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- Understandably so, "[t]he public is increasingly displeased with colleges often being run like businesses," reports a recent Daily Pennsylvanian article entitled "Cost of higher ed upsets public." In fact, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 60% of Americans think that all colleges care about is their bottom line. 69% of Americans recognize that with the price hikes, highly qualified people can simply not afford to attend college these days. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni is urging universities to make cuts and "demanding that trustees step up to the plate" because the public is "fed up." According to Penn Dean of Admissions Eric Furda, Penn is working extra hard to reach lower income students. And, in response to the accusations of running universities like businesses, Furda explains that Penn truly does prioritize education over business. While there is undeniably a business side to college administration, says Furda, we need to always keep education in focus.
- In an interesting BusinessWeek article, "From B-School to the Big House," Alison Damast describes an innovative new program that brings together the skills of MBA students with the ambitions of inmates in local prisons. The goal of the program is to help inmates acquire business skills that will then help them find a job upon release. "We're hoping we can give [the inmates] some real-life business skills that will help reacclimate these individuals to the business world, get jobs, and prepare them to succeed once they get there," explains one Emory Goizueta student. These prisoners are often quick learners—"crime is, after all, entrepreneurial," Damast reminds us in her article. There are currently 61 MBA students from 16 MBA programs across the country involved in the Prison Entrepreneurship Program. Represented schools include Duke Fugua and UC Berkeley Haas.
- Wharton's free online research newsletter has just gone Arabic, in an initiative to show off the top MBA's program's authority on business in the Middle East, reports the Financial Times. The Arabic version of Knowledge@Wharton (which will also be published in English) will focus on the role the Middle East plays in the global economy. Wharton also publishes a Chinese version (in Chinese and English), an Indian version (in English), and a Latin American version (in Spanish, Portuguese, and English). According to a Daily Pennsylvanian article on the same subject, an Australian version of Knowledge@Wharton will be launched next month.
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What MBA Programs Should You Apply To Next Season?
It’s late February, already in the ebb of the current MBA admissions season. As such, it’s the perfect time for people considering applying next season to break out of hibernation and start tackling a part of the process that is often shortchanged: school selection.
In ten-plus years of MBA admissions consulting I have found that a large percentage of otherwise highly capable and focused people basically wing it when it comes to this list. “I’m just applying to all the top ten.” Top ten according to what source? “I realize now [after R2 deadlines have passed] I was overreaching. Are there any good schools I can still apply to?” Probably. “I’m applying to H/S/W, with Duke as my safety.” Duke as your safety? By starting to plan your list of prospective schools now, you can avoid these and similar problems (yes, these responses are all problems).
By taking a thoughtful, systematic approach to school selection, you will save time, money, and effort (even if you expend more of all initially). You will save precious energy for the applications. You will be able to start planning school visits and recommendations, two things that often get tangled up when approached in the heat of the application season.
Over the next month I will present a series of blog posts providing tips and approaches to developing a solid list of schools. Each person’s needs are unique, and there is no one formula that works for everyone, so it will be less a step-by-step process than a guide showing what questions to ask yourself, how to answer them, and make decisions accordingly. We’ll cover assessing your profile; determining your needs, wants, and dislikes; the role of rankings; how many schools to apply to; and other topics. We’ll also provide examples.
Ready? Here are a couple of things you can and should do right now to get started on the school selection process for next season:
- Capture on paper or whatever electronic medium you prefer those random thoughts that have been floating around in your head, e.g., “top 10”; “friendly to older applicants”; “strong quant focus”; “need to be able to fly home to my ailing mother in an hour.”
- Read blogs of MBA students not just at schools you’re already interested in but from a wider array, to get a subjective feel for different programs and your responses to them (pay attention to your responses!).
- If possible talk to MBA students and ask them about their school selection process; what went well and what proved difficult or problematic; what they would do differently.
- Visit schools now! Visit schools you know you are interested in (you can always re-visit later), schools you might be interested in, even schools on the margins. It’s the perfect time: schools are in session, you’re not pressed by the application process yet, and it’s close enough to application time for your insights to be relevant if you discuss them in essays. Take advantage of any travel you may do for business or pleasure to schedule a visit, rather than trying to cram everything in the fall – a time when you’ll be even busier than usual with applications plus work. Moreover, visiting now gives you time to digest and reflect on the experience.
 By Cindy Tokumitsu, co-author of The Finance Professional’s Guide to MBA Success, The Consultants’ Guide to MBA Admission, The EMBA Edge, and author of numerous MBA articles and the free, email mini-course, "Ace the EMBA."
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Average 2008 GMAT: 696
Average 2008 Acceptance Rate: 30%
Average 2008 (mid 80% range) GPA: 3.01-3.83
Class Size: 434
2010 Application Deadlines: Early Action - October 6, 2009, November 12, 2009, January 7, 2010, March 9, 2010
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