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The mbaMission Blog

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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   10 Feb 2014, 12:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: Chicago Booth EMBA Appointed as Microsoft CEO
After 22 years at Microsoft, Satya Nadella was selected to replace Steve Balmer, as the software behemoth’s new CEO.  Lest anyone have any questions about Nadella’s discipline and devotion, he spent more than two years at Microsoft commuting from Seattle to Chicago every weekend, earning his Executive MBA at Chicago Booth (1997).

As Bloomberg Businessweek reports, Nadella—whose favorite classes at Chicago Booth were reportedly a leadership course taught by Marvin Zonis and “Entrepreneurial Finance and Private Equity,” taught by Steven Kaplan—had in fact originally set out to pursue a career in investment banking. His former teacher, Kaplan, recalls Nadella’s diligence, saying, “It was a good signal that he would do well because of the skills needed to succeed in my class—you have to be articulate, think clearly, be good on your feet. And that’s not a given for some students.”

Those same business skills will likely be put to the test, as Nadella confronts Microsoft’s flagging sales revenue and slow growth. Still, with an expected $18M in annual compensation, it seems sacrificing all those weekends has paid off.
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   11 Feb 2014, 13:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: I Did Well on the GMAT, But My AWA Score Is Low!
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.

You completed a GMAT prep course, studied hard and finally “nailed” the GMAT. However, you soon learn that your score on the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA), the essay portion of the GMAT, is low. Should you panic?

In short, the answer is … no! Although we have always encouraged business school candidates to do the best they can on the AWA, the truth of the matter is that we have never been told by an admissions officer—nor, as far as we know, has a candidate ever been told in a feedback session—that the AWA score is a factor in a school’s admit/reject decision. Generally, the AWA is not used to evaluate candidates, but to detect fraud.

If, hypothetically, you had tremendous difficulty expressing yourself via the AWA essays, but wrote like a Pulitzer Prize–winner in your application essays, the school would get suspicious and begin to compare the two. Not to worry—the schools are not punitive and are not acting as fraud squads. Your AWA essays are expected to be unpolished, so no one will seek out your file if you did your best in both areas. However, if an enormous discrepancy arises between the two, the AWA serves a purpose.

So, if you did well on the GMAT and have a low AWA score, that is unfortunate, but it will not be the difference in a school’s decision about your candidacy. Rest easy … as long as you truly did write both!
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   11 Feb 2014, 16:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: Former Manhattan Prep CEO Pens Book on Entrepreneurship
In an excerpt from his new book, Smart People Should Build Things (HarperCollins 2014), our friend, former Manhattan Prep CEO Andrew Yang, imparts some rather counterintuitive advice for those looking to launch a start-up: “Entrepreneurship isn’t about creativity.” Yang—who founded Venture for America—instead compares building a company to having a child, explaining that conception is often “followed by months of thankless hard work and waking up in the middle of the night.” While emphasis is typically placed on coming up with an inspired idea, he sees the “follow-through” as a far more crucial stage.

Yang enumerates several preliminary strategies for getting ready to launch your venture—many of which, we might add, draw upon the sort of skills and opportunities afforded by business school: expanding your network, seeking out potential investors, building financial projections and drafting up business plans, for example.
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   12 Feb 2014, 12:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Cameron Anderson, Haas School of Business
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a business school to attend, but the educational experience is what 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 focus on Cameron Anderson from the Haas School of Business at the University of California (UC) Berkeley.


Cameron Anderson (“Power and Politics in Organizations” and “Negotiations and Conflict Resolution”), who received his PhD from UC-Berkeley in 2001, came to Haas from New York University’s Stern School of Business in 2005. His teaching awards include Professor of the Year (at Stern) in 2005 and the Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching at Haas in 2008. His “Power and Politics in Organizations” course was described to mbaMission by a second year as “easily one of the most sought-after classes at Haas.” According to the course abstract, Anderson shows students in this course how to “diagnose organizational politics in order to form and implement new strategies.”

A second-year student we interviewed said the class “teaches students how to gain power and influence people without formal authority” and added that Anderson “teaches applicable skills based on academic research and case studies of great leaders from history. He uses assignments to force students to uncover their own tools of influence and develop strategies for acquiring power in our immediate careers after Haas. I think his class is popular because it’s academic, directly applicable, and introspective all at once.”

For more information on the defining characteristics of the MBA program at UC Berkeley Haas or one of 15 other top business schools, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   12 Feb 2014, 18:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: Alumni Giving at HBS Tops Pre-Crisis Levels
After seeing its annual alumni giving fall to $12M in 2009, Harvard Business School seems to be making a healthy financial rebound. According to a recently published report, HBS’s fundraising has topped its pre-financial crisis levels this year, totaling a record $22M in 2013—up 16% over 2012 and 29% over 2011. As Bloomberg Businessweek points out, these figures exceed the overall national average for donations to colleges and universities, which rose a comparatively modest 6.9% in 2013 and 6.2% in 2012.

This is good news for students and applicants, who may directly benefit from the surge in revenue. In addition to bolstering funding and tuition assistance—pushing the average amount of aid per student up to $30,725 this past year—HBS states that it will invest the unrestricted current use gifts in expanding entrepreneurial offerings.
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   13 Feb 2014, 12:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: Significant Others at Booth
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.

Booth Partners is an official school club with more than 175 members that is “designed to provide support throughout the Chicago Booth experience by hosting social events, offering advice about moving to and living in Chicago, and providing a networking resource for members who plan to work and volunteer while in Chicago,” declares the school’s Web site. During the school’s admit weekend, sessions are run by current partners to inform admitted Chicago Booth students and their significant others about life at the school, showing, said a partner with whom we spoke, “that the partner is recognized as an important part of the decision-making process.” She added, “Upon acceptance to Booth, not only does the student receive a letter, the partner does as well!”

Partners, with or without children, who move with their students to Chicago Booth can take advantage of what the group has to offer by paying a $100 lifetime membership fee or a $65 one-year membership fee. Membership benefits include invitations to partner parties, a weekly email newsletter called The Voice, and inclusion in sub-clubs, such as a Book Club, a Wine Club, etc. Events take place on average one to two times a week. The Booth Partners Web site offers information on moving to Chicago, with links to descriptions of area neighborhoods and apartment buildings as well as specific resources for international students and their significant others. In addition, the club has created a guidebook to life in Chicago that includes additional housing information as well as grocery shopping tips and other pointers.

Within the Booth Partners club is Partners of Little Ones (POLO), a resource targeted for students/partners with children. Information on weekly POLO play dates and other child-friendly activities are announced in The Voice. Said the partner with whom we spoke, “There are lots of resources available to make everyone that is special to a Booth student feel welcomed and cared for! As a Chicago Booth Partner, I have found the Booth Partners club to be an excellent organization in which to meet new people and participate in fun, interesting activities.”

For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at Chicago Booth and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   13 Feb 2014, 16:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Diamonds in the Rough: Rotterdam School of 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.

Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) at Erasmus University offers one of the top-ranked international MBA programs in Europe, drawing its strength from a broad general management curriculum with an overarching emphasis on sustainability. Through case studies and class discussion, real world problems and social and environmental questions are integrated into all aspects of the RSM program. Additionally, as a hub of global business, the city of Rotterdam provides students with unique networking and recruiting resources.

RSM students must undergo rigorous leadership training, with each of the four terms of the twelve-month, full-time program devoted to a different curricular component. A suite of core, foundations of management courses first equips students with theoretical tools that they later put to use in more applied contexts in their second term coursework.  In the third term, students select an advanced course in their chosen area of career specialization. They also gain hands-on experience through the week-long “Living Management Consulting Project”—a course that pairs teams of students with a participating company to solve a current business problem—and through the Themed Research International Project, which entails a field trip to network with corporate industry representatives and executives in a global business hub. In their final term, students can further enhance their career specialization through elective courses, a leadership retreat, dual degree options, or exchange programs with other top-ranked institutions.
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   14 Feb 2014, 13:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Columbia’s Program for Financial Studies
Already well known as a finance powerhouse, Columbia Business School stepped up its finance game with the establishment of the Program for Financial Studies in 2010. The umbrella initiative connects faculty who approach financial studies from a variety of disciplines with students, alumni and external organizations. The program’s main goals are to support research, to enhance the Columbia finance curriculum and related resources for students and to create opportunities for the exchange of ideas between Columbia students and faculty and members of the external finance community. Finance wonks will enjoy the program’s finance case studies, including “The Norwegian Government Pension Fund: The Divestiture of Wal-Mart Inc.,” written by Professor Andrew Ang and “Don’t Be Evil: Google’s 2004 Dutch Auction Initial Public Offering,” written by the program’s director, Professor Laurie Hodrick.

For more information on other defining characteristics of the MBA program at CBS or one of 15 other top business schools, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. If you are applying, our CBS Interview Guide can help you put your best foot forward.
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   17 Feb 2014, 09:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Intrigue Your Reader with a Bit of Mystery
High school students are often taught that they must begin an essay with an introduction that outlines all of the issues that will addressed in the rest of the text. We have found that offering such comprehensive introductions is not, however, very effective for application essays. These sorts of openings leave little to no mystery for the body of the essay, which means the reader could easily lose interest.

The following paragraph, which is an introduction to an application essay on one’s “impact on a group and what he/she learned from the experience,” is basically a series of stylistic errors—one of the most egregious of which is eliminating the mystery by frontloading with too much information:

“My most crucial task this past year was managing a project in collaboration with Oracle to develop a $10.5M integrated database system for large clothing retailers. I led a 26-member team from my firm, ABC Technology, and Oracle to establish the design, monitor the systems and train new members to manage the completed project. I also evaluated security risks, managed budgetary needs and developed quality assurance testing plans to meet Oracle and retailer specifications. I faced many challenges while working with culturally and geographically diverse teams, but overcame these challenges through unique team-building exercises and my own effective leadership, and we completed the project on time.”

In this poorly written paragraph, the reader does not receive merely an introduction to the significant issues, but rather an abbreviated version of the entire story. By the end of this paragraph, the reader knows not only what all of the technical and human resource issues were but also that they were ultimately overcome and that the project was delivered on time. What is left for the reader to discover?
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   18 Feb 2014, 13:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: Do I Need to Know Alumni?
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.

We find that because the overall pool of MBA candidates is so anonymous, many applicants believe that any negative difference, however minimal, that exists between them and other candidates could represent a huge disadvantage. For example, a candidate who has no alumni connection to his/her target school may become anxious that he/she is already “behind” at the starting line. We can assure you that if you are a strong candidate, you will not be “dinged” by a school just because you do not have a relationship with any of the program’s alumni. In fact, the vast majority of candidates will not have direct connections with alumni from their target business schools.

The bottom line is that in some cases, if you know a powerful alumnus or alumna, he/she may be able to help you in your candidacy. However, a standout candidate who does not have such a connection will generally still succeed, and a weak candidate with an alumni connection will likely still fail. So focus on crafting your best application possible, and do not worry about minor perceived weaknesses. You can succeed on your own, regardless of who you know—or do not know.
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   19 Feb 2014, 12:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Rawi Abdelal, Harvard Business School
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a school to attend, but the educational experience is what 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 focus on Rawi Abdelal from Harvard Business School (HBS).


Rawi Abdelal (“Business Government and the International Economy”) is the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration and chair of HBS’s first-year required curriculum (known as the RC). In addition to teaching, he serves as a faculty associate at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, an international research center that facilitates individual academic research as well as intellectual dialogue among scholars and practicing experts. Abdelal also serves on the executive committee of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. His first book, National Purpose in the World Economy: Post-Soviet States in Comparative Perspective (Cornell University Press, 2001), won the 2002 Shulman Prize for outstanding monograph dealing with the international relations, foreign policy or foreign-policy decision making of any former Soviet Union or Eastern European state. That same year, he received the Robert F. Greenhill Award, given to outstanding members of the HBS community who are making significant contributions to the school, and in 2004, he was awarded the Student Association’s Faculty Award for outstanding teaching in the RC.

Abdelal is a student favorite, we were told by those we interviewed, because of his willingness to spend time with students outside the classroom (even those who are not in his section), explaining macroeconomic concepts that can be difficult to grasp. He is also known for incorporating unusual references from literature and popular culture into his class discussions. He has made allusions to Shakespeare, the movie Fight Club and even rapper Jay-Z’s song “Blue Magic” to help explain complex topics.

For more information about HBS and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   19 Feb 2014, 16:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: B-School Chart of the Week: January 2014 Social Currency Rankings
Rankings come in all shapes and sizes, but can any ranking truly capture social cachet? For a different perspective on the value of an MBA, we turn to the New York Times society pages, where the editors select and profile promising couples. Each month, we dedicate one B-School Chart of the Week to tallying how alumni from top-ranked business schools are advancing their social currency ranking.

With the start of the new year, Wharton and Columbia Business School  (CBS) took the lead in our social currency rankings, racking up two MBA mentions each in the New York Times wedding announcements for the month of January—though Wharton did not quite match its impressive four mentions seen the previous year. Jonathan Stopol, an analyst at Kingdon Capital Management who was married to Melissa Bordin, and Larry Waddell, chief operating officer of SEET Interactive who was married to Rebecca Aspden, became the first of Wharton’s newlywed alumni for 2014.

At CBS, Mary Bartos, who is currently studying for her MBA, married Richard Falotico, and alumnus Christopher Russo, a senior associate at Morgan Stanley, was wed to Emily Sedlis. Other MBA matrimonial mentions last month involved B-schools that were represented in 2013’s January rankings, including a student from NYU Stern and an alumnus from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

We are still in the “first inning.” As you can tell from last year’s final tally, we have a long way to go before trends start to emerge…
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   20 Feb 2014, 12:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: Columbia Business School’s Pre-MBA World Tour
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.

Although Columbia Business School (CBS) does not organize any official pre-term trips for students, the student body has recently begun organizing what it calls the Pre-MBA World Tour. Three trips run in parallel throughout June and July, and each includes a visit to five or six countries. Students can join any part of the trip, for any period of time that is convenient. The trips are completely organized by students, though CBS encourages and supports the initiative. Trip destinations in summer 2013 included Peru, Oman, South Africa, Israel, Hong Kong, Thailand, Costa Rica, Cuba, Turkey, France, Budapest, and Japan.

For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at CBS and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   21 Feb 2014, 14:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Stanford GSB Supports International Students
With more than one-third of Stanford’s aspiring MBAs having been born outside the United States, the school provides a wide variety of support services for its international students. Before arriving on campus, admitted international students receive information crucial to the logistical and social challenges they may face, including how to obtain a study visa for the United States, how to obtain a U.S. Social Security number and how to adapt to an American classroom environment. Once on campus, first-year students from outside the United States are strongly encouraged to share their perspective in global business courses and can attend seminars and workshops designed to increase their confidence and improve their skills in written and spoken English via the Management Communication Program. And of course, international students frequently participate and lead clubs, including the Africa Business Club, the Europe Club, the Asian Society and the Middle East and North Africa Club. To help with their international career search, students can count on a dedicated international career coach. The Bechtel International Center also offers additional support for international students, including U.S. employment and tax workshops, as well as advisory services on visa and immigration issues. In addition, the center hosts an International Playgroup for children and an International Women’s Circle. Finally, the center provides modest stipends for the spouses of MBA students to pursue their educational and career goals through the Spouse Education Fund.

For more information on other defining characteristics of the MBA program at Stanford or one of 15 other top business schools, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   24 Feb 2014, 09:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Vary Your Sentence Length
Many essay writers use medium-length sentences (like this one) in their essays. Few use short sentences (like this one). Likewise, few use long sentences in their essays, even though long sentences (like this one) can often play a useful role in an essay’s structure and story.

Confused? Consider the following example:

“At XYZ Inc., I was the manager in charge of leading a team of 12 staff members. Included in my team were four engineers, four marketing professionals and four market analysts. Our goal was to develop a new thingamajig within six months. We worked really hard over the six months and succeeded. The new thingamajig is now on the market and is selling well. As a result of my efforts, I was promoted to vice-president.”

All of these sentences have approximately the same number of words—and the same rhythm/cadence. Thus, as a group, they are fairly boring to read. Nothing changes. The structure just repeats itself over and over again, as medium-length sentence follows medium-length sentence.

Now consider this example:*

“At XYZ Inc., I was the manager in charge of leading a thingamajig development team consisting of 12 staff members, four of whom were engineers, four were marketing professionals and four were market analysts. We had just six months to launch our new product. The team worked really hard over the six months and succeeded, and the new thingamajig is now on the market, where it is selling well. As a result of my efforts, I was promoted to vice-president.”

The sentences in this paragraph are varied—the first is quite long, the second is very short, the third is medium-long and the fourth medium-short. Sentence variety makes for a much more interesting read, and one very short sentence in the middle of some longer ones can provide precisely the kind of contrast and drama that MBA application essays so often need.

*This is a simplified example for illustration purposes. If this were an actual essay, we would encourage the applicant to offer greater insight into his/her experience launching the product.
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   24 Feb 2014, 12:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: Taking the GMAT Cold
Preparing for the GMAT is perhaps one of the most time-consuming components of your business school application. If you have ever wondered how you would fare taking the test cold, you might first read about one such experience recounted in Bloomberg Businessweek. Unlike the half of test-takers who devote at least 51 hours of preparation, the author takes the exam without studying at all and manages to pull off a surprisingly respectable 640—placing her below the average scores, yet within the admissions range for most top-ranking business schools (550-789 for HBS and 630-790 for Wharton, for example). That said, while a 640 is a respectable “cold” score, we would assume that with extensive preparation, this candidate could improve significantly. It may defy the point of her article, but we would suggest that she prep and take the test again to increasing her chances of gaining that coveted letter of acceptance.
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   25 Feb 2014, 11:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: High Pay, Low Morale on Wall Street
Working on Wall Street is a widespread ambition for many MBAs. Why then, as Kevin Roose asks in The Atlantic this week, are young bankers often so miserable? Despite a sizable starting pay—which, including bonuses, averages between $90k and $140k for first-year bankers straight out of college—the gilded career path of high finance is not without certain emotional and psychological strain. Following several Wall Street careerists over the course of three years, Roose observes that “hardly an interview went by without a young banker confessing his or her struggles with depression and health problems, expressing a desire to quit, or simply complaining about how working in finance was ruining the pleasures of normal life.”

Roose suggests three factors contribute to the apparent morale problem facing fresh-faced Wall Street bankers: hours, money and purpose. Working long hours usually means not only staying at the office late, but being constantly on-call, and thus results in “a state of perpetual anxiety” in which “advance planning becomes impossible.” The payoff for such hard work, while still significantly higher than most other industries, is also less secure for junior bankers than it was prior to the financial crisis, as staff layoffs have become more common.

Finally, Roose suggests that meaningful creative work is lacking in the investment banking culture and argues that for these “young Wall Streeters in the post-crash era, the promise of a six-figure paycheck alone just doesn’t cut it anymore.” So, while Wall Street may present an attractive and lucrative career option for many college grads and MBAs, that option is increasingly being weighed against quality of life.
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Re: The mbaMission Blog [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   25 Feb 2014, 14:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: Be Sincere; the MBA Admissions Committee Will Believe You
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.

Candidates are often skeptical about whether MBA admissions committees will believe their stories. After all, is anyone available to corroborate that you were what made the difference in a particular situation—that you had that particular innovative idea? The response to this concern is pretty simple: if what you are describing actually happened, you do not need to worry about your credibility. You just need to write about your experience with sincerity. If you can offer details about the events as part of a narrative, the story will unfold logically and truthfully and will have its desired impact. Conversely, if your story is basic and vague, it will not come across as compelling (regardless of its veracity).

An equally important point is that you are innocent until proven guilty. The MBA admissions committee is not assuming that you are a liar and reading your applications seeking proof of facts that are in doubt. They are taking stories at face value, recognizing that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction and that strong candidates will stand out on the strength of their experiences.

In addition, if you accomplished something truly remarkable, you can always ask your recommender to emphasize this in his/her letter. This does not mean that the committee is seeking proof and that if something is not highlighted in a reference, it will not be believed. Still, your recommender can play an important role in legitimizing certain accomplishments.
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Professor Profiles: Louis Thomas, Indian School of Business [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   26 Feb 2014, 11:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Louis Thomas, Indian School of Business
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when choosing a business school, but the educational experience is what 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 focus on Louis Thomas from the Indian School of Business (ISB).

Also a professor at Wharton, Louis Thomas (“Economics of Strategy”) received the ISB’s Professor of the Year Award from the school’s Mohali campus Class of 2013 for his excellence in teaching and mentorship. With a focus on competitive strategy, game theory, and organization economics, Thomas’s “Economics of Strategy” course is reportedly one of the most popular at the school. Students quoted on the school’s Web site have said of his teaching and class, “Economics was never so much fun!” and “Excellent course material, incredible sense of humor, intellectual rigour in class discussions.”

For more information about the ISB and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
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Beyond the MBA Classroom: Lounging at Yale’s Gryphon’s Pub [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   27 Feb 2014, 12:00
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: Lounging at Yale’s Gryphon’s Pub
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.

Located in a Gothic-style building on York Street in the heart of Old Campus at Yale University, Gryphon’s Pub has been run by the Graduate & Professional Student Center at Yale since the 1970s. This members-only club is managed by Yale graduate students and features several lounges, a big-screen TV, pool tables, and nightly drink specials. Membership dues, which were $20 in 2014, are considered a bargain, given the $2–$4 cover charge (which members are not required to pay) and the frequency with which students tend to find themselves at Gryphon’s!

For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at the Yale SOM and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
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