saying that he hopes the shifts will position the school to continue to prioritize the excellence and quality of its programs.
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Published: September 17, 2014
UPenn’s Wharton School Celebrates Opening of New SiriusXM Studio for Business Radio
The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania today hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of a new SiriusXM satellite radio broadcast studio. The new studio will broadcast Business Radio Powered by the Wharton School, which offers direct, exclusive access to some of the world’s top business leaders and educators.
Newly appointed Wharton Dean Geoffrey Garrett was joined by SiriusXM President and Chief Content Officer Scott Greenstein for today’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. Wharton first partnered with SiriusXM last fall to launch the full-time radio channel focused on business and management.
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Published: September 14, 2014
Interview Updates from Harvard Business School Admissions Director
As anyone applying to Harvard Business School (HBS) knows only too well, Round 1 applications were due last Tuesday. As the HBS Admissions Committee has settled into reading applicants’ files, an antsy set of applicants has settled into wait. HBS Dean of Admissions Dee Leopold devoted a post on her Admissions Director blog on Friday to letting the expectant candidates know how the next stage of the process will unfold. Leopold’s team will send out invitations to candidates advancing to the interview stage in two batches next month, one on October 8th and a
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Published: September 10, 2014
Yale School of Management Draws Together Top Business Leaders for Global Strategy Input
Led by Dean Edward Snyder, the Yale School of Management (SOM) is focused on developing and implementing a strategy that will help the school become the most distinctively global U.S. business school—one that educates its graduates to become truly effective global leaders. Earlier this week, Snyder hosted the first of a series of discussions scheduled this fall to assess the school’s progress toward this goal.
Top business leaders came to the Yale SOM campus on September 8th and 9th to examine the steps the school has taken so far and what remains to be done. Participants in this first discussion included PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi (SOM '80); Laszlo Bock (SOM '99), senior vice president of people operations at Google, Inc.; William Donaldson (YC '53), former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; and International Monetary Fund Executive Director Rakesh Mohan (YC '71), among several others.
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Published: September 8, 2014
MBA@UNC Infographic Demonstrates ROI of MBA
MBA@UNC, the online MBA program at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, has created an in-depth infographic to help demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of the MBA degree generally – as well as some specific benefits offered by online programs.
The infographic notes that 96 percent of MBA graduates rate the value of their degree as outstanding, excellent or good and would recommend a graduate management education to others, citing data from the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Three out of four of those surveyed by GMAC said they could not have obtained their current job without their degree.
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Published: September 7, 2014
Haas School of Business Dean’s Series Speaker Brings Innovative Leaders to Campus
The Dean’s Speaker Series kicked off last week at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, featuring Jamba Juice CEO James D. White discussing how he led the company through a turnaround to emerge as the nation’s largest fresh juice and smoothie retailer.
White talked about how he led transformational change – which in his case meant shifting the business model to include more franchises than company-owned stores. Through innovative leadership, he took a company that when he joined in 2008 was facing management and profitability challenges and helped it navigate the recession and come out the other side bigger and stronger than ever. Today, Jamba Juice has 854 stores globally, 551 of which are franchises. Within the next five years, it hopes to add 500 new stores nationwide.
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Published: September 4, 2014
IU’s Kelley School of Business Partners with NFL for Online MBA Programs
The Indiana University (IU) Kelley School of Business has partnered with the National Football League (NFL) Players Association to offer graduate-level educational programs – including an MBA degree – tailored to the needs of current and former NFL players, the school announced earlier this week.
"For more than a quarter century, the Kelley School has provided customized programs that have met the needs of many students within a variety of corporate and educational settings," Kelley School Dean Idalene Kesner said in a statement.
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Published: September 3, 2014
Tuck School of Business Introduces New Immersive Global Experience Requirement
Beginning next fall, all students at the Tuck School of Business will be required to complete a course that involves spending time in a country new to them, the school announced yesterday. The new Tuck Global Insight Requirement will be mandatory for all members of the Class of 2017 and beyond – part of an effort by the school to ensure that a Tuck education includes global immersion, which the school deems essential in today’s business environment.
“The world has become much more global,” Phillip C. Stocken, Tuck associate dean for the MBA program, said in a statement. “As a result, we believe our graduates must have a global business capability—a global mindset—to successfully navigate the different cultures, countries and markets in which they will inevitably work. There is no better way to do this than spending time on the ground in another country.”
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Published: September 1, 2014
UC Berkeley Haas School of Business Appoints First Assistant Dean of MBA Program, Admissions
The Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley has appointed Stephanie Fujii as assistant dean of the full-time MBA program and admissions, a newly created position, the school announced last week. Fujii, a 2004 Haas alumna, has worked at Haas for the past nine years, most recently as executive director of full-time MBA admissions.
Fujii was appointed to this newly created role by Haas Dean Rich Lyons, effective August 1st. She now oversees both the full-time MBA admissions and the full-time MBA program offices.
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Published: August 27, 2014
Yale School of Management Reports Record-Setting Diversity of Class of 2016
As leading MBA programs welcome students from the Class of 2016 to campus, many have been eager to share just how diverse those classes are. Earlier this week we reported on Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, and today it’s Yale School of Management’s (SOM) turn.
In a post to Yale SOM’s MBA Blog earlier this month, Yale SOM Assistant Dean and Director of Admissions Director Bruce Delmonico shared that its incoming class is among the most diverse in the school’s history. “Thirty-nine percent of the class is from outside the United States, representing 35 different countries, while 37 percent are women, 25 percent U.S. minorities and 13 percent U.S. underrepresented minorities,” he wrote. “All of these numbers are at or near historic highs for the school,” he added.
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Published: August 26, 2014
Harvard Business School Admissions Director on GMAT vs. GRE
Harvard Business School (HBS) has stated publicly for some time that it accepts both the GMAT and the GRE and does not prefer one over the other. In a bid to be even more transparent on the issue, HBS Admissions Director Dee Leopold devoted a recent post on her Director’s Blog to the matter.
To substantiate the claim that the school is agnostic in terms of a preference between the two tests, Leopold chose to reveal exactly how many applicants submitted each type of test score, along with how many of those applicants were ultimately admitted and matriculated. While the vast majority of applicants opted to submit GMAT scores, the percentage of matriculating admits as compared to total applicants broken out by test were within close range.
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Published: August 25, 2014
Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business Reports Strongest, Most Diverse MBA Class to Date
The full-time MBA class entering this fall at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business boasts higher test scores and greater diversity than any incoming class in the school’s history, the school announced this week.
“The MBA Class of 2016 is impressive,” Shari Hubert, McDonough associate dean and director of MBA admissions, said in a statement. “In addition to having the highest average GMAT score of an incoming class at our school, they represent diversity of cultures, gender, ethnicity and industry that enriches our student experience by bringing a variety of viewpoints and experiences to our classrooms and the program,” she continued.
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