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26 Dec 2013, 16:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: B-School Chart of the Week: The Most Generous B-School Gifts of the Year |
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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. Fundraising plays a crucial role in the business of business school, often directly influencing the overall quality of the MBA experience. “While donations are still not as easy to come by as they were pre-recession,” Bloomberg Businessweek explains, “business schools are finding that as the economy recovers, so are their endowments and fundraising efforts.” We have put together a chart showing Bloomberg Businessweek’s roundup of the top business school donations of 2013. As you can see, these seventeen schools, including both top-ranking institutions and smaller programs, received nineteen gifts of $10M or more in 2013—an impressive $700M in aggregate. The majority of this year’s donors have committed their gift money to building/renovating facilities or funding curricular and research programs. Columbia Business School had a notably auspicious year, receiving $100M last May from alumnus Ronald Perelman to fund the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Business Innovation. The amount ties the record with Henry Kravis’s donation in 2010 as the largest sum ever given to the university. In addition, CBS received two other generous alumni donations—$25M from the chairman of JetSuite/founder of Hawkes Financial Services and $15M from the chairman/CEO of Gamco Investors—both of which will help fund the construction of the school’s new Manhattanville campus. Michigan Ross received a similarly generous donation of $100M from its eponymous donor, Stephen Ross. The money will reportedly go towards funding scholarships and the construction of new high-tech facilities. Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business and the Villanova School of Business rank high on the list as well, receiving gifts of $67M and $50M respectively. Also notably generous were two gifts to the London Business School, with $40.51M coming from industrialist Idan Ofer and $15.5M coming from entrepreneur and Jetro Holdings owner Nathan Kirsh. 
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27 Dec 2013, 12:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: The Harper Center at Chicago Booth |
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Designed by world-renowned architect Rafael Vinoly and completed in 2004 at a cost of $125M, the Charles M. Harper Center houses Chicago Booth’s full-time MBA program. The Harper Center’s Winter Garden—a towering atrium with six-story, glass Gothic arches—is at the heart of the building and serves as a central place where students can study, socialize and hold club meetings. With over 400,000 square feet of space, 12 classrooms (on the downstairs “classroom level”), offices for the entire administration and faculty (on the third, fourth and fifth floors, known as the “faculty floors”), 31 group study rooms, a 3,500 square foot student lounge and a 150-person café, the Harper Center helps shape Chicago Booth’s community and is part of the school’s bold new identity. For more information on the defining characteristics of the MBA program at Chicago Booth or one of 15 other top business schools, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
28 Dec 2013, 13:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: GMAT Impact: News From the Makers of the GMAT, Part 1 |
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When it comes to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this weekly blog series, Manhattan GMAT’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. In early December, I attended the biannual GMAC Summit, a special conference that the makers of the GMAT put on for test prep companies. I have got various important pieces of information to share! The most important one is the first up. Scoring and Timing As we were discussing the scoring algorithm, someone asked the age-old question: whether certain questions were “worth more” than others. Dr. Lawrence Rudner, chief psychometrician of GMAC, indicated (as he always has in the past) that the earlier questions are not worth more than the later ones. He did, though, indicate something that we suspected but had never heard officially confirmed: “outlier” questions ultimately count less towards your score. What is an outlier? Briefly, an outlier is a question for which your performance was unexpected. Read on to understand what this means. An outlier is always relative to your own performance. Most of the questions you answer will be within a certain range of difficulty. As a general rule, you will answer more of the easier questions in your range correctly and you will answer more of the harder questions incorrectly. This is the expected behavior. There are two types of outliers: (1) easier questions that you get wrong (2) harder questions that you get right If you were mostly answering 70th percentile questions correctly but you answered a 50th percentile question incorrectly, then that question will ultimately count less towards your overall score. The Takeaway: Do not stress over missing a question that you think is easier (but note that you cannot let this happen too many times or those questions will no longer be outliers!) If, on the other hand, you were mostly answering 70th percentile questions correctly but you answered a 90th percentile question correctly, then that question will also ultimately count less towards your overall score. The Takeaway: Do not waste a bunch of time and mental energy trying to get a really hard (for you) question right. Now, some of you are thinking, “But what if I can get a lot of those really hard questions right? Then they will help my score!” Can you spot the problem with that line of thinking? If you were already capable of answering that level of question effectively and efficiently, you would not need to spend extra time or think, “Oh, I really need to get these right!” You would already know how to do them. Plus, spending extra time on a hard question does not actually guarantee that you will answer it correctly. Even if you do happen to get one right periodically, that question is going to end up being an outlier for you—and you will miss other, easier questions later in the section because you will have mismanaged your time. It gets even worse. Those easier errors are no longer outliers, because there are too many, so your entire score is pulled down. (And the farther down the overall score is pulled, the more the couple of harder questions that you got right turn into outliers, so they will not help pull your score up!) What to do? What we have been telling you all along: maintain a steady performance throughout the test, neither rushing nor spending too much time, and letting go of a question when needed (everyone will need to do this!). If you want to learn more about outliers in general, I recommend reading Malcolm Gladwell’s fabulous book Outliers: The Story of Success. Check back in next week, when I will share news about Integrated Reasoning. |
30 Dec 2013, 08:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: GMAT Impact: News from the Makers of the GMAT, Part 1 |
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When it comes to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this weekly blog series, Manhattan GMAT’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. In early December, I attended the biannual GMAC Summit, a special conference for test prep companies that is put on by the makers of the GMAT. I have various important pieces of information to share! The most important one is first. Scoring and Timing When we were discussing the scoring algorithm, someone asked the age-old question of whether certain questions are “worth more” than others. Dr. Lawrence Rudner, chief psychometrician of GMAC, indicated (as he always has in the past) that the earlier questions are not worth more than the later ones. He did, however, indicate something that we suspected but had never heard officially confirmed: “outlier” questions ultimately count less toward your score. What is an outlier? Briefly, an outlier is a question for which your performance was unexpected. Read on to understand what this means. An outlier is always relative to your own performance. Most of the questions you answer will be within a certain range of difficulty. As a general rule, you will answer more of the easier questions in your range correctly, and you will answer more of the harder questions incorrectly. This is the expected behavior. There are two types of outliers: (1) easier questions that you get wrong (2) harder questions that you get right If you were answering 70th percentile questions mostly correctly but answered a 50th percentile question incorrectly, then that question will ultimately count less toward your overall score. The Takeaway: Do not stress over missing a question that you think is easier (but note that you cannot let this happen too many times, or those questions will no longer be outliers!) If, on the other hand, you were answering 70th percentile questions mostly correctly but answered a 90th percentile question correctly, then that question will also ultimately count less toward your overall score. The Takeaway: Do not waste a bunch of time and mental energy trying to get a really hard (for you) question right. Now, some of you are thinking, “But what if I can get a lot of those really hard questions right? Then they will help my score!” Can you spot the problem with that line of thinking? If you were already capable of answering that level of question effectively and efficiently, you would not need to spend extra time or think, “Oh, I really need to get these right!” You would already know how to do them. Plus, spending extra time on a hard question does not actually guarantee that you will answer it correctly. Even if you do happen to get one right periodically, that question is going to end up being an outlier for you—and you will miss other, easier questions later in the section because you will have mismanaged your time. It gets even worse. Those easier errors are no longer outliers, because there are too many of them, so your entire score is pulled down. (And the farther down the overall score is pulled, the more the couple of harder questions that you got right turn into outliers, so they will not help pull your score up!) What to do? What we have been telling you all along: maintain a steady performance throughout the test, neither rushing nor spending too much time, and letting go of a question when needed (everyone will need to do this!). If you want to learn more about outliers in general, I recommend reading Malcolm Gladwell’s fabulous book Outliers: The Story of Success. Check back in next week, when I will share news about Integrated Reasoning. |
30 Dec 2013, 10:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Lead with Your Goals |
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When most business school candidates read an essay question, they interpret it quite literally. For example, when the Yale School of Management asks applicants “What will you contribute to the Yale SOM community, and how will being part of it help you extend your professional vision?” many applicants assume that they must answer each subquestion within the broader question in the exact order in which they were asked. However, this is not true. Such questions are indeed quite flexible, and at times, by pursuing your own structure, you can better engage your reader. We have found that with regard to overrepresented candidates who have unique professional goals, one strategy that can be quite helpful is leading with goals instead of professional history. After all, “typical” experience is not as captivating as unusual (but realistic!) ambitions. So, the Indian technologist who plans to open a boutique hotel or the male investment banker who aspires to start a competitive windsurfing circuit can use these bold goals to stand out from the start. We must emphasize, though, that such candidates need to have (and show!) a compelling connection to their goals, and we do not suggest that overrepresented candidates strive to imagine or create “wild” goals just to catch the admissions committee’s attention. However, if you have a profound connection to an unusual goal, then responding to a school’s questions in a differing order and ensuring that your goals are out front could make a difference. |
31 Dec 2013, 12:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: Do Not Neglect Short Answers |
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Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. Many candidates will work painstakingly on their essays, prepare rigorously for their interviews and endlessly contemplate their choice of recommenders. However, applicants tend to leave the short answer section of their applications to the last moment, and some will simply paste in information from their resumes or from their applications to other schools. However, the short answer sections—meaning the actual questions within the application about your work and community experiences, hobbies, etc.—should definitely not be ignored, and should be completed with the same spirit of diligence that you would bring to all the other aspects of your application(s). We advise candidates to refrain from just pasting bullet points from their resumes into the short answer section, and to instead take time to truly contemplate the questions that are asked and write out the answers in full sentence form. (Further, bullets from a resume often lack the necessary context, so they rarely make effective answers for this portion of the application.) Although the information conveyed in the short answer section is important, we believe that what is really crucial is that candidates give care and thought to all aspects of their applications. |
01 Jan 2014, 11:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Gautam Kaul, Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan |
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a business school, but the educational experience itself is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we profile Gautam Kaul from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Gautam Kaul (“Finance and the Sustainable Enterprise”), the John C. and Sally S. Morley Professor of Finance at Ross, teaches both core curriculum courses and electives. In addition to referencing his intellectual capabilities, students with whom mbaMission spoke described Kaul as extremely friendly and having a great sense of humor. He is also known for his willingness to help students both inside and outside the classroom. In 2005, in direct response to student interest, Kaul developed the course “Finance and the Sustainable Enterprise.” In return, students recognized his efforts and awarded him the Sustainability Pioneer Award and a plaque in his honor on one of the chairs in the main auditorium of the university’s School of Natural Resources and Environment. Kaul has been nominated for an MBA Teaching Excellence Award (which is voted on by the student body) numerous times and won the award in 1996, 2006, 2009, and 2011. For more information about Michigan Ross and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
02 Jan 2014, 13:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: Fuqua Fridays and End-of-Term Parties |
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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. Every Friday evening, students, partners, professors, and administrators meet for drinks and snacks at the Fox Center for Fuqua Fridays. One second year told mbaMission, “Fuqua Friday’s a really great way to bring everyone together in the same place. It provides a chance to unwind.” Fuqua Friday is the primary regular event at which the school’s greater community comes together—one-half to three-quarters of the student body usually attends. Some Fuqua Fridays have themes, such as Casino Night, a version of television’s Top Chef or Iron Chef, an International Food Festival, and Green Week. Another second-year student we interviewed insisted that Fuqua Friday is one school event that is not to be missed, adding, “It brings everyone together when we are in a positive mind-set.” At the end of each term, students let off steam at an End-of-Term Party organized by the MBA Association—including a Halloween party, a luau and a black-tie optional party. These events sometimes draw as many as 500 attendees, if not more. One second-year student told mbaMission, “[The] end-of-term parties are crazy. [They’re] a huge part of our fabric and a way to spend social time bonding with people you might not see outside of class. They’re a huge reason why I love this school.” 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. |
03 Jan 2014, 12:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Small Town Life, Global Opportunities at Tuck |
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The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth—aka Tuck—is located in the quaint town of Hanover, New Hampshire. Hanover has a population of approximately 11,000 and is thus considered a small college town, but “Tuckies,” as the school’s students are known, have no shortage of access to global learning opportunities. Students gain hands-on international experience through the “Tuck Global Consultancy” course, which gives second years the chance to put their education into practice worldwide. Since 1997, students have consulted with approximately 100 global organizations on more than 160 projects in more than 50 countries. On-site consulting projects are led by small teams of students working under the supervision of Tuck professors with extensive consulting backgrounds. A large percentage of the second-year class participates in this elective, defining projects in the spring or early fall, then traveling to their assigned countries in either August and September or November and December to perform on-site research and analysis. For more information on other defining characteristics of the MBA program at Dartmouth Tuck or one of 15 other top business schools, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
04 Jan 2014, 14:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: GMAT Impact: News From the Makers of the GMAT, Part 2 |
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When it comes to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this weekly blog series, Manhattan GMAT’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. In early December, I attended the biannual GMAC Summit, a special conference that the makers of the GMAT put on for test prep companies. Click this link for the first part of my report. Integrated Reasoning IR has existed long enough now that GMAC is starting to be able to draw some conclusions about the efficacy of the section. Dr. Lawrence Rudner, chief psychometrician of GMAC, is quite pleased with the section’s performance to date. Though they still need to collect more data to be sure, early results indicate that IR is actually a little bit better of a predictor of grades in business school than are the quant and verbal scores. It will still be a while before they can collect as solid / extensive data as they have for quant and verbal, but perhaps it will be the case that, eventually, IR will become the most important section! (Don’t worry: if you are applying right now, nothing has changed. Even if you are not planning to apply until next year, the importance of IR probably will not change extensively by then.) There were no admissions officers in attendance, but we did hear from GMAC that they have heard that admissions consultants are starting to consider using IR as a tiebreak for borderline cases. For example, imagine that a school considers 680+ a strong score and 630 to 670 an average score. For the pool of 630 to 670 candidates (only a few of whom are likely to be admitted), one potential tiebreak is the IR score. If IR is difficult for you, don’t stress: it is very unlikely that any school is making this tiebreak decision based solely on the IR score. After all, many different variables go into an application; they might also decide to use number of years of work experience, under-represented industries, or some other factor. If you do tend to perform well on IR, though, then bonus: you have an extra mark in the plus column. Interestingly, US students are tending to do a bit better on IR than all other students. (This is also true for the Verbal section of the test, while non-US students tend to do better than US students on the quant section of the test.) A lot of people consider IR more of a quant section, but verbal is just as important. If quant is your strength, then you will feel that IR is testing verbal more, and vice versa. In short, study both quant and verbal (which you are already doing for the main test) and aim for a 5 or higher on IR. If you plan to apply to the top programs or go into consulting or banking after business school, then aim for a 6 or higher. Check back in next week, when I will share news about the Quant scoring scale and grammar. |
06 Jan 2014, 09:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: GMAT Impact: News from the Makers of the GMAT, Part 2 |
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When it comes to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this weekly blog series, Manhattan GMAT’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. In early December, I attended the biannual GMAC Summit, a special conference for test prep companies that is put on by the makers of the GMAT. Click this link to read Part 1 of my report. Integrated Reasoning Integrated Reasoning (IR) has existed long enough now that GMAC is starting to be able to draw some conclusions about the efficacy of the section. Dr. Lawrence Rudner, chief psychometrician of GMAC, is quite pleased with the section’s performance to date. Though they still need to collect more data to be sure, early results indicate that IR is actually a little bit better of a predictor of grades in business school than are the Quant and Verbal scores. It will still be a while before they can collect as solid/extensive data as they have for Quant and Verbal, but perhaps IR will eventually become the most important section! (Don’t worry: if you are applying right now, nothing has changed. Even if you are not planning to apply until next year, the importance of IR probably will not change extensively by then.) No admissions officers were in attendance at the summit, but GMAC did report that they have heard that admissions consultants are starting to consider using IR as a tie breaker for borderline cases. For example, imagine that a school considers 680+ a strong score and 630 to 670 an average score. For the pool of 630 to 670 candidates (only a few of whom are likely to be admitted), one potential tie breaker is the IR score. If IR is difficult for you, do not stress: that any school is making this tie breaker decision based solely on the IR score is very unlikely. After all, many different variables go into an application; schools might also decide to use number of years of work experience, under-represented industries or some other factor. If you do tend to perform well on IR, though, then bonus: you have an extra mark in the plus column. Interestingly, U.S. candidates are tending to do a bit better on IR than other candidates. (This is also true for the Verbal section of the test, while non-U.S. candidates tend to do better than U.S. candidates on the Quant section of the test.) A lot of people consider IR more of a Quant section, but Verbal is just as important. If quant is your strength, then you will feel that IR is testing verbal more, and vice versa. In short, study both quant and verbal (which you are already doing for the main test) and aim for a 5 or higher on IR. If you plan to apply to the top programs or go into consulting or banking after business school, then aim for a 6 or higher. Check back in next week, when I will share news about the Quant scoring scale and grammar. |
06 Jan 2014, 10:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Use Only One Famous Quote per Application |
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Beginning an essay with a famous or eloquent quotation is a common practice and one that business school candidates can use to capture a reader’s attention. For example, an applicant might use a quotation as the very first line of his or her essay: “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt Roosevelt’s words are as true today as when he spoke them. The essence of a manager is… Another option is to embed the quotation within the first line of the essay, as shown in the following example: As Peter F. Drucker said, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” I have found the distinction between management and leadership especially important… There is really only one rule about using quotations: do not overdo it! One grand quotation per application (not per essay!) is sufficient—but it is certainly not mandatory. When deciding whether to include a quotation in one of your essays, consider the following: • Does the quotation fit the essay’s main theme? • Does the quotation reflect who you are or what you believe? • Does the quotation enhance the essay? If you answer “yes” to all of these questions, making the quotation a part of your narrative just might be a good idea. |
06 Jan 2014, 15:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: WSJ Interviews Michigan Ross’s Fundraising Guru |
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Despite the steep price tag attached to top-ranked business schools, many MBA programs bank on graduates’ continued support to their alma maters long after graduation. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal this week, Eddie Sartin—the chief development officer for Michigan Ross—explained that outreach efforts often begin the moment students first set foot on campus and more than 90% of the school’s donations come from generous alumni. When asked by the WSJ whether MBAs feel that they have already contributed enough to the school by virtue of paying tuition and fees (which add up to nearly $60K per year for out-of-state students at Ross), Sartin responded, “Absolutely. … It’s expensive to go to a top M.B.A. program. … We try to quantify, ‘Here are things that you experienced as a student that wouldn’t be possible without private support.’” But for applicants who are nonetheless daunted by the cost of business school, it is important to remember that the return on investment for MBAs is often not directly monetary. Citing the exclusivity of the professional network into which MBAs are initiated, Sartin adds that graduates give back to their alma maters in other ways—namely, through recruiting and establishing strong corporate relationships. Ross, for instance, has built recruiting ties with Amazon Marketplace due largely to the fact that the company’s vice president, Peter Faricy (’95), is an alumnus of the program. In short, looking for programs that have generous donors and strong alumni outreach programs should, for the prospective MBA, serve as an indicator of a robust professional network. To learn more about notable alumni gifts and recruiting relations at Ross and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
07 Jan 2014, 11:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: When to Schedule Interviews |
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Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. With MBA admissions offices releasing second-round interview invitations in a few weeks, we thought we should explore an issue that brings endless paranoia to MBA candidates: scheduling interviews. Many schools will give applicants a significant window in which to schedule their interview. So, does scheduling an interview early convey that you are being too aggressive and do not have any other irons in the fire, or instead that you are eager to act and impress the admissions committee? Does scheduling an interview later give the impression that you are less interested in the program, or instead that you are highly sought after and are interviewing at multiple schools? The reality is that scheduling your interview to occur during the early days of the school’s set time frame is really no different from scheduling it near the end. Neither option confers any advantage or disadvantage (nor does any day in between). The MBA admissions committees recognize that you, like all candidates, are busy and that your schedule is in flux as a result of work, community and personal commitments. The committees focus on the interviews themselves, not on when they are scheduled. So pick a date that works for you—a day and/or time when you know you can be comfortable and relaxed, not distracted—and start preparing! |
07 Jan 2014, 14:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: What I Learned at… London Business School, Part 1 |
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In our “What I Learned at…” series, MBAs discuss the tools and skills their business schools provided as they launched their careers. Nitzan Yudan is the CEO and co-founder of FlatClub, a United Kingdom–based online marketplace for short term rentals that connects verified members of exclusive alumni, employment and organizational networks. In Part 1 of this four-part series, Nitzan details his reasons for choosing London Business School for his MBA and why he decided to leave the finance industry for a career in entrepreneurship. My path to co-founding FlatClub came about after forgoing a more traditional career path in favor of the freedom—and risks—that come with creating a start-up company. Although I am an avid traveler, the idea of building a business focused on short-term accommodations and peer-to-peer flat sharing was not initially among my pre-MBA career goals or part of my educational background. I am originally from Israel, and I studied industrial engineering and management at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, served in a special forces unit of the Israeli military and have 12 years of experience, primarily in financial services. After working at Israel’s Bank Hapoalim for 2 years, I decided to pursue business school as a means to advancing my career in finance. When I was shopping around for MBA programs, my top choices were INSEAD and London Business School (LBS). Ultimately, I chose the latter on the basis of location and the potential to accelerate my career: I wanted to live in London, and the city seemed an ideal place to focus on my goal of moving up in the world of banking. I did not know it at the time, but LBS would also serve a crucial role in providing the financial support, entrepreneurial resources and confidence I needed to launch my own business. By the end of my first year of the two years programme at LBS, I received attractive post-MBA offers from both American Express and Deutsche Bank for full-time positions upon graduation from LBS, but I decided to reassess my career trajectory. I had secured desirable opportunities in my target industry but nonetheless found myself asking, “Why not try something else?” I felt that I had a risk-free second year of education to explore a different field and decided to leverage my business school resources and get a start-up off the ground. LBS equipped me with an amazing space in which to take risks that I would never have access to again in my life. When I made that choice, I had no idea that FlatClub would emerge. |
08 Jan 2014, 11:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Jeremy Siegel, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania |
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 profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we profile Jeremy Siegel from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Jeremy Siegel (“Macroeconomics and the Global Economic Environment” and “Monetary Economics and the Global Economy”) is arguably one of the most recognizable and renowned professors at Wharton, and not just because he regularly appears on CNN, CNBC and NPR to weigh in on the financial markets. One first-year student we interviewed referred to Siegel as “THE professor at Wharton.” Siegel, who has taught at the school since 1976, combines his expertise with a passion for teaching. On the long list of teaching awards he has received is Bloomberg Businessweek’s Best Business School Professor (worldwide) accolade in 1994. What is more, Siegel’s expertise gives him almost unparalleled street cred in the eyes of Wharton students—not an easy lot to win over on the topic of the stock market. At the beginning of each class session for his macroeconomics course, Siegel pulls up live market data and quickly interprets what is going on in the markets that day. Interestingly, even students who are not enrolled in this course commonly stand at the back of the room to watch this summary. Siegel has been recognized often for his writings, having won numerous best article awards, and is a bestselling author. The Washington Post named his book Stocks for the Long Run: The Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns and Long-Term Investment Strategies (McGraw-Hill, third edition, 2002) “one of the ten-best investment books of all time.” And in 2005, Bloomberg Businessweek named another of Siegel’s works, The Future for Investors: Why the Tried and the True Triumph Over the Bold and the New (Crown Business, 2005), one of the best business books of the year. Also in 2005, Siegel received the prestigious Nicholas Molodovsky Award from CFA Institute, awarded to “those individuals who have made outstanding contributions of such significance as to change the direction of the profession and to raise it to higher standards of accomplishment.” For more information on other defining characteristics of the MBA program at Wharton or any of 15 other top business schools, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
09 Jan 2014, 21:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: Integrated Reasoning Scares Off Test Takers |
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Despite a recent decline in GMAT test takers, prospective MBAs should not be too quick to speculate about the state of business school more broadly. Last June, the number of test takers reportedly fell by 48,000 (17%) over the previous year. While this may look to some critics like “more air hissing out of the MBA bubble,” Bloomberg Businessweek argues instead that the GMAT itself is to blame. The drop in applicants coincides with the Graduate Management Admission Council’s introduction of the Integrated Reasoning section to the test in June 2012. “Traditionally, there is an increase in testing volume before you change a standardized test as test takers opt for the familiar over the unfamiliar at transition time,” a GMAC spokeswoman explained to Businessweek. The same pattern apparently followed revisions made to the GRE in 2011 and revisions to the GED in 2002. Yet, even with the new Integrated Reasoning section, GMAT test takers did not fare much worse than in past years (the average score was 546—two points lower than in 2012 and two points higher than in 2011), suggesting “all that angst over the revised exam appears to have been misplaced.” |
09 Jan 2014, 21:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: The Kellogg Ski Trip |
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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. True to Kellogg’s reputation for fostering a robust community, the school’s annual Ski Trip is typically attended by a remarkable 750 or more first- and second-year students. According to a second year we interviewed, “Kellogg’s ski trip was the first and remains the biggest of its kind. Like everything else at Kellogg, the trip is student run … from logistics to marketing to sponsorship. … First- and second-year students work together to make it an unforgettable weeklong adventure.” For the 2012 trip, the participating students traveled to Steamboat Resort in Colorado, and the previous year’s destination was Telluride, Colorado, where participants stayed in mountainside condos. Students who wish to ski can avail themselves of three-, four-, or even five-day passes, while nonskiers can enjoy activities such as cooking classes, snowshoe lessons, and spa treatments (at reduced prices). The evenings feature theme parties, such as an annual ’80s party. “The entire event is a phenomenon,” continued the second year. “It’s a great break for everyone … as first years blow off steam from their hectic initial quarter, while second years immerse themselves in their final ski trip.” Noting that all the spaces for the trip one year were claimed in just 20 minutes, a second year provided the following advice in a personal blog post: “You have to know you want to go and sign up early before the trip sells out, which happens every year.” A first year with whom we spoke expressed how impressed she was with Kellogg’s ski club for “planning the best week of business school for 800 people!” She added that Ski Trip is simply not to be missed: “It’s all of your closest friends, taking over a ski town for one full week with amazing parties and social activities (many of which are sponsored)!” For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at Kellogg and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
10 Jan 2014, 10:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: NYU Stern’s Concourse Project |
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In 2008, NYU commenced work on the Concourse Project, a $35M renovation undertaking intended to link the school’s three buildings—Tisch Hall, the Henry Kaufman Management Center and Shimkin—unite its programs and modernize its facilities. Although much of the work focused on the school’s undergraduate facilities, the renovation at Stern proved to be the business school’s most significant one since the program moved to its current location in 1988. Architectural highlights of the project include new pathways to connect the buildings, new plaza skylights to introduce more natural light, MBA lounges to provide more gathering and study space and the modernization of some classrooms to create more flexible learning environments. The project was completed in early 2010, and a first-year student we interviewed expressed that the “building looks very modern,” while a second year offered, “The new lobby is very nice, and the new lounges are great places to gather and study.” Gone are the dark, cinder block–lined hallways of old; in are new, modern open spaces that allow students to congregate, share ideas and connect! For more information about NYU Stern and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. |
11 Jan 2014, 15:00
| FROM mbaMission Blog: GMAT Impact: News From the Makers of the GMAT, Part 3 |
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When it comes to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this weekly blog series, Manhattan GMAT’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. In early December, I attended the biannual GMAC Summit, a special conference that the makers of the GMAT put on for test prep companies. Click this link to start with the first part of my report. The Quant Scoring Scale Some of you may have noticed that the top quant score of 51 is now only the 97th percentile. We were wondering whether GMAC would add to the scoring scale (maybe including scores of 52 or 53) in order to provide more categories of rankings at the top of the scoring scale. They have no plans to do this. The top business schools have told them that any score of 48 (76th percentile) or higher is good enough for them; they do not need to have additional levels of score discrimination at higher levels. Because they do not need that info, they actually want GMAC to keep the current scoring scales. The schools already have their systems set up accordingly. In other words, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! (Have you heard that idiom before? You will not see it on the GMAT, but maybe you will in real life.) English After the last Summit, 2 years ago, we reported that the test has been “scrubbing” out American idioms and constructions that are used only in the Americanized version of English. Dr. Rudner reaffirmed this information. He also indicated that OG13 still contains examples of Americanized English that will no longer appear on the real test—so if you speak British English, Australian English, Indian English, or any other form, and you see a practice problem that seems wrong from your English’s point of view (such as collective nouns, which are singular in American English but plural in British English), then do not worry about learning that construction. They have pulled such constructions from the real test. Also, a note to American-centric students: they have started including certain details that might make you a little more uncomfortable (but your international counterparts have been dealing with such discomforts for years). For example, a math problem dealing with money might use pounds instead of dollars. Money is still money, but it is always a bit easier when you are reading about your own currency. A reading passage might talk about a historical figure who was very well known in Asia but not so well known in western countries; again, American-centric students have been benefiting from these kinds of subtle advantages for decades. Good luck with your prep; let us know if you have any questions! |
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Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 Wednesday, Apr 24, 2024 11:30am NY / 3:30pm London / 9pm Mumbai Watch earlier episodes of DI series below EP1: 6 Hardest Two-Part Analysis Questions EP2: 5 Hardest Graphical Interpretation Questions
Tuck at Dartmouth
AGSM at UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
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