{"id":56661,"date":"2022-11-28T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T16:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=56661"},"modified":"2023-10-11T06:26:13","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T13:26:13","slug":"how-to-get-accepted-to-unc-kenan-flagler-full-time-mba-program-podcast-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/how-to-get-accepted-to-unc-kenan-flagler-full-time-mba-program-podcast-episode\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Get Accepted to UNC Kenan-Flagler Full-Time MBA Program [Podcast Episode]"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Discover all you need to know about UNC Kenan-Flagler\u2019s MBA program [Show Summary]<\/h2>\n

UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School is a leading MBA program located in North Carolina, an emerging business hotspot. Danielle Richie, UNC\u2019s MBA Admissions Director,\u00a0describes the qualities that make up the dynamic student body and shares her tips on how to get in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Interview with Danielle Richie, Dir. of Full-Time MBA Admissions and Student Recruitment at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School [Show Notes]<\/h2>\n

Welcome to the 496th episode of\u00a0Admissions Straight Talk<\/em>. Thanks for joining me. Before we get to our wonderful guest, you\u2019re invited to take the free six-question quiz at\u00a0accepted.com\/mapmba<\/a>\u00a0to see how prepared you are to actually apply. You\u2019ll also gain access to relevant other resources, both free and paid, that can help you develop an application strategy for acceptance.<\/p>\n

It gives me great pleasure to have for the first time on\u00a0Admissions Straight Talk<\/em>\u00a0Danielle Richie, Director of Full-Time MBA Admissions and Student Recruitment at\u00a0UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School<\/a>. Danielle earned her Bachelor\u2019s in Public Relations at Oswego and her Master\u2019s in Communications at Syracuse University. She has worked in higher ed admissions and administration at Utica College, Syracuse University, Bentley University, and of course, UNC Kenan-Flagler, where she moved to in 2018 as Senior Associate Director for MBA Admissions and Recruiting. In November 2021, almost exactly a year ago, she became Director of Full-Time MBA Admissions and Recruiting.<\/p>\n

Can you give an overview of UNC Kenan-Flagler\u2019s full-time MBA program, focusing on its more distinctive elements? [2:27]<\/h3>\n

UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School is located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We are a two-year MBA program at 62 credits. There are 15 core classes where candidates get the breadth of business. We have 12 concentrations that students can select from to gain more in-depth knowledge. These vary from business analytics to consulting, marketing, healthcare, real estate, and so on and so forth. You really get to create your own journey, if you will, with an MBA from Kenan-Flagler. We are STEM-designated, and it does not matter which concentration you pursue. You actually don\u2019t even have to, and about 20% of our students will just do a general MBA and they\u2019ll pick and choose from over 125 different electives to make up their program. We do require an internship between year one and year two. A lot of our students will do a \u201ctraditional internship\u201d where they will apply and go on to work six to eight weeks in the summer with a company.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s new at Kenan-Flagler? [3:41]<\/h3>\n

There are a lot of exciting things going on at Kenan-Flagler. We had our groundbreaking ceremony in September for a new building that will open up in 2024. We\u2019re very excited about that. We\u2019re not looking to expand the MBA program, but the building that we\u2019re in currently was opened in 1997. We do want to grow our undergrad business program by doubling it, so we are building that facility. Jamie Dimon from JP Morgan Chase came and was one of our guest speakers.<\/p>\n

We also just launched our Charlotte MBA Executive Program, located in Charlotte, North Carolina. It\u2019s about two hours from Chapel Hill and is an executive format that working professionals can use to earn their MBA. That\u2019s in-person and is targeted to applicants from North Carolina as well as South Carolina because Charlotte is close to the South Carolina border. As Charlotte continues to grow, especially in the financial space, we saw that it was a great opportunity to offer the Charlotte MBA, as well as some executive development opportunities off campus.<\/p>\n

Can you highlight the modular system? [5:31]<\/h3>\n

We call them mods and prospective students always ask, \u201cWhat\u2019s a mod?\u201d A mod is essentially seven to eight weeks of classes that you take. You\u2019re in Mod 1 when you start class. By October break, you\u2019ll be taking your final exams, and then you start Mod 2 after you get back from fall break. In the spring, we offer Mod 3 and Mod 4. We tell our first year students it\u2019s like drinking from a fire hose for Mod 1 because you\u2019re going to be taking a lot of quantitative core classes and starting the recruiting process for internships and your job search, as well as just starting the\u00a0MBA program<\/a>\u00a0and relocating to Chapel Hill. It\u2019s a lot, but the modular format allows us and our students to focus on the quant to prepare them for their internship. In year two, they really focus on the electives and make the MBA their own.<\/p>\n

Does the modular format continue in year two? [6:35]<\/h3>\n

It does. We also offer some classes that are on the weekends, so it\u2019s not a full mod length, but it would be a weekend course. That\u2019s more for our electives than it is for our core classes.<\/p>\n

I noticed that roughly 15% of the graduating class went into healthcare. That\u2019s obviously a strength of UNC. What are the opportunities, both curricular and co-curricular, for those interested in healthcare at UNC? [6:51]<\/h3>\n

Healthcare continues to grow. Where we\u2019re located in Chapel Hill, life sciences is one of the three fastest-growing industries. UNC has a large healthcare system, plus the Duke healthcare system is close by. We have companies like GSK in the area, so healthcare continues to grow and it\u2019s something that we always will need to have, but it\u2019s always developing and we need to have leaders thinking about healthcare beyond the medical side. There\u2019s a wide variety of course offerings that we have for students to take, whether they\u2019re interested in healthcare analytics, healthcare marketing, or something else. There are courses in new drug development and challenges within healthcare.<\/p>\n

Pretty much, it\u2019s a course focused on the system overview. We look at global healthcare as well, so it\u2019s not just focusing here in the U.S., but we are giving an international lens. There\u2019s the Center for Business of Healthcare, and that really leverages the diversity and the depth of health sciences across the UNC-Chapel Hill system.<\/p>\n

We also have the MBA Healthcare Academy, which just launched, and that\u2019s really focused on learning that connects students in academics, co-curricular activities, and social opportunities as well. We have a student-run conference that focuses on healthcare. In addition to that, there are healthcare career tracks.<\/p>\n

When COVID hit in March 2020, our campus shut down and our students were on their two-week spring break. When they came back for Mod 4, there was already an elective course being offered on COVID and how it\u2019s disrupting healthcare as well as business needs. I sat in it just to experience what our students learn, and it was really interesting to put that business perspective on it.<\/p>\n

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Kenan-Flagler touts both its experiential learning and STEM designation. Can you touch on those? [9:15]<\/h3>\n

I mentioned a little bit earlier that we require an internship. We call it applied work experience. It gives you the theoretical, and you can apply the practical. In addition to that, we have STAR, which stands for Student Teams Achieving Results. It\u2019s a consulting-based experiential learning opportunity where students\u00a0work in small teams<\/a>\u00a0as consultants. They have typically three to four MBA students and about two undergrads, but they\u2019re at the junior or senior level, so they\u2019re upperclassmen. They get to work on a variety of projects. Once they get into their teams, they find out who they\u2019ll be working with. They might be paired up with a company like Domino\u2019s, whose CEO is an MBA alum from UNC, and they will work with them throughout a semester, they will pitch a solution on the project, and the company will go back and implement it.<\/p>\n

It allows candidates to continue to build their resumes while they\u2019re in the classroom, and it gives them an opportunity to have additional talking points when connecting with recruiters about some of their experiences. Lastly, which I think is really important, it cultivates relationships and expands their network. Some of these STAR projects have turned into job offers for candidates. It\u2019s amazing to see the companies coming back to recruit our students.<\/p>\n

In addition to that, we have our global immersion electives where students will take a class and then they travel abroad for between 10 to 14 days. Each location is themed-based. Perhaps, it\u2019s going to be real estate-focused in Argentina and Peru. It\u2019s not a vacation, but a time to learn how business is done globally, which is going to help them in their career long term as well.<\/p>\n

What don\u2019t people know about Kenan-Flagler that you would like them to know? [11:36]<\/h3>\n

That\u2019s a really good question. One of the things that we get asked quite often is, \u201cWhere\u2019s Chapel Hill, North Carolina?\u201d Sometimes, I think we\u2019re at a disadvantage because we\u2019re not in a large city like New York, Boston, Chicago, or even LA, but we are in a great accessible area. There is another school located right down the road from us in Durham, North Carolina, known as Duke. We also have NC State and Wake Forest University nearby.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of recruiters who are coming to campus to recruit our students, so it\u2019s not off the beaten path. In addition to that, it\u2019s very accessible. Whether you\u2019re looking to travel abroad or even to the East Coast or the West Coast, the airport is 20 minutes away. It\u2019s a short drive to Atlanta. If you want to go to Charlotte, North Carolina, DC, or even New York, it\u2019s very accessible. You can drive two hours one way and you\u2019ll be at the Outer Banks. You can drive three hours the other way and you\u2019ll be in the mountains in Asheville. There\u2019s a little bit of everything, regardless of what you\u2019re interested in. There\u2019s a plethora of things to choose from without having the distractions or expenses of a large city.<\/p>\n

Do you see UNC Kenan-Flagler accepting the Executive Assessment or other aptitude tests in the near future? [13:21]<\/h3>\n

We offer\u00a0standardized test waivers<\/a>\u00a0and if a candidate has taken a professional exam or the\u00a0Executive Assessment<\/a>, they can submit that to be considered as part of the review process to see if they are approved for a test waiver or not. We are going to continue that process and accept those test scores, but there hasn\u2019t been too much discussion yet if we will accept the Executive Assessment in place of GMAT or GRE. If someone is denied a standardized test waiver, they still will have to submit a GMAT or GRE right now.<\/p>\n

Is there any difference in acceptance rate for those who receive test waivers as opposed to those who applied with a test score? [14:06]<\/h3>\n

There really isn\u2019t. A lot of candidates ask, \u201cWill I be at a disadvantage if I don\u2019t submit my test score?\u201d The answer is no. We will still consider candidates for admission and fellowships the same way as someone that does submit test scores. One thing that we ask candidates when they are applying for a standardized test waiver is\u00a0what their career goals are<\/a>. We know that there are some industries or functional areas that require a standardized test score so we want to make sure that we\u2019re upfront. Even though you might be approved for a test waiver for our application, you potentially might have to still take a standardized test for recruiting. However, you can use the tools that you learn in the classroom, almost as GMAT or GRE prep, to take the test as well.<\/p>\n

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