It’s Tuesday once again and it’s time to check in on the important details and differences of the leading MBA programs. This week’s focus is teamwork, now a hot topic in business education. For the last decade or so, business schools have moved towards greater use of teams in coursework. This trend has been prompted by the reality that much of modern business depends on the work of functional, productive teams. In response, many business schools have integrated mandatory teamwork into the MBA curriculum, especially into the first year. Today we’ll look at a few of the models used by the leading MBA programs.
Wharton was among the first of the leading business schools to incorporate small learning teams into the first year. Wharton’s teams are assigned in August, at the end of Pre-Term, and students work with their assigned team members throughout the first year. The teams go on a 2-3 day Learning Team Retreat before classes start, during which they get to know one another and start laying the foundation for their work together during the school year. In addition to working together on class projects and studying together for core courses, Wharton’s learning teams also serve as the focus for the half-credit core course Foundations of Leadership and Teamwork. The course, which meets for the first and last six weeks of the first year, focuses on self-awareness, working in teams, and leading others, key concepts for any effective manager or teammate.
Tuck students are also assigned to small study groups prior to the start of fall classes and work with this group throughout the fall quarter. However, unlike Wharton, Tuck reassigns students to new study groups just prior to the start of the winter quarter, and students work with this new group until the start of spring quarter, when they are free to choose their own study mates. Although Tuck students are often disappointed to leave their fall study groups – espeically after helping each other through the intensity of the first quarter of the MBA – they usually report enjoying the opportunity to work with a new group of people and gain new perspectives on class material.
In the end, regardless of how the learning teams or study groups are organized, they all share a common goal: providing students with hands-on practice in working effectively with a group of diverse people with divergent strengths, personalities and work styles. Given the centrality of the study group experience to first year life at most MBA programs, applicants would do well to consider the type of team experience they seek from an MBA program. For some, Harvard’s looser team structure (described here) may fit a more independent personality. Others may be looking to business school to help build teamwork and team leadership skills, in which case the daily teamwork experience offered by Wharton, Tuck, Columbia, and others may be more desirable. However, not all leading MBA programs use assigned study groups to promote team-based learning – a topic we’ll cover in next week’s Trivia Tuesday. In the meantime, to find out more about the team-based learning at the leading MBA programs, be sure to check out the schools’ websites or the Clear Admit School Guides, including the brand-new guides to Kellogg, MIT Sloan and Stanford!
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