Meet Georgetown McDonough’s MBA Class Of 2023

“Global mindset” is a popular term in business school — and one sometimes misunderstood. You don’t need to speak a different tongue, master international etiquette, or indulge cosmopolitan tastes to have a global mindset. Instead, it is a way of looking at the world, a curiosity in people and an openness to difference. With a global mindset, you are always seeking to learn, never hesitant to act, and always fixing your eye on the bigger picture and the greater good.

This mindset is also a cornerstone of the MBA experience at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. The larger university boasts one of the world’s top international affairs programs — and McDonough itself ranks 3rd for its international business program according to the 2021 U.S. News survey of business school deans and directors. From international projects to exchange opportunities, you’d be hard-pressed to top McDonough. Just look at the overseas experiences racked up by Loretta Richardson, a 2020 grad who is now a communications manager with Microsoft.

A GLOBAL TOUR DE FORCE

“In just two years, I studied, served, and conducted business in six countries! I participated in programs that allowed me to consult with social enterprises in Columbia, rebrand consumer products in Brazil, and network with the c-suite of the first Ghanian-owned oil and gas company. It humbles and inspires me to continue learning, exchange ideas, connect with those around me, and ultimately lead with empathy and service top of mind.”

Julian Barquin moved to DC to be part of McDonough’s mission: “To educate the “best of the world, to be the best for the world.” He wasn’t alone in that regard. For Dazell D. Washington, an economist-turned-educator, McDonough was a chance to hone his “cross-cultural communication skills.” Those skills will be put to test in the cornerstone of the McDonough MBA: The Global Business Experience.

“The course provides MBA students with an opportunity to travel abroad to consult for leading global employers on real-life business problems,” writes Ameya Deshmukh, an engineer who has worked in India, the UAE, and the United States “It sounded like a great opportunity to explore different business environments and build a global “perspective.”

Washington, DC

“CURA PERSONALIS”

This global focus is also rooted in Georgetown’s legacy of service. At McDonough, leadership is defined by compassion, self-control, and accountability — fostering dignity, living ethically, and taking action. The underlying philosophy is Cura Personalis, or the Jesuit term for “Care for the whole person.” For Tanvi Seth, a Johnson & Johnson technology lead, this translates to leadership where influence holds greater sway than title and impact trumps accolades. More than that, it represents a model where leadership is grounded in continuous growth: mental, physical, and spiritual.

“Georgetown McDonough, through its Jesuit values, has built a culture of collaboration over competition, emphasizing the importance of paying it forward and always lending a hand,” writes Leena Jube, a 2021 grad and P&Q Best & Brightest MBA. “This was an ethos I identified with and then experienced first-hand.”

That is by design, says Alberto Rossi, an associate professor of finance at the school. For him, McDonough differentiates itself by its end goal: pursuing good over advancing careers. It is a theme that is woven into every day in every class.

“Georgetown is incredibly interested in developing ethical leaders who can think about what they can do to improve the world,” Rossi adds in a 2021 interview with P&Q. “We need leaders that do not only think about the bottom line, but do what companies are supposed to do: Benefit society. Students are going to be able to take advantage of the tools taught in this initiative to benefit everyone.”

DC IS THE PLACE TO BE

There is no better place to do that than Washington, DC. Here, you’ll find an outpost for nearly every company that matters. That doesn’t count a robust startup and non-profit ecosystem, along with embassies for over 180 countries. That’s because DC is where decisions are made that affect everyone. And it’s also why sustainability has emerged alongside international business as one of McDonough’s hallmarks.

“One of the things that drew me to the faculty of Georgetown 11 years ago is that Georgetown is a place which naturally lends itself very well to looking at sustainability, especially in connecting policy and business,” explains Vishal Agrawal, the Henry J. Blommer Family endowed chair in sustainable business at McDonough, in a 2021 Q&A with P&Q. “Georgetown and Washington, D.C., is a perfect place to be in that regard. Georgetown also has this emphasis on society. Finally, sustainability challenges are always global in nature, no matter what you’re talking about, and that’s where Georgetown shines as well.”

Think of it as the best of two worlds. Dazell D. Washington reveres DC for its “mix of East Coast vibrancy and Southern charm.” In contrast, Philip Busick, a U.S. Special Forces officer, lauds the nation’s capital for being “at the intersection of business, politics, and culture.” Together, these elements make for an unforgettable MBA experience.

“There are so many opportunities to get involved in the various agencies and nonprofits to explore various ways that I can help make a difference in the lives of historically excluded people within the US,” adds Rio M. Dennis. “I’ve always loved this city with its scenery, food, diversity, and the general vibe. I’m so excited to be here for the next few years!”

McDonough Classroom

TRANSFORMING ORGANIZATIONS

A Wharton-trained analyst, Dennis most recently worked at Goldman Sachs where her gap analysis on inefficiencies projected a savings of 15 hours per week for her team. “We were ultimately able to solidify these conversations into Best Practices Guidelines that are now used as a part of the training materials for new joiners and as refresher training for teams on a yearly basis. This project promoted better communication between the various stakeholder groups, decreased the time to onboard clients, and created better strategic partnerships within the division.”

Ameya Deshmukh is equally impressive in project management. At Adidas, he automated one facility’s material handling process using automated mobile robots. The result: Deshmukh boosted efficiency by 8% and saved $400K in operational overhead. At Marks & Spencer, Flora van Vredenburch — who earned her pilot’s license at 18 — spearheaded the company’s launch of its premium grills. By the same token, Rachel Solomon Nambi spent five years in a dance company that preformed at festivals, weddings, and even live television. After that, she moved onto being a lead analyst at the Boston Consulting Group, where she was a key part of the firm’s global digital transformation.

“In that effort, I led an agile product from concept to launch, including the research, design, development, and product rollout. From a technical perspective, I was able to hone my expertise in drafting requirements and working with engineers. From a customer lens, I learned how to apply their feedback to make the product the best it could be. Each step stretched me in a way I hadn’t experienced before – it required a deep level of detail, strategy, and a little bit of thick skin, but the payoff at launch made it all worth it.”

PUBLIC SECTOR BONAFIDES

The Class of 2023 also excelled in the public sector. Brendan Gernes ran an $8.9 million dollar USDA-funded trade project in Paraguay. His responsibilities included setting up the financial and operational systems from scratch and training a 14-member staff. The catch, of course, was he handled all this remotely since he couldn’t enter the country due to COVID restrictions. For Dazell D. Washington, business school may come as a reprieve after developing and launching a blending learning platforms at his middle school — an effort that had floundered for five years before he arrived.

“While I faced numerous challenges throughout—including budget cuts, contract renegotiations, and the loss of our first-choice platform—the inclusive, collaborative approach led to independent use of the platform by 75% of teachers. The corresponding student population, on average, grew 1.25 grade levels within three months and 2 grade levels within six months of the launch. As my first formal leadership role, the initiative truly demonstrated that great leaders lead alongside their teams, elevating the voices and ideas of those at all levels — enlivening the proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

MBA students at Georgetown’s McDonough School

Julian Barquin made his name in government, serving as legislative counsel to Uruguay’s Senator Carmen Asiain. In this role, he was able to construct policies that paid off.

In my last pre-MBA role I was privileged to be part of an incredibly accomplished team, working in one of the most challenging years for policy making. We were able to pass a law requiring accessible facemasks in public places, aiming at hearing-impaired individuals who became ‘de facto’ unable to communicate due to facemask mandates. We also helped Uruguay’s Food Bank with a tax incentive scheme that helped them distribute 460,000 kg of food among 92,000 Uruguayans at the surge of the COVID economic crisis.”

A REBOUND YEAR

By the numbers, the Class of 2023 represents a rebound year for Georgetown McDonough. After receiving fewer applications and reducing class size in response to COVID last year, McDonough improved in both measures during the 2020-2021 cycle. Applications climbed from 1,482 to 1,625, which helped to boost class size from 247 to 283 students. Despite these increases, it was actually harder to land a spot in the fall class, as the acceptance rate dipped from 57% to 48%.

Here’s another measure that reflected better health for the McDonough MBA: Average GMAT jumped from 691 to 705, with scores ranging from 660-740 in the mid-80% range. That said, nearly half of the class also furnished GRE scores, which averaged 318 according to the school. Average GPA also came in at 3.35, a slight uptick over the previous year. In terms of class composition, women again accounted for 32% of the class, though the percentage of women receiving acceptance letters increased by 6%. With many COVID restrictions lifted, McDonough raised its percentage of international students from 27% to 37%.

As undergraduates, 29% of the class majored in Business, making it the largest segment of the class. The number Is even larger if you factor in Economics, another 11% share. STEM and Liberal Arts each hold a 30% share of the class. Among the STEM population, 17% majored in Engineering, followed by Math and Physical Science (9%) and Computer Sciences (4%). Along the same lines, Government and International Studies majors make up 14% of class, trailed by Humanities (12%) and Social Sciences (4%).

Next Page: An interview with the Senior Associate Dean at McDonough MBA

Page 3: Profiles of 12 members of the Class of 2023

Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business

MENTORING FOR GROWTH

Admissions isn’t the only area where the numbers were promising. In the newly-released employment report for the Class of 2021, 96% of graduates had received a job offer within three months of earning their diploma (with 95% having already started work during that period). Grads pulled average starting bases of $126,017, which was supplemented by average signing bonuses of $34,013. Here’s one more number that stands out: 78% of these jobs were facilitated by McDonough itself. 35% of the graduating class landed jobs in consulting, with financial services recruiting another 27%. While McDonough doesn’t report specifics, this year’s top employers included Amazon, PwC, Deloitte, Barclays, Google, and Citigroup.

Yes, McDonough was a popular place in 2021 — and very active. For one, the school has developed a mentoring program that pairs first-year MBAs with an alumni member. Far more than career networking, the program was designed to help MBAs better navigate areas like work-life balance and life-long learning. McDonough MBAs have taken to it immediately. In the fall of 2020, 133 first-years — or more than half the class — had joined the mentoring program.

“The basic philosophy that we agreed upon that would drive this program was inspired by our Jesuit roots and our Jesuit heritage,” Prashant Malaviya, senior associate dean of the McDonough MBA, told P&Q. “The big one for us is educating the whole person. What educating the whole person meant in this mentorship program was really about not just providing people career support or job leads, but actually helping the person grow as an individual, talking to them more about things that are, in fact, not about your job.”

PROMOTING THE COMMON GOOD

The program has also developed an initiative on the future of work, which connects MBAs to thought leaders and decision-makers through workshops, internships, guest speakers, and research fellowships. In its early incarnation, the initiative has focused heavily on technology, particularly artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data. Long-term, the school intends to extend this initiative towards student and company partnerships. For now, the goal is to help MBAs apply these technologies in ways that promote the “common good.”

Georgetown McDonough’s Paul Almeida. McDonough photo

“As we study the changes to the future of work, it is our duty to explore how these changes affect the most vulnerable members of our society and provide a path forward – either through faculty research, student consulting projects, or new programs that work directly with organizations,” explains Paul Almeida, dean and William R. Berkley Chair at the McDonough School, in a 2021 interview with P&Q. “We will continue to be innovative in our approach to this issue as we build our capabilities in this area. Through our research and programs, we will address ways to ensure no one is left behind.”

The common good is also the motivation behind McDonough’s deepening investments in sustainability. This year, the school also launched its Master of Science in Environment and Sustainability Management, an 11-month interdisciplinary program that’s capped off by a client project in the field. Notably, the program focuses on how climate change impacts company operations and how these organizations can reduce their climate impact, explains Vishal Agrawal. What’s more, the program was developed to fill a certain gap in the marketplace, he tells P&Q.

“What’s been interesting is there’s been an evolution on the business side as well. When I first started out, a lot of my conversations with companies tended to be, “Why should we think about sustainability? What is the business case?” These days, the conversation is slightly different. Businesses know they want to do something, but they want to know how to do it.”

That creates opportunities for McDonough MBAs, Agrawal adds. “A lot of businesses would like folks who could be the liaison between the environmental scientists and the core business folks. “This program’s unique blend of both is meant to help graduates create feasible and implementable change.”

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN

What else can MBAs expect from an already-ambitious McDonough MBA program? This fall, P&Q reached out to Prashant Malaviya, the school’s Senior Associate Dean of MBA Programs and Professor of Marketing. Here are his thoughts on new developments, along with his insights on McDonough staples like the Global Business Experience and the Executive Challenge.

P&Q: What are the two most exciting developments at your program and how will they enrich the MBA experience for current and future MBAs?

PM: “At Georgetown McDonough, we have been focused on two important aspects of the MBA experience: preparing our students to develop and lead diverse organizations and building upon our strong sense of community.

Several years ago, we implemented a new opening term course for all MBA students on Leading Teams for Performance and Impact, which explores the dynamics of diversity and inclusion, implicit biases, conflict and civility, and giving and receiving feedback. Last year we also added to our leadership curriculum a course on Inclusion and Innovation, which is designed to help students understand and practice inclusive management skills that will enable them to effectively identity and develop high-impact, data-driven innovations for and with an increasingly diverse world. We also are incorporating DEI efforts into existing courses. For example, our Power and Politics course now includes a Racial Equity Action Plan assignment, with the results being shared with the school’s Standing Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Prashant Malaviya

The virtual environment of the past year provided an opportunity to connect our students with alumni mentors from across the world. In the fall, we launched a new MBA Mentorship Program for our full-time MBAs, and we were able to pair all 130 students interested in participating with an alumni mentor. Beyond career advice, this program focuses on whole-life experiences, from navigating the MBA to work-life balance to intergenerational relationship-building.

Additionally, the educational climate throughout the pandemic made it clear that we needed to double-down on our Jesuit value of cura personalis, or care for the whole person. Our MBA program launched a series of virtual events called Operation: Cura Personalis to focus on the overall well-being of our community. The “missions’ ‘ focused on happiness and well-being, laughter, gratitude, and nourishing mind, body, and spirit. We eventually expanded the offerings throughout the rest of the academic year to include all McDonough faculty, staff, students, and alumni with events on mindful cooking with Food Network Star Melissa D’Arabian (MBA’93), financial wellness with Sheila Walsh (MBA’08), the Happiness Project with Karen Guggenheim (EMBA’15), Sleep 101: Increasing Productivity, Health, and Well-Being, and a screening of the film When We Gather followed by a discussion with Wendi Norris (MBA’96) and the film’s creators.”

P&Q: What are two biggest differentiating features of your MBA program? How do each of these enrich the learning of your MBA students?

PM: “At Georgetown McDonough, our community is a defining feature. True to our Jesuit values, we believe in cura personalis, or care of the whole person and we live that value through a culture that supports each student’s overall well-being. Georgetown McDonough is known for its collaborative nature and a spirit of “Hoyas Helping Hoyas” where students, alumni, faculty, and staff all work in support of one another. For example, this past year during the pandemic, we wanted to find a way to bring our community together during a time of virtual interactions and social distancing. One way we accomplished this was through our Operation: Cura Personalis, which began around Thanksgiving as a way to bring the community together in support of one another, to make meaningful connections, and to remind ourselves of the power of laughter.

This culture of support combined with the virtual environment also created an unprecedented level of engagement with our alumni community. Alumni connected with our students as guest speakers in classes and faculty office hours, offered internships and jobs to our students, and volunteered to be mentors to our first-year students. In launching a new MBA Mentorship Program, we were able to connect all 130 students seeking a mentor with an alumnus to help them navigate the MBA experience and the working world that awaits after graduation.

Our other differentiating feature is our location in Washington, D.C. More than 200 years ago, Georgetown University was founded to educate leaders for our new nation. Our longstanding reputation and relationships throughout the city — from the halls of government to the innovative startup and tech scene — provide our students with experiences, expertise, and connections not found elsewhere. As a global capital city, DC is home to embassies, multinationals, and nonprofits, and is the headquarters of numerous businesses — including Amazon’s new HQ2. It is where the worlds of business, policy, and international relations meet, and our MBAs graduate with exposure to all three.”

MBA students looking out at the McDonough campus.

P&Q: In recent years, there have been several areas that have gained increased prominence in business school programming, including STEM, analytics, artificial intelligence and digital disruption. How does your full-time MBA program integrate these concepts across its curriculum?

PM: “At Georgetown McDonough, we have been focused on preparing our graduates to succeed in the workplace of the future. In talking to employers and graduates, we have honed in on the most important skills and qualities students must possess to add value to their organizations immediately after graduation and well into the future.

As a result, we have spent the last five years adding more quantitative and management science content to our core and elective courses, as well as our extracurricular offerings. Examples include a new MBA Certificate in Data Analytics and Insights, as well as courses like Analytics Advantage, Customer Analytics, The Fintech Revolution, Applied Data Visualization, and others. There also is an MBA HoyAlytics Club for students interested in data analytics. This allowed us to offer a STEM-designated management science major to our curriculum that has been available for students who graduated in May 2020 onwards.”

P&Q: What have you learned during the pandemic and the shift to hybrid or remote learning and how will they impact the MBA experience going forward?

PM: “Shifting to a virtual learning environment caused all of higher education to re-examine how we teach, how students learn, and how to maximize learning through new methods. At McDonough, there are several new approaches our faculty intends to continue into the future:

* Better connections with the alumni network: We learned to be more creative in how we engage our alumni community. Individuals who are geographically distant were still able to speak in class, mentor students, and engage with the school. A great example of this was the amazingly successful virtual Executive Challenge, where more than 100 alumni volunteered to role play cases with our entire first-year MBA class as part of their Leadership Communications final exam.

* Greater access to high-level business leaders: While we frequently attract c-suite executives to our campus who are traveling to D.C. for business reasons, even with travel restrictions we were able to capitalize on our prior relationships with global executives and invited them to continue to engage with us and our students virtually.

* More engaging teaching methodology: Much of our teaching methodology was altered to overcome Zoom fatigue, and faculty report that interactive experiences like sharing a personal story related to the day’s topic or virtually collaborating with others outside of the class using digital connection tools will continue in the in-person classroom.

* Assessments that better match real-world expectations: Our faculty utilized more experiential, project-based assessments and less traditional quizzes, which helps replicate skills students will need in the workforce.

* Judicious use of synchronous and asynchronous instruction to maximize learning and optimize engagement: Professors used the virtual environment to create digital content and gamified the learning of content, allowing students to level-set on material outside of class and then maximize the synchronous time on nuanced concepts and higher-order learning.

* Better use of digital collaboration and community building technologies: Professors reported using collaboration tools, community discussion platforms, and breakout rooms, allowing for smaller-group discussions that were shared with the rest of the students in the class in real time, fostering broader contributions from fellow students.”

Next Page: Profiles of 12 members of the Class of 2023

Solar panels outside Row Houses at Georgetown University.

P&Q: The larger Georgetown University is known for its public policy and international development programming. How does McDonough connect to the larger Georgetown (and even Washington DC) ecosystem to provide opportunities for MBA students?

PM: “A differentiating quality of the Georgetown MBA is the opportunities to engage with our professors and programs across a host of disciplines, including public policy and international development. We offer two dual degrees in these areas — an MBA/MPP with our McCourt School of Public Policy and an MBA/MSFS with our Walsh School of Foreign Service, in addition to joining MBA/MD and MBA/JD programs with Georgetown Medicine and Georgetown Law.

We also build “only in D.C.” experiences into our curriculum. In addition to the numerous individual faculty who incorporate D.C. institutions into their classroom experience, more formalized examples of this include:

* MBA Certificate in Nonmarket Strategy: MBA students in this program have the unparalleled opportunity to incorporate the rich resources of Georgetown’s Washington, D.C., location in their studies and to observe and experience up close how business success and principled leadership are shaped by regulatory, political, cultural, and social forces. Students have the opportunity to attend events on campus and off at federal agencies, firms, and organizations that feature prominent global figures, and to interact directly with business leaders, government officials, policymakers, leaders of interest groups and industry alliances, and the media.

* MBA Certificate in Consumer Analytics and Insights: In this program’s practicum course, students work closely with local organizations to learn about their business context, conduct research, and analyze their consumer data. These organizations range from nonprofits (such as AARP and Share our Strength (No Kid Hungry)) to large companies (such as Audi USA, Volkswagen and its Electrify America subsidiary) to startups (OmMade Peanut Butter).

* MBA Certificate in Sustainable Business: In this program’s practicum course, students engage in experiential consulting projects sourced from local D.C./Maryland/Virginia companies. For example, in Spring 2021, we had multiple projects with Framebridge and one with a startup called Joylet.

* Business for Impact: This faculty-led initiative at the school connects with D.C.’s corporate, public policy, and international development ecosystem through teaching, research, symposia, and applied learning activities. For example, its Portion Balance Coalition works with dozens of partners with a presence in the D.C. region including companies (such as Nestle and KraftHeinz) and nonprofits (such as Partnership for a Healthier America and Center for Science in the Public Interest) to co-create systemic solutions to the U.S. obesity epidemic. Through activities funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), project directors and student leaders employ social marketing strategies to improve health outcomes in Global South countries such as Jordan and Tanzania. And through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Rural Opportunity Initiative (ROI) fosters economic development in rural communities nationwide and engages 30 student leaders annually in experiential impact investing opportunities through the ROI Scholars program.”

Georgetown McDonough Students. Courtesy photo

P&Q: Two hallmarks of the McDonough MBA experience are the Global Business Experience and the Executive Challenge. Talk to us about these events and how they prepare MBAs for the future?

PM: “Experiential opportunities are hallmarks of the Georgetown MBA. We want students to graduate with the confidence of having successfully navigated complex business environments.

The Global Business Experience is a required course in the Georgetown MBA that connects student consulting teams with organizations around the world to work on a real-life business issue. Once students are assigned to a company and country, they engage with representatives from the local embassies, as well as organizations like the Inter-American Bank and the World Bank, to learn more about the business environment and culture of the regions to which they will travel. They work remotely with their organization’s executives and then travel to the country to finalize the projects and deliver recommendations to leadership of their organization. While abroad, they also have opportunities to immerse themselves in the business culture of their host country through company visits, cultural excursions, and meetings with alumni. While we were remote last year due to COVID, we were still able to complete these consulting projects and cultural engagements virtually to provide that consulting experience.

The Executive Challenge is the final exam of the core Leadership Communications course, testing their leadership communication, influence, motivation, and relationship-building skills. During this day-long case competition, student teams role-play three different leadership interactions with executive-level Georgetown alumni, who take on the personas of board members, investors, and senior executives and also serve as judges for the event. We are excited to welcome more than 100 alumni from around the world back to campus each year for The Executive Challenge, where they also have an opportunity to network with our students and with one another.”

McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University: Washington D.C., Architect: Goody Clancy

5 REASONS TO CONSIDER GEORGETOWN McDONOUGH

1) Washington DC: “Sitting at the intersection of global business and politics as well as home to a thriving tech and social impact entrepreneurship scene, Washington DC provides a unique ecosystem of opportunities. This interesting mix of industries gives the city a distinct culture which is young, energetic, diverse, and passionate about social justice. I am also excited to be in a historic city, and looking forward to explore the many museums around town!”
Ameya Deshmukh (’23)

2) Experiential Learning: “What is the biggest myth about [my] school? Experiential learning only happens through the classroom or the global business experience, FALSE! Georgetown has so many opportunities to put classroom learning into practice while in school:

* Want to work at a Venture Capital Firm? Venture Fellows

* Want to work at a start-up? Insite Fellows

* Want to work for a small business? Board Fellows

* Want to work for a non-profit? Impact Fellows

* Want to work for social enterprise? Business for Impact Consultant

These are avenues for experiential learning that give students deep exposure to problems firms are facing and opportunities to use classroom learning to be a part of their solutions.”
Leena Jube (’21)

3) International Focus: “What drew me to McDonough was its distinct focus on global business. The program offers unique opportunities such as the Global Business Experience (GBE), which is taken in the spring semester of the second year. The course provides MBA students with an opportunity to travel abroad to consult for leading global employers on real-life business problems. It sounded like a great opportunity to explore different business environments and build a global perspective.”
Ameya Deshmukh (’23)

4) Culture: “I chose Georgetown for its emphasis on instilling a sense of service leadership in its students, by cultivating “men and women for others”. Having cut my professional teeth in the social impact sector, a core value I wanted to deepen in business school was how to live a life in service of others. Georgetown not only offered this through its programming, but also encouraged service leadership as a core element of its pedagogy and amongst my peers.”
Rohan Shamapant (’21)

5) STEM: “I appreciated the flexibility of the program, namely through the electives that allow me to get a STEM designation, which resonates with my interest for technology.”
El Yazid Areski (’23)

And a bonus…

6) Class Size: “I was looking for a program with class sizes that are small and inclusive and where I knew all my peers by name. While I may not yet know all my fellow 250 peers by name, I already know the 60 peers in my cohort in just a month.”
Tanvi Seth (’23)

Georgetown University MSB students prepping for class. (Photo by Leslie E. Kossoff/Georgetown University)

ADMISSIONS ADVICE FOR GEORGETOWN McDONOUGH

1) “The best advice I received was to understand the significance and gravity of being me. As an applicant, reflect upon your experiences, values, and identity. Lean into those elements to bring your unique story to life in your application. By doing this, the admissions team can visualize how you’d fit into the McDonough community. Who will you be while on campus? What will you bring to the McDonough community as a student and alumni? Washington

Adcoms get thousands of applications so have maximum empathy for the team evaluating them! The best way to make their job easier and you stand out is to reflect on what makes for a great MBA cohort and the role that you can play in making that happen. Much of the learning is peer-to-peer, so emphasize what your experiences and skills will add to the whole – and the video submission is perfect for that so take your time!”
Flora van Vredenburch (’23)

2) “Obviously, you need to put you best foot forward when applying, so if that means taking a little bit more time to make your application as impressive as possible, don’t feel rushed. Make sure to highlight your leadership experience. If you find yourself lacking in that area, go explore ways to volunteer and step up into a leadership role. There is nothing that can replace the experience that comes from leading people and it will serve you well during you time a McDonough and beyond.”
Philip Busick (’23)

3) “I connected the dots of my career journey by answering these questions:

• Who am I and what am I passionate about? (What I bring to the table?)
• What do I want to do in the future? (The Post MBA goals)
• Why MBA? Why Georgetown? Why now? (How Georgetown will be instrumental in getting me to my goals?)

Creating a clear story with tangible examples demonstrates research, interest, curiosity, drive, and communication skills. Head fake, it also gives you a head start in building your network as you reach out to current students and alumni to learn about the program and in thinking about how to make the best use of your time in the MBA program to reach your goals.”
Leena Jube (’21)

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