Internationalizing the MBA, a special report written by Accepted editor and international b-school expert, Tanis Kmetyk, will explore the pros and cons of joining the overseas MBA scene, helping you make your big decision—should you study for your MBA on home soil, or take the leap and head abroad to an international or American b-school in a foreign country?

Learn whether an international MBA is right for you by understanding the strengths and weaknesses of these different programs.

Download  Internationalizing the MBA.

By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com.

Several impressions and take-aways for applicants from the different events and sessions:

MIT Sloan Panels:

From the MIT panels it is clear that MIT is looking for demonstrated success academically and professionally.  The latter translates into success or professional progression that is better than the norm for your peers. In terms of those fuzzy attributes and personal characteristics that schools talk about, Sloan wants to see drive; an ability to build relationships and influence others;  and the establishment, pursuit and achievement of goals.  A few details about the individual programs:

1. 100% of the MFin grads have jobs this year, this program’s inaugural graduating class.
2. The EMBA is a program for those in mid-management with a demonstrated record of success who either want to advance in their career or make a slight career change without leaving their job.  Neither sponsorship nor the GMAT is required. (the latter may be requested if MIT has questions about the applicant’s quant skills.)
3. The LGO program focuses on managing the global production and distribution of goods and services. It is a joint, quant-heavy 24-month program between MIT Sloan and MIT’s School of Engineering. Participants earn both an MBA and an MS in Engineering.

We also heard two presentations by MIT Sloan professors. If you have any doubt that MIT Sloan is serious about innovation and global reach, abandon them. The creativity and global impact evident in just these two hours would force you to reshape your views.

Impressions from Conference Day 2 (Multiple presentations by various schools reps)

• Schools and admissions committee members look at different elements when they evaluate an application.  Pay attention to the nuances.
• Your informal and personally identifiable interactions with school admissions personnel are highly revealing. They COUNT! Arrogance at any point in time is a death knell for your application (and most relationships too.) Rudeness to a receptionist is a ding. What qualities impress positively? In your essays and interviews, reveal dignity, generosity of spirit, self-awareness, authenticity, and consideration of others. These qualities cannot be faked or “spun.”
• Regarding financial aid, merit aid tends to go to the top X% based on academic stats. Generally, when evaluating fellowship essays, the readers do not refer to your application essays. Poor credit can prevent you from obtaining the loans necessary for you to attend the school of your dreams if merit aid and your resources don’t cover the tab; get your credit in order before you apply.
• Regarding career development, the MBA employment picture improved throughout 2009-10. Read the employment reports for schools before you decide to apply and certainly before you decide to attend; you need to know school strengths as revealed in these reports. Understand the role of the career services staff (educating students about effective career planning and job search) and the limitations of that role. (They don’t create or find jobs for you.) Networking, which is about building relationships not the size of your contact list, is more important than ever. In order to build relationships, you must move beyond email.

Harvard Business School

At Harvard, we enjoyed an interactive two-hour presentation that was stimulating and engaging. To the extent it reflected the dynamism of the Harvard educational experience, I was extremely impressed.

This visit clarified for me that Harvard’s unparalleled brand is not just a matter of US News Rankings or smoke-and-mirrors branding.  At the same time, HBS is not for everyone, but like any top graduate program, it can be a fantastic experience for the right individuals.

Before the conference started my husband and I met with an acquaintance who is a professor at HBS. The professor was curious about my work, and I was curious about his. He asked me what I believe distinguishes Harvard students from the rest of the applicant pool. I thought for a moment and replied, “Leadership and impact.” He smiled, and the conversation moved on. Just before leaving, I asked him, “From your perspective as an HBS professor, what is a common quality shared by HBS students?” He replied, “I smiled when you answered my question because the students come from incredibly diverse backgrounds. However, if I have to identify a common thread, it would be leadership and impact.” If you are serious about attending Harvard Business School, make sure you demonstrate leadership and impact.

Reflections and Thank yous

It is our job as admissions consultants to help you choose the best target programs and show that you  belong at your chosen schools. The candor and graciousness shown by the hosting schools as well as by the presenting admissions directors will help Accepted’s staff do exactly that.

I am proud to report that Accepted’s staff was well represented at  the conference. In addition to myself, Jennifer Bloom, Paul Bodine, Judy Gruen, Tanis Kmetyk, Cindy Tokumitsu, and Robbie Walker attended.

Profound thanks to the hosts and presenters as well as to AIGAC, led by Graham Richmond of Clear Admit, and specifically to Maxx Duffy of Maxx Associates and Anna Ivey of Ivey Consulting who co-chaired the event. Thanks also to the sponsors: Veritas Prep, Clear Admit, Hult International Business School, Manhattan GMAT, MBA Podcaster, and Zoom Interviews

Learn More: Best MBA Programs: A Guide to Choosing the One for You.

By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com.

2. Here’s one way to attract prospective students to an international MBA program—fly them out for a weekend visit. Nyenrode Business Universiteit, a top b-school in the Netherlands, has just announced that it will offer free flights from anywhere in the world to ten prospective students for its “immersion weekend.” “We have invested heavily in shaping what we believe is now a world-class MBA programme and we are absolutely determined to attract the very best people to it,” says Desiree Van Gorp, the international MBA’s director. “The new programme is focused strongly on personal development and the enhancement of leadership skills and that’s exactly what participants can expect from the weekend of the 25th to 27th June, albeit in miniature.”

3. Bloomberg Businessweek has published yet another article about the b-school drive to expand their global footprints. This time, in “Top B-Schools Set Sights on India,” author Alison Damast discusses the moves American b-schools are taking to set up shop in India. These schools view the growing demand for high-quality management education in India as a clear invitation for them to make themselves at home, building new, state-of-the-art campuses in India. Such initiatives are contingent upon the passing by the Indian Parliament of a bill that will permit foreign schools to open their doors in India. If such a bill is passed, as is expected, then top U.S. business schools, including Duke Fuqua, will begin planning off-shore sites in India. The new Duke campus will offer EMBA degrees, one-year MAs in business, and other graduate programs.

4. While most people blame college grads’ inability to find a job on the economy, a recent NPR story blames it on the grads themselves. That’s why ill-prepared college seniors are getting a bit more attention these days in the areas of job readiness, communication skills, and life in the “real world.” David Polk, a York College professor who’s developing a new curriculum in “professionalism,” says, “There’s a sense of entitlement that we’ve picked up on, where people think they’re entitled to become, let’s say, president of the company within the next two years; they’re entitled to five weeks of vacation.”

Related Accepted Resources:

• Navigate the MBA Maze, a free nine-day email course.
• Financing Your Future: Winning Fellowships, Scholarships and Awards for Grad School, an instantly downloadable ebook.
• “More Students Head to Mom and Pop For Jobs,” a blog post.

Want our news sent directly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Almanac by clicking here!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Next, Dean Blair Sheppard from Duke Fuqua is working to expand Duke’s global footprint by opening Duke campuses in China, India, and the United Arab Emirates. In order to do so, Sheppard must navigate through each country’s rules and regulations, create new, global curriculums, build the campuses, and figure out how to distribute Duke faculty abroad.

According to Georgetown McDonough’s Dean George Daly, the most pressing concern facing his student is jobs. Therefore, Daly is less concerned with million-dollar building and expansion plans and is more interested in building new opportunities for his students. Typically, more than half of Georgetown graduates found jobs either on Wall Street or in consulting. This past year, only 67% of students received job offers by graduation, a significant drop due to a decrease in available jobs in those two popular areas. Daly’s new goal is to do more outreach to Washington, D.C. employers—”the employers in its own backyard”—including government-related firms. Building new relationships with recruiters and shifting student expectations to a wider range of careers, according to Daly, “will be a tough sell.”

Edward Snyder, incoming dean at Yale SOM, has a different sort of task ahead of him. When Snyder takes the dean position next July, he’ll be faced with the challenge of revamping Yale SOM’s image and building up its brand. Fortunately, Snyder comes with years of experience. As former dean of UVA Darden and Chicago Booth, Snyder knows how to achieve such goals as boosting diversity, improving b-school/university relations, and fundraising. In fact, Snyder explains that what attracted him to Yale is just what had attracted him to Chicago—”the challenge of building another business school within a prominent university.” Snyder’s specific goals include fundraising to complete a $150 million building project, strengthening ties with alumni, increasing class size, and, perhaps most importantly, creating enthusiasm among Yale SOM students, faculty, alumni, recruiters, and donors. “The law school [at Yale] is No. 1, undergrad is No. 1 or close,” he says, “how about making Yale School of Management No. 1, or close to it, too?”

(Sources: “Deans Set Priorities for Tough Times” and “Turnaround Specialist to Take On Yale,” both from the Wall Street Journal)

Related Accepted Articles:

• Duke University Continues to Expand Worldwide
• Duke Fugua 2011 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips
• Haas’ Dean Rich Lyons Unveils New Strategic Plan
• Haas Announces New Dean
• Yale SOM 2011 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips

Want our news sent directly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Almanac by clicking here!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

My comments are in red.

Three essay questions must be completed before submitting your application. Prepare your essays carefully. The Admissions Committee considers your responses to the following questions important in the selection process. Please respond fully and concisely using 1.5 line spacing. Your response to each question should be no more than 2 pages in length, with a font size no less than 10-point.

Candidates who applied to The Duke MBA between September 2009 and April 2010 are considered re-applicants. All re-applicants are required to complete the Re-applicant Essay in addition to the Applicant Essays.

All applicants have the opportunity to submit an optional essay to explain any extenuating circumstances of which the Admissions Committee should be aware

Duke has staked out a position for itself as a global university and claims Fuqua as the “world’s first legitimately global business school.” (I can think of several schools that might disagree, but that’s the claim.) Fuqua launched campuses in St. Petersberg, Dubai, London, Shanghai, and New Delhi. It is serious about its global approach to business and it offers unusual opportunity for students interested in studying business on an international scale.

Furthermore Fuqua is not just trying to scale geographic boundaries; it strives to rethink intellectual boundaries. It promises a multi-disciplinary approach to studying business that also encourages study outside the business school.

Duke is very proud of its collaborative and diverse community. Consequently, it carefully chooses community members. The questions below are an opportunity for you to introduce yourself as an individual, a member of your community or team, and a professional and future leader. As the questions show, all facets are important to Fuqua.

Duke has slightly re-shuffled the essay deck this year.

Applicant Essays: Answer all 3 essay questions.

Today, companies must navigate through complex and interdependent issues. They must deal with health and security matters, environmental impact questions, and diversity and cultural concerns. Leaders need adaptability, imagination, emotional intelligence, and business acumen. Thus, Duke is in the midst of an ambitious global venture that will embed and connect us around the world, and we are seeking future leaders of consequence, who value diversity and collaborative leadership, and who aspire to impact the companies and communities of which they are a part in a lasting and positive way.

In an effort to identify, engage, and foster the development of future leaders of consequence, the Admissions Committee would like to get to know our applicants in a more holistic manner. We would like to know who you are, what has shaped you into the person you are today, and how you hope to impact both Duke and the communities of which you will be a part in the future. The essays are your opportunity to convey that to us. Please be open, genuine, and passionate. Share with us what makes you a dynamic, multi-dimensional person.

What role in the world would you like to assume? Where would you like to have impact? What cause is important to you? Where have you contributed in the past? When answering the essays below, keep in mind Duke’s “globally distributed” campus and its emphasis on the connections between business and non-business disciplines.

1. Describe your vision for your career and your inspiration for pursuing this career path.

Similar to last year’s first question, Duke is asking you to connect the dots between an influential experience or two and your future goals. (For different ideas on structuring goals essays, click on the link).  Duke saves “Why Duke” for a separate question.

I don’t think I can overemphasize the importance of this essay in establishing your credibility as a serious candidate. I know I have harangued you regularly about the importance of goals in MBA admissions, and I am doing it again. Just keep in mind that this essay will reveal whether you have done your homework — personal introspection and career networking or not, as the case may be.

2. How will your background, values, and non-work activities enhance the experience of other Duke MBA students and add value to Fuqua’s diverse culture?

Show that you have done your homework about Duke’s deeply collaborative culture. Where do you intend to contribute. Where have your past non-professional commitments prepared you to contribute at Fuqua? Is it an enthusiastic commitment to Habitat for Humanity, a local environmental cause, your church, or a hobby, sport, or art form? Is it an unusual aspect of your personal background? Perhaps, overcoming distinctive challenges? And then how will this unique facet cause you to contribute at Duke? Will it lead to involvement in a specific club or Fuqua project? Interest in a particular program? Show your knowledge of Fuqua as well as fit between you and the program.

3. Why Duke? (If you are interested in a specific concentration, joint degree, clubs or activities, please discuss how you would contribute to these in this essay.)

While #2 asks how your non-professional experiences will enable you to contribute to Fuqua, this question focuses more on how Fuqua will meet your educational needs and help you realize your professional vision.

The focus on your needs isn’t total, however. You should know which programs or concentrations will help you attain your dreams and also demonstrate a willingness to contribute to those programs. Have you reviewed the different opportunities for participation in Fuqua’s rich extra-curricular life? You should before you reply to this question.

Optional Essay (not required)

If you feel there are extenuating circumstances of which the Admissions Committee should be aware, please explain them here (e.g., unexplained gaps in work, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, significant weakness in your application)

Why isn’t your current supervisor writing your rec? Why did your grades dip during the first semester of your senior year? Why is there a six-month gap on your resume? What are your responsibilities while working for a family business after having left a prestigious investment bank, and why did you make the change? Answering any of those questions (but not all) could be the topic of your optional essay. And of course an infinite number of similar subjects could be worthwhile discussing in the optional essay.

Re-applicant Essay

All re-applicants are required to complete the Re-applicant Essay. Please limit your response to two pages. Write an essay describing how you are now a stronger candidate for admission compared to the application you submitted the previous year.

This is the question that adcoms want MBA reapplicants to answer. It is self-explanatory and critical.

If you would like help with your Duke Fuqua MBA application, please consider Accepted.com’s MBA essay editing and admissions consulting or a Duke Fuqua Comprehensive Package.

By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com.

While graduates from top business schools like Wharton or Northwestern Kellogg are seeing a positive pick up in the job market, other graduates, like those from NYU Stern and University of Texas-Austin’s McCombs School of Business, are faced with a job market that has not yet recovered from the 2009 recession.

At NYU, only 76% of students had a job offer by graduation in 2009; at McCombs, only a lucky 70% had that privilege. In normal, pre-recession years, more than 90% of students receive job offers by graduation.

Abby Scott, executive director of MBA career services at UC Berkeley Haas has dubbed this post-recession era as “the year of the networked job search.” Haas students explain that they can’t rely as much on “robust school-led recruiting effort[s]” as they can on individual efforts.

In terms of the sorts of jobs that are available, there are certain sectors that are seeing a rise in MBA hiring and some that are not. For example, jobs in retail or at luxury firms are few and far between, while jobs in consulting and financial services are on the hiring rebound, relates the WSJ article.

Rotational programs are also on the rise, receiving a 36% increase in hiring this year. Students are also opting to head abroad and search for jobs in other markets. Blair Sheppard, Duke Fuqua dean, explains that MBA grads used to rarely consider going overseas—salaries weren’t high enough to entice a loan-heavy graduate—but now, overseas salaries have increased, offering grads a wider, global job search.

The article continues to state that there’s hope for next year’s grads as evidenced by the increase in internships this past year. At Wharton, for example, on-campus summer internships increased 30%, a number close to pre-recession rates.

Job-Related Accepted.com Blog Posts:

• More Students Head to Mom and Pop For Jobs
• B-School Students See Light at the End of the Job Market Tunnel
• Good News for MBAs: Job Opportunities Abound!
• GMAC: MBA Employers Express Job Market Optimism
• The Make-Your-Own-Job Solution

Want our news sent directly to your inbox? Subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Almanac by clicking here!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

• Understandably so, “[t]he public is increasingly displeased with colleges often being run like businesses,” reports a recent Daily Pennsylvanian article entitled “Cost of higher ed upsets public.” In fact, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 60% of Americans think that all colleges care about is their bottom line. 69% of Americans recognize that with the price hikes, highly qualified people can simply not afford to attend college these days. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni is urging universities to make cuts and “demanding that trustees step up to the plate” because the public is “fed up.” According to Penn Dean of Admissions Eric Furda, Penn is working extra hard to reach lower income students. And, in response to the accusations of running universities like businesses, Furda explains that Penn truly does prioritize education over business. While there is undeniably a business side to college administration, says Furda, we need to always keep education in focus.
• In an interesting BusinessWeek article, “From B-School to the Big House,” Alison Damast describes an innovative new program that brings together the skills of MBA students with the ambitions of inmates in local prisons. The goal of the program is to help inmates acquire business skills that will then help them find a job upon release. “We’re hoping we can give [the inmates] some real-life business skills that will help reacclimate these individuals to the business world, get jobs, and prepare them to succeed once they get there,” explains one Emory Goizueta student. These prisoners are often quick learners—”crime is, after all, entrepreneurial,” Damast reminds us in her article. There are currently 61 MBA students from 16 MBA programs across the country involved in the Prison Entrepreneurship Program. Represented schools include Duke Fugua and UC Berkeley Haas.
• Wharton’s free online research newsletter has just gone Arabic, in an initiative to show off the top MBA’s program’s authority on business in the Middle East, reports the Financial Times. The Arabic version of Knowledge@Wharton (which will also be published in English) will focus on the role the Middle East plays in the global economy. Wharton also publishes a Chinese version (in Chinese and English), an Indian version (in English), and a Latin American version (in Spanish, Portuguese, and English). According to a Daily Pennsylvanian article on the same subject, an Australian version of Knowledge@Wharton will be launched next month.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

In ten-plus years of MBA admissions consulting I have found that a large percentage of otherwise highly capable and focused people basically wing it when it comes to this list.  “I’m just applying to all the top ten.”  Top ten according to what source?  “I realize now [after R2 deadlines have passed] I was overreaching.  Are there any good schools I can still apply to?”  Probably.  “I’m applying to H/S/W, with Duke as my safety.”  Duke as your safety?   By starting to plan your list of prospective schools now, you can avoid these and similar problems (yes, these responses are all problems).

By taking a thoughtful, systematic approach to school selection, you will save time, money, and effort (even if you expend more of all initially).  You will save precious energy for the applications.  You will be able to start planning school visits and recommendations, two things that often get tangled up when approached in the heat of the application season.

Over the next month I will present a series of blog posts providing tips and approaches to developing a solid list of schools.  Each person’s needs are unique, and there is no one formula that works for everyone, so it will be less a step-by-step process than a guide showing what questions to ask yourself, how to answer them, and make decisions accordingly.  We’ll cover assessing your profile; determining your needs, wants, and dislikes; the role of rankings; how many schools to apply to; and other topics.  We’ll also provide examples.

Ready?  Here are a couple of things you can and should do right now to get started on the school selection process for next season:

• Capture on paper or whatever electronic medium you prefer those random thoughts that have been floating around in your head, e.g., “top 10”; “friendly to older applicants”; “strong quant focus”; “need to be able to fly home to my ailing mother in an hour.”
• Read blogs of MBA students not just at schools you’re already interested in but from a wider array, to get a subjective feel for different programs and your responses to them (pay attention to your responses!).
• If possible talk to MBA students and ask them about their school selection process; what went well and what proved difficult or problematic; what they would do differently.
• Visit schools now!  Visit schools you know you are interested in (you can always re-visit later), schools you might be interested in, even schools on the margins.  It’s the perfect time: schools are in session, you’re not pressed by the application process yet, and it’s close enough to application time for your insights to be relevant if you discuss them in essays.  Take advantage of any travel you may do for business or pleasure to schedule a visit, rather than trying to cram everything in the fall – a time when you’ll be even busier than usual with applications plus work.  Moreover, visiting now gives you time to digest and reflect on the experience.

By Cindy Tokumitsu, co-author of The Finance Professional’s Guide to MBA Success, The Consultants’ Guide to MBA Admission, The EMBA Edge, and author of numerous MBA articles and the free, email mini-course, “Ace the EMBA.”

Related Resources:

• Best Practices for MBA Admissions Webinar
• MBA Ranking Report

According to a press release by Duke University’s Office of News & Communications, a groundbreaking ceremony was held last Friday in China along with a formal announcement of the partnership between Duke, the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and the city of Kunchan, the site of the new educational complex and a fast-growing economy located in China’s Yangtze River Delta. The 200-acre five-building campus will include educational, research, and living facilities, and will be built by Kunchan’s municipal government.

Duke’s Fuqua School of Business will lead this initiative, using the campus for the first time for EMBA, pre-experience masters in management program, and non-degree executive education programs as well as training PhDs and recruiting top faculty members.

Richard Brodhead, president of Duke, explains:

We look forward to working with the Ministry of Education, the government of Kunchan, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University to support education and business development in this most dynamic region of China. The Duke-Kunchan campus will create great learning opportunities for our students, and represents a new model of international educational collaboration.

Following the success of the b-school expansion, Duke intends on expanding other graduate and undergraduate programs to the new campus.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

The best business schools according to FT:

1. London Business School
2. University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
3. Harvard Business School
4. Stanford GSB
5. INSEAD
6. Columbia Business School
7. IE (tied with Columbia)
8. MIT Sloan
9. Chicago Booth
10. Hong Kong UST Business School

I have long argued that far more valuable than the overall rankings are the specialty rankings. Here are FT’s specialty rankings:

Top for international business
1 Thunderbird School of Global Management
2 University of South Carolina: Moore
3 Georgetown University: McDonough
4 Insead
5 George Washington University
6 Hult International Business School
7 IMD
8 Manchester Business School
9 University of Southern California: Marshall
10 London Business School

Top for finance
1 University of Chicago: Booth
2 New York University: Stern
3 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
4 Rice University: Jones
5 University of Rochester: Simon
6 London Business School
7 Columbia Business School
8 Macquarie Graduate School of Management
9 University of Iowa: Tippie
10 University of Toronto: Rotman

Top for accountancy
1 Brigham Young University: Marriott
2 University of Chicago: Booth
3 University of Texas at Austin: McCombs
4 New York University: Stern
5 Macquarie Graduate School of Management
6 University of Rochester: Simon
7 Cornell University: Johnson
8 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
9 Rice University: Jones
10 Texas A & M University: Mays

Top for entrepreneurship
1 Babson College: Olin
2 Stanford University GSB
3 Imperial College Business School
4 UCLA: Anderson
5 University of California at Berkeley: Haas
6 MIT Sloan School of Management
7 University of Cambridge: Judge
8 IMD
9 Wisconsin School of Business
10 Insead

Top for economics
1 University of Chicago: Booth
2 Cranfield School of Management
3 MIT Sloan School of Management
4 Yale School of Management
5 University of Rochester: Simon
6 Imperial College Business School
7 Melbourne Business School
8 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
9 IE Business School
10 New York University: Stern

Top for corporate social responsibility
1 University of Notre Dame: Mendoza
2 University of California at Berkeley: Haas
3 Yale School of Management
4 Ipade
5 University of Virginia: Darden
6 Brigham Young University: Marriott
7 Esade Business School
8 University of Michigan: Ross
9 University of North Carolina: Kenan-Flagler
10 Thunderbird School of Global Management

Top for general management
1 University of Virginia: Darden
2 Harvard Business School
3 Ipade
4 Dartmouth College: Tuck
5 IMD
6 University of Michigan: Ross
7 University of Western Ontario: Ivey
8 Northwestern University: Kellogg
9 Stanford University GSB
10 Duke University: Fuqua

Top for marketing
1 Northwestern University: Kellogg
2 Duke University: Fuqua
3 Indiana University: Kelley
4 Ipade
5 Esade Business School
6 Wisconsin School of Business
7 Imperial College Business School
8 University of Michigan: Ross
9 HEC Paris
10 Cornell University: Johnson

Rather than list all my important caveats for using rankings, I’ll simply refer you to our MBA Rankings Report.

By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com.