Poets&Quants’ “10 Business Schools To Watch” honors the MBA programs that aren’t just adapting to the marketplace – they’re disrupting it. These schools have closely monitored trends, recognized ripples, and tailored programming that makes employers more competitive and graduates more agile. In the process, they’ve acted as roadmaps as much as inspirations.

Now entering its eighth year, the feature showcases schools that act like real businesses. Understanding that complacency represents their biggest threat, the “Business Schools To Watch” are always looking to do more and be more. They embrace their competencies and leverage their assets – and they invest to maximize their impact. Take the Wharton School. This year, the program is bringing an Ivy League Executive MBA to the masses online, the first M7 program to attempt this feat. By the same token, Georgetown University’s McDonough School has laid out an ambitious five-year plan predicated on sustainability, global business, and mentorship that taps into its Jesuit DNA. In addition, Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business has pioneered employer partnerships that enable students to gain practical experience that stands out.

What do the “10 Business Schools To Watch in 2023” have in common? For one, they charged ahead, unafraid of risk or criticism; they never let their creations get swallowed by bureaucracy or diluted by compromises. They’ve mined what’s important to students to harness the spirit of our age. Most of all, they’ve carved out an advantage, created an identity, and charted a course that set them apart. Along the way, they’ve captured their peers’ attention and become the programs that everyone is watching.

THE 10 BUSINESS SCHOOLS TO WATCH ARE SETTING THE PACE OF BUSINESS EDUCATION

Which business schools are setting the bar as we enter 2023?  From IIM Ahmedabad to Washington University’s Olin School, here are the MBA programs poised to set the pace in the coming year.

The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania

Is the online experience just as good as the in-person classroom? Will the market pay a premium price to earn a degree from an iconic brand?

Get strapped in: We’re going to watch a case study unfold in real-time – straight from the Wharton School.

Come May, the Wharton School goes online with its Global Executive MBA. Technically, Wharton has been online for more than a decade. After all, the school literally wrote the book on producing MOOCs with MBA-caliber programming taught by star faculty. However, Wharton is the first to produce an online hybrid MBA program among the ‘Big 5’ business schools (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago, and Northwestern). Lasting 22 months, the program expects to enroll 60-70 students initially, boosting Wharton’s EMBA population to 300 students total.

One difference: three-quarters of instruction will take place in live online sessions, generally held in the early mornings and late evenings. The remainder will be held over five residential weeks on Wharton’s campus. In other words, Global EMBA students can get to know their classmates and professors in-person while largely taking their courses virtually.

“I’m not totally comfortable calling it an online degree, because that has this connotation of sitting in bed with your laptop watching videos,” explains Brian Bushee, Wharton’s senior vice dean of teaching and learning, in a 2022 interview with Poets&Quants. Here, 100% of the class time will be with one of our professors, and some of it will be in person.”

That caution may be wise on Bushee’s part. Wharton is charging $214,800 for the program – the same price tag as its totally in-person EMBA programs run out of Philadelphia and San Francisco. In some ways, you have to admire Wharton’s confidence. Let’s face it: the school is simply applying the same faculty, programming, and support to an online audience, some of whom are expected to be executives hailing from overseas. True, the online program entails less food and housing for students. However, on-site EMBAs will tell you that this benefit is offset by the costs of returning to campus every two weeks.

Call it an alternative designed for executives who simply can’t give up two weekends a month for a Wharton MBA. For that flexibility, Wharton expects to add $15 million dollars from its first Global EMBA class to its coffers. The program also represents several dangers for the Wharton brand. Not surprisingly, John Byrne, P&Q’s grizzled editor-in-chief, was happy to play devil’s advocate.

For one, he poses the question that Wharton seemingly dodges: Is the cost worth the return? He points to Indiana University’s Kelley Direct Online MBA – the #1 online MBA program in the world – which is nearly a third of Wharton’s cost at $82,158. At Boston University and the University of Illinois, Byrne adds, online students could earn an MBA for roughly $25,000. When it comes to prestige, Harvard Business School Online offers a somewhat viable option – even if it is not a full degree program.

“Here’s another way to look at it: Executives could take every single online course available from the Harvard Business School for the total cost of $33,250. For that sum, they would get 19 courses in everything from business essentials to leadership and management, entrepreneurship and innovation, financial and accounting, strategy, and business and society. HBS even instructs its online students on how to list their certificates and credentials from the school on LinkedIn and on their old-fashioned written resumes. Take every single one of those courses for $33,250, or a mere 15% of the cost of Wharton’s new online EMBA.”

What’s more, Byrne observes, the online EMBA may compete with Wharton’s own on-site EMBA option as much as online players like Michigan Ross, Carnegie Mellon Tepper, and UC Berkeley Haas. “The school is making the bet that the online format will not substantially cannibalize its in-person programs in Philly/SF.  But the on-par pricing makes this a difficult proposition. If the educational content and experience are perceived to be identical, why would anyone choose the 50 required Friday/Saturday trips to Philly/SF during the same 22 months, get affidavits from employers that they’ll get every other Friday off from work, and spend hours commuting when they could confine the residential components to a few modular weeks?

In the MBA population itself, Byrne wonders if EMBAs will look to switch between the on-site and online formats. And that doesn’t even count how the full-time MBAs – which numbers nearly 1,800 students – might react to the addition of an online program.

“Adding a cohort or two of students to an already huge student population will require more faculty resources,” Byrne writes. “Full-time students are likely to react adversely to both a perceived dilution of the Wharton MBA and the diversion of faculty from teaching the full-time MBA roster.”

Those are big risks for Wharton. This past year, the school has reigned as the #1 full-time MBA program with the Financial Times, U.S. News & World Report, and Poes&Quants (not counting a #1 undergraduate program). Still, the launch of an online program reveals something profound about the Wharton School. While many business schools are inflating their endowments, the Wharton School is continuously investing to maximize the student experience. That includes its entrepreneurship hub, Tangen Hall. Seven stories high, Tangen Hall connects Penn’s startup and innovation communities, providing space to design, test, and scale their young ventures.

“The new 70,000 square foot state-of-the-art building features a food innovation lab, street-level storefront popup retail spaces for student retail ventures, a virtual reality environment, digital media lab, maker studios, and plenty of open work space,” shares Blair Mannix, P&Q’s 2022 Admissions Director of the Year. “Tangen Hall introduces a new partnership by the Wharton School, Penn Engineering, and the Stuart Weitzman School of Design to consolidate Penn’s startup ecosystem.”

This year, the Wharton School is also launching new concentrations in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). The school doesn’t just teach these areas. Increasingly, they are operating from them, with women representing the majority of the class for two consecutive years. Still, you could say scale and scope are the Wharton School’s biggest advantage. The school boasts a 100,000-member alumni network in 153 countries, covering seemingly every industry, company, and role. And then there is pay, with Wharton alumni enjoying the largest ROI for their MBAs over their careers.

“Wharton teaches business differently,” explains Blair Mannix. “We value “learning from doing” and provide our students with a tactile education so they can meet tomorrow’s biggest business challenges. Our program is versatile, and innovative, and helps students get the business knowledge and specialized skills to expand career choices and join one of the world’s largest and most prestigious alumni networks.”

And what can MBAs expect from the Wharton School in the future? Ironically, the future – as in ongoing education – is exactly where the school is training its sites next. “I really want Wharton to be the trusted, lifelong partner in your needs around business education,” explains Nicolaj Siggelkow, the school’s vice dean, in a 2022 interview with P&Q. “Clearly, we try the best we can to teach you a lot in the two years that you’re here. But, we can’t teach you everything that you will need to know, and you don’t know what else will come five years, or 10 years in the future. Thinking about the customized, personalized journey, it shouldn’t stop after two years.”

Next Page: Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management

Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management

In higher education, it’s never easy to say goodbye to a program.  Administrators fret over how alumni will take the news. Let’s face it: Doesn’t shutting down a program reflect some level of failure?

That’s what Cornell University’s Johnson School faced when it announced it would be closing its one-year Accelerated MBA program last fall. Rather than succumb to sentimentality, Johnson chose to move on from its highly-ranked program – one that has been operating for over two decades – in May. Call it a hard-nosed business decision – a recognition of the reality that Johnson trains its MBAs to someday make.

“We’ve had some wonderful students come through the accelerated program and have gone on to be able to leverage it for very successful careers,” says Andrew Karolyi, dean of Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business, in a 2022 interview with P&Q. “But we’ve never felt that we were able to drive hard enough with that given its mission as it was crafted. We never felt we were able to meet our ambitious goals for it.”

More than that, the change was a strategic “re-deployment” of resources. Rather than maintaining two full-time MBA programs, Johnson chose to bet big on its five-year-old Tech MBA. Popularly known as  Cornell Tech, it is a past recipient of P&Q‘s Program of the Year, a one-year, full-time, residential MBA based in New York City. STEM-designated, Cornell Tech starts on the Ithaca campus, where students spend 14 weeks mastering business fundamentals. From there, they head to Johnson’s state-of-the-art facilities on Roosevelt Island. There, they work in a studio in multidisciplinary teams with graduate students from engineering, law, design, and computer science. These teams partner with firms ranging from startups to Google to develop and roll out products, as well as launch their own startups. With their close proximity to Manhattan, Cornell Tech MBAs can also pursue a vast array of internships and projects that connect to New York.

Even more, Ithaca-based MBAs can take courses on Roosevelt Island, too. That gives Johnson a one-two punch that’s hard for other graduate business programs to match. “Johnson has a two-campus model, with the program based in Ithaca but with additional programming at the Cornell Tech campus in Manhattan,” explains outgoing Dean Mark Nelson in a 2020 interview. “Students can have the best of both worlds – attending one of the world’s great universities in a beautiful college town as well as a newly constructed tech-focused campus in the heart of NYC.”

The closure of the Accelerated MBA program doesn’t just benefit Cornell Tech, which has already grown from 50 to 85 students over the past five years. Karolyi also expects a dividend for the full-time MBA program, where resources such as faculty will be channeled. In fact, Karolyi adds, the school has been in full-growth mode. He projects the school will add two dozen new faculty this year after signing up 20 more last school year. At the same time, the school is exploring the possibility of developing a two-year MBA program where students spend a year in Ithaca and another in New York City. Still, closing down a proven MBA program – even one seeing a decline in enrollment – was a painful decision, admits Karolyi. However, he believes it was done for the long-term greater good.

“We see the clearer potential and differentiation of that program in the marketplace. So the marketplace is telling us that. It’s successfully differentiating itself relative to its competitor peers.”

Alas, Cornell Tech isn’t Johnson’s only innovation. Since 2005, the school has also operated an EMBA Americas program in partnership with Canada’s Queen’s University. Relying on remote instruction, EMBA Americas employs distributed classrooms. This enables it to reach remote classrooms in 20 North and South American cities, including Boston, Detroit, Houston, and San Francisco. In a nutshell, distributed classrooms host 8-12 students in each location. The classes are taught live so students can interact directly with students. It’s a far cry from Zoom classes, says Manoj Thomas, senior director of Cornell Johnson’s EMBA programs. And this format is also why she describes the EMBA Americas program as the “gold standard” for online education.

“Every other weekend, over 150 students gather in these classrooms, to attend lectures delivered by Cornell faculty from the state-of-the-art studios in Ithaca. Although students engage with the faculty remotely, they meet their peers in person, having face-to-face discussions with fellow executives with rich and varied experience. The pedagogy in this program is specifically designed to suit this team-based learning environment. Furthermore, the teams in the distributed classrooms are also able to talk to each other, in real-time, across states and countries. Thus, the distributed classroom model brings together executives from different geographies and different backgrounds, allowing them to learn from each other’s rich experience, facilitated by an expert faculty from a remote location.”

This creative spirit has also been attractive to MBAs. During the 2021-2022 application cycle, Johnson enjoyed a 21% increase in full-time applications during a year when most schools suffered a decrease. By the same token, the Class of 2024 represents a more diverse class, with students hailing from 43 countries. Rankings-wise, Johnson has climbed 10 spots in 5 years in the Financial Times ranking – and nine spots in just the past year with Bloomberg Businessweek. In the latest Princeton Review survey, Johnson also earned the 2nd-highest marks for Teaching Excellence and the best scores for Family Friendliness and Campus Environment. In June, the school attracted a $30 million gift to build a real estate program.

This momentum has been tempered, however, with the news that Mark Nelson would be stepping down as dean in the summer of 2023. Since his appointment in 2016, Nelson has spearheaded the launch of Cornell Tech and the opening of the Breazzano Family Center for Business Education. His looming departure begs a question: How will Johnson’s priorities change when new leadership joins the program?

In the meantime, the program can play to its strengths. Recognized as one of the country’s top finance programs, Johnson boasts a signature “immersion” program, where first-years engage in industry-based courses and field work to prepare them for their internships.  Another advantage is Johnson’s Finger Lakes locale. Known for its deep gorges, rolling forests, and picturesque waterfalls, Ithaca embodies the virtues of a slower pace and simpler life – the great outdoors marked by four distinct seasons where students can hike, boat, ski, golf, and swim. That doesn’t count the farmer’s markets and festivals!

Maria Claudia Rengifo Cabanillas, a Johnson first-year, gushes over the opportunity to hike the 240 miles of nearby trails or kayak along Cayuga Lake. However, the best part of living in God’s country is how it enables students to connect more deeply, says Branden Karnell, a ’22 alum.

“I would argue that being in Ithaca forges a closer bond between our student body as most of our activities revolve around being with each other. Additionally, as someone who grew up in a city, getting away for a couple of years to a quieter area (where I can actually see stars!) has been quite nice. The abundance of natural beauty and wineries always helps, too.”

Next Page: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

All MBAs want to attach themselves to the best brands. A school affiliation ensures that calls are answered and doors are opened. Even more, a brand confers credibility – a reassurance to employers and reports alike that this graduate possesses the talent and expertise to deliver.

In India, the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad provides that halo effect for its graduates. In fact, Anand Kewlani, a ’22 IIMA PGPX alum, frames the program as “the destination for the aspirant who wants to be branded for life.” Why not? The alumni roll includes Srikant Datar and Raghu Sundaram, the deans of Harvard Business School and New York University’s Stern School, respectively. Let’s not forget Ajay Banga (General Atlantic Vice Chairman), Raghuram Rajan (former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and former Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund), and Sanjeev Bikhchandani (founder of Naukri). Not surprisingly, Shubham Dang, another ’22 alum, refers to the school as the “cradle of leadership” – an academic refuge founded on “debates and data-backed decision-making.”

Employers have certainly bought into IIMA’s aura. The school’s prestige and rigor – the “A” in “IIMA” stands for “Academics” as the joke goes – has translated into fat paychecks for alumni. The program draws the likes of the most highly selective recruiters to campus: McKinsey, Google, Goldman Sachs, Flipkart, and Microsoft. In the latest Financial Times ranking, IIMA alumni were pulling down $185,001 in purchasing parity-adjusted pay within three years of graduation. To put that number in context, IIMA grads were earning more than their international counterparts at the London Business School, HEC Paris, and IESE Business School. Surprised? When The Economist asked alumni to rate their alma mater’s career services, IIMA respondent scores ranked it among the Top 3 in the world!

“Our placement strategy follows the approach of ‘maximizing recruiter-student fit,’ rather than just getting our students a job,” explains Ram Kartha, a former PwC India director who headed up IIMA’s corporate relations and program strategy before moving into venture capital. “This long-run career emphasis enables us to place students in positions they are most suited for. This allows them to not only hit the ground running but also grow at a fast pace….Our strong career progression record is a direct outcome of our rigorous admissions process that helps us recruit the best talent, and further develop them into fine leaders with a strong emphasis on developing decision-making skills throughout the program.”

The “A” in IIMA may also stand for admiration. In a similar Financial Times survey, IIMA finished 10th when respondents were asked to list the three schools where they would recruit MBA graduates.  When The Economist quizzed its sample for the most effective alumni networks, IIMA again ranked 10th. One reason: IIMA focuses on staying connected with both alumni and the industry at large.

“IIM Ahmedabad also places very high emphasis on continuous engagement with industry- and policy-makers,” Kartha observes in the same 2021 interview.  Our faculty serve on the boards of several reputed companies and are a part of several government committees aimed at policy making. Several alumni, who hold leadership positions across the globe, are actively engaged with the faculty to enhance student learning on campus.”

IIMA’s prestige stems from excellence. In the words of Anchal Agarwal Jain, who is slated to graduate this year, the program isn’t for the “faint-hearted.” Her classmate, Neelabah Singh, takes it a step further. “The course is very rigorous and fast-paced, with daily cases, readings, submissions, and quizzes. You always need to be on your toes. So, you need to learn to ‘prioritize’ and be disciplined with your time. The fact that I can now find time to get adequate sleep, complete the daily cases and readings, and squeeze in some time for playing my guitar and reading a newspaper is what I would have found difficult to do before…PGPX is a buffet and you can’t have it all.”

Priorities and tradeoffs are baked into the IIMA curriculum as a whole. The program relies heavily on case-based learning, teaching students how to conduct research, analyze options, make decisions, and persuade peers through repetition. Not only do IIMA students learn how to think, but they are exposed to a wide range of roles, industries, and business scenarios along the way. The case method also taps into the diverse professional experiences of its class, where nearly a quarter of students are women.

“The pedagogy followed at IIMA is all about experiential learning,” adds Ram Kartha. “In fact, the motto of IIMA states, Vidya Viniyogad Vikasah, which translates into development through the application of knowledge. We augment our classroom pedagogy, which is predominantly case-based with several discussions from the leaders of corporate India. Quite often, the actual protagonist or decision-makers in the case are invited to the classroom to help the students appreciate better the business context and the dilemmas in decision-making.”

The biggest dilemma? Sarvesh Patel, a ’22 alum of the one-year PGPX program, refers to the words said to him by Errol D’Souza, IIMA’s director. “People should take ownership of the decisions that they make. It’s only when you’re vested in facing the consequences of the decisions you make that you have the right to make it.”

D’Souza himself is grappling with a big decision. In November, D’Souza talked with Business Today about the likelihood that IIMA would phase out its two-year program over the next decade. In his view, two-year programs have reached the point of diminishing returns, where business realities and educational alternatives have rendered them redundant.

“Given the rapid pace of change, spending two years in an educational institute learning management seems like a little waste of time,” D’Souza explains. “So, you want people who have worked for three to four years, have an understanding of organizations, and then come in maybe for a one-year program and then do continuing education through executive education, which is another thing we focus on a lot. Then, you are constantly upgrading yourself as the world is changing.”

Could IIMA be a harbinger of what’s to come in the MBA space? Have two-year programs devolved into a luxury? If one of India’s most prestigious business schools is thinking about it, how soon before American and European elite programs begin weighing the same question – if they aren’t, already?

Next Page: Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School

Expensive. Elitist. Out of my reach.

Those words make Harvard Business School’s admissions team cringe. Stereotype aside, it doesn’t reflect the efforts made to make a Harvard MBA affordable, inclusive, and accessible.

Take the August news that HBS would cover tuition and course fees – entirely – for 10% of its students…the students who had the greatest financial needs. On top of that, HBS beefed up its support for middle-income students, too.

A token gesture? Too little too late? No, try an extension of a long-standing policy.

Let’s start with the numbers. The Class of 2024 is comprised of 1,015 full-time students. With tuition being $73,440 a year, HBS is foregoing $7.4 million dollars – or nearly $15 million dollars a year when you add a second class. Now, factor in that HBS has frozen tuition at $73,440…for five years. Comparatively, that makes HBS a steal! Last year, the school’s MBA program cost ranked 13th among the Top 25 schools – and the lowest among Ivy League and M7 schools, too. In comparison, the Wharton School charges $84,874 in annual tuition, which reflects a $10,374 increase over the past three years.

It goes even deeper. During COVID, HBS refunded nearly $5 million dollars to its students. As it stands, the school provides roughly $42,000 in annual support to MBAs, with half of each class receiving some form of financial support. All told, HBS budgets $45 million a year to cover its fellowship grants for MBA students. While this aid doesn’t cover annual living expenses, which hovers around $31,000, it does bring a variety of students into the mix. That only enhances the learning experience, says Matthew Weinzierl, senior associate dean of the HBS MBA program.

“Affordability is of paramount importance because it enables people from all backgrounds, experiences, and interests to enroll at HBS. Our case-based approach to teaching and learning relies heavily on exposing HBS students to a wide variety of perspectives because we’re preparing them to be leaders in organizations and in a world marked by vast human difference and diversity.”

That diversity plays into Harvard Business School’s defining feature: case method teaching. After all, case success hinges on students who bring different backgrounds and experiences to the case teams and classroom discussions. In other words, HBS leverages financial support to sustain the singular exchanges that foster deeper understandings and more holistic solutions. Call it an unheralded investment that prevents students from becoming rigid and complacent.

Last year, HBS celebrated the 100-year anniversary of using the case study in the program. Basically, cases – narratives about real business problems – are designed to teach students how to approach and address issues like a c-suite executive through repetition. Over time, classes learn how to formulate the right questions to identify the underlying causes and pressing issues; weigh options, tradeoffs, and long-term repercussions against various constituencies; establish plans and priorities; and persuade classmates who often bring wildly different perspectives to fray.

“Cases expose students to real business dilemmas and decisions,” observes Nitin Nohria, the former dean of Harvard Business School. “Cases teach students to size up business problems quickly while considering the broader organizational, industry, and societal context. Students recall concepts better when they are set in a case, much as people remember words better when used in context. Cases teach students how to apply theory in practice and how to induce theory from practice. The case method cultivates the capacity for critical analysis, judgment, decision-making, and action.”

Alas, the case anniversary wasn’t the only reason for the HBS community to celebrate in 2022. In Harvard Business School’s Online certification program,  surveys showed that 91% of graduates felt more comfortable at work, with two-thirds adding that completing the CORe online program of business fundamentals gave them more respect and influence in their roles. Employers were equally bullish on HBS full-time grads. After a down year from COVID, 2022 grads saw their total median pay jump 16 points to $223,100.

Despite the flurry of positives last year, 2023 is shrouded in uncertainty for HBS. In September, Chad Losee, managing director of MBA admissions and financial aid at HBS, announced his departure – ironically on the same day as his Stanford GSB counterpart. An HBS MBA and Bain alum, Losee is heading to Yale University to head up strategy, after recently completing his Ph.D. in education at the University of Pennsylvania.

“As I shared with my team earlier this afternoon, Harvard Business School has changed my life,” wrote Losee in a blog post. “I distinctly remember being in your shoes applying to business schools, now about 12 years ago. I was hopeful but also worried that HBS might be out of reach for me, someone who grew up in a small, rural town in the western US. I will always be grateful to have been admitted to and subsequently transformed by HBS, first as a student and now as a member of the team.

Admittedly, replacing Losee will be a challenge for HBS, which chose him over a hundred other candidates for his role. However, it may also represent an opportunity. For one, Losee got rid of the round three admissions deadline, removing an option for candidates who historically bring non-traditional backgrounds to the classroom. That decision allowed peer schools to see late candidates, denying Harvard a look. For another, he was far less accessible than most peer admission directors. And his tenure was sometimes marked by a lack of transparency, such as failing to release standard admission stats like acceptance rates and a histogram of enrolled students’ years of work experience that had been routinely disclosed by his predecessor ‘Dee’ Leopold.

All of this begs the question: Could Losee’s replacement create a more welcoming environment for applicants and admits? Could it be a more seasoned candidate like Shari Hubert, Duke Fuqua’s associate dean of admissions, who possesses nearly two decades of recruiting and admissions leadership experience? The decision could subtly shift who gets in and why at an iconic school that was on a roll last year. That makes this choice something to watch in 2023.

Next Page: Washington University’s Olin Business School

Washington University’s Olin Business School in St. Louis

The school’s full-time MBA program moved up seven places over five years in the U.S. News ranking.

Over that same period, it jumped a remarkable 39 spots on The Financial Times lists.

In three years, the MBA program climbed 22 spots, according to The Economist.

Oh, and they have held the #1 spot in P&Q’s Entrepreneurship ranking for four years running.

Welcome to the Olin Business School – the small-but-mighty rankings champion, a Midwest marvel that can compete with anyone. It is hardly coincidental that this surge began after Mark P. Taylor took the reins as dean in 2016. Since then, he has overhauled the curriculum, punctuated by the launch of a groundbreaking Global Immersion that led Olin to being named P&Q’s Program of the Year in 2019. Taylor pushed the MBA program to become more experiential and data-driven, while launching new degrees and making the program STEM-designated. He heavily invested in online learning and can boast one of the best virtual studios of any business school. His leadership even enabled the Olin MBA to earn accreditation by AACSB, AMBA and, EQUIS – the only Top 25 American MBA program to earn this triple honor.

An impressive run – and one that ended on July 1st, when Taylor stepped down as dean, replaced by Anjan V. Thakor in the interim. Don’t fret: Taylor will return to Olin in the fall to teach finance. Still, his departure begs the question: Can Olin maintain its momentum and innovative spirit without Taylor at the helm?

When leaders leave, they are often judged by how well they left an organization in comparison to when they started. By that measure, Taylor is already a legend. His legacy starts with the cornerstone of the Olin experience: the Global Immersion. On the surface, it resembles a normal international trek enjoyed by many MBAs. However, Olin’s immersion comes with a twist: it kicks off the program. Lasting 38 days, it starts in July, when MBAs head to Washington DC’s Brookings Institution, where they are steeped in international business practices. From there, MBAs head to locations like Barcelona, Paris, Lima, and Shanghai. In the process, students complete projects with business partners, meet with business and government leaders, and visit various company operations. In addition, first-years enjoy time to explore different cultures with classmates. On top of that, the costs of airfare, lodging, and food are wrapped into student tuition.

In other words, Olin first-years spend their first six weeks together, 24×7. These daily meals, sight-seeing ventures, and 10-hour flights help classmates bond sooner. Even more, it enables first-years to adapt quicker academically. That’s because they get exposed to many core concepts during immersion projects, explains  Zach Frantz, a 2021 grad who was part of the inaugural immersion.

“The first time I looked at an income statement it was for a winery in Barcelona. The first time I learned about pricing is from our assignment for a company going to market in Shanghai. We did industry analysis and market and customer research and scouted out potential locations for the company. So there was another layer to all the decisions you had to make. The first time I learned operations was through an apparel company and a Nike fulfillment center in China. Even though I lived there, I had never been exposed to these more traditional business experiences.”

Still, the Global Immersion remains a work-in-progress, with Olin recently approving several changes, says Lesley Liesman, the school’s brand manager, in a 2022 Q&A with P&Q. “With these changes, students will undertake three distinct immersions during the required first-year curriculum. Students will travel from St. Louis to Washington DC in the summer, then to Europe in the fall, and, finally, to Asia in the spring.”

The Global Immersion aligns with the goal to develop in students a global mindset, one of Olin’s Four Pillars codified during Taylor’s tenure. A second pillar is value-based and data-driven decision-making.  By that, says Lesley Liesman, an Olin brand manager, Olin is teaching “how numbers and belief systems work together,” so students can achieve maximum impact in serving a community’s greater good. As part of this pillar, Olin incorporates the impact of technology across the curriculum to produce digitally-enabled leaders. This pillar now extends to the digital medium itself. In May, Olin announced that it would launch an online MBA program that focuses on digital leadership. An even split of live and pre-recorded classes, the program will cost roughly $79,000 and enroll 50 students to start. Intakes will be held in January and June.

“It is still grounded in the core MBA fundamentals but all of the courses will be framed through the lens of a digitally driven landscape,” Taylor told P&Q last May. “We have thought hard about what it means to be a digitally enabled leader going forward to bring this MBA online out. It isn’t just putting PDFs and video lectures online. It’s thinking about this new world of digital leadership and how you would use AI and big data and how you would think about remote management.”

Experiential Learning is the third pillar laid out by Taylor. The school maintains a Center for Experiential Learning offers programming such as Board Fellows, where students serve on nonprofit boards; a Community Consulting program that connects students with area nonprofits for a semester; and a CELect course that enables students to support a startup.

“Our Center for Experiential Learning draws upon and contributes to the St. Louis region by engaging our students with local community and business partners in team-based, action learning courses,” says Lesley Liesman “Through these courses, students work with, learn from and advise business and nonprofit organizations on a wide range of issues.”

Entrepreneurship is the final pillar – and an area where Olin MBAs thrive. When P&Q crunched business school startup data, it found that Olin ranked 2nd for the percentage of startups launched and 3rd for mentorship hours. And it finished among the ten-best for incubator and accelerator space and startup money awarded to student entrepreneurs. 100% of students are involved in a startup project and 85% take an entrepreneurship course (which makes up a quarter of Olin MBA electives). Nearly half belong to an entrepreneurship club as well. Faculty get into the act too: 57% are directly involved in a startup.

One reason for Olin’s success? Start with the larger entrepreneurial ecosystem in St. Louis, which has produced unicorns like Varsity Tutors (Nerdy) and Gainsight. You can trace such successes to public-private partnerships like the St. Louis Small Business Empowerment Center and Arch Grants that provide training and funding respectively. Entrepreneurs can also find space at T-Rex, Gateway City and the Cortex District – the latter featuring a half dozen accelerators that have created 15,000 jobs and $2 billion dollars in economic activity in the past two decades. That doesn’t count the deep Fortune 500 ties in the St. Louis region, including large operations from Fortune 500 firms like Emerson Electric, Edward Jones Investments, Monsanto, and Anheuser-Busch. In all, student entrepreneurs can tap into a supportive network, local expertise, and large-scale partners to build their ventures.

“The people in STL embrace their own like I’ve never seen and place you in a position to succeed, explains Lloyd Yates, a ’22 grad who started his venture at Olin.

The same can be said for faculty and staff at Olin. For nearly a quarter century, Olin has operated the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which provides technical and operational support to fledgling ventures while connecting them to the larger St. Louis community. The school is also renowned for its flagship course, The Hatchery, which helps students research their venture’s viability and get it off the ground. More recently, the school opened The League, an accelerator designed to help scale tech and business ideas. At the same time, Olin has been expanding its reach, so students can work with startups from San Francisco to Berlin. That said, Olin’s startup prowess extends beyond its resources. At the school, entrepreneurship is treated as a mindset as much as an outcome. And that is something nurtured by the larger university.

“Some B-schools feel very separate from their University—philosophically and geographically,” explains II Luscri, an entrepreneurship professor in a 2022 interview with P&Q. “Olin is located right on the main campus and there is an intentional approach between the leadership of Olin and the leadership of the university-wide Skandalaris Center to make sure collaborations and connections can not only happen but also thrive. Olin students can and do take advantage of the resources in WashU’s world-class schools and often find themselves on teams or in classes with students from medicine, law, engineering, etc. This doesn’t happen everywhere and really enhances our students’ startups and ideas.”

A global outlook. A digital drive. A hands-on approach. An entrepreneurial spirit. Sounds like the makings of an MBA program on the rise. Dean Mark Taylor lit the path. Let’s see how far Olin can go without him at the helm.

Next Page: Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business

Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business

The McDonough School is deeply rooted in St. Ignatius’ Jesuit teachings. The most famous tenet is Cura Personalis or “Care for the whole person” – a responsibility for tending to others’ needs and growing their talents. Another value is Faith That Does Justice. Through this, Jesuits urge students to take action by protecting the vulnerable, tackling social issues, and promoting the greater good. It is in Faith That Does Justice where the McDonough School is increasingly devoting its resources and staking its identity.

Circumstances may change, but never purpose. For McDonough, the mission has turned to sustainability – developing practices that protect natural resources and balance economic growth with equitable treatment for all. Prashant Malaviya, McDonough’s vice dean of programs, considers sustainability to be the “duty of every citizen of every citizen on the planet.” In response, the school has made sustainability one of the cornerstones of its MBA programming.

This year, you’ll find more than a dozen sustainability-driven courses, not to mention a Certificate in Sustainable Business and a Master’s of Science in Environmental and Sustainability Management. In recent years, the school has launched a Business of Sustainability Initiative, a series of efforts ranging from sustainability-related research to partner projects that bring together business leaders, policy makers, and academics. The school even offers a Sustainable Business Fellows program for students to expose them to the field’s best practices and thought leaders. While sustainability is popular among students, it is a top priority for businesses, says Malaviya in a 2022 interview with P&Q.

“All CEOs are talking about it, and it is clear in talking to the senior leaders about sustainable business issues that they’re genuinely trying to learn,” he says. “They’re trying to figure out, ‘How does this apply?’ The most common thing you hear is, sustainability used to be compliance, ‘It was part of the legal department, and we just wanted to make sure we were not doing anything wrong’ — which is a good starting point. But what is clear is that sustainability and sustainable business practices have tremendous opportunity for innovation and creating competitive advantage, rather than making sure, ‘Let’s not break any laws.’”

In other words, sustainability is the future. Not only does it align with McDonough’s Jesuit values, but it also provides MBAs with an edge in the marketplace and greater influence once they get in the door. Even more, sustainability is gaining momentum – and is a wide-open space filled with possibilities. After earning his MBA from McDonough in 2013, Logan Soya pursued a career in sustainability, eventually founding Aquicore, an ESG data and analytics platform. Recently, he has seen interest in sustainability swell.

“We went from interesting to must-have status, I feel, in the last 24 months,” he says. “And so with a must-have status in the market, people are still figuring out what the disciplines are and the roles and the responsibilities that are required. And I think business schools like Georgetown taking the initiative to start to really kind of mold these programs together is a really good thing, because I need more talent at my business. Every customer that I talk to, ranging from Goldman Sachs to Tishman Speyer, needs more talent. The demand for ESG expertise is outrageous right now.”

Best of all, McDonough’s location is perfect for accessing industry influencers and making an impact, adds Prashant Malaviya. “We have a few unique assets that are difficult to replicate for other schools and other institutions, not just business schools. We are in Washington, D.C. This gives us access to government and policy and regulators and the lawyers and diplomats — all of that ecosystem is there, where a lot of the discussions around sustainability are playing out. Ultimately, they either nudge corporations to move in a certain way, or they provide the incentives. So the carrots and sticks are being wielded by all of those institutions.”

Sustainability isn’t the only high demand area that McDonough is prioritizing. In a 2022 interview with P&Q, Dean Paul Almeida laid four goals for the school in the coming years – with none listing sustainability. The first ties into McDonough’s reputation for excellence in global business and international relations. The school has long been known for its required Global Business Experience, where students are assigned to a company and country. During the semester, they travel across countries like Germany, Morocco, and Chile to learn local business practices and present a business case to senior executives. Georgetown University itself boasts the School of Foreign Service, regarded as the best school in its field (and a program where McDonough offers a joint Master’s program). In the future, McDonough plans to provide additional ways for students to understand particular countries in greater depth.

“The College will allow students to go deep into a particular region, provided they have the language skills and understand international business from that perspective,” Almeida explains. “What we’re trying to do is not say students have to do A or B, but we want to give them choices. If they don’t want to do that, they can still do an international business major. But even there, we’re going to introduce a more regular track, which talks more about how to get work done or a track which relates international business to policy.”

By 2027, McDonough also intends to be a leader in faculty research, which is Almeida’s second priority. By the same token, he is looking to deepen the imprint of Jesuit values in the program. “Not just into programs, but into the culture, into the ethos. For instance, one thing we’re doing is we have first-year seminars on a variety of subjects in the small classes. All of them are going to do a social project, not just where they say, “I’ll solve your problems for you,” but they experience them. Now, again, walking in someone else’s shoes, seeing the world in someone else’s eyes, examining how business and management can solve bigger problems — I think that is so much a part of who we are.”

Finally, the school will be rolling out a “Fields of the Future” program that will channel research and teaching towards “what students need to know” over what faculty and staff know. To do this, the school will be offering incentives to faculty and staff to pursue learning in these fields, with the first two being identified as Business and Global Affairs and Sustainability.

“It’s reminding us that business doesn’t exist in ether, but has value in its association with law and medicine and policy,” Almeida tells P&Q in relation to Business and Global Affairs. “How do you solve the Covid problems? You have to understand the interactions, and this is very Georgetown. How do we embrace that in terms of our student projects, in terms of our internships, in terms of our programs, in terms of the co-curricular stuff?…One thing I want to say is, we are trying really carefully not to be making the moral case by itself…We want to try to understand where the business case exists and doesn’t exist and where it falls down.”

One case where it exists is in real estate, a field where McDonough launched a master’s degree with an ESG focus. That’s just one graduate degree program that McDonough started in 2022.  In May, the school also announced that it was ramping up a blended “fast track” Finance master’s program , where students can earn their degree in 10 months instead of the standard 21 months. Three months later, the school entered the online education space with its part-tie “Flex MBA”, which will begin in August. Lasting 2-5 years, the program is a mix of synchronous (live) and asynchronous (recorded) courses, plus two in-person campus visits. For Prashant Malaviya, the Flex MBA is an opportunity to expand its reach to prospective students who buy into McDonough’s vision.

““More and more MBA programs and business schools are moving toward online degrees. We have two right now. Both of them have done well. So we know the model works, that there are students who are interested in this — and we also have a nobler goal, which is to increase access to the Georgetown education outside of the DMV region.”

What makes this access so life-changing for prospective MBA students? Dean Almeida asserts that it boils down to purpose – to making business a force for good. “That’s a part of our DNA, the idea of values and the idea of business serving the common good. I truly believe if we do business right, it can be the best solution to the world’s problems — not just economic problems, but social problems.”

Next Page: Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College

Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College

You’re only as good as your alumni.

By that measure, the Tuck School is the place to be.

Happy alumni are engaged alumni. They champion their alma mater and take students under their wing. Most of all, they open up their pocketbooks. The latter made news last January, when Tuck beat their $250 million goal it set in 2018 with their Tuck Difference campaign. Just as impressive, 81% of alumni had contributed to the campaign – double the response rate you’ll find at most business schools. Six months later, the news got even better when Tuck landed its biggest gift ever: $52.1 million from an anonymous friend to endow a recurring global summit hosted by Tuck on “health, wealth, and sustainability.” The summit will turn Tuck into ground zero for scholarship in the field, with the event initially addressing the intersection of public policy, health care, and climate change.

“The summit reflects the donor’s strong belief in the transformative power of scholarship at Dartmouth and its application within and beyond the classroom,” says Punam Keller, the faculty director of the Tuck Center for Business, Government and Society. “The urgency of these challenges is apparent, and The Dartmouth Summit for Health, Wealth, and Sustainability has tremendous potential to incubate creative and much-needed solutions.”

Such gifts are also an extension of the Tuck culture. “Family” is a term associated with Tuckies, a group often described as being “smart, accomplished, aware, and encouraging” – not to mention “nice.” By nice, people mean open, upbeat, and – in the words of ’20 grad Sonovia Wint – “empathetically assertive.” Supportive too, a mentality that ‘no one wins unless everyone wins.’ This bond is why you’ll find Tuckies hanging out on weekends over dinners or ski trips – or going out of their way to help each other.

“Tuck is a place where the moment you speak your dreams out loud, the whole community conspires to help you,” observes second-year Destinée Mentor-Richards.

Not surprising, Tuck is called a “destination school” – a program purposely targeted by MBA applicants because of its experience. “Students opt in at Tuck,” explains Amy Mitson, the school’s director of admissions, recruiting, and marketing, in a 2023 Q&A with P&Q. “No one ends up in Hanover by accident or because it was nearby. Our students arrive with an intentionality around their MBA experience. They arrive knowing they will create relationships with other community members who made a deliberate choice to be here and to be “in” for all sorts of new experiences together—whether that is creating a strategy for a startup in an emerging market during an Onsite Global Consulting project, putting on skates for the first time and attempting hockey, flinging themselves down a local ski slope, or vulnerably sharing a personal story during Tuck Talks.”

That spirit carries over to alumni, who are happy to pay it forward with students. “Tuck students also have more avenues than ever to personally connect with alumni, without the barriers or trepidation that a cold-call email might present,” adds Dean Matthew Slaughter in a 2020 interview with P&Q. “Our business directory enables students to easily discover companies owned and operated by alumni—who are eager to share their entrepreneurial insights. The Tuck Networking Hub, launched in 2019, also continues to facilitate connections and mentorship between students and alumni who share similar career interests and paths.”

Another reason why Tuck culture remains fervent and consistent? The full-time MBA is the only business program at Dartmouth.  You won’t find any undergrads, EMBAs, or online students competing for resources. Full-time MBAs are the center of attention. At the same time, the school intentionally maintains a 285-student class size that fosters an intimate environment where student can better connect and grow.

“There are more resources per student due to Tuck’s small class size and sole MBA focus,” observes second-year Geet Kalra. “During one of my admissions outreach calls with a Tuckie, she said, “Think of Tuck as if the entire fraternity—deans, faculty, administrators, thousands of accomplished alumni—is invested in the success of 285 students.”

It is a formula that has been working. Take pay. In November, Tuck announced that total graduate pay had jumped 15% to $202,900 with the Class of 2022. At the same time, 98% of the class had received offers within three months of graduation, while 93% had received sign on bonus at a median rate of $30,000. One reason for Tuck’s success is a “well-resourced” and heavily-involved career services team, credits Stephen Pidgeon, executive director of career services at Tuck, in a 2022 interview with P&Q.  However, he also lauds Tuck grads for bringing the right skills at the right time.

“During times of uncertainty, such as we have had in recent years, you need leaders in your organization that can balance their hard skills with a healthy level of empathy and an ability to thrive in teams. Tuck MBAs can, by and large, be plugged into any group environment and find success because they are adept at creating spaces where people can bring their best selves to the table.”

In many ways, Tuck’s Hanover locale – deep in rural New Hampshire – actually gives it an advantage in recruiting, notes Lawrence Mur’ray, the program’s executive director of admissions and financial aid. “Tuck’s setting offers a massive advantage for students and their career journeys,” he told P&Q this month. “This is in part because of the intentionality that our location creates around reflection and recruiting—top firms come to you at Tuck and usually for a day or longer, giving students ample time to connect with potential employers. Our location also helps students build deep relationships with one another and bond with a global network of alumni who are extraordinarily distinguished, loyal, and supportive.”

Tuck may be small and remote, but they are deeply connected and never satisfied with being a Top 10 Ivy League MBA. This year, according to Dean Matthew Slaughter, the school rolled out Practicum, a set of courses he describes as “live project work with real people, real organizations, or real assets.” This year’s practicum focuses on early-stage venture capital. At the same time, Tuck has also introduced micro courses to expose MBAs to the latest trends and best practices in near real time.

“Tuck Sprints run fast (about five hours of total instruction) to examine a timely, emergent, or topical subject not currently covered in other Tuck courses—or to dive deep into a focused area that expands on material covered at a higher level in an existing course,” Slaughter adds. “Sprint Courses this academic year tackle U.S.-China relations; managing business under sanctions; horizon scanning and the latest in foresight methods; mentorship at the intersection of race, gender, and nationality; and decision biases in the NBA. Several more are in the works, too.”

Don’t let Tuck’s bucolic digs fool you, either. The area may be quiet and free from big city distractions, but it is also a place where you can snowshoe in the winter, mountain bike in the spring, canoe in the summer, and hit farmer’s markets in the fall. In other words, Tuckies are never bored, says Teo Gonzalez, a ’21 grad.

“It shocks me every day there is so much to do in the Upper Valley and at school. I’ve never been as busy as I am at Tuck, whether I’m participating in faculty chats, meeting with classmates, taking adventures in nearby national parks, trying out local restaurants and breweries, or enjoying any of the area’s other numerous activities to do.”

Next Page: HEC Paris

HEC Paris

The pandemic disrupted everything. It cancelled traditions and separated classmates. That was particularly true with MBAT – popularly called the “MBA Olympics.” In 2020 and 2021, MBAT was held online – a far cry from nearly three decades of students marching with their school flags or lighting the torch during the opening ceremony. And it just wasn’t the same awarding medals when everyone was huddled behind their laptops…hundreds of miles apart.

That changed in 2022, when HEC Paris again held MBAT in-person last May. This event attracted 1,500 MBAs from over a dozen schools. Ranging from the London Business School to ESADE, these students came to compete, network, and (of course) party. Over three days, students competed in 30 events, including soccer, basketball, rugby, running, ping pong, and ultimate frisbee. That doesn’t count a dance competition and a battle of the bands – all capped off by a black-tie gala.

Spoiler alert: Oxford’s Saïd Business School crushed the competition, collecting 15 gold medals.

For most students, the MBAT is a time to kick back and socialize, to deepen bonds with classmates and connect with members of rival schools. For HEC Paris, it is a chance to bask in accolades after nearly a year of intensive planning. That meant late nights for Victor Heaulme, president of the 2022 MBAT. It also required ruthless prioritizing, understanding that the unexpected will inevitably wreak havoc on careful planning. Despite the demands, running like MBAT has its perks…such as leadership experience that stands out on a CV.

“It just adds richness to a graduate’s overall MBA experience and allows you to connect with an interviewer on a different level,” says Aditya Vijay, who served as MBAT’s director of sports.

MBAT’s collegiality fits with a larger theme of HEC Paris: diversity. After all, the latest full-time MBA class hails from 58 countries – with just 4% of the students being French. In total, you’ll find nearly 100 nationalities at HEC Paris in any given year. That makes the school a daily laboratory in navigating the cultural nuances that can stir mistrust and conflict. At the same time, the class composition exposes students to all sides to an issue or opportunity, to help them pinpoint the real needs and best alternatives. Even more, this diversity gives MBAs a platform to practice flexibility and empathy, to ask and listen before deciding and lecturing. For Idris Baily, a first-year student and U.S. Army veteran, the atmosphere fosters what he calls “an agile mind.”

“I can’t imagine a better way to build mental agility than to simply spend time around people who think differently than you do, who developed entirely different thoughts and beliefs under entirely different circumstances than you did.”

And it can all be done in 16 months – another key HEC Paris advantage in a marketplace saturated with 10-12-month options.

“It is the ideal length of time to have a real impact on the future of our students,” explains Andrea Masini, associate dean of MBA programs in a 2021 interview with P&Q. “It gives them time to digest new information and build a CV through internships and specialized courses without keeping them out of the workforce for too long.”

Diversity isn’t HEC Paris’ only marquee attraction. In recent years, the school has invested heavily in entrepreneurship, digital transformation and social responsibility. That includes the school’s partnership with Station F, Europe’s largest incubator. Home to over 1,000 startups – not to mention offices for Microsoft and Google – Station F also houses the HEC Incubateur, a space that has nurtured startups from HEC alumni that have received over $400 million Euros in funding…in just the past four years. Two years ago, HEC Paris also launched its Creative Destruction Lab – Paris, which is dedicated to growing startups dedicated to fighting climate change.

“The HEC Program has attracted some of the most innovative start-ups in the field and it will benefit from the expertise of an impressive pool of experts from all around the world,” adds Benoit Banchereau, the school’s executive director of admissions and marketing, in a 2022 interview with P&Q.

Leadership is another talent associated with HEC Paris. After all, it is sometimes called Europe’s “Cradle of Leadership,” boasting MBA alumni CEOs like Jean-Yves Fillion (BNP Paribas), Olivier Herold (The Oxford Group), and Michel Vounatsos (Biogen). Hubert Joly, former Chairman and CEO of Best Buy, earned his undergraduate degree at HEC Paris. Last year, he endowed the Joly Family Chair in Purposeful Leadership – an initiative designed to promote “responsible and inclusive capitalism” that usher companies away from pursuing short-term financial gains and towards developing strategies that promote long-term value in social and environmental contexts. Such programming already constitutes nearly a tenth of HEC Paris’ graduate curriculum.

“Students are looking for more and more opportunities to make a difference through purposeful leadership,” explains Benoit Banchereau. “With that in mind, we recently added a new core course, Purposeful Leadership. We also have a number of core and elective courses that address impact leadership. They include: Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, Ethics and Performance, Globalization and Corporate Social Action, Leading in a Diverse World, Positive Psychology for Managers, Responsible Leadership, and Social Entrepreneurship.”

Of course, HEC Paris also enjoys the advantage of location – sort of. Technically, HEC Paris isn’t located in Paris. You’ll find it on a 340-acre forest campus near Jouy-en-Josas, a village south of Versailles that’s a 50-minute train ride to the city. That doesn’t mean it is far from the action. For one, it sits near the Paris-Saclay Innovation Cluster. Home to 150,000 researchers, inventors, and entrepreneurs, it features business and research hubs for companies like Danone, Nokia, Safran, and Sanoli. And let’s just say HEC Paris MBAs aren’t shy about heading off to Paris, either.

“Our location enables our students to draw upon the expertise of the cluster and team up with scientists to bring their technological inventions to market,” notes Benoit Banchereau. “Our proximity to Paris allows students to easily find an internship in the city and to take advantage of Paris’ location as a travel hub for all of Europe.”

And this ‘best of both worlds’ dynamic – secluded campus with quick access to the fabled City of Lights – makes for an unforgettable experience for HEC Paris MBAs. “Paris is an epitome of cultures, arts, and history,” writes the first-year Shawn Qui. “It’s hard to not fall in love with such a magnificent city because of its natural scenery and human masterpieces. It is the best example of what humans can leave to the world to showcase our wisdom and hard work. Being close to Paris, I constantly remind myself of the spirit of perfection.”

Next Page: Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management

Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

Never let a crisis go to waste.

That’s great advice in politics – and business school admissions, too. Just ask the Kellogg School. In November, Twitter slashed half of its workforce. Overall, tech firms trimmed 107,000 employees from their payrolls in 2022 according to Crunchbase. That doesn’t include another 21,000 who’ve already lost their jobs in the first two weeks of 2023.

Where do tech vets go when they have all that unexpected time? Well, Kellogg would like them to consider business school – and they are making easier than ever to get in.

GMAT or GRE? No need. Kellogg just needs transcripts, resume, and application for consideration in round 2 for either the part-time or full-time MBA program. A short essay too, outlining their work experience and how a Kellogg MBA will spur their growth and advance their careers.

Fast, easy, and timely – who needs an admissions consultant?

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Kellogg would be the first to capitalize on this market. After all, Kellogg was the first school to waive test requirements when COVID hit during the spring of 2020. By the end of the year, over 100 business schools had followed Kellogg’s lead. The same is true with Kellogg’s response to layoffs at Twitter, Meta, Cisco, and the rest. Within weeks, you had MIT Sloan, UCLA Anderson, Cornell Johnson, Indiana Johnson, Berkeley Haas, and Georgia Tech Scheller playing catch up. They were dangling application fee waivers, deadlines extensions, and even full tuition fellowships. And every press release included some variation of the following…

“It’s the right thing to do.”

Virtue signaling and empathy eruptions aside, these acts were also smart business. After all, applications were down at every one of the Top 14 full-time MBA programs during the 2021-2022 cycle. That includes Kellogg, whose applications fell off by an estimated 20% from the previous year. Fact is, it isn’t often when good intentions make good business. In a 2022 interview with P&Q, Linda Abraham, a long-time MBA consultant and founder of Accepted, laid out the case for why this is a win-win. For applicants, Kellogg is tech-friendly and deeply connected to the field. Abraham points out that nearly a fifth of entrants worked in tech and a fifth of graduates join tech companies. For admissions, she notes, laid-off tech employees represent proven professionals who may be a cut above the average applicant.

“For these recently laid-off workers, who until the last few weeks had positions that were demanding and whose skills when combined with an MBA will probably be in demand, Kellogg is comfortable relying on their transcript as evidence of academic ability (or lack thereof). They don’t need the test score. Getting these kinds of jobs is in and of itself a test… Kellogg with this move is hoping to boost its pool of qualified applicants and stop the decline in application volume.”

Brilliant!

As the cliché goes, the road to hell is paved with the best intentions. In August, Kellogg rolled out several changes to its Evening and Weekend MBA program. They included GMAT waivers based on undergrad qualifications or an executive assessment. At the same time, students could take a “select amount of online classes for each quarter.”

Let’s just say the response was less than enthusiastic. On Slack – the preferred platform for organizing student insurgencies – dozens of Kellogg part-time students voiced their concerns over these changes. Tim Rzeznik, who started in the part-time program in 2021, believes the test optional approach “clearly conveys that the near-term strategy for the school is to trade brand equity for cash up front.”

And he didn’t stop there.

“One of the reasons why I chose this school over NYU Stern, CMU Tepper, and Indiana Kelley was the effect the high standards had on the overall Kellogg brand,” Rzeznik continues in an interview with P&Q. “This latest announcement is a move in the wrong direction.”

It is a conflict as old as time – and it boils down to this: We had to do it. Why shouldn’t they? From Kellogg’s perspective, the changes were hardly a cash grab. Instead, they were based on empirical data and customer service says Greg Hanifee, associate dean of degree operations. The online option was implemented based on student requests for greater flexibility, he reveals. When it comes to testing, the decision was grounded in a concept that crops up in every MBA class in one form or another: alignment.

“Our Executive MBA for years has not had a test requirement yet continues to deliver top-quality students. Upon review, we wanted to align our two working professional programs and sync requirements more closely while meeting the needs of working students. And, we have performance data from the post-pandemic period that validates measures of achievement to be considered for admission.”

Yes, test optional admissions and online learning usage could become two fault lines in the MBA space. Do they dilute quality – or bring different candidates into the mix? While the Kellogg community debates this issue, the school can bask in a stellar 2022 otherwise. GMAT scores inched up as Kellogg’s full-time program continued to near gender parity. At the opposite end, 2022 full-time graduates notched record pay: $191,100 – up nearly 9% from the previous year. The pay gets better as the years pass too, with Kellogg MBAs ranking 2nd to Wharton for career-long ROI. In terms of rankings, the full-time program has climbed 7 spots in 5 years in The Financial Times. Better still, Kellogg ranked #1 in P&Q’s new Executive MBA ranking  (despite not requiring a GMAT or GRE).

Oh, and it became the 23rd member of The Consortium last year too.

With Kellogg’s entrepreneurial prowess, Chicago digs, and legendary commitment to “High impact, low ego” teams, you can expect Kellogg to rack up even more successes in 2023.

“With so much change and disruption happening constantly, we can’t predict how the world will evolve in the next 10 years, much less the next 50 years,” observes Emily Haydon, assistant dean of admissions and financial aid, in a 2021 interview with P&Q. “But what won’t change is the need for leaders who have the rare ability to understand and influence people, and to inspire teams with diverse backgrounds and perspectives — leaders who demonstrate great empathy. These are the type of leaders that Kellogg develops.”

Next Page: Northeastern University’s D’Amore McKim School of Business

Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business Online MBA

When you make a change, do you use a scalpel or a sledgehammer?

Do you surgically remove bits-and-pieces – or do you start over?

A few years ago, the D’Amore-McKim School of Business was grappling with this dilemma. On one hand, the school had launched one of the first online MBA programs in 2006 – one that had remained popular over the years. Still, faculty and administrators could see as an earlier mover the gaps in the marketplace. They wanted to create an online alternative grounded in hands-on learning and personalized programming. At the same time, they hoped to cater to changing tastes, where students could use business fundamentals to tackle social issues. In the end, they used neither a scalpel or sledgehammer. Instead, they applied a different tool: a “blank sheet of paper.”

This freed the school’s faculty to create something entirely new.

“We were one of the pioneers in the space and I think we designed and ran a very good program but the world has changed a lot and we decided it was time for more than just a refresh or update to the program,” explains Emery Trahan, interim dean of the D’Amore-McKim Business School, in a 2022 interview with P&Q. “It was time to reimagine the program for the future. The production of the program is different. The way the courses are delivered is different. We are building on our long history of experiential education and really leveraging something very significant into an online, scalable program and the price point is very different.”

By price point, Trahan means slicing the price nearly in half to $45,000 in comparison to D’Amore-McKim’s legacy program.

Technically, online learning – the computer tools, classroom techniques, and ongoing support – is the school’s core expertise. However, D’Amore-McKim brings something altogether new to the venture. At the undergraduate level, the school is revered for its co-ops – six-month paid internships where students gain experience working for companies. Such school-employer partnerships are rarely integrated into online education. Looking at D’Amore-McKim’s experience and capabilities, Kate Klepper was left with a more profound question than simply the scalpel vs. sledgehammer quandary…

‘If we can’t do this, who can?’

“We do this probably better than anyone,” Klepper asserts. “It is our core competency. If we are not willing to double down on it, then we really need to think about what we are doing. We have committed resources to lean into our vast corporate partners and alumni who are raising their hands and asking how can we help?”

Tapping into these resources, the school created experiential learning projects that account for 20% of the online programming. In one project, student teams are given a challenge and work alongside retired senior executives to develop solutions. In addition, students complete a course with a project involving a social challenge such as sustainability and diversity.

“Young professionals are very keen to have a positive impact on the world,” adds Klepper. “And in this case, the students will get to roll up their sleeves and tackle a project. This is not a fad. It’s real. And we came to the realization that we should be jumping on it right away.”

In online education, flexibility is often defined as having the option to take either live or recorded courses. While D’Amore-McKim provides these options, they prefer to think of flexibility in terms of customization. In their new online MBA program, students can choose from three concentrations: Business Analytics, finance, and Innovation and Entrepreneurship, where students complete four electives to gain deep expertise in a particular area. In fact, student-chosen electives account for 29 of the program’s 50 credits. What’s more, students can take 18-36 months to complete the coursework, while enjoying the same intensive career services support and access to faculty as their on-campus counterparts.

The program launched in October, with a new cohort joining in April 2023. For Mark Dockser, a D’Amore-McKim professor who helped develop the program, the OMBA caters to a particular profile of student. “[They are] students who have a fair amount of business experience already, that are making a commitment to come back in and saying, “I want these skills. I want to be able to move to those levels,” he told P&Q in December. “I think that is a specific group of folks for whom we can provide the right experience at the right time, and then at the right price.”

Overall, employer-driven and personalization are baked into D-Amore-McKim’s graduate programming. The two-year, full-time MBA program includes paid corporate residencies, which last anywhere from three to 12 months.  At the same time, students can pursue MBAx concentrations. After completing core courses, students can pair a standard business discipline concentration, such as Entrepreneurship or International Business, with a discipline outside the business school. These include Experience Design, Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, Visualization, Game Design, and Media Innovation. Last year, the school announced a partnership with the Mayo Clinic College of Science of Medicine to deliver an online Master’s in Management degree in Digital Healthcare Transformation. A year-long program, the Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim and Bouvé College of Health Sciences faculties have joined forces with Mayo Clinic faculty to co-teach a series of courses. In the process, students master the various sides to healthcare finance, service innovation, and supply chain management. Like other Northeastern business programming, it is driven by employer insight and career outcomes.

“We have people who have clear insight into where healthcare is headed―spanning the continuum of care, including in the home, and others who know how data and analytics drive better, more personalized care,” explains Marc Meyer, a professor of entrepreneurship at D’Amore-McKim. “The frameworks and methods we will teach will help students synthesize creative design, medical science, and digital technologies to do some good for the world. That is what makes healthcare transformation, and this program, so special.”

Indeed, D’Amore-McKim is looking to the future at every level. Be it online or in-person, the school has staked a clear position – and built programming around it – to prepare students for it. As history shows, they aren’t afraid to disrupt what works to produce matters.

“We don’t know yet what 20 years from now is going to look like,” adds Kate Klepper, “but being agile, being a critical thinker, being somebody who knows how to identify a problem, dissect a problem, put pieces back together in new and interesting ways – those are skills that are going to help in the future regardless of what is coming.”

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