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CATEGORY - SCHOOL: BERKELEY / HAAS

Monday, November 17, 2008

BusinessWeek 2008 Business School Rankings: A Closer Look

Today we’ll take a closer look at how the various top programs fared in BusinessWeek’s most recent business school rankings, released last week.

Chicago Booth held firmly to the number one spot it secured in the 2006 rankings, boasting high scores in both the corporate recruiter and graduate surveys. Harvard Business School (HBS) and Wharton traded places this year, with HBS climbing to number two and Wharton slipping to number four. BW’s Louis Lavelle attributed Wharton’s slide to a poorer showing in the intellectual capital category this year than in 2006. 

Columbia, meanwhile, advanced from the number 10 spot to number seven, but MIT Sloan and Berkeley’s Haas School of Business each slipped slightly. Also noteworthy was the fact that Southern Methodist University (18) and Brigham Young University (22) each cracked the top 25 this year for the first time ever. SMU, for its part, has been among the participating schools for years, but lacked sufficient response rates in the recruiter and student portions of the ranking to secure a top spot before now, according to BW’s Geoff Gloeckler.

There were also two newcomers to the Global MBA rankings, IE Business School (2) and Oxford’s Saïd Business School (10). Like SMU, IE has long been a participant but until this year had insufficient recruiter and student response rates, Gloeckler said.

Yale School of Management, meanwhile, seems to have fallen back slightly. It came in at 24 this year, down from 19 in 2006. Lavelle attributed its fall to low student survey scores.

In an article accompanying the rankings, BW takes a look at the current business school landscape, which it says is marked by surging application rates amid “wretched” recruiting prospects.

As has historically been the case in times of economic downturn, application rates to business schools are rising steadily. According to the BW report, schools are reporting double-digit increases in application volume. Chicago Booth, for example, has seen a 20 percent surge in attendance at information sessions around the globe.

But even as more students clamor to get in, job prospects upon graduation are uncertain, with some schools bracing for the toughest MBA job market since the dotcom bust. “I think next fall is going to be very, very difficult,” George Daly, dean of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, told BW.

The article went on to cite a survey by umbrella group MBA Career Services Council, in which 70 percent of 77 participating schools reported a downturn in full-time recruiting opportunities in financial services in October.

As a result, some students are shifting their focus from investment banking to consulting and other fields. Attendance at recruiting presentations by consulting firms is standing room only, New York University’s Stern School of Business Dean Gary Fraser told BW.

A shift is also taking place in the classroom, as professors are introducing new case studies and re-writing syllabi as part of an effort to make sense of the financial crisis and market upheaval.

Risk management, meanwhile, is expected to play a much more important role in business school curriculums over the next three to five years, according to the BW report, a trend that Robert Meyer, co-director of Wharton’s Risk Management & Decision Processes Center, calls “potentially transformational.”

Friday, October 31, 2008

Fed Chair Bernanke to Speak at Haas School of Business Symposium Today

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak today as part of a two-day symposium at the Haas School of Business focused on the economy, the mortgage crisis and the government’s rescue plan.

The event, entitled “The Mortgage Meltdown, the Economy, and Public Policy,” is being co-hosted by UC Berkeley and UCLA. Bernanke, who will appear via satellite, will be joined by Janet Yellen, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; California State Senator Darrell Steinberg; and best-selling economist Robert Shiller, author of the Subprime Solution and Irrational Exuberance.

The symposium also will feature several panel discussions moderated by faculty from Haas, UCLA and Stanford. Panel discussion topics include the crisis in finance markets, the demography and geography of foreclosures and the future of the housing finance system.

Haas is investigating options for making the program available via the Internet. For details, click here.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Top Schools Remain Committed to Helping International MBA Applicants Find Student Loans

In a post earlier this month, we reported that Citibank has cancelled its CitiAssist student loan program with several top business schools as a result of the current economic crisis and shrinking credit markets, creating confusion and uncertainty for many international students about how to fund an MBA. 

So far, loans for domestic students pursuing an MBA program do not seem to have been impacted, but the cancellation of the CitiAssist program brought to an abrupt end loan programs for international students that don’t require a co-signer. Several schools have responded with assurances that they are focused on the problem and committed to providing access to financial aid to all students regardless of citizenship.

In a post yesterday on her newly launched blog, Rose Martinelli, director of admissions and financial aid at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, stressed that she and her team are committed to finding new loan sources for the upcoming year.

In fact, Chicago GSB went through this exact exercise not so many months ago. The school’s previous loan provider cancelled its program for international students in July, and Martinelli’s office scrambled to find a replacement program – with Citibank. Fortunately for this year’s entering class, loans for the current year were locked in and will be unaffected by the more recent CitiAssist cancellation.

But now Chicago GSB must again find a replacement loan program. “We were all taken by surprise and are actively engaged at the highest levels in the school/university in identifying potential new loan sources for the upcoming year,” Martinelli wrote.

In the meantime, she encouraged international students to look at the various financing opportunities available in their home countries. “Rates and terms will vary by location, but it makes sense for you to have this information available so that you can evaluate the terms schools are able to provide for similar loan types when that information becomes available,” she wrote.

Acknowledging how uncomfortable the uncertainty must feel, Martinelli encouraged prospective applicants to remain positive and focus on the fact that an MBA is a long-term investment that will pay dividends over a lifetime regardless of market cycles.

San Francisco Bay–area schools, too, recently also offered reassurance to prospective international students as well as some practical advice. A post last week on the Stanford MBA Admissions Blog featured the following quote from Jack Edwards, director of financial aid:

“International students at the Stanford Graduate School of Business will not be impacted by Citibank’s decision. The GSB Financial Aid Office has a close working relationship with Stanford Federal Credit Union and for the past two years we have made arrangements exclusively through SFCU to provide international students at Stanford the ability to take out private loans without a U.S. co-signer.” Edwards also confirmed that Citibank’s loan program for domestic borrowers had not been affected.

At the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, meanwhile, Director of Admissions Peter Johnson confirmed Citibank’s discontinuation of international student loans without a co-signer. “I’m guessing that no-co-signer loans will be hard to find until the financial services mess is sorted out,” he wrote in an email.

Johnson encouraged prospect Haas applicants to explore alternative financial assistance available through the school. “We  provide $3.2 million dollars in financial assistance, including merit scholarships providing up to full tuition and fees for both years; fellowships for students pursuing careers in financial services, and smaller programs for specific discipline areas,” he wrote. To learn more about Haas’s other financial assistance programs, click here.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Business Schools Brace for Record Round One Application Volumes

As round one application deadlines approach, business schools both here and abroad are bracing for a surge in application volume. Recent reports in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Asia Inc reveal what we’ve long known to be true: When business goes south, business school looks like a better and better idea.

“It’s a very predictable and reliable pattern,” Stacey Kole, deputy dean for the full-time MBA program at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, told the Times. “When there’s a go-go economy, fewer people decide to go back to school. When things go south, the opportunity cost of leaving work is lower.” And for workers who find themselves laid off, the decision is made easier still.

Official application tallies aren’t yet available since deadlines for the first round of admissions still loom at many schools. But early reports indicate that final numbers will be high.

According to the Journal report, New York University’s Stern School of Business has seen a 20 percent increase in attendance at off-site information sessions this year, Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management is reporting a 22 percent increase in applications so far, and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business has seen campus visits by prospective students double.

As always, registration volume for the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) provides an early indicator of application volume as well. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the test, registrations for the test through the end of September were 11.6 percent higher than in the comparable period of 2007.

In Europe, the same trends are playing out. “Actually, applications to MBA programmes at IE Business school this year have grown over 15 percent and diversity – the number of countries represented – has also increased,” Santiago Iniguez, dean of Instituto de Empresa Business School in Madrid, told Asia Inc last month. “In fact, the number of U.S. students expected for IE’s MBA programme starting this fall will increase over 20 percent,” he continued.

Still, not everyone sees a direct correlation between a sagging economy and a surge in application volume. Others rightly point out that uncertainty about what the job market will look like upon graduation could deter some from applying. And for some students, the credit crisis may make getting loans to cover the cost of business school more difficult.

Derrick Bolton, director of MBA admissions at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, told the Times that he sees very little correlation between a Wall Street bust and an application boom. According to Bolton, application numbers at his school remained “pretty standard” even after some of Wall Street’s greatest declines, such as the market crash of 1987.

For those in good jobs now, meanwhile, the risk of leaving to go to school may seem too great, according to Peter Johnson, executive director of admissions for the full-time MBA program at the University of California Berkeley’s Hass School of Business. “If you are in a good position and you are not confident of how the picture is going to look two years from now, you may stay in that position,” he told the Journal.

And then there’s the issue of student loans, which have become harder to get due to the widespread credit crunch. According to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, 144 education lenders have suspended private and federal loans. But Kantrowitz says business school students should not be impacted as greatly.
“Graduate student loans are the most profitable [for lenders] because the loan balances are the highest,” he told the Journal.

Stefan Szymanski, associate dean of MBA programs at London’s Cass Business School said much the same thing in an article on topmba.com. “Banks are consistently willing to lend to MBAs because they know they’ll get their money back,” he writes. “And yes, even though the banks have stopped lending to almost everybody else, they seem happy to maintain their loan schemes right now – and they wouldn’t be doing that unless they saw an MBA as a sure-fire economic proposition.”

Monday, September 08, 2008

Trivia Tuesday: International Consulting at Haas

Welcome to another edition of Trivia Tuesday, our weekly examination of the programs, policies and resources that help to differentiate the leading business schools. This week we turn our attention to an opportunity for hands-on international development work offered by the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

The International Business Development (IBD) course is one of the most popular electives at Haas. Similar to the international consulting electives at Wharton and Tuck, the course sends small teams of students to consult at client sites around the world for three weeks each summer. The program is open only to first-year students, and the application process includes both essays and an interview.

Students selected for participation are assigned to project teams in January of the first year and work with their teams in the spring semester to conduct background research and analysis. Following the end of first-year classes in mid-May, each team spends a dedicated three weeks on-site with the client, completing such projects as preparing a business plan, conducting market analysis, developing marketing or entry strategies, or recommending operational changes. In keeping with the course’s focus on international development, the sponsor organizations are largely regional companies or non-profits, including the Wildlife Conservation Society, GrameenPhone, The Longevity Project, and the Sewlanka Foundation.

Although the IBD project is usually delivered to the clients by the end of the three week period on-site, teams may need to conduct follow-up work in the fall semester. In order to provide students with an opportunity to share their findings with other teams and to discuss their experiences, IBD participants meet for two full Fridays during the fall semester. During these meetings, each team presents its project to the class in case format. Upon successful completion of the spring semester preparation, the in-country project, and the fall semester presentations, students receive three elective credits towards their Haas degrees.

To learn more about international study or experiential learning opportunities at Haas and other leading business schools, be sure to check out the schools’ websites or the Clear Admit School Guides!

Friday, August 08, 2008

Injections of Cash Fuel Innovation at Haas School of Business

Two recent, generous gifts to the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley will help fund the school’s continuing focus on innovation.

The first, a $4.5 million alumni endowment, will create a new center focused on technology and innovation in American companies. The second, a $1 million donation from the chairman and CEO of Williams-Sonoma, will fund continued cultivation and promotion of entrepreneurship and innovation in management at the school’s Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

New Garwood Center Is Born
The new Garwood Center for the Management of Technology and Innovation will focus on developing management strategies and technologies to promote innovation in American companies and help firms maintain a competitive edge in the global marketplace.

Its creation will be funded by a $4.5 million endowment from Haas School alumnus Ed Garwood, BS 31, and his wife, Elsie. The Garwoods established an annuity trust to support the center in 1984, and Haas received the final donation of $4.2 million from the sale of Mrs. Garwood’s estate after she passed away last October.

“The Garwoods did not have children, and Eddie and Elsie came to the belief that they wanted the entire remainder of their estate to go toward supporting the faculty and student efforts Eddie saw us engaged in,” David Teece, director of the Institute of Management, Innovation, and Organization (IMIO), said in a statement.

Mr. Garwood requested that the Garwood Center be housed within IMIO, which is the successor of the Center for Research on Management, founded in 1961 to advance research in the then emerging field of “management science.” Planning and development will take place over the next 18 months, beginning with the appointment of a director.

Lester Center Receives $1 Million Gift
Meanwhile, the Haas School’s Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation also received a $1 million donation from Williams-Sonoma Chairman and CEO W. Howard Lester to continue its work to cultivate and promote entrepreneurship and innovation in management at UC Berkeley.

The injection of cash will help support operations at the center while also funding a range experiential learning, extracurricular activities for students, and academic research and entrepreneurial curriculum development across UC Berkeley.

These new offerings add to the Lester Center’s existing array of innovation-focused programming, which includes monthly Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forums, three business competitions and the Berkeley Business Incubator. The center also has supported the founding of numerous ventures by Haas students and alumni.

Lester, a long-time Haas School board member, is himself an accomplished entrepreneur. After spending the first two decades of his career in the software industry, he was searching for a new venture and discovered Williams-Sonoma, then a tiny cookware retail chain. He transformed it into the country’s premier specialty retailer of home furnishings, which today also includes among its brands Pottery Barn and West Elm.

To learn more about the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, click here.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Haas School of Business Names Alumnus Richard Lyons to Serve as New Dean

The UC Regents has confirmed the appointment of Professor Richard Lyons to serve as the 14th dean of the Haas School of Business, according to an announcement earlier this month by UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. Lyons’ appointment, retroactive to July 1st, concludes an extensive national search for a candidate to succeed Tom Campbell, Haas dean since 2002.

Lyons, who is best known for his pioneering work in international finance and foreign exchange, holds a professorship at Haas and served as the school’s acting dean from 2004 to 2005 and as associate dean from 2005 to 2006. He returns to Haas now from Goldman Sachs, where he has served as chief learning officer since 2006.

“Just imagine getting the opportunity to come home to your alma mater, in the same department no less, and serve in this way,” said Lyons in a statement announcing his appointment. Lyons earned his undergraduate business degree with highest honors at the Haas School in 1982 and joined the Haas School faculty in 1993.

As dean, Lyons will direct the Haas School’s efforts to expand its faculty to its largest size ever, enhance student services, continue curriculum improvements, build the endowment and plan for a new building. He also plans to continue an initiative to sharpen the school’s strategic position that he helped launch while serving as the school’s acting dean, a position he held while Dean Campbell took a sabbatical to serve as finance director for California under Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger.  

The time Lyons spent at Goldman Sachs since taking leave from Haas in 2006 is also expected to influence him in his new role as dean. As Goldman’s chief learning officer, Lyons main responsibility was to direct the group charged with developing leadership among managing directors and partners.

“I learned that you can’t overestimate the importance of great people in building great firms. And that’s the business we’re in here at Haas,” Lyons said in a statement. “I’m also fortunate to have experienced where the leadership ‘puck’ is going. Haas, with its broad-based strengths, is in an excellent position to skate toward it.”

While a professor at Haas, Lyons was awarded the Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching six times by his students, and in 1998 he received the Distinguished Teaching Award, UC Berkeley’s highest teaching honor. His research, meanwhile, has provided new insights into how to analyze exchange rates, breaking away from traditional macroeconomic approaches.

“Rich’s impeccable credentials as researcher and teacher, combined with his successful past track record as associate and interim dean, will serve him extremely well in taking Haas to the next level of business school excellence,” said Jim Lincoln, outgoing associate dean for academic affairs and a member of the dean search committee.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Berkeley / Haas Essay Topic Analysis 2008-2009

Berkeley/Haas School of Business essay topics include one entirely new question this year, but there are not any other significant changes. The school’s unusual but familiar seven-question format remains, asking applicants to comment very briefly on four 250-word prompts before delving into two additional subjects in more depth. The narrow word limits for this first batch of questions pose a challenge to the applicant, but also a great opportunity to showcase a range of elements of his or her candidacy - and commitment to attending Haas.

Here are some considerations to keep in mind when approaching Haas’ essay topics during this 2008-2009 application season:

Short Answer 1: If you could change one thing you’ve done in your life, what would it be, and how would you do it differently? (250 word maximum)
Doing away with last year’s tricky topic asking students which one person they would like to have dinner with, and why, Haas now leads off its essay set with a more individually focused - but equally reflective - question. While this topic could be read as a variation on the rather standard “failure essay,” allowing the applicant to introduce a mistake and explain what he or she has learned from it, the scope is much farther reaching. This prompt opens the door to discussions of changes in priorities or perspective, giving applicants a chance to reflect on how they’ve grown over time, what they’ve learned and how their interests have evolved. While it’s important not to get too personal in one’s application essays, candidates can draw on topics from the academic, professional and personal realms, slipping in an explanation of a low GPA or gap in employment, or just writing about a task or role he or she could have carried out even better with the benefit of hindsight.

Although the essay prompt allows applicants to discuss an experience from any time during their lives, it’s best to choose a time that illustrates both professional and personal growth. A mistake made early in one’s career and from which it is evident the candidate has fully recovered and rebounded, for example, would be a good topic for this essay. If there are any extremely apparent discrepancies or concerns raised within a candidate’s application, this essay would also be a good opportunity to explain them.

Short Answer 2: Tell us about your most significant accomplishment. (250 word maximum)
This is a very tall order for a 250 word essay, so brevity will be key here. You’ll clearly want to select an impressive achievement to discuss - ideally one in which you had a positive impact on a person, group or organization (as it would reflect well on you to say that you consider it significant that you improved something for others). It will be important to comment not only on the results, but also on the actions and thought process by which you brought them about. Note that the question does not limit you to the professional realm, so feel free to think of examples from your outside activities in selecting a topic for this short response.

Short Answer 3: At Haas, we value innovation and creativity. Describe an innovative solution you have created to address a specific challenge. (250 word maximum)
With this topic, the Haas adcom is explicitly guiding applicants to answer the question by telling a specific story about one experience rather than inquiring generally about demonstrating these principles in one’s professional and personal life. Whether the story is about creating something new, improving an existing process or approaching a classic challenge in a new way, applicants will want to take the reader through their thought process as well as their actions, as the innovative intellectual capacity is what is really going to contribute to the Haas community and success in the future.

Short Answer 4: What steps have you taken to learn about the Berkeley MBA program, and what factors have influenced your decision to apply? (250 word maximum)
This is a rather transparent test to determine whether you’ve done your homework and are making an informed decision in applying to Haas; though most schools look to the applicant to demonstrate his or her knowledge of the school, few come right out and ask how a candidate has gone about familiarizing him or herself with the program. Because some applicants treat this school as a backup to Stanford and other programs, it will be to your advantage to convince the adcom that you are sincere in your interest by explaining the appealing elements that are unique to the Berkeley MBA. Obviously, the more specific knowledge you are able to demonstrate, the better; the adcom would love to hear that an applicant has been in touch with students, is familiar with the campus and understands the Haas culture and program.

Essay 1: Give us an example of a situation in which you displayed leadership. (500 word maximum)
Though the adcom will already have learned a few interesting things about the applicant from the short essays above, this is the first real chance a candidate has to really develop a story in which he or she shines. It would be ideal to provide a solid professional example here, but an example from an extracurricular activity would suffice as well if you have made a more significant impact on an outside organization than you have in the workplace. To an extent, your topic choice may depend on how you’ve answered the earlier questions (since you’ll want to achieve balance across the essays). Another thing to note about this question is that it does not specify that you should have a formal leadership role - any time you exhibited the characteristics of a leader to effect positive change is fair game here. Essentially, you should aim to use this essay to highlight your interpersonal skills and ability to direct the efforts of others toward a constructive end.

Essay 2: What are your short-term and long-term career goals? How do your professional experiences relate to these goals? Why do you want an MBA from Berkeley at this point in your career? (1000 word maximum)
This is a fairly standard career goals essay asked by virtually all MBA programs, requiring applicants to provide an overview of their career to date, describe their short- and long-term objectives and explain their reasons for seeking an MBA from Haas in particular. As a general rule, specificity of career goals is of the utmost importance. Given the wording of Berkeley’s question, it will also be beneficial to draw explicit links between your previous experiences and future objectives in addition to touching upon the skills you’ve gained and lessons you’ve learned over the course of your career.

As the subject of the final short essay suggests, demonstrating an understanding of the unique merits of Berkeley’s program is crucial to an effective response to this question. Taking the time to learn about the school’s curriculum, special programs and extracurricular activities - whether through a visit to campus, conversation with alumni or reading the Clear Admit School Guide to Haas - will pay dividends here.

Interestingly, Haas chooses to end its essay section with the typical career goals essay, whereas most schools lead off with this topic. Rather than providing an overview of and introduction to your candidacy, as is the case with the career goals essay for most schools, this essay will instead be the culmination of your message to the adcom. Make sure to tie together the themes that you’ve introduced in your other responses, and end on a note of enthusiasm about the program and the timing of your application.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Berkeley / Haas Essay Topics 2008-2009

The Berkeley/Haas essay topics have been released for the upcoming application season! Listed below are the short answer questions, required essays, and optional essays for the Fall 2009 application.

Short Answer:

1. If you could change one thing you’ve done in your life, what would it be, and how would you do it differently? (250 word maximum)

2. Tell us about your most significant accomplishment. (250 word maximum)

3. At Haas, we value innovation and creativity. Describe an innovative solution you have created to address a specific challenge. (250 word maximum)

4. What steps have you taken to learn about the Berkeley MBA program, and what factors have influenced your decision to apply? (250 word maximum)

Required Essays:

1. Give us an example of a situation in which you displayed leadership. (500 word maximum)

2. What are your short-term and long-term career goals? How do your professional experiences relate to these goals? Why do you want an MBA from Berkeley at this point in your career? (1000 word maximum)

Optional Essays:

1. Please feel free to provide a statement concerning any information you would like to add to your application that you haven’t addressed elsewhere. (500 word maximum)

2. If you wish to be considered for the Haas Achievement Award (for individuals who have achieved success in spite of significant economic, educational, health-related and/or other obstacles), please use this space to address the obstacles you have overcome. (750 word maximum)

Monday, June 16, 2008

Summer Reading Recommendations from B-School Profs

Whether you’re just beginning to think about business school as a next step or you’ve already been admitted and are deciding how to spend these last months of summer, BusinessWeek.com has some suggestions for a little light reading – straight from professors at some of the nation’s top MBA programs.

The professors’ recommendations include both recent books and classics - covering topics ranging from accounting to business ethics. In fact, some fiction even made the list. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the top picks:

• Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack (Skyhorse Publishing, 2007) – recommended by Stewart Friedman, practice professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business

• Freakonomics (William Morrow, 2006) by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, recommended by Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Management Professor Adam Galinsky

• The Goal (North River Press, 2004) by Eliyahu Goldratt and Jeff Cox, a novel that introduces the concepts of bottlenecks and variability through the story of an Israeli physicist who saves a man’s job and marriage, recommended by Wallace Hopp, the Herrick professor of manufacturing and professor of operations and management science at University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business

• How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living (Harper Paperbacks, 2003), also recommended by Kellogg’s Galinsky

• The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (Oxford University Press, 2007) by Paul Collier, recommended by David Levine, the Eugene E. & Catherine M. Trefethen Chair in Business Administration at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business

• More Than a Numbers Game: A Brief History of Accounting (Wiley, 2006) by Thomas King, recommended by Robert Howell, professor of business administration at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business

• Ten Deadly Marketing Sins (Wiley, 2004) by Philip Kotler, recommended by Kellogg Professor Tim Calkins

Happy reading!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Trivia Tuesday: Earning a JD/MBA or MD/MBA

Welcome to another edition of Trivia Tuesday! Earlier in the year we looked at the options for students to earn Master’s degrees alongside their MBA studies through dual and joint degree arrangements. This week we’ll examine the opportunities for students interested in combining their business education with study in law or medicine. The growing demand for talented, knowledgeable managers in the health care industry makes the combination MD/MBA degree particularly valuable, and graduates who can analyze both the strategic and legal implications of a decision fill an important niche in the business world.

Wharton’s programs are typical of the JD/MBA and MD/MBA programs offered by leading business schools. As with most of the MBA/MA programs, candidates must apply to the two programs separately and admissions decisions are made independently. However, the longer length of JD and MD dual degree programs - typically four years for a JD/MBA and five years for an MD/MBA - mean that students have somewhat more leeway in deciding when to apply to the programs. For instance, students may apply to and begin both degree programs in the same year, or may choose to start the JD or MD first, applying to the MBA program in either their first or second year of study in the other program.

Kellogg’s MBA/JD program is differs slightly, in that the schools have managed to compact the three year law degree and two year MBA into just three years of on-campus study. The program also differs in that students apply through Kellogg only, though they spend their first year in full-time residency at the Law School.

Below is a summary of the JD and MD dual degree options offered by several of the leading MBA programs, along with links to sites offering more information about the dual degree or the law or medical school.

Chicago GSB:

JD with University of Chicago Law School
MD with Pritzker School of Medicine

Columbia Business School:

JD with Columbia Law School
MD with Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons
DDS with Columbia University College of Dental Medicine

Cornell/Johnson:

JD with Cornell University Law School
MD with Weill Cornell Medical College

Duke/Fuqua:

JD with the Duke University School of Law
MD with the Duke University School of Medicine

Harvard Business School:

JD with Harvard Law School
MD with Harvard Medical School

Kellogg:

JD with Northwestern’s School of Law
MD with the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern

Michigan/Ross:

JD at the University of Michigan’s Law School
MD at the University of Michigan’s Medical School

MIT Sloan:

No JD or MD dual degree programs

NYU/Stern:

JD at NYU School of Law

Stanford:

JD with the Stanford School of Law
No formal MD dual degree, though students may pursue a medical degree separately from the MBA

Tuck:

No JD program; offers a Master’s of Science in Environmental Law through Vermont Law School
MD with Dartmouth Medical School

UC-Berkeley/Haas:

JD with either UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law or UC Hastings College of the Law

UCLA/Anderson:

JD with UCLA School of Law
MD with David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

UVA/Darden:

JD with the University of Virginia School of Law

Wharton:

JD with Penn Law School
MD with Penn Medicine, DMD with Penn Dental Medicine, VMD with Penn Veterinary Medicine

Yale SOM:

JD at Yale Law School
MD at the Yale School of Medicine

For more information on dual and joint degree options and on graduates’ career paths, be sure to check out the individual schools’ websites, as well as the Dual Degrees and Career Statistics sections of the Clear Admit School Guides!

Friday, June 06, 2008

Berkeley / Haas Deadlines 2008-2009

Berkeley/Haas’ deadlines for the 2008-2009 admissions season have been posted. Only applications submitted electronically will be considered.

Round 1
Application Deadline: November 4th, 2008
GMAT and TOEFL Taken Before: November 4th, 2008
Decision Release Date: January 28th, 2009

Round 2
Application Deadline: December 9th, 2008
GMAT and TOEFL Taken Before: December 9, 2008
Decision Release Date: March 18th, 2009

Round 3
Application Deadline: January 30th, 2009
GMAT and TOEFL Taken Before: January 30th, 2009
Decision Release Date: April 28th, 2009

Round 4
Application Deadline: March 11th, 2009
GMAT and TOEFL Taken Before: March 11, 2009
Decision Release Date: May 19th, 2009

Application materials must be received by midnight PST on the day of the deadline.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Business Schools, Students Stay Upbeat Despite Economic Downturn

According to a recent article in the Economist, business schools and MBA students are notably upbeat despite an economic downturn impacting organizations that are often their prime recruiters – namely those in the financial services and banking industries.

According to the Economist report, several factors fuel this unusually hopeful outlook: No one knows for sure just how bad the economic situation is (or isn’t), MBA students themselves seem more realistic and pragmatic than in downturns of the past, and though top job offers are down, MBAs have not yet faced having their internship or job offers withdrawn (save the particular case of Bear Stearns).

News from the schools and elsewhere echo the Economist report. Berkeley’s Hass School of Business Career Center reports that job opportunities for Berkeley MBA students during the 2007-2008 recruiting season actually increased by 5 percent over the year before and that salaries are holding steady.

“It is a tighter employment market, but we have seen MBA hiring continuing,” said Abby Scott, executive director of MBA Career Services. “Some of the firms who are laying off are continuing to hire fresh talent.” Summer internship hiring has also increased over last year, according to Scott.

London Business School also reported high job placement rates among its students this recruiting season. “We are thrilled to that 2007 has been another strong year for our hugely talented MBA class with an impressive 97 percent receiving an offer of employment within three months of graduation,” Diane Morgan, director of LBS career services, said in a January statement.

Findings from the annual Corporate Recruiters Survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admissions Council reflect the same optimism.

That said, there could still be hard times ahead. According to Haas’s Business Career Center, online job postings have dropped, suggesting that companies are resorting to “just-in-time hiring” as a result of weakening economic conditions. “As we look forward to next year, we’re anticipating a little bit of a downturn as we experienced during the last cycle,” said Haas’s Scott.

What impact does this have on MBA admissions? Often, business school admissions run counter-cyclical to the economy – spiking during downturns as some look to MBA programs as a place to ride out the storm. Sometimes, though, those with jobs choose to hang onto them.

Application rates so far have shown no sign of decrease. In fact, almost 60,000 students took the GMAT in the first three months of 2008, a 12 percent increase over the same period a year before.

Generally speaking, the perceived value of an MBA doesn’t usually fall even if job prospects for current MBA grads do begin to falter. In fact, the MBA degree can under those conditions be the factor that helps secure a job for candidates in an increasingly competitive market.

The Economist report praised students and schools for their level-headedness. “Overall, business schools and their students seem to be displaying a laudable maturity, refusing to panic—at least for now—and stressing that the MBA degree has long-since stopped being a golden passport to a well-paid and secure job,” read the report. “Many are well aware of the economic downturns of the past, notably the global recession of the early 1990s and the dotcom crash a decade later. Neither did much to dent the long-term attractions of the MBA.”

Friday, May 16, 2008

Top Bush Education Official Leaves to Lead Business School Consortium

According to a report yesterday in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Education Department’s assistant secretary for postsecondary education plans to leave her post, just one year after her appointment by President Bush, to lead the Washington Campus, a consortium of university business schools.

Diane Auer Jones was appointed the nation’s top higher-education official by Bush in May 2007, replacing Sally Stroup, who stepped down. According to the Chronicle report, Jones had hoped to remain at the Department of Education through the end of the Bush administration in January 2009 but couldn’t pass up the chance to replace the Washington Campus’s president, who is retiring. It was a case of “the perfect job coming at not the perfect time,” she told the Chronicle.

The Washington Campus is a consortium of 16 major university business schools founded in 1978 to help educate business school students and corporate executives on the process of U.S. policy making. Among its member universities are the University of California at Berkeley’s Hass School of Business, UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and Michigan’s Ross School of Business. 

Founded on the principle that “understanding government is indispensable knowledge for all business leaders,” the Washington Campus provided customized executive education programs for corporations and associations, open-enrollment programs for business executives and graduate-level courses for MBA students within the consortium.

According to the Chronicle, Jones feels she is leaving the Education Department at an appropriate time in its calendar even though the Bush administration still has eight months remaining. Several critical regulatory processes have been finished, and all of the department’s major grant competitions have been completed.

Friday, May 02, 2008

Sustainability Projects Receive $2 Million Boost at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business

Clamoring to help humans live in a more sustainable way, masters and doctoral students from Berkeley’s Haas School of Business flooded the new