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CATEGORY - SCHOOL: GEORGETOWN

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.”

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Georgetown / McDonough School of Business Essay Topics 2008-2009

For interested applicants, the Georgetown/McDonough School of Business essay topics for the 2008-2009 application season are as follows:

Essay 1:
Briefly state your short-term and long-term career objectives. How have your prior professional, academic, and personal experiences influenced your career plans? Specifically, how will your participation in Georgetown’s MBA Full-Time Program contribute to your career objectives? (750 words)

Essay 2:
In your own words, how do you define leadership? Please provide a specific example (professional or personal) of a time when you embodied the characteristics of a leader. Be sure to highlight the challenges you faced and the results you achieved. What areas do you wish to develop in order to become a more effective leader? (750 words)

Essay 3:
What is the most significant change you have made to any organization with which you have been recently affiliated? Please describe how you identified the need for change and how you managed the process of implementing change. What were the results? (750 words)

Essay 4:
Community contributions, personal interests, and affiliations. List in order of importance all community and professional organizations and extracurricular activities in which you have been involved during or after university studies. Indicate the nature of the activity or organization, dates of involvement, offices held, and average number of hours spent each month (one-page limit).

More information about the essays, as well as the school’s deadlines and application process, visit McDonough’s admissions site.

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.

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, November 01, 2007

BusinessWeek 2007 EMBA Rankings Preview

For our readers with an interest in executive education, we wanted to point out that BusinessWeek Online is poised to announce its bi-annual ranking of global EMBA programs. Though the main ranking page still points to the 2005 addition, the site has just published a slideshow featuring the top 25 schools. We’ll post again with some commentary once the feature is made more official, but in the meantime, here’s a preview of this year’s top-ranked programs:

1. Northwestern (Kellogg)
2. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
3. University of Chicago
4. University of Michigan
5. USC (Marshall)
6. Columbia Business School
7. Emory (Goizueta)
8. UCLA (Anderson)
9. Duke (Fuqua - global)
10. UNC (Kenan Flagler)
11. Southern Methodist University (Cox)
12. Georgetown (McDonough)
13. Cornell (Johnson)
14. Ohio State (Fisher)
15. Instituto de Empressa
16. IMD
17. IESE
18. INSEAD
19. NYU (Stern)
20. London Business School
21. ESADE
22. Thunderbird
23. Queen’s University
24. Washington (Olin)
25. Villanova University

Friday, August 31, 2007

Fridays from the Frontline

Welcome to our weekly summary of the new and noteworthy posts from the MBA blogosphere. As to be expected at this time of year, applicant bloggers have been ramping up their application efforts in the past week, while new and returning student bloggers are finishing up their summers and settling in at school. Let’s take a closer look….

On the MBA applicant front, congratulations go out to Achilles, who rocked the GMAT on Tuesday, and to BlueTulip for earning herself an INSEAD interview! Agent-C was confident and optimistic, having straightened out a glitch in his GMAT scores just before deploying to the Middle East for six months. Meanwhile, mbabound08 shared some candid thoughts about an HBS information session she attended, while Bschool Diva revisited her list of target schools.

As for first year student bloggers, there were plenty of exciting new beginnings this week. RusGirl has been maxing out on her blogger connections, having moved into Angel Angie’s old flat and joining a study group of no less than three other LBS bloggers. Taking a brief respite after a busy week at Georgetown, Hairtwirler spent Sunday gearing up for the week of classes ahead, a little disappointed to find herself the only woman in her study group. Writing from Singapore, Necromonger sounded pleased with his new digs and impressed by his new flatmates, and he was also appreciative of INSEAD’s efficiency with the process.

Sounding slightly dazed and confused, m@ finished up the Ross Leadership Initiative, and in Fontainebleau Dee was nervous about networking at INSEAD. Meanwhile, ipoel was still at home in Indonesia, but was emotionally preparing herself to take off for Anderson soon. MaybeMBA took some time away from her baby and her packing boxes to consider Chicago’s curriculum options.

Second year student bloggers sounded much more relaxed than their first year counterparts last week. Rubeo Boy partied hard in Spain before returning to New York for another year at Stern. There was good news for MJ, who finished his consulting internship and accepted a job offer before returning to Fuqua. Patxi sounded very happy as he returned to LBS after a great vacation in Europe, while Benny had warm feelings for Hanover when he returned for another year at Tuck. On a similarly affectionate note, jacek shared a fond memory of his introduction to the Economist and Zanat0s let his readers know about MBA Insider, a valuable resource from Business Week.

That just about wraps it up for this week’s Fridays from the Frontline. Thanks for checking in, keep up the great posts, and best wishes for a happy Labor Day weekend!

Monday, July 30, 2007

Georgetown McDonough School of Business Essays 2007-2008

While their online application will not be available until the end of August, applicants can now view the McDonough School of Business essays in PDF format.

Essay 1 (Required, 750 words)
A) In one or two sentences, please state your short-term and long-term career objective(s).
B) How have your prior professional, academic, and personal experiences influenced your career plans?
C) Specifically, how will your participation in Georgetown’s MBA Full-Time Program contribute to your career objectives?

Essay 2 (Required, 750 words)
In your own words, how do you define leadership? Please provide a specific example (professional or personal) of a time when you embodied the characteristics of a leader. Be sure to highlight the challenges you faced and the results you achieved. What areas do you wish to develop in order to become a more effective leader?

Essay 3 (Required, 750 words)
What is the most significant change you have made to any organization with which you have been recently affiliated? Please describe how you identified the need for change and how you managed the process of implementing change. What were the results?

Optional Essay (500 words)
Please feel free to provide a statement concerning any information you would like to add to your application that you have not addressed elsewhere. For example, you may comment on your academic record as an indication of your potential for graduate management education, or you may explain any gaps in your work history. If you are not submitting a letter of recommendation from your current supervisor, use this space to explain why. Similarly, if you are not currently employed full-time, use this space to provide information about your current activities.

Re-Applicant Essay – To be completed by all re-applicants (500 words)
How have you strengthened your candidacy since you last applied? We are particularly interested in hearing about how you have grown professionally and personally. In addition, please update the Admissions Committee on your career goals and your reasons for wishing to pursue an MBA at Georgetown.

As a reminder, here are McDonough’s deadlines for the upcoming season!

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

Wiki

Discussion Boards

School-Hosted Blogs

Straight from the source: aggregated posts from students and administration. Below are the seven most recent posts in school-hosted blogs.

Individuals' Blogs

Bloggers by School

Community Blogs

Best of Blogging

• Top 10 Applicants:
• July Dream
• Miss Curly Bee
• VidiViciVeni
• B-School Bound
• Tinydancer
• gltnforpnshmnt
• mbabound08
• Achilles
• Eight Schools
• MBA Runner Girl

• Top 10 Students:
• m@ (Ross)
• MaybeMBA (Chicago)
• Hair Twirler (Georgetown)
• Iday (Chicago)
• J-term Johnny (Columbia)
• La Laudiaria (Wharton)
• MBA Gladiator (Yale)
• Angel Angie (LBS)
• Necromonger (INSEAD)
• Chrisof Meyer (Darden)

• Top 10 Applicants:
• Rungee582
• Iday
• Juggler
• Asiangal
• Forrest Gump
• RusGirl
• Hair Twirler
• JatWarrior
• MBA Babe
• Anand

• Top 10 Students:
• Angel Angie (LBS)
• The Divine Miss N (LBS)
• From Cali (Ross)
• Tim K. (McCombs)
• Noelle (IESE)
• Jerry Blank (Yale)
• Benny (Tuck)
• La Laudiaria (Wharton)
• Karlitos (LBS)
• MBA Gladiator (Yale)

• Top 10 Applicants:
• MBA Jackass
• Marina
• Forrest Gump
• Pupstar78
• Axechick
• Sorebrek
• Angel Angie
• I_Will_Make_It
• Redwolf056
• Vatsa

• Top 10 Students:
• Marquis (Stanford)
• Poweryogi (Chicago)
• KV (LBS)
• FutureMBAGirl (Wharton)
• The Divine Miss N (LBS)
• Vijay (ISB)
• Wakechick (Chicago)
• NoelleBellie (IESE)
• Jerry Blank (Yale)
• Olivier (INSEAD)

• PowerYogi
• Brit-Chick
• bskewl
• WakeChick
• Dave
• Iceman07
• iwhoElse
• Atta Girl
• Aregon23
• Classy

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