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FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: International Opportunities at UCLA Anderson |
Although UCLA Anderson might not be as well known internationally as other top-ranked U.S. business schools, it has invested in the development of resources dedicated to international business. International courses include “International Business Economics,” “Business Forecasting for Foreign Economics” and “Business and Economics in Emerging Markets,” which explores market reform processes in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia, paying particular attention to issues such as privatization, political and economic risk and global competitiveness. Meanwhile, approximately 50-60 second-year Anderson MBAs spend one quarter studying abroad via an international study exchange with one of the school’s 30 partner institutions around the world. Among others, students may study at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, and Wits Business School in South Africa. Most students take courses in English, though some international exchange programs offer opportunities to learn and study in other languages. UCLA Anderson students interested in improving their skills in a foreign language while on campus can take language courses in Korean, Chinese, Spanish or French. Indeed, at Anderson, international opportunities (quietly) abound… For more information on other defining characteristics of the MBA program at UCLA Anderson or one of 15 other top business schools, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: A Philosophical Side to Business School |
Increasingly, business education seems to be embracing a bigger picture. Alongside other discussion this week surrounding the merits of teaching Plato to plumbers, an article in The Wall Street Journal asks whether philosophy and abstract thinking may hold relevance to MBAs. The London Business School’s new “Nobel Thinking” elective, for example, invites business students to study the origins of revolutionary economic theories developed by Nobel Prize winners. At the University of San Diego’s School of Business Administration, students are supplementing case studies with anthropological insights. In a similar spirit, the Copenhagen Business School plans on growing its master of science in business administration and philosophy program to attract more international students. This emphasis on studying ideas beyond the traditional realm of business not only allows future business leaders to draw upon more varied theoretical perspectives, but offers them a unique opportunity to ask important critical questions. “Courses like ‘Why Capitalism?’ and ‘Thinking about Thinking,’ and readings by Marx and Kant, give students a break from Excel spreadsheets and push them to ponder business in a broader context,” explains the article, adding, “Expect more abstract ideas in business schools soon.” |
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: Wharton-quality Education without the Cost |
The price tag and exclusivity of earning a degree from a top business school is unlikely to change any time soon. But MBA-quality education has in recent years become widely available online—tuition free. Leading the way on this front is the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, which, according to The Wall Street Journal, launched its first massive open online course (MOOC) in 2012 and has since set itself apart by offering “a taste of academic life at the elite institution” to more than one million participants. For a mere $49 registration fee to use the Coursera platform, anyone with access to a computer can benefit from foundational business curricula taught by Wharton faculty members. Most other top-ranked schools have been slow to embrace the MOOC model, but Wharton will reportedly expand its online offerings to include 15 different courses by the end of the year. “Giving content away free of charge isn’t cheapening Wharton’s brand,” the school’s administrators say, adding that shifting a large portion of MBA content online “will allow for more immersive, in-person instruction that differentiates the degree program, such as lengthy global trips or independent entrepreneurship study.” |
FROM mbaMission Blog: B-School Chart of the Week: The Hidden Cost of Housing |
Although quantifying a school’s profile certainly does not tell you everything, it can sometimes be helpful in simplifying the many differences between the various MBA programs. Each week, we bring you a chart to help you decide which of the schools’ strengths speak to you. With so many factors to consider when contemplating which business school is right for you, housing may present a hidden cost that can be easily overlooked when comparing programs. The cost differential between renting in a Midwestern college town and renting near Greenwich Village in New York City, for example, can be significant—more than $50,000 on a cumulative basis across two years. So how does each business school fare on the issues of affordable housing? We spoke with students and examined market prices at a variety of top programs and identified economical one-bedroom apartments (after all, the sky is the limit in New York) in locations that are either popular among students or close to campus. Our list is thus a representative approximation of the lower end of monthly rental costs that one might encounter when attending each program. We then calculated the cumulative price differential between the cheapest housing option (at Michigan Ross) and all others, across two-year programs. As you will see in our chart, the savings can be significant! |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Use Humor with Discretion |
Although we often offer a “how to” and a “how not to” example as part of our Monday Morning Essay Tip, this week, we cannot present a simple illustration. This is because our focus is on humor, which is nuanced and can be deemed appropriate only with a full understanding of the context in which it is presented. So, we offer a strong suggestion instead of a hard rule: be very careful when using humor in your essays. The line between being funny and coming across as immature, inappropriate or even careless is a very fine one. In our view, writers who use humor best are those who possess the skill to appear clever or witty and are not striving to portray themselves as stand-up comics. Your essays are not the proper venue in which to showcase your latest routine, though a mildly self-deprecating anecdote with humorous undertones could help reveal your personality if well executed. Remember, humor itself is not the goal of your essay but part of a broader story and message to your reader. If you have a strong voice and can use humor with subtlety, then proceed, but even then, do so with caution and ensure that you get an honest, solid critique before you submit your final draft. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: Finding Writers for Your Recommendation Letters |
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. Letters of recommendation are an important part of your overall application package—they provide the only outside information the admissions committee receives about you. One of the most stressful parts of the application process can be picking your recommender. The first question you should ask is who can write a valuable letter? Like many candidates, you may believe that your recommenders must have remarkable credentials and titles to impress the admissions committee. However, what is far more important is selecting individuals who can write a personal and knowledgeable letter that discusses your talents, accomplishments, personality and potential. If senior managers at your company can only describe your work in vague and general terms, they will not help your cause, but lower-level managers who directly supervise your work, on the other hand, can often offer powerful examples of the impact you have on your company. As a result, their letters can be far more effective at getting you accepted into an MBA program. Nonetheless, not everyone who knows you and your capabilities well will make a good recommender. For starters, of course, you should be confident that your potential recommender likes you and will write a positive letter on your behalf! As you contemplate your choices, try to gather some intelligence on your potential recommenders. Have they written letters for anyone else? Are they generous with their time with regard to employee feedback and review sessions? Will they devote the effort and time necessary to write a letter that will really shine? (See also our blog post Mission Admission: Choosing “Safe” Recommenders.) If your prospective MBA program asks for two letters of recommendation, then generally, you should approach two of your recent supervisors, with one ideally being your current supervisor. Your letters will have added credibility if they are written by individuals who are senior to you, because your recommenders are in evaluative positions and will not have anything to lose by critically appraising your candidacy. If you are unable to ask your current supervisor (and there are a number of reasons that might be the case), do not panic! Read how to handle this situation in our blog post . |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Sanjay Sood, UCLA Anderson School of Management |
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose an MBA program to attend, but the educational experience itself is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we highlight a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we profile Sanjay Sood at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Sanjay Sood (“Entertainment Marketing,” “Behavioral Research in Marketing,” “Elements of Marketing” and “Applied Management Research”) is an associate professor of marketing and the faculty director of UCLA Anderson’s Center for Managing Enterprises in Media, Entertainment and Sports. An ad hoc reviewer for the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Consumer Research, Sood researches marketing management, brand management, advertising and consumer behavior. He received his PhD in marketing from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business in 1999 and was later recognized as an MSI Young Marketing Scholar in 2003. One second-year student we interviewed said Sood brings “a lot of practical experience to the classroom” and uses connections from his work with Procter & Gamble to enhance his classes. In 2010, Sood was selected by his fellow faculty members to receive the school’s Niedorf “Decade” Teaching Award, which is presented to professors who exhibit “exemplary teaching over a period of seven to ten years.” Five years earlier, he received a Citibank Teaching Award, which was also determined by his fellow faculty members. For more information about UCLA Anderson and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: mbaMission Hosts its Fifth Annual Team Conference |
mbaMission celebrated its fifth annual consultant conference this past weekend in New York City, flying in the entire staff from around the world for two days of intense discussions about best practices and superior client engagement techniques. We are the only MBA admissions consulting firm in the industry to host such a conference and to invest so heavily in developing a skilled, cohesive, full-time team. We hire consultants for whom MBA consulting is more than simply a job or a part-time gig—it is a professional calling. For this reason, we feel it is important to convene, share our collective expertise and find ways to grow together so that we will best serve our clients. Highlights from this year’s conference included a number of insightful presentations and teach-ins from various members of our consultant team, such as a mock client (essay topic) brainstorming exercise, a “Think Like the AdCom” business school application review, a deep dive into the implications of an increasingly prominent GRE (with our friends from Manhattan GRE), a best practices session focusing on recommendations and a session devoted to helping candidates define their career strategies. Through these events, we affirm our commitment each year to providing superior MBA admissions guidance, led by the highest-caliber team of dedicated professionals. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: Fuqua Partners |
When you select an MBA program, you are not just choosing your learning environment, but are also making a commitment to a community. Each Thursday, we offer a window into life “beyond the MBA classroom” at a top business school. Fuqua Partners is an organization made up of students’ wives, husbands and/or other significant others who come to Durham while the students complete the MBA program. Twenty-two percent of the students in a typical incoming class at Fuqua are married, and according to a member of the Fuqua Partners Club with whom we spoke, a large portion of students are typically in some form of a committed relationship. The Fuqua Partners group is designed “to welcome, support, and provide activities for partners and families in the Fuqua community,” explains the school’s Web site. A club officer told mbaMission that attendance at events can vary greatly, explaining that “a manicure/pedicure party may only attract ten people, whereas a barbecue may attract 100.” One second-year student with a partner told mbaMission, “Fuqua does a really, really good job of integrating everybody,” and another noted, “Everyone’s invited to everything.” A first year we interviewed commented that the programs and the community support provided to partners were “very important” elements in his evaluation of MBA programs and that “Fuqua had the appeal that [my wife] and many others’ partners were all coming to the area for the first time, and could build a network together, as opposed to trying to contend with trying to join existing cliques.” Another married first-year student told us, “The key thing here is the strength of the partners’ network. For example, even from Blue Devils weekend, which is a ‘sell’ weekend for admitted applicants, I signed in, and my wife signed in separately and had her own bag of goodies waiting for her. [Partners] are really interwoven here; as much as possible, they’re invited to many of the events.” He added that at Fuqua, partners “have their own activities—running clubs and book clubs.” Yet another first year told mbaMission he felt that Fuqua is “hands-down the best for partners” of all the schools he considered and that this was one of the two primary reasons he applied. For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at Duke Fuqua and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Diamonds in the Rough: Rice University, Jones Graduate School of Business |
MBA applicants can get carried away with rankings. In this series, we profile amazing programs at business schools which are typically ranked outside the top 15. Houston, Texas, home to six of the world’s “supermajor” energy companies, is perhaps an obvious choice for prospective MBA students looking to break into the energy sector. And the is arguably the leader in energy curriculum and recruiting. Offering 11 courses, including “Managing in a Carbon Constrained World,” “Geopolitics of Energy” and “International Energy Simulation,” the school’s energy concentration prepares students for successful careers in the ever-evolving industry by training them for varied functions that “meet the global challenges of the future of energy, from geopolitical, fiscal, and environmental perspectives,” claims the school. As a result of strong recruiting ties to such companies as ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips, well over one-third of Rice’s MBAs have found jobs in the petroleum/energy sector in recent years. The school also has an active Energy Club that hosts various opportunities to connect with recruiters and alumni, including an Energy Speaker series, networking events and Energy Treks that give students firsthand exposure to trading floors, drilling rigs and manufacturing facilities. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Fuqua’s Facilities |
The Fuqua School of Business is located on Duke University’s West Campus near the intersection of Science Drive and Towerview Drive. Students often congregate in the Fox Center, a 70,000 square foot facility that was built in 2002. Linking the main wings of the school and featuring a café, enormous windows and spacious indoor winter garden, the Fox Center is the hub of the school. Students can eat breakfast and lunch here, grab a coffee, conduct team meetings or just take a breather between classes or during the 15-minute break in each class period. In August 2008, Fuqua opened the 91,000 square foot Doug and Josie Breeden Hall, the “new front door of the School for students and visitors,” as it was described in the student newspaper, the Fuqua Bulletin. Named after former dean Douglas Breeden (2001–2006), the building boasts a three-story atrium, two auditoriums (which seat 126 and 146 people), the expanded Ford Library, three 70-seat lecture rooms and a suite of team rooms. All told, Fuqua’s campus now covers nearly 500,000 square feet, with 58 team rooms, 10 classrooms and 7 seminar rooms. For more information on other defining characteristics of the MBA program at Duke Fuqua or one of 15 other top business schools, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: mbaMission President/Founder Jeremy Shinewald Comments on GRE in The WSJ |
This week, The Wall Street Journal offers insight into the rising popularity of the GRE among business school applicants, suggesting that the exam may help business schools attract students from outside disciplines. Where the GMAT historically reigns supreme among MBA entrance exams, many schools are seeing a spike in the number of applicants who are submitting GRE scores. Although only 10% of all exam-taking MBA hopefuls sat for the GRE last year, this figure represents a 10% increase over the same period the year prior according to data from the Educational Testing Service. The jump in GRE-takers may reflect “the GMAT’s loosening stronghold on the industry” in addition to “applicants’ anxiety about that assessments’ integrated reasoning section.’” Nonetheless, many applicants remain ambivalent toward the GRE. mbaMission’s own president and founder, Jeremy Shinewald, is cited in the article, explaining that applicants may have difficulty discerning how seriously they should take the GRE and how to size up their scores. “It’s maddening. You can say it until you’re blue in the face, and for whatever reason, some people will never believe that the GRE is equal [to the GMAT].” |
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: mbaMission President/Founder Jeremy Shinewald Comments on GRE in the WSJ |
This week, the Wall Street Journal offers insight into the rising popularity of the GRE among business school applicants, suggesting that the exam may help business schools attract students from outside disciplines. While the GMAT has historically reigned supreme among MBA entrance exams, many schools are seeing a spike in the number of applicants who are submitting GRE scores. Although only 10% of all exam-taking MBA hopefuls sat for the GRE last year, this figure represents a 10% increase over the same period the year prior, according to data from the Educational Testing Service. The jump in GRE-takers may reflect “the GMAT’s loosening stronghold on the industry,” in addition to “applicants’ anxiety about that assessment’s ‘integrated reasoning’ section.’” Nonetheless, many applicants remain ambivalent toward the GRE. mbaMission President and Founder Jeremy Shinewald is cited in the article, explaining that applicants may have difficulty discerning how seriously they should take the GRE and how to size up their scores. “It’s maddening. You can say it until you’re blue in the face, and for whatever reason, some people will never believe that the GRE is equal [to the GMAT].” |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Be Cautious with Polarizing Issues |
Although many MBA programs are interested in hearing about your international experiences, they are fundamentally uninterested in your personal views on “hot” global political issues. Even when an admissions committee directly challenges you to discuss current events or global politics, you must take care to offer a point of view—not a scathing manifesto. No clear rules exist as to what exactly you should discuss, but as you consider ideas, “knowing your audience” is of the utmost importance. Never take risks by discussing an economic, political, social or cultural idea that you believe an “average person” might find extreme. Of course, “extreme” is open to interpretation, and this is why choosing the issue you will discuss requires so much careful consideration. When you begin writing, keep in mind that you are not trying to win voters or recruit people to your cause—your goal is simply to show that you are engaged in the issues, can consider them in a balanced way and are able to articulate your ideas persuasively. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: Begin with One MBA Application and Start Early |
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. MBA candidates often ask us whether they should complete one application before moving on to the next or whether they should attack all of their applications at once. Although this question has no definitively “right” answer, we generally advise candidates who start early to make significant progress on their first application before beginning their second or third. Why? Simply put, business school candidates can learn a tremendous amount from the process of completing their first application, and this can prevent them from repeating some of these mistakes two or three times—and by mistakes, we mean errors not just in terms of grammar and style, but also in terms of approach. For example, once an applicant starts writing, he/she might discover that achieving the right “balance” in his/her essays is difficult or that conforming to stringent word counts is tougher than expected. In this case, the candidate would benefit from “battling” through the first few essays and using them as an opportunity to refine his/her message and approach, rather than attacking 9 to 15 essays at once. After working through these issues and having completed a full set of essays, the applicant can then move forward with the next application(s) and can do so with confidence that he/she is not making the same mistakes over and over again. This is a simple recommendation, but if followed, it can save an applicant a tremendous amount of time, especially those candidates who intend to start early and make steady progress. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Nicolaj Siggelkow, The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School |
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a business school to attend, but the educational experience itself is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we highlight a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we profile Nicolaj Siggelkow from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Known for being a protégé of the strategy guru Michael Porter, Nicolaj Siggelkow (“Strategy and Competitive Advantage,” “Managing Established Enterprises” and “Career Planning”) is just as well known at Wharton for pushing students to clarify their answers in his class—using buzzwords such as “added value” and “frameworks” can earn a cold-called student 30 minutes or so of additional questioning. A second year called Siggelkow simply “the best professor at Wharton for leading a case,” and another remarked, “He will whip your ass into shape, so you must prepare for class—or don’t bother coming!” Siggelkow expects his students to come prepared to class, and students in the Wagat guide (Wharton’s ode to the Zagat guide, but for courses rather than restaurants) have said that the workload for each session of his “Strategy and Competitive Advantage” course is far heavier than the norm, to say the least. (In course evaluations from a prior academic year, the workload required for his classes was rated 3.78, whereas the average at the time was 3.13.) Still, students appear to respect him for this toughness, and he has earned six teaching awards (eight, if we include undergrad business awards) in his 16 years at Wharton. Chair of the management department, Siggelkow received the Class of 1984 Award for being the faculty member with the highest teaching rating in 2006, was the student-selected Faculty Marshal in 2010 and even made a guest appearance in the Wharton Follies in 2006. Siggelkow is also a co-director of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management, a Wharton research center that coordinates multidisciplinary learning between business leaders, academic researchers and students. For more information on other defining characteristics of the MBA program at Wharton or one of 15 other top business schools, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: 100 Case Party at Darden |
When you select an MBA program, you are not just choosing your learning environment, but are also committing to becoming part of a community. Each Thursday, we offer a window into life “beyond the MBA classroom” at a top business school. The celebration of the first-year class’s completion of its first 100 cases at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business Administration, appropriately called the 100-Case Party, typically takes place in mid-October. Over the two years they spend at Darden, students will study approximately 600 cases, so this party recognizes the first sixth of that. The 100-Case Party is typically held off campus at a Charlottesville club. Said one alumnus we interviewed, it is “a huge party; people go wild,” while another told us that the party is significant because “it celebrates a huge milestone.” In October 2011, a first year wrote about the party in her blog about MBA life at Darden, saying, “I’m not sure if the plan is to drink 100 cases, but anything is fair game!” For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at UVA Darden and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Diamonds in the Rough: Thunderbird School of Global Management |
MBA applicants can get carried away with rankings. In this series, we profile amazing programs at business schools that are typically ranked outside the top 15. The Thunderbird School of Global Management is ranked number two in the United States for international business by U.S. News & World Report (after 18 consecutive years in the number one spot), has been named “Best in International Business” by the Financial Times for six consecutive years and was deemed second in “Internationalism of Alumni” by The Economist in 2013. Offering an MBA in global management, Thunderbird tailors its curriculum across all courses to prepare students to tackle the challenges of globalization and to develop broadly multicultural, globally oriented management skills. With an average of 23 countries represented among its students, the program is noted for embracing diversity. Students must fulfill a secondary language requirement as part of their degree and are given ample immersive opportunities to study abroad, including six-week international modules, winter/summer interim courses, exchange student programs, international internships, language abroad programs and an emerging market lab. The school also offers an MA in global affairs, an MS in global finance, an MS in global management, several online dual degree programs in conjunction with partner institutions and a post-MBA program in global management for students looking to supplement their degree with further international emphasis. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: The 2014-2015 MBA Application Season is Underway! |
In the last 48 hours, Columbia Business School, the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Harvard Business School (HBS) have all released their MBA application essay questions, kicking off a new admissions season. As HBS’s admissions director, Dee Leopold, mentioned in a blog post, she had just finished sending out some Round 3 decisions, as she made the questions for the coming year public. We imagine that several other schools will release their questions shortly – after all, no admissions director wants to give applicants the chance to start others’ applications, instead of their own. As is our tradition, we will be releasing our essay analysis pieces shortly. Stay tuned to the mbaMission blog for our suggestions on how to approach each top business school’s essay questions. If you would like personal, one-on-one advice, sign up for a free, 30-minute consultation with one of our senior consultants! |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: “Doing Business in…” NYU Stern |
For candidates seeking global immersion during their MBA experience, New York University’s Stern School of Business provides ample opportunity to study abroad, with trips as short as one to two weeks or as long as a full semester, through its “Doing Business in…” (DBi) program. DBi trips take place between the fall and winter semesters, during spring break and in May (after classes conclude). Each course (trip) is tailored to its specific locale and includes a mix of lectures given by Stern faculty as well as local business practitioners and/or government representatives. Complementing the classroom learning are hands-on field experiences at corporate headquarters, factories, ports, development sites and other such locations. Past DBi destinations have included Beijing, Dublin, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Milan and Melbourne, just to name a few. Students who participate in the DBi program gain a new perspective on conducting business in a different culture while making some great memories with fellow “Sternies” along with way. For more information on other defining characteristics of the MBA program at NYU Stern or one of 15 other top business schools, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
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