Columbia Announces 2006-2007 Deadlines

The Columbia Business School has released its MBA application deadlines for 2006-2007. They are:

Early Decision (for Sept 07 entry): Applications will be reviewed beginning August 16, 2006. Decisions will be made within 10 weeks. The final deadline to submit applications for Early Decision admissions is October 11.

Regular Decision (for Sept 07 entry) - for US citizens and permanent residents: Applications will be reviewed beginning January 10, 2007. Decisions will be made within 12 weeks. The final application deadline is April 18, 2007. Applicants who want to be considered for merit-based fellowships must submit complete applications by January 11, 2007.

Regular Decision (for Sept 07 entry) - for international applicants: Applications will be reviewed beginning January 10, 2007. Decisions will be made within 12 weeks. The final application deadline is March 1, 2007. Applicants who want to be considered for merit-based fellowships must submit complete applications by January 11, 2007.

Accelerated MBA Program (Jan 07 entry): Application review has begun. Decisions are made within 8 weeks. The final application deadline is October 11, 2006.

Columbia says it will have its 2007 application posted to its website by the end of May.

For details, visit the Columbia Business School MBA admissions webpage (http://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/mba/admissions).

New HBS Dean Wants Students w/Interest in Globalization

The Harvard Business School announced yesterday that acting dean Jay O. Light has been named to lead the school on a permanent basis.

Light, a finance and investment management specialist, has been acting dean at HBS since last August. His extensive experience at the School includes serving as the Robinson professor of business administration, as senior associate dean, and as director of planning and development.

As acting dean, Light led the decision to end HBS's grade non-disclosure policy. He also completed a major capital campaign and oversaw the opening of HBS' new international research center in Mumbai, India.

Light told the Financial Times that his top priorities as dean would be increasing the number of faculty at HBS, encouraging more research collaboration between HBS and Harvard's other schools and programs, and recruiting top students. He said the School would make a particular effort to recruit students who understand globalization.

HBS faculty welcomed Light's permanent appointment as Dean. “He’s been there a long time and knows the school better than anyone. He’s brilliant, he’s humble, and he has extremely good communication skills,” a fellow professor told the Harvard Crimson.

Sources:

"Acting Dean Promoted to Lead B-School," by Madeline W. Lissner and Daniel J.T. Schuker - the Harvard Crimson, April 24, 2006

"New Harvard Business School Dean to Focus on Globalisation," by Rebecca Knight - the Financial Times, April 24, 2006

Fortune Names the Most Sought-After MBA Employers

The following is from the All Star Essays blog for April 24:

Everyone knows the names of the roughly two dozen b-schools that most aspiring MBAs dream of gaining admission to. But what destinations do they aim for after getting their degrees?

Fortune magazine has published its list of the 100 most popular MBA employers for 2006. The companies were chosen on the basis of how many MBA students named them as one of their top choice career destinations.

The top 10 companies are:

1. McKinsey & Company
2. Google
3. Goldman Sachs
4. Bain & Company
5. The Boston Consulting Group
6. Citigroup
7. Apple Computer
8. General Electric
9. Johnson & Johnson
10. Morgan Stanley

Fortune found that MBA students are aiming high in their salary expectations, too. The average base salary that 2005 survey respondents said they expected to earn in their first year of post-MBA employment was $81,658. This year, the figure is $88,087.

MBA students going into consulting and investment management had some the highest salary expectations. It's no surprise that these fields are well-represented on the top employers list.

Ironically, the continuing popularity of consulting and investment management raises a problem for B-school applicants who have their sights set on these fields. If you want a career with McKinsey, that's great; but keep in mind that many other applicants will be saying the same thing. You need to put something in your essays – a personal experience, an explanation of what you like to do and why – that will help admissions committees tell you apart from all the other wanna-be consultants and persuade them that you have the right stuff to make it in a highly competitive sector.

IIM & ISB Grads Give US MBAs a Run for the Money

Graduates of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and the Indian School of Business (ISB) are being recruited by international companies just as avidly as their U.S. counterparts are – and they're getting the salary offers to prove it.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that Indian business school grads are now getting salary offers equal to those of MBAs from the top US business schools. This year's crop of graduates from IIM-Ahmedabad received on average two job offers per student, with total compensation going as high as $193,000. Upcoming graduates of the ISB are seeing job offers of $200,000 and more.

The Economist rates India's top management institutes as some of the hardest b-schools in the world to gain admission to. Last year, 158,000 applicants took the Common Aptitude Test, the standardized entrance exam for Indian business schools. Out of that number, only 1,300 won admission to one of the country's six IIM institutes.

Source: "India's B-School Grads Now Rake in the Big Rupees," by Anuj Chopra - the Christian Science Monitor, April 21, 2006

Dean of Cornell's Johnson School Will Step Down in '07

The following is from the All Star Essays blog for April 21:

Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management has announced that Dean Robert Swieringa will step down from his post at the end of the 2006-2007 academic year. He will take a year of sabbatical and then return to Cornell as a member of the accounting faculty, with dean emeritus status.

Should news about a change of leadership affect your decision about applying to particular school or program? In most cases, no. Changes in the dean’s office tend to have limited impact on a student’s education or school experience. The decisions that deans make are at a level of management where it generally takes more than a couple of years to implement change. In the case of Cornell, even if you were to enter the MBA program in fall 2007, you probably would have graduated before the new dean would have effected much change at the program level.

That said, the choice of a dean does say a lot about a school’s institutional values and the direction it plans to take in the future. Dean Swieringa’s decade-long tenure at Cornell is an excellent case in point. He initiated a wave of student-centered reforms that deserve much of the credit for raising the Johnson School’s profile and stature. Among other achievements, he helped establish the Roy H. Park Leadership Fellows program – which is one of the best deals going in MBA education, and well worth checking out – as well as some innovative student-run investment funds that give MBA students practical experience with financial management.

Dean Swieringa also deserves credit for promoting the collaborative spirit that sets Cornell apart from other top b-schools. Recent Johnson alumni never fail to mention Cornell’s collegial atmosphere as one of the things they value most about their MBA experience there. As one of them puts it, her Johnson MBA was not only a business education but also a positive life-changing experience.

The bottom line is that it’s worthwhile to follow news about changes in leadership at the schools you’re interested in. The official statements you’ll read and the backgrounds of candidates for top offices can give you an idea about the school’s institutional culture and what it thinks is important in management education. Those are pieces of information you can put to good use in deciding whether you’re a good fit for a particular school – and perhaps good material to mention about fit in your essays.

But you shouldn’t let the departure or arrival of a dean become a deciding factor in applying to one school over another. It’s not like you’re a faculty or staff member who will have daily interaction with the dean or his or her deputies over many years. You’re only going to be at the school for a couple of years, and your contacts will be professors and career services officers and fellow classmates. You should select your schools more on the basis of how good a fit you think you will be at that level.

B-School Application Volume Climbs at Chicago and Yale

The following is from the All Star Essays blog for April 18:

Application volume to the MBA programs at Chicago and Yale grew substantially in the 2005-2006 admissions season.

The Yale Daily News reported that the School of Management received 2,272 applications for fall 2006 admission. That figure marks an 11.8 per cent increase from 2005, when 2,032 applications were submitted. SOM Director of Admissions Anne Coyle believes that part of the increase is due to the appeal that Yale's "focus on service" has for a growing number of b-school applicants.

Unfortunately for applicants, this increased interest comes in the same year that Yale is cutting the size of its first-year class, in order to facilitate adoption of a revised core curriculum. (See "Is Yale SOM Throwing '06 Admits a Curve?")

Application volume rose at an even greater clip at the Chicago Graduate School of Business. Director of Admissions Rose Martinelli stated in a recent admissions message board exchange that application volume was up by over 35 per cent. Approximately 60 per cent of those who applied were invited to interview.

Sales Gain Ground in the B-School Curriculum

The following is from the All Star Essays blog for April 11:

The Wall Street Journal's Career Journal carries an interesting feature today on the growing profile of sales courses in top MBA programs. ("More B-Schools Add Sales Courses," by Ronald Alsop, Career Journal, dated April 11, 2006.)

The growing respect paid to sales by b-schools is a noteworthy trend in itself. It also highlights a key aspect of MBA programs that people should consider before they decide to pursue b-school admissions.

Career Journal writes that b-schools traditionally paid limited attention to sales because selling was seen more as a skill than as a management topic. Only a few top b-schools, such as Harvard and Kellogg, offered sales management courses in the past. In recent years, however, additional b-schools, including Sloan, Stanford, and UNC, have made sales classes available to their MBA students.

Part of this change comes from schools' taking both a broader and a more detailed look at what selling means. Selling is presented as a skill with management value both inside and outside an organization. For example, a Proctor & Gamble executive who is involved in a sales seminar offered to University of Wisconsin students talked about MBAs drawing on sales skills to sell ideas inside their own companies.

In addition, more attention is being paid to the particular demands of different kinds of selling. MIT offers a course on high tech sales and sales force management. UNC is thinking about offering specialized classes on sales in banking, consulting, and other business sectors. A number of schools are offering sales courses in response to the needs of students interested in entrepreneurial careers.

But a second (and probably more important) factor in the growth of MBA sales courses is employer demand. Corporate recruiters value MBA hires who understand the relationship between marketing and sales – and they value b-schools that prepare graduates with that kind of understanding.

What should aspiring MBAs make of this?

A well-planned and well-taught class on sales and sales force management is a valuable option for MBA students, especially those whose previous work experience never involved direct contact with customers or clients. Sales are vital to any company's performance. The best product in the world is still a loser if nobody buys it. Managers need to understand how sales and sales personnel work in their industry and in their company.

However, aspiring MBAs should never lose sight of the fact that management education is about moving up to general management – not about doing a better job where you already are. Because sales is so clearly a crucial business function – and because it is such a lucrative field for those who do it well – we worry that the growth of MBA sales courses may lead some students to give other aspects of their educations less attention or respect than they deserve.

Let's be honest: if you're a smart and gifted salesperson and are happy to stay in sales, you don't need an MBA. You might benefit from some courses in managing staff or analyzing data, but you don't need a general business education.

More importantly, if sales are the thing you love doing, you probably wouldn't be happy in the kinds of positions that MBA grads move on to. Being a corporate executive is not about being the very best salesperson in the company. It's about seeing the big picture and managing the whole process. That's why people go to graduate school to learn to do it.

If you do want a career in general management, by all means take advantage of sales training that is available to you. As we said before, it's valuable for students who have not previously worked in or around sales. It's also valuable for anyone planning on starting their own business. But keep in mind that sales is just one of many areas you need to understand and function in to be an effective manager. The goal of your sales training should be to gain competence in managing sales along with all the other functions of your organization – not to become the world's best salesperson yourself.

Signs Point to Rising B-School Application Volume

The following is from the All Star Essays blog for April 10:

Last week we wrote about the correlation between rising application volume and shrinking acceptance rates in college admissions. Now comes news that Wharton's overall 2006 graduate applicant pool grew by 12.2 per cent over last year. This suggests that we ought to say something similar about b-school admissions.

The Daily Pennsylvanian, in a March 30 article on international student applications to graduate programs at the University of Pennsylvania, mentioned in passing that applications to the Wharton School's three graduate programs had increased by 12.2 per cent. The exact statistics for application volume to Wharton's MBA program are not available yet, but it's clear that they grew substantially. (It's also clear that the increase in MBA applications came almost entirely from U.S. applicants – a representative of Wharton's admissions office told the campus paper that international application volume grew by only about 1 per cent over 2005.)

There have been rumors and hints and bits of news floating around for months about a rebound in b-school application volume. Tuck's application volume was reported to have increased by 40 per cent or more this year, not counting R3 submissions. Goizueta's applicant pool is also reported to have grown by 40 per cent, while the volume of applications to Haas was said to have grown by about 30 per cent. Recent news about improved hiring and salary prospects for MBAs is bound to drive interest in b-schools even higher.

What we said about college applications and acceptance rates holds true for business schools, too. When application volume goes up, acceptance rates have to go down. B-schools, just like colleges, can only accommodate a certain number of first-year students. A school that can enroll 400 first-year MBA students when 2,000 people apply can still only enroll 400 first-year MBA students when 3,000 apply. The thing that does change is the number of people who wind up getting dinged.

The same advice we gave college applicants facing increased competition for admissions applies to b-school applicants, too. Large MBA applicant pools will be a fact of life for the foreseeable future. One of the biggest hurdles you will face in b-school admissions is simply to get yourself noticed among the hundreds of other applicants with similar backgrounds, GPAs, and GMAT scores.

Your admissions essays are your best chance at achieving this. They need to be more than merely competently written and grammatically correct. They need to show that you have thought about your education and career prospects carefully, researched your options, and concluded that school X is the right b-school for you – and convince the admissions committee to come to the same conclusion.

Fuqua Benefactor Passes Away

"Fuqua, Major Donor, Dies at 87"
By Steve Veres
The Duke Chronicle, April 7, 2006

J.B. Fuqua, the benefactor who donated more than $40 million to Duke during his lifetime, died at an Atlanta hospital Wednesday. He was 87.

Known for his shy demeanor and business acumen, Fuqua, the namesake of the Fuqua School of Business, was a Duke trustee emeritus and a charter member of the business school's Board of Visitors.

A self-educated man who never attended college, Fuqua was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Duke in 1973. Nine other colleges and universities gave Fuqua similar awards.

Fuqua, who grew up on a tobacco farm in Virginia, learned the ways of the business world by borrowing books via mail from the Duke library.

"He's an amazing example of the self-made man and the self-taught man, and Duke helped him in giving him an education," President Richard Brodhead said. "It teaches you something about the good a university can do even if you're not enrolled there."

Fuqua was a millionaire by age 35 and at one point was listed in the Forbes 400-an annual list of the 400 wealthiest people in the United States.

His $10-million gift in 1980, which helped endow the Fuqua School of Business, was the second largest gift the school had received at that point, surpassed only by the $24 million given by tobacco baron James B. Duke in 1924.

Former President Terry Sanford called Fuqua's gift "a major milestone in the history of Duke University."...

In his speeches, [Fuqua] often encouraged students to take risks and to show courage in business. "Leaders do not worry about the past, for they know there is seldom anything they can do about what has already happened," he said in a 1972 commencement speech at Hampden-Sydney College.

Fuqua's passions included hunting and flying his plane. But he was known for being dedicated to his job.

Once, after friends persuaded him to take a two-week vacation in Switzerland with his wife, he returned after just three days, noting that after he saw one castle, he felt like he had seen them all.

"J.B. Fuqua was a wonderful person, gracious and generous, humble and someone who really enjoyed life," Douglas Breeden, dean of the School of Business, said in a statement. "He will be missed tremendously by all of us. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family."

Tuck Global Consultancy Marks 10th Anniversary

"Tuck Global Consultancy Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary"
Press release, the Tuck School of Business
March 29, 2006

HANOVER, N.H.—This year, a group of field study projects conducted by students at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth will mark the 10-year anniversary of the Tuck Global Consultancy, a program that makes international consulting services available to the business community. Established In 1997 and managed by Tuck’s Center for International Business, the Tuck Global Consultancy is a core element of international business training at Tuck. It is offered through the Field Study in International Business course—which is the most popular second-year elective at the school today. Students selected to participate in the program embark on 13-week projects, and work with their teams to develop immediate solutions to specific challenges faced by a corporate client.

Tuck Global Consultancy clients have included such fortune-class companies as John Deere, Johnson & Johnson, Intel, Nike, Unilever, and The Walt Disney Co. Since 1997, Tuck MBA teams have completed 104 assignments for more than 70 clients in 51 countries. In 2005 alone, 16 projects were completed on five continents.

“The Tuck Global Consultancy program is the most robust MBA consulting program in the world,” says John Owens, director of the Tuck Global Consultancy. “Other top business schools look to Tuck’s program as the gold standard. Our clients are absolutely blown away by the quality of our students’ work. They receive results that rival the best work of world-class consulting firms, at a fraction of the cost.”
Projects in 2005 took place in such locations as Australia, Belgium, the Caribbean, China, Eastern Europe, Korea, Russia, South Africa, Tanzania, Turkey, Venezuela, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom. This was the first time that projects were conducted in Africa and Australia.

Greg Butz T'06 was part of a team that worked with the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences (MUCHS) in Tanzania. The project focused on a business and feasibility plan for a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant that the MUCHS School of Pharmacy intends to build on land recently granted to them by the Tanzanian National Government. The plant would utilize the human capital assets of the school’s instructors, students, and recent graduates to manufacture pharmaceutical products for Tanzania's domestic market. "This project was a tremendous learning opportunity for us. We gained insights into the nuances of conducting business in the developing world and an understanding of how business concepts taught in the classroom can be used to create societal good," said Butz.

Robert Haslehurst T’06 and his team completed a high-level corporate strategy project for Grange Securities, an Australian investment banking company. "The client allowed us to develop our recommendations while at the same time constantly challenging us," said Haslehurst. "We were attentive to their needs because we wanted to ensure that our recommendations would be used by the firm. By the end of the project, we had developed 30 explicit recommendations that fit within the company’s broader strategy and vision, and we left feeling that our work had had a positive impact on the company."

Each Tuck Global Consultancy project takes place in three phases. In the first phase, the Tuck team engages with the client to better understand and outline the project’s objectives. The second phase sees teams traveling to in-country locations to conduct primary research and deliver preliminary findings to the client. The last phase of each project involves the completion of a report, which is presented to the client either at Tuck, via videoconference, or in the client’s country.

"The field study program is a great culmination of the Tuck experience, and builds on the school's emphasis on teamwork," said Ann Bauer T'93, faculty advisor to the August field study project in Puerto Rico and the December field study project in Venezuela. "Projects can challenge students to work outside of their comfort zone, forcing them to rely on each other and use each person's skill sets to maximum advantage. This experience is value-added to the curriculum because these projects are more than just a grade. They are conducted in the real world, with real clients and high stakes. The clients expect professional, high-caliber work, and Tuck students always deliver."

Additional information on the Tuck Global Consultancy is available at Tuck's website.

Wharton Students Get Chance to Gain Nonprofit Board Experience

"Wharton MBA Students Bring Expertise to Philadelphia Non-Profits" - press release, The Wharton School, January 25, 2006 (program is highlighted in a post to Wharton MBA: Admissions Blog! on March 25, 2006)

“I have always been involved with the communities I live in,” says Wharton MBA student Franco Tapia, WG’06, “and when I heard about the NBLP program, I immediately thought it would be a great fit. The ability to use Wharton’s resources to help the greater Philadelphia community is something I’m proud to be a part of.”

In April 2005, Wharton’s Social Impact Management Initiative launched a unique program called the Nonprofit Board Leadership Program (NPBLP). Working with the Nonprofit Center at LaSalle University, the NPBLP selects and trains ten Wharton MBA students to serve on the Boards of Directors of nonprofit organizations in Philadelphia.

MBA students placed through the NPBLP use their high-level knowledge of such areas as accounting, finance, and marketing to make a direct impact on the business strategies of organizations in the community around them.

NPBLP’s first group of participants was selected from over 50 applicants, on the basis of their professional experience, commitment to community service, and vision for what they hope to gain from participating in the program.

Program participants will attend board meetings, serve on a board sub-committee, and receive one-on-one mentorship from a senior board member. They will also take part in quarterly development sessions, where they work with experts to find potential solutions for the challenges they face in their board positions.

"These partnerships will benefit organizations and communities that typically do not have access to MBA talent,” says Sadaf Kazmi, WG’06, the program’s student director. “The most salient difference” between the non-profit and for-profit environments, explains Gautam Mishra, WG’06, “is the dependence on external sources of funds. Consequently, these organizations sometimes have a lot less power than their corporate counterparts.

“Over the course of the next semester,” reports Mishra, who’s working with Philadelphia’s Arts & Spirituality Center, “I plan to focus on providing a framework for increased transparency in what is currently a start-up-like environment.”

This year's NPBLP participants and their organizations are:

Nicole Casciello – Alice Paul Institute
Sung-Min Chung – The Food Trust
Christopher Donohue – Empowerment Group
Bryce Goodwin – Mazzoni Center
Marina Hervy – Metropolitan Career Center
Alan Hsu – White-Williams Scholars
Gautam Mishra – Arts & Spirituality Center
Yogesh Patel – Strings for Schools
Due Quach – Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
Franco Tapia – Children's Aid Society of Pennsylvania