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CATEGORY - SCHOOL: CAMBRIDGE

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

MIT Sloan Launches New Masters Degree Program in Finance

Responding to student and industry demand for a more specialized approach to business education, the MIT Sloan School of Management this week revealed details about a new masters in finance degree program it plans to add beginning next September.

According to an article in the Financial Times, the new 12-month program, which targets aspiring traders, investment bankers and money managers, is part of a trend in U.S. business education toward a more practically oriented curriculum.

“The fundamental way this program changes [management education] is that it suggests one-size-fits-all is no longer good enough,” MIT Sloan Dean David Schmittlein told the FT. Schmittlein, who joined MIT last year, has been championing changes in management education – including a reduced focus on the MBA as the gold standard – since he arrived.

“We have been slow to appreciate that different people want different things and we need to get serious about customizing education to the individual’s experience, background and where they want their career to go,” Schmittlein continued.

According to the FT article, students and Wall Street alike, especially amid the recent credit crunch and stock market downturn, have been seeking programs and graduates with advanced training in finance.

Jackie Rosner, a Sloan alumnus who as a director at BNP Paribas now recruits graduating MBAs, views it as a trend that will only accelerate in the future. “Doctors have to get a medical degree, lawyers need a law degree. Why shouldn’t finance practitioners be required to have a degree in finance?” he asked the FT.

“The generic MBA will still have a function, but I could see a future where the masters of science degree in finance becomes the preferred path,” Rosner continued.

The new Sloan program anticipates a modest initial class of 25 students next year, eventually growing to 60 participants. The program will help Sloan, with its relatively small MBA program of roughly 350 students, to further distinguish itself in the b-school world, according to the FT.

Building on Sloan’s established reputation in finance, the new program will feature a “focused hands-on” approach, according to Professor Jiang Wang, who will serve as its faculty advisor. Students will complete research projects for financial firms that will help them learn practical industry skills, such as how to design a risk management system for a structured product.

The rollout of the new finance masters program is just the latest in a series of changes Schmittlein has implemented since his appointment as dean last fall. Earlier this year, he announced a restructuring of the Sloan MBA core, reducing the required courses from a full year to a single semester.

Both are part of Schmittlein’s push to make MIT’s offerings more akin to those of European business schools, many of which feature a one-year MBA program and a greater emphasis on specialization than general management education. Case in point, Cambridge’s Judge School of Business launched its own masters of finance degree program last November.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

New Human Relations Center Launched at Cambridge’s Judge Business School

Late last month, the Judge Business School at Cambridge University announced the launch of the Centre for International Human Resource Management (CIHRM), a major new initiative designed to bring companies and faculty together to examine the latest research findings and innovative practices affecting today’s HR leaders.

“Our partnership approach will provide a forum for intellectual thought-leaders and practitioners throughout the world to collaborate and shape relevant, rigorous research agendas,” said Dr. Philip Stiles, who will serve as the center’s new director. “With companies operating in increasingly difficult environments, key issues such as managing talent, improving employee performance and developing leadership skills are paramount,” he continued. 

CIHRM will build on existing relationships between the Judge School and a range of global companies, including British Telecom, Shell, General Electric, Coca Cola and others. It also will strengthen partnerships with other leading academic institutions, such as Cornell University, Erasmus University and INSEAD. 

The new center will offer its corporate partners a range of advanced executive education programs focused on organizational development and change issues. Consulting services, too, will be provided by the center to help companies transition from “concept to action.”

Finally, the center will host regular roundtables providing its members with valuable networking opportunities, as well as an annual global HR symposium featuring world-renowned leaders in the HR field.

“All of the research indicates that people, as capital into which organizations should invest, are key to long term competitive advantage,” Dr. Jonathan Trevor, CIHRM deputy director, said in a statement announcing the center’s launch. “Through CIHRM and its international network we aim to provide our partners with insightful skills and tools to address these issues, leading them and their organizations to improved business efficiency and profitability, in an increasingly global and competitive environment.”

To learn more about the Judge School’s new Centre for International Human Resource Management, click here.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Cambridge / Judge Deadlines 2008-2009

Although the school’s MBA 2009 application form will not be available until August, the Cambridge/Judge deadlines 2008-2009 have been released. There are four deadlines, which are as follows:

Round 1:
Deadline: October 1, 2008
Interview Notification: November 7, 2008
Interview Day: Late November/Early December (exact date to be decided)
Final Notification: December 10, 2008

Round 2:
Deadline: January 7, 2009
Interview Notification: February 13, 2009
Interview Day: Late February/Early March (exact date to be decided)
Final Notification: March 11, 2009

Round 3:
Deadline: March 4, 2009
Interview Notification: April 9, 2009
Interview Day: Late April (exact date to be decided)
Final Notification: April 29, 2009

Round 4:
Deadline: April 15, 2009
Interview Notification: May 8, 2009
Interview Day: Mid-May/ Early June (exact date to be decided)
Final Notification: June 3, 2009

Interested applications should note that all applications are due by 5:00 p.m. GMT. Late applications will be considered in the next round.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Cambridge’s Judge School of Business Students Tour U.K. in Solar-Powered Car

As the price of oil continues to rise, students from different disciplines throughout England’s Cambridge University have together turned their talents toward developing a sustainable transportation alternatives. Last week, in a car they designed and developed themselves, the students made what is believed to be the first ever solar-powered journey across the United Kingdom.

Tim Ensor from the Judge Business School was one of four students who drove the car in rotation the entire length of the United Kingdom – 934 miles – from Land’s End to John O’Groats.

“This project is a fantastic example of business and energy working together to support education and the environment,” Ensor said. “It’s also been a great opportunity for students from different disciplines within the university to come together around a common goal.”

The car, which is called Affinity, looks like a giant solar panel on wheels. It has a top speed of between 50 and 60 miles per hour. Over the course of its week-long journey, dubbed “End to End,” the car made stops in the city centers of Edinburgh and York as well as at the Eden Project in Cornwall and several other schools and venues.

The four student drivers were backed by a team of more than 40 other students from the Cambridge University Eco Racing (CUER) team. Together, the team hopes to inspire the public about environmental issues and sustainable technologies.

“Sustainable transportation is no longer an issue for the future, but for today,” said CUER team captain Martin McBrien. “With oil at $135 a barrel, proving that traveling on free energy from the sun is possible brings real hope.”

Following their successful journey across the U.K., the CUER team hopes to develop a second, more advanced solar vehicle to compete in the 2009 World Solar Challenge. CUER would be the first Cambridge team to compete in the WSC, which brings together around 30 teams from around the world to compete in a 1,850-mile race from Darwin to Adelaide across the Australian outback.

Judge student Ensor praised the business community for supporting the CUER team’s efforts. “We’ve had amazing support from the business community from Cambridge and around the world,” he said. “Firms like HP, Pilkington, Ford, ARM and Virgin Atlantic have really demonstrated their commitment to sustainable engineering through their support for our venture,” he continued.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

European B-Schools Heat Up as Economy Slows

European business schools have received top billing in the past week in both BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal, with both publications reporting increased application volume at schools across the region.

According to the Journal piece, published Friday, business schools across Europe, which have seen application volume rise steadily in recent years, expect a further surge amid current global economic instability. This would follow the usual pattern of past slowdowns, when would-be analysts and managers looked toward graduate business programs as a place to ride out market uncertainty.  

Executive education programs, though, could suffer a hit, according to the Journal, as companies previously happy to fund continuing education for their employees are forced to slash budgets.

The Journal piece goes on to say that for good or bad, the state of the economy is what has people talking on European campuses. “It’s very much the hot topic at the moment in business schools,” Jeanette Purcell, chief executive of London-based Association of MBAs, a consortium of 145 business schools around the world, told the Journal.

For many, the focus is on recruitment trends. According to the Journal, recruitment of new MBAs in the finance sector has already slowed, and both students and faculty are fearing drop-offs in other sectors as well. Administrators are saying that graduates from European programs are increasingly looking for jobs in the stronger Asian economies, the Journal reports.

Professors, meanwhile, see many of the recent stories in the financial press as perfect fodder for classroom lessons and discussion. From the international movement of bad debt to the rouge trader blamed for billions in losses at French bank Société Générale, the crises have been “helpful from a teaching point of view,” Simon Taylor, a finance lecturer at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, told the Journal.

Greater Employer Demand for International Experience, Bargain Prices
An article in BusinessWeek on Thursday also turned the focus on European business schools, citing curriculum improvements, growing corporate demand for international experience and shorter, cheaper programs as factors drawing business school applicants in ever greater numbers toward European business schools.

According to the BW report, applications to INSEAD, the French business school with campuses in Fontainebleau and Singapore, jumped 20 percent in the past year, and American student enrollment grew 24 percent over 2007, to 73 students. Barcelona’s IESE had 32 percent more applications from the U.S. and expects to enroll 35 Americans in the next class – a 60 percent increase. ESADE, also based in Barcelona, has received an overwhelming onslaught of inquiries from American applicants as well, BW continued.

Speaking to BW, INSEAD Dean Frank Brown suggested that more and more young people recognize the value of an MBA, but fewer want to devote two years – the length of most U.S. programs – to earning one. Others credit the U.S. recession as a contributing factor to higher European B-school applicant volume, BW reports.

The dollar’s week performance against the euro raises the cost of European programs for U.S. students, but even so, tuition at schools overseas represents a bargain. BW reports that the average tuition at the top 10 European schools is less than $73,000, vs. $86,600 at Harvard Business School, and about $95,000 at Wharton.

Another draw for American students, according to BW, is the European schools’ effort to enhance their focus on issues of social justice. Responding to student demand, several top European schools have added a wealth of new courses on corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship and doing business in developing countries, as well as founding new centers devoted to these and other issues.

Finally, according to BW, European business programs on average are smaller and more diverse than their American counterparts. Compared to Harvard and Wharton, whose MBA classes are 63 and 55 percent American, respectively, European schools are much more international. French students make up just 14 percent of the MBA class at France’s Paris HEC and Brit’s comprise a mere 5 percent of Oxford’s MBA class.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Top Business Schools Join Goldman Sachs in “10,000 Women” Global Education Initiative

Earlier this week in Columbia University’s Low Library Rotunda, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein unveiled “10,000 Women,” a $100 million initiative by his firm’s charitable arm to provide business and management education to 10,000 underserved women over the next five years.

Columbia Business School (CBS) will partner with Goldman Sachs and several other leading business schools worldwide to help enhance curriculum, faculty and case study resources in developing regions of the world. Among the other top participating schools are the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School (HBS), the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.

“Those of us who champion open markets must also do our part to create more opportunity to ensure economic growth is more broadly shared,” said Goldman’s Blankfein.

Initial partnerships between U.S. and European universities and business schools in emerging countries and regions will support practical, short-term certificate programs designed to help increase opportunities for women whose financial circumstances prevent them from receiving traditional business educations. A select number of MBA and BA degrees also will be conferred.

For its part, CBS will build upon established relationships with the United States International University in Kenya and the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania as part of an effort to strengthen faculty training in Africa. Early initiatives will include curriculum and case study development, Columbia faculty visits and the creation of new certificate programs in entrepreneurship and management.

According to CBS Dean Glenn Hubbard, the exchange will flow both ways. “Our mission as a business school is to send our faculty and students… to help with teaching, case development and research, but also to bring something back here: a sense of what is possible, a sense of… exciting business opportunities that delight our students from around the world,” he said.

Participation in the 10,000 Women initiative is not CBS’s first venture in Africa. In 2007 the New York City school launched and Entrepreneurship in Africa Master Class, in which students traveled to a Nigerian technology company to provide consulting and produce a case study. And in spring 2008, CBS students will analyze the market potential for high-value crops in Rwanda.

HBS, meanwhile, will partner with the Goldman Sachs Fund for Management to help “Teach the Teachers” India, part of HBS’s Global Initiative. Through “Teach the Teachers,” HBS will provide scholarships for approximately 20 to 25 faculty from leading Indian business schools to participate in two of its invitation-only programs, the European Entrepreneurship Colloquium on Participant-Centered Learning (EECPCL) and the Colloquium on Participant-Centered Learning (CPCL).

Both programs provide participants, many of whom until now have relied exclusively on lectures and textbooks in their classrooms, with an in-depth examination of the interactive case method for teaching and learning. Through their experiences, they will learn how to lead intensive discussions about real-life business situations and to conduct field-based research, write case studies for use in the classroom and incorporate technology into the case method.

“While entrepreneurship is key at all levels of society, nowhere is it more important than for women and the dispossessed, who often do not have access to the traditional paths to progress and must carve out their own roads,” said Michael Chu, HBS senior lecture. “By teaching the teachers to pass on the lessons of management, Harvard Business School will have the opportunity to contribute to the kind of practical education that can change people’s lives and help reshape societies,” he continued.

To learn more about 10,000 Women and the participation of other top schools, visit www.10000women.org.
 

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Admissions Tip: Late Round Considerations

Nearing the end of a relatively sleepy February, March is just around the corner, bringing an extensive list of application deadlines and decision notification dates. Let’s take a look at the numerous Round 3 (or 4) deadlines spread over the next several months:

February 28: Wharton R3, UVA/Darden R3
February 29: LBS R3
March 1: Michigan/Ross R3
March 3: Duke/Fuqua R3, Columbia (international students)
March 7: Kellogg R3, UNC/Kenan-Flagler R4
March 10: CMU-Tepper R3
March 12: Berkeley/Haas R4, Chicago R3, HBS R3, Yale SOM R3
March 15: NYU Stern R3
March 19: Cornell/Johnson R4
March 21: Stanford GSB R3
April 1: UT Austin/McCombs (final)
April 2: Tuck April Round
April 3: INSEAD R4
April 4: Oxford/Said R3
April 16: Columbia (U.S. applicants)
April 23: UCLA/Anderson R4
April 25: Georgetown/McDonough Final Round
April 28: CMU-Tepper R4
May 2: LBS R4, Cambridge/Judge (final)
June 6: Oxford/Said R4

While it’s always best to apply as early as possible, the difference between applying in round one and applying in round two is, for most applicants, a marginal one. However, the later rounds are a very different game. Because most of the seats in the incoming class will have been given away by the time round two decisions are released, the acceptance rate in the third round is dramatically lower than that for the first two deadlines of the season.

To maximize your chances of a later round acceptance, demonstrating your interest in the school and submitting thoughtful and error-free written materials will be crucial. Just as applying in round one is generally taken as a sign of interest in a given program, applicants submitting their materials in a later round need to work extra hard to convince the adcom that they are genuinely interested in the school and are not simply applying as an afterthought because interview invitations didn’t come through in round two. Demonstrating that you would make a valuable contribution to the community and providing evidence that you have taken steps to engage current students and alumni will work to your advantage.

As always, we’d like to recommend the in-depth Clear Admit School Guides to those applicants who are targeting the later deadlines and just beginning to investigate certain programs, and to encourage those who’ve visited the campus and interviewed to share their experiences in the Clear Admit Wiki. Potential R3 or R4 applicants are also welcome to contact Clear Admit directly to discuss the strength of their later round candidacies and learn more about our one-on-one counseling services.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Next Decade in Business School Education

In releasing its 10th annual MBA rankings yesterday, the Financial Times looked at more than just the performance of business schools over the past year. It also took the opportunity to issue forecasts for the decade to come. Innovation will alter the landscape of business management education, carbon-free campuses will grow more prevalent worldwide and the current economic crisis may spur a surge in applications even as it threatens to make employment opportunities upon graduation more uncertain.

Innovation to Continue
Innovation, considered a hallmark of the past decade by many deans, will be even more pronounced in the years to come, according to the FT analysis. Two major factors are expected to contribute. The first is the sharp rise in the number of world-class Asian business schools. As an increase in European programs reshaped the landscape in the past decade – leading to the development of the one-year program and diversifying student bodies – so, too, will the growing emergence of Asian schools onto the scene.

In Asia, where economies are fast moving and infrastructure is limited, innovation may be even more marked. “People have to be extremely creative in managing when infrastructure is under-developed,” Arnoud De Meyer, director of the Judge School of Business at Cambridge, told the FT. European schools, too, will move beyond emulating U.S. schools and continue to make important contributions of their own, according to De Meyer. “I think in the next 10 years we will want to differentiate ourselves and build on our own strengths,” he said.

Widespread adoption of advanced technology will be the second major driver of innovation, according to the FT. As entering MBA classes are increasingly made up of students born into the digital age, business schools will be forced to adapt. “The workspace, living space and learning space will all be linked together,” predicts Nigel Banister, chief executive of Manchester Business School Worldwide. “There will be personalised learning spaces,” he told the FT. “Traditional teaching methods will go.” Faculty members, not students, have resisted the change up until now, according to Banister, but they will no longer have a choice.

Campuses Go Green
The FT report also called attention to a growing trend among business schools with regard to environmental responsibility. Increasingly, business schools – often led by student initiatives – are paying closer attention to their carbon footprint and taking concrete steps to reduce it.

The FT highlighted an effort at Switzerland’s IMD to use water from nearby Lake Geneva to cool the school’s buildings. Meanwhile, at MIT Sloan, environmental issues are driving both the architecture and the curriculum. The school is currently constructing a new green building. At the same time, it’s offering an elective through its Laboratory for Sustainability (S-Lab) designed to encourage students to complete team projects focused on sustainability issues.

Other schools are following suit. New York University’s Stern School of Business last fall launched its own campus greening initiative, spearheaded by a second-year MBA student. A cross-disciplinary taskforce called the Stern Campus Greening Initiative (SCGI) was founded to establish and implement sustainability protocols throughout the university at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

In fact, campus greening is one of the most prominent initiatives of Net Impact, an international non-profit organization geared toward creating leaders who use business to make a positive impact on the world. As a resource to schools considering starting a sustainability initiative at their own schools, Net Impact’s website provides case studies from almost a dozen MBA programs that have already begun to take action.

Economy Downturn, Application Uptick?
Of course, given the current state of the economy, long-term outlooks are clouded for many by more short-term concerns. What will the climate be like for this year’s graduates seeking jobs, and will the number of applicants to business schools rise or fall as a result of widespread economic uncertainty? A closer look at those questions in tomorrow’s post.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Georgetown, ESADE Partner to Offer New Global EMBA

Earlier this week, Georgetown University and ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain, announced that they have partnered to create a new executive management program. The partnership is the latest in a growing trend of global offerings designed to provide an emphasis on international business to busy executives juggling the competing demands of academia, career and family.

The new program, which will be known as the Georgetown-ESADE Global Executive MBA, will be offered in six 11-day modules on four continents, and will draw on the strengths of each the ESADE Business School and Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business and Walsh School of Foreign Service.

“This program will give accomplished executives a chance to both crystallize their professional experience and better understand the complexities of global business in a world-class program that is adapted to their schedule,” said McDonough School of Business Dean George Daly.

The new EMBA will blend some of the most distinctive aspects of other programs offered by the three participating schools. It will incorporate the interdisciplinary teaching and international residencies that set McDonough apart, capitalize on the Walsh School’s leadership in international relations and global policy and draw on ESADE’s expertise in executive leadership, social innovation and international business.

“The result is an intellectual challenge and an academic experience that goes beyond classrooms, cases and textbooks,” according to a release from Georgetown announcing the program’s launch.

Georgetown touts the new offering as the “first of its kind to include a strong global policy dimension with an executive business degree.” Indeed, the precise combination of program components may not have been offered before, but global EMBA programs are part of an ever-increasing trend.

Earlier this month, Cambridge’s Judge School of Business announced new partnerships in Asia and elsewhere in the United Kingdom that will allow the school to expand its executive management offerings. And last spring, INSEAD announced its own partnership with the School of Economics and Management at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.

U.S.–based schools, too, have steadily been expanding their reach by setting up remote campuses as part of an effort to make executive management programs more accessible to busy professionals. Chicago’s EMBA program features both London and Singapore campuses. Wharton has a San Francisco campus that caters to Silicon Valley executives who don’t want to travel to Philadelphia. And Kellogg in 2006 added a Miami campus and corresponding EMBA program focused Latin American markets.

The new Georgetown-ESADE program will begin in Washington, DC, in June 2008. It will feature subsequent modules in Barcelona, Buenos Aires/Sao Paulo, Bangladore, Barcelona/Moscow and Washington/New York over a 16-month period.

Applications for the inaugural class are now being accepted. There are three application deadlines: February 28, April 1 and May 15, 2008. Accepted participants will be notified within two weeks of their admissions interview. To learn more about this new program, click here.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Cambridge’s Judge School of Business Forges New Partnerships in U.K., Asia

Cambridge Executive Education, the executive education arm of the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, has forged two new partnerships in recent weeks that will further extend the school’s reach in the United Kingdom and Asia.

The first, a partnership with the University of Hong Kong, will deliver a five-day program for senior executives focused on strategic issues in corporate finance. The course, which will be offered for the first time at the end of February, will explore topics such as risk management, equity analysis and valuation, mergers and acquisitions, and globalization and China.

The second, a partnership with the Louis Group, a private property, financial services and technology group, will establish the Louis Group Business Academy in the United Kingdom beginning in January 2009. The new business academy, to be led by faculty from Judge and staff from the Louis Group, will help business owners strengthen their general management, marketing, strategy and finance skills – giving them necessary tools for managing their businesses more effectively and surviving difficult economic climates.

The expansion into Asia with the short program for senior executives is part of a push by Cambridge to expand its teaching and research in the field of business finance. Earlier in December, the school also launched a new Master of Finance degree program.

“We chose to partner with the University of Hong Kong because they are one of the premier management education schools in Asia with an extensive amount of experience in the executive education market,” Cambridge Executive Education CEO Dr. Larry Abeln said in a statement announcing the new Hong Kong partnership. The program will include speakers from both Cambridge and the University of Hong Kong, presentations by local business experts and visits to the Hong Kong Exchange and HSBC.

The partnership with the Louis Group, meanwhile, is part of Cambridge’s commitment to helping the business community contribute to the social and economic needs of the broader community. “We are pleased to be working in partnership with the Louis Group on the design and development of this important U.K. program, which will explore and raise the awareness of leadership and management in the global economy,” Abeln stated. “The program will provide participants the opportunity to reflect on the impact these challenges will have for current approaches to business and broader trends in society, giving them the knowledge base to advance entrepreneurial careers,” he continued.

These new partnerships by Cambridge echo the efforts of other business schools to expand their reach around the globe. Also in December, INSEAD launched of a new African faculty fellowship and the London School of Business opened a new Dubai center. And earlier last fall, the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania announced that it will hold its 2008 Global Alumni Forums in Lima, Peru; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Cape Town, South Africa.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Cambridge’s Judge School of Business Launches New Master of Finance Degree

The University of Cambridge’s Judge School of Business announced last week the creation of a new Master of Finance (MFin) degree, to debut in autumn 2008. The degree comes as part of an ongoing effort by the school to elevate the level of its finance teaching and research.

The new one-year finance program is designed for people with at least two years’ experience in the finance and banking world who wish to accelerate their careers. It will round out the school’s other offerings, which include both a respected pre-experience, research-oriented Finance MPhil and a post-experience MBA.

Significant industry research helped guide the creation of the new program. Dr. Simon Taylor, who will serve as the program’s director, together with Judge Business School Director Arnoud De Meyer, spent the spring and summer of 2007 meeting with senior staff at investment banks, hedge funds and private equity firms to gather input regarding the new program’s syllabus, structure and goals.

“One consistent message emerging from this consultation process was that there is a shortage of people who can combine a thorough technical foundation in finance and financial products with a good understanding of the business context of finance,” Dr. Simon said in a release announcing the new program.

Many candidates have either good technical skills or a good set of communication and business skills, but too few have both, Simon continued. “It is becoming evident that you need both to reach the highest levels in a financial career,” he said.

The program will combine intensive academic instruction with a high level of practical content from professionals in the finance world. Students will have the opportunity to apply their new skills through a range of projects and internships.

Additionally, following the recommendations made by several banks, the program will also include short, focused reviews of related subjects designed specifically to provide context for the use of finance in business organizations. Among the topics to be explored in these mini-courses are corporate strategy, marketing, oranizational behavior and business ethics.

The new degree has received endorsements from several leading financial institutions as well as seed funding in the form of gifts exceeding £2.5 million.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Economist Intelligence Unit Full-Time MBA Ranking 2007

The Economist Intelligence Unit released its annual ranking of MBA programs last week. The ranking methodology for this list considers four factors - new career opportunities, personal development/educational experience, increase in salary and networking potential - as evaluated based on data from the schools and surveys from students and recent alumni. Another interesting feature of the Economist ranking is that a school’s ratings over the three previous years are also taken into account, tempering the effect of dramatic changes in policies or resources and reflecting and more gradual increase in quality as a student would experience them.

Readers can visit the EIU site for a great interactive MBA ranking chart to see how the schools stack up in a number of different criteria. The top 20 overall, meanwhile, are listed below:

1. University of Chicago Graduate School of Business
2. Stanford Graduate School of Business
3. IESE Business School - University of Navarra
4. Dartmouth College–Tuck School of Business
5. IMD - International Institute for Management Development
6. California at Berkeley, University of–Haas School of Business
7. University of Cambridge Judge Business School
8. New York University Stern School of Business
9. IE Business School
10. Henley Management College
11. Cranfield School of Management
12. Michigan, University of - Stephen M Ross School of Business
13. Harvard Business School
14. Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management
15. London Business School
16. MIT Sloan School of Management
17. INSEAD
18. Columbia Business School
19. Ashridge
20. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology School of Business and Management

Chicago has moved into the #1 position this year, propelled to the top by its stellar career service resources, displacing IESE, which had enjoyed the top spot for two years in a row. Other notable movers include Haas (up four stops from a 10th place finish last year), Cambridge (to 7th from 11th) and IE, which rose from a #16 ranking to crack the top 10.

The Economist rankings have historically shaken up the generally held notions about how schools stack up (evidenced by Stern’s #8 status as compared to Wharton’s absence from this year’s top 20), highlighting the importance of careful research and consideration of what one is looking for from an MBA program.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Cambridge / Judge Deadlines and Essays 2007-2008

Cambridge University’s Judge Business School has just announced its admissions schedule for the 2007-2008 season. Unlike most MBA programs, which employ a staged (or round-based) model of processing applications, Cambridge follows a rolling admissions model. Here’s what the Judge admissions process looks like:

Applications Accepted: beginning October 1, 2007
Interview Decision: within 8 weeks
Admission Decision: within 2 days of interview
Application Deadline: May 2, 2008

The school gives applicants a very wide 7 month window during which they can submit their materials, but, as is the case with any school with rolling admissions, it’s best to apply early in the season to maximize one’s chances of acceptance (and avoid any visa issues).

As for the specifics, Cambridge poses only two essay questions - each with a 400 word limit - making this one of the shortest MBA application.

1. Describe a work project or task that you found difficult or which did not go well. What would you have done differently in retrospect?

2. How would you like to be remembered?

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Upcoming International Deadlines

Though the majority of MBA applicants are finished with or in advanced stages of the application process, we know that there are a significant number who are still working toward the later deadlines coming up over the next few months. For those thinking about the international elements of a potential post-MBA career, we thought we’d post a quick reminder of the upcoming deadlines for some of the leading European schools:

February 14: IESE Round 4
February 23: LBS Round 3
March 23: Oxford/Said Round 3
March 28: INSEAD Round 4
April 1: IMD Round 2 (January Term)
June 5: Cambridge/Judge (rolling)
June 30: ESADE (rolling)

One thing to note is that while time is running out to apply to London Business School, prospective students interested in completing an MBA in the UK still have a good amount of time to prepare a solid application to Oxford or Cambridge.

Best of luck to those planning on applying! Stay tuned to this blog in the coming days for some tips on handling the essay questions for each of these programs. For an evaluation of your candidacy at these and other leading schools, feel free to send your resume or CV to info@clearadmit.com for a free initial assessment.

DISCUSSIONS / BLOGS / WIKI

• Interview Insights from Stanford GSB, Chicago Booth Admissions Directors
• Trivia Tuesday: Health Sector Management at Fuqua
• BusinessWeek 2008 Business School Rankings: A Closer Look
• Admissions Tip: The Comparison Trap
• Fridays From the Frontlines

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