Calling all Foster Evening MBA Applicants (2015 Intake) Class of 2018

The employment data listed above is for full-time.

Most students in the Evening MBA program are currently working, so I would assume for the majority of students, the focus is to expand their current skillset coupled with their employment experience. A smaller percentage of the Evening students will seek new jobs after the MBA, but unlike the FT program where everyone is effectively unemployed, there will be a large percentage of students who choose not to move jobs (or remain with the same company in a different role).

Obtaining employment data when everyone's situation is so different would be rather difficult. Also, the FT students go through a fairly structured recruiting process via the Career Center so it's probably easier for the Foster office to capture employment data for FT students.

Personally, I think salary and employment data are not very useful for Evening / PT students because it's not a uniform process where everyone is looking for new jobs. The class profile tends to be a little bit older (30's+), will have a higher percentage of senior individual contributors, managers, and even directors/executives. Any number listed in this fashion would be misleading because it would be more likely to be influenced by everyone's current salary when they enter the program.

For this reason, I actually think the average post-MBA salary for Evening students might be higher than the FT program, but with higher variance, influenced by the fact that candidates are 3-years experienced in the program and that there is a natural bias towards individuals who were not willing to take off for two years for the FT program because their salary and position is currently desirable.

That makes sense, thank you for the response. I might be going about this backwards then, I am probably better suited for the day program but I have a full time job that while not in an MBA type field, I'm still not wanting to give up the salary/benefits so am feeling a bit torn on which program will be better for me.

It depends what you want out of the program. Early in my career, I started out as a video game tester, definitely "less than conventional" for a business field. Five years ago I was thinking about the FT program, but I ran into a few setbacks including getting laid off.

But two years is a lot of time, lots of opportunities and opportunity for you to grow on the job. Eventually, I found myself moving into game design and middle management. In that span of a few years, I found myself hiring and managing newly minted MBA grads from top-20 programs.

The FT made sense for me a few years ago when I was still looking for upward mobility opportunities. But at the same time, tenure and experience matters a ton (if not more) in the games industry. My goals shifted to rounding out my business skill set while maintaining experience. So the Evening program makes way more sense now with the new and ongoing opportunities in front of me.

I will say this. Find out what it is you want to do. Take salary out of the equation. There is really no point in a high / desired salary if you don't like your job. If your current job gives you that opportunity to grow, then I do recommend the Evening program because you can have it both ways.

Thank you again for the info.

I was also curious if they ever spoke about Evaluation Day in the informational workshops. I just saw it mentioned on their website and am not sure what to make of it. I didn't realize it was a two-step application. I tried searching old threads but didn't find a lot of substantial info about it.

Little is mentioned of it in the informational sessions other than a chance for faculty and admissions to observe you in a team setting. It sounds like a good opportunity to see how candidates interact with your class in a live environment. Fit is very important to the Foster program with a size of 100, so they want to make sure that every candidate can synergize with others.

Thank you again. Sounds like solid admissions criteria.

Are you a round 1 applicant? It seems like not many have applied yet (at least based on this forum...I don't know of any other forums to search) but would love to hear more along the process before I make a decision on whether or not to apply the next round.

I am. Applied on 1/20.

Jumping in here. have you heard back re: evaluation day? I've just gotten the 'we received your application email'

Jumping in here. have you heard back re: evaluation day? I've just gotten the 'we received your application email'

Nope, not yet. The e-mail stated that they will be sending out invites in the next few weeks so I don't expect to start hearing until maybe next week.

I do look forward to it though. It's always fun to meet new people and to imagine what the class will look like.

thx. a friend got the invite earlier this week so i was feeling nervous but i'm sure there's plenty of time to hear back yet.

Anyone hear back yet? Just curious how long it takes so I have an idea for wait times during Round 2.

Still waiting. Friend said the invite said the RSVP date is Feb 16 so maybe they'll be sent in waves once they know acceptances/declines, though I can't imagine too many of the latter?