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CATEGORY - SCHOOL: PENN / WHARTON

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.”

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Trivia Tuesday: Teamwork at Wharton, Harvard and Kellogg

It’s Tuesday once again and it’s time to check in on the important details and differences of the leading MBA programs. This week’s focus is teamwork, now a hot topic in business education. For the last decade or so, business schools have moved towards greater use of teams in coursework. This trend has been prompted by the reality that much of modern business depends on the work of functional, productive teams. In response, many business schools have integrated mandatory teamwork into the MBA curriculum, especially into the first year. Today we’ll look at a few of the models used by the leading MBA programs.

Wharton was among the first of the leading business schools to incorporate small learning teams into the first year. Wharton’s teams are assigned in August, at the end of Pre-Term, and students work with their assigned team members throughout the first year. The teams go on a 2-3 day Learning Team Retreat before classes start, during which they get to know one another and start laying the foundation for their work together during the school year. In addition to working together on class projects and studying together for core courses, Wharton’s learning teams also serve as the focus for the half-credit core course Foundations of Leadership and Teamwork. The course, which meets for the first and last six weeks of the first year, focuses on self-awareness, working in teams, and leading others, key concepts for any effective manager or teammate.

Harvard Business School divides its student body into 10 smaller groups called sections, who take all of their first-year classes together. While learning team members at most schools belong to the same larger cohort or cluster, Harvard’s learning teams - only recently introduced to the program - are cross-sectional. This is necessary because of the importance of contributing original ideas to case method classes with one’s sectionmates, and beneficial because it gives students the opportunity to meet and work with classmates outside of their section.

Kellogg, a school known for its focus on teamwork, is one of the only leading MBA programs not to assign first-year study groups. Like other b-schools, Kellogg does split its entering class into smaller sections, usually consisting of approximately 65 students each, and students in each section take all of their core courses together. (Fun fact: Kellogg’s section names are among the most unusual of any b-school’s, with the eight sections called Big Dogs, Bucketheads, Bull Frogs, Cash Cows, Highlanders, Jive Turkeys, Moose and Poets.)

Despite not breaking down the sections into smaller study groups, Kellogg students do work in teams throughout the curriculum. Students report that most of their class assignments require small group work, with the group assignments usually made by individual professors. Because Kellogg students may be in different study or project groups for each course, they miss out on the experience of sustained interaction with a single group of peers, but instead gain experience in working with a broad range of personalities. This system also hones students’ time management skills, since scheduling a group meeting for 5-6 people who are in 4-5 other small groups (while also working around classes, clubs, and recruiting activities) requires a sophisticated ability to juggle schedules!

Overall, most Kellogg students praise the school’s choice to use a dynamic team structure, feeling that this organization mimics teamwork situations in the professional world. However, since students at Wharton, Tuck, Columbia, and other schools often believe that their long-term group assignments best prepare them for teamwork in the business world, applicants should think carefully about the type of teamwork experience they are looking for, as well as the kind of group work they expect to encounter after graduating from business school.

In the end, regardless of how the learning teams or study groups are organized, they all share a common goal: providing students with hands-on practice in working effectively with a group of diverse people with divergent strengths, personalities and work styles. To find out more about the team-based learning at the leading MBA programs, be sure to check out the schools’ websites or the Clear Admit School Guides!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Citibank Cancels CitiAssist Student Loan Program at Several Business Schools

A piece in the Economix column of the New York Times earlier this week called attention to troubling news regarding the impact of the current credit crisis on the availablility of student loans to MBA students, particularly private loans administered through the CitiAssist program for international students.

The piece, entitled “Credit Crisis Is Bad News for M.B.A. Students” excerpted an email message sent to students Monday at MIT Sloan School of Management. According to that message, Citibank has exercised its 30-day option to cancel the CitiAssist custom student loan program with MIT Sloan, effective November 2, 2008.

The Economix column went on to explain that students who have already had their loans processed and approved by Citibank appear to be safe, but that those who still need to secure financing face greater problems. “The school is now helping students scramble to find alternate financing,” the Times reported.

The problem is not limited to MIT Sloan. The CitiAssist program is also ending at the Ross School at the University of Michigan, according to the school’s own website.

Information listed on the Ross site about the CitiAssist program indicates that of the 3,500 University of Michigan students who took out private loans in 2007, 68 percent did so through the CitiAssist program. But a bulleted point highlighted in red in the program description reads, “This loan program will end on 11/02/08. Priority date for applications is 10/15/08. Applications received after this date may not be processed.”

In a phone interview this morning, Randall Sawyer, dean of admissions for the Johnson School of Business at Cornell University, said that as he understands it, Citibank has removed its CitiAssist program from all of its schools for international students without a domestic cosigner. Harvard Business School and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania have also historically been part of the CitiAssist program.

“It’s affecting us, though not on a huge scale,” Sawyer said, indicating that schools with greater numbers of international students could be facing a larger-scale problem. “It’s certainly something that we are talking about though,” he continued.

According to Sawyer, even students who have secured funding for this year may still be unsure about whether they will find funding for next year. “At this point we don’t have any official release about the situation,” he said, but he indicated that Johnson would do its best to help students find alternate sources of funding.

Clear Admit plans to stay on top of this unfolding situation as it impacts prospective MBA applicants. Watch this space for more details as they become available.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Trivia Tuesday: International Study Trips at Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, NYU Stern and Wharton

Welcome back to Trivia Tuesday, our weekly exploration of the details, distinctions and developments of the leading MBA programs.

Over the last decade, most business schools have sought ways to provide relevant, hands-on international business exposure within the confines of a two-year degree. The solution that many schools have arrived at is “study trips,” which allow students to spend 1-2 weeks exploring the business environment of another country over the summer or during a mid-semester break. Depending on the school, these trips may be organized through an elective course, by an administrative office, or through a campus student group.

For instance, the Chazen Institute at Columbia works with individual students and clubs to organize study trips to countries or regions of interest, while Chicago’s International Programs Office coordinates short-term summer exchanges to Austria, Brazil, France and Germany. Several other business schools offer students academic credit for their travel abroad. At HBS students are able to earn 1.5 credits for their work abroad over the summer between the first and second year, provided they keep a weekly journal and submit a final paper. At Wharton, however, study trips are often closely integrated into full-semester elective courses, with students participating in hands-on consulting projects with firms from outside the U.S.

At NYU Stern, the school’s two-week long Doing Business In… (DBI) programs offer an appealing short-term alternative to spending an entire semester abroad. The program is usually offered in three selected locations each year and takes place outside of the normal academic calendar, usually between semester breaks or during Spring Break, making it easy for students to fit the program in at some point during their MBA. Each DBI includes one pre-trip class session and 8-10 full days of scheduled activities in the host country. Admission is by lottery, and classes are taught by the faculty of the host university; these faculty members also award the final pass/fail project or paper grades for the course.

In addition to the two-week DBI programs, Stern also offers students the unusual opportunity to study abroad for 1-6 weeks with one of four partner universities in Argentina, Denmark, Germany, or South Korea. These courses usually take place in early- to mid-May, making it possible to arrange a summer internship start date around completion of the course. The one-, three- and six-week programs may earn students 1.5 to 6 credits toward graduation. Although many MBA programs allow students to study abroad for a full semester or to travel abroad as part of a course, few provide summer exchanges through which students can earn credit toward graduation.

As knowledge of other cultures and business practices becomes more important to the daily life of business, it will become ever more important for students to gain exposure to international business during the MBA program. Since study trips range from informal and self-directed to formal consulting engagements for academic credit, applicants may want to consider the type of study trip that would best complement their prior international experience and keep this in mind as they apply to MBA programs. For more information on the details of schools’ study trip offerings, be sure to check out the schools’ websites or consult the Clear Admit School Guides!

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Wall Street Journal Releases First EMBA Ranking

Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management snagged the top spot, followed by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania as number two in the Wall Street Journal’s first survey of executive MBA programs, released yesterday.

Partnering with the Management Research Group of Portland, Maine, and tapping the expertise of Journal editor Jennifer Merritt, who formerly headed up BusinessWeek’s business school rankings, the Journal has officially entered the EMBA ranking game.

The result of extensive surveys with current students, recent grads, and human-resources and executive-development managers at companies across 23 industries, the ranking reveals the top 25 schools around the globe that provide “the rigor needed to build tomorrow’s corporate leaders and C-suite executives,” according to the Journal.

Rounding out the top five programs were the Thunderbird School of Global Management at number three, the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business at number four; and the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School at number five.

To reach its conclusions, the Journal took into account survey scores from students and corporations of 73 EMBA programs at 53 business schools across nine countries. In addition to the student and corporate scores, the rankings also measured what employers wanted out of programs and how well students felt their programs developed those skills.

To compile the final rankings, student and corporate ratings were weighted 40 percent each, and the skills ratings were weighted 20 percent. 

Kellogg and Wharton have among the largest EMBA programs, with 843 candidates currently enrolled in the seven Kellogg programs and with 406 students currently enrolled in Wharton’s two programs. Both schools’ programs got high marks from companies – nearly double their closest competitors – which put them squarely in the lead despite lower scores from students.

That’s because corporate scores varied the most – the two leaders far outpaced those in the middle of the pack. In contrast, student scores were closer in range. So even though Wharton came in at number 15 in terms of student ratings, it was still within striking distance of the leading schools’ scores.

That said, for the number one school in the student ranking, the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, a particularly strong student score is what guaranteed it a place in the top five.

In addition to determining how the various schools measured up to one another, the Journal rankings also revealed interesting information about what students are looking for in EMBA programs overall. Among the key findings:

• School reputation is the top consideration for students choosing which program to attend, as noted by 51 percent of student respondents.
• Quality faculty is a key factor, with 78 percent of students reporting that they considered their school because of its distinguished faculty.
• Students are drawn to EMBA programs because they offer a way to develop leadership skills without losing more than a few days a month in the office and because what they learn in school can be immediately applied on the job. “Learn on Friday and Saturday, apply on Monday,” is how one respondent put it.
• Cost was relatively unimportant whether or not companies helped pay the bill. Program tuition ranged from $65,000 to $160,000; nearly 34 percent of students said they paid their own way, 30 percent said their employers paid the entire bill, and 13 percent said their companies paid at least half. (Average out-of-pocket expense among respondents was $45,000.)
• Distance is not a deterrent for the right program. While the majority of students (64 percent) traveled less than 50 miles one way, 7 percent commuted up to 200 miles and nearly 9 percent schlepped a whopping 1,000 miles or more one way.
• With an EMBA comes a bonus or promotion or both. Of those surveyed, 24 percent report having been given both a raise and promotion since they started classes and another 30 percent expect both in the next year.

Companies, meanwhile, have their own set of expectations. Quick return on investment topped the list, with 26 percent of companies saying they expect to see management and leadership skills put to use immediately, and an equal percentage expect them to be put to use within a year of graduation. Human-resource-development managers – 64 percent of them – view EMBA programs as a means of holding onto talent. And 55 percent of company respondents called the EMBA a critical business investment.

Despite the high marks for many programs, the rankings suggest that there’s still room for improvement. Companies sometimes complain that students return from EMBA programs seeking to solve business problems like academic exercises – without practical sense. Students complained about programs that rely too heavily on distance technology that doesn’t always work well or enhance the learning process.

Finally, more flexibility was called for by many students, for whom program scheduling can prove too difficult work into an existing work routine or for whom the 15 hours or more of study per week is too much to carry.

To view the complete rankings, click here. To read more about the methodology the Journal employed to compile its rankings, click here.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Wharton Braces for High Application Volume

“Brace yourselves - because we are!” read an email to Wharton School alumni sent last week. “We expect this to be one of our highest years in terms of applications received.”

Business school application volume has historically run counter to the economy, spiking in times of financial downturn. Accounting for the increase in volume are both those seeking simply to ride out the storm in school and those viewing a slowdown as an opportune time to obtain an advanced degree to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive job market.

The past couple of years have been no exception. GMAT test registration volume, which can be a good indicator of how many people are considering applying to business school, has been rising steadily.

According to the most recent figures, year-to-date worldwide registration through the end of August was 194,946, representing a 10.98 percent increase over the number of registrations recorded during the same period in 2007. This figure represents the highest registration volume recorded for any years studied by the Graduate Management Admissions Council, which administers the GMAT exam.

While it’s too early to measure the impact of the past few weeks’ market gyrations on admissions numbers, business school admissions offices are bracing for record application volume in the cycles ahead.  

The following snapshot of Wharton’s incoming class this fall gives a sense of where the school’s application cycle closed last year. With the admissions office expecting this year’s volume to be even greater, admission criteria may prove even more competitive than usual.

Wharton received 7,328 applications for the 2010 class, up from 6,649 the year before. Meanwhile, the actual enrollment size – 800 – remained constant.

Admitted students, on average, had six years of work experience (up from 5.8 the year before), a 3.5 grade point average and a GMAT score of 715 (up just a few points from last year’s 712). The average age of applicants was 28.

For full statistics on the 2010 Wharton class, click here.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Business Schools Continue to Focus on Financial Crisis

With the nation squarely focused on the state of the economy and Congressional negotiations toward a bailout plan waging on, business schools, too, have kept the financial crisis at the forefront of their communications.

Harvard Business School’s Admission Director Dee Leopold yesterday posted an entry on her blog directed toward prospective applicants wondering how the current economic situation will impact upcoming admissions volumes and cycles.

According to Leopold, the Admissions Office at HBS has been receiving a new array of questions given the climate of uncertainty in the financial markets. Questions have ranged from whether or not HBS intends to increase the size of next year’s class and/or the number of admits from financial services in light of higher application volume to whether prospective candidates who are unemployed will be at a disadvantage.

The class size next year will not increase, remaining at roughly 900 students, Leopold says. As to increasing the number of admits from financial services, Leopold’s answer was less precise. “Not necessarily,” she said. “Our goal is to compose a class which represents many different kinds of diversity, of which professional experience is only one element.” But there are not strict quotas that govern industry or geographical targets, so the overall class profile could shift some in the coming year.

Applicants who find themselves unemployed will not be at a disadvantage, Leeopold assures. “We realize that these are unusual times and that many strong contributors may find themselves in this situation,” she says.

To view the full list of questions and Leopold’s answers, click here.

Schools Offer Support to Alumni
MIT Sloan and Wharton, meanwhile, have each reached out to their alumni bases via email to remind them that school career services, networks and support are available to those within the alumni community who may need them.

“Whether you are employed by a fledging new venture, a not-for-profit service or one of the firms in the headlines, these services are there for you,” wrote MIT Sloan Dean David Schmittlein in an email address to alumni earlier this week. Schmittlein also encouraged alumni who are in a position to provide support to other alums in need to get in touch with the school.

Dean Tom Robertson of the Wharton School at the University of Pennyslvania issued a similar statement to that school’s alumni on Monday, listing a range of resources available to alumni in need of support and encouraging others who might be in a hiring position to post job opportunities at no cost on the Wharton Job Board.

Roberston also noted that Wharton faculty led a teach-in on campus on September 16th about the unfolding financial situation attended by more than 1,000 students. Videos of that day’s panelists are available for viewing at this link.

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business also reached out to its alumni, including convening a dinner in New York in the immediate aftermath of the Lehman bankruptcy announcement for members of the 2008 class who had accepted offers with the firm.

“As soon as we heard the news, we reached out to the ‘08s who had just graduated in June,” explained Julie Morton, associate dean of career services at Chicago GSB. According to Morton, 26 members of the 2008 Chicago class had accepted offers with Lehman, some in Chicago and New York and others in London and Asia.

Morton and Stacey Kole, dean of Chicago’s full-time MBA program, flew to New York to have dinner with the Lehman students there on September 19th. “At that point the whole Barclays deal had been announced and they were waiting to see,” Morton explained, most having just completed training a week earlier and not yet started their rotational programs.

“They were in a state of limbo, and we were really just reminding them that we were here from them,” Morton said.

“At this point quite honestly I’m not sure they are going to need a lot of new job support,” Morton said in a phone interview earlier this week. “I think for the most part they will land on their feet with the acquisition,” she said, “but I think it meant a lot to them to know that we are there.”

Friday, September 26, 2008

Yale SOM Cosponsors Roundtable Discussion on Financial Crisis in New York

Partnering with the Wall Street Journal and CNBC, Yale School of Management (SOM) held a roundtable discussion Tuesday in New York on the current financial crisis, drawing together business leaders and scholars from Yale, Wharton, NYU, Columbia and Harvard to examine the state of the economy and the proposed Treasury Department bail-out plan.

“We were inspired by the outpouring of interest and the quick response to this event,” said its organizer, Yale SOM Senior Associate Dean Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. Planning began on Sunday night, and by Tuesday afternoon a staggering roster of economic thought leaders had assembled around the table to share their insights.

Among those in attendance were a former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the former executive chairman of the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, the president and CEO of Marsh & McLennan Companies, the president and CEO of Credit Suisse Investment Banking and managing directors and partners at several prominent boutique investment and private equity firms. A full list of roundtable participants is available here.

“That we could get everyone together so quickly is a signal of both their leadership and their concern in this growing crisis,” said Sonnenfeld. “Peer-driven learning is what is required, as there is no clear map to follow for navigating this worst financial crisis in 80 years,” he continued.

Yale SOM will post video of the full roundtable discussion as soon as it is available. In the meantime, you can view video from various roundtable participants:

• The Blackstone Group’s Stephen Schwarzman and W.L. Ross & Co. CEO Wilbur Ross
• Yale Economist Robert Shiller
• Yale SOM Senior Associate Dean Jeffrey Sonnenfeld
• Yale SOM Associate Professor Jonathan Koppell

Check back tomorrow when our continuing coverage of top business school’s responses to the current economic crisis will include outreach efforts by the Wharton School, MIT Sloan and Chicago GSB to recent alums, as well as Harvard Business School’s advice to prospect applicants on how the situation could impact future application cycles.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Admissions Q&A: Judith Hodara, Wharton Senior Associate Admissions Director

~A CLEAR ADMIT EXCLUSIVE~

As many of you may know, former Wharton Admissions Director Thomas Caleel stepped down in June, and a search for his replacement is currently underway. Of course, the important work of the admissions office cannot be put on hold. Anjani Jain, vice dean and director of Wharton’s Graduate Division, has stepped in as interim director until Caleel’s successor is named. He is supported by a veteran staff of senior and associate admissions directors led by Judith Hodara, who joined the Wharton Admissions Committee in 2000.

Amid a busy season of travel to admissions events around the globe, we managed to catch up with Judith last week on the road. She shared enthusiastically about the new accelerated three-year JD/MBA program that the Wharton School will offer in collaboration with the Law School of Pennsylvania beginning next year.

In her answers below, she also helps demystify the application process for prospective applicants and offers some advice on how applicants can let their true voices come through in their essays. So read on!

Clear Admit: What’s the single most exciting development, change, or event happening at Wharton this coming year?

Judith Hodara: As we recently announced, the Wharton School and the Law School at the University of Pennsylvania are launching an accelerated three-year program leading to both the JD and MBA degrees. We’re really excited about this new opportunity to add to our joint and dual degree programs.

Students in the new program will spend the first year in Law School and the following summer in four Law and Wharton courses designed specifically for the three-year JD/MBA. The second and third years will include a combination of Law and Wharton courses, including capstone courses in the third year and work experience in law, business, finance, or the public sector in the summer between the second and third years.

Applicants must be admitted by both schools in order to enroll in the three-year program.  Students in the joint program will be required to meet the Law School’s mandate to perform 70 hours of supervised legal work in a pro-bono setting in order to graduate.

CA: Walk us through the life of an application in your office from an operational standpoint. What happens between the time an applicant clicks ‘submit’ and the time the committee offers a final decision (e.g. how many “reads” does it get, how long is each “read,” who reads it, does the committee convene to discuss it as a group, etc.).

JH: Once an application is processed by members of our operations team, it is assigned to one of the student readers who are members of the admissions team. This first read is then shared with members of the admissions committee who re-read the file and make further recommendations on extending an invitation to interview.

If the invitation is offered, the application waits for another read once the interview report is recieved. The interviews are blind, so the interviewer will not have had access to the application beforehand. All of these applications with interview reports are then discussed in a series of committee sessions, and the final decisions are sent out 10 weeks after the deadline date.

CA: How does your team approach the essay portion of the application specifically? What are you looking for as you read the essays? Are there common mistakes that applicants should try to avoid? One key thing they should keep in mind as they sit down to write them?

JH: We are hoping students will be true to themselves when they write about the things that matter to them. They should keep in mind that we really do read the WHOLE application from start to finish. The essays do tell us so much about the applicant, both in terms of the content they choose and how they are able to express themselves.

There are not really common mistakes beyond assuming that the reader WANTS or NEEDS to read something specific; these become the applications where the applicant does not allow his or true voice to come out and leaves us wishing we knew more.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Scoretop Saga Conclusion: With 84 Students’ Scores Cancelled, Some Fates Still Uncertain

As reported last week in BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal, the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) has cancelled the scores of several students shown to be involved in the Scoretop.com scandal that came to light earlier this year.

According to various reports, the ultimate fate of these students will depend on the level of participation they had with the Scoretop website, the schools to which they applied and their current student status. (Some students involved, in fact, have already graduated from business school.)

According to GMAC spokesperson Judy Phair, the admissions council has decided to cancel the scores of only those students “against whom we felt we have airtight cases.” In total, 84 students’ scores were cancelled.

Of those, 12 students were shown to have actually posted questions themselves on the Scoretop site. Those students will be barred from retaking the GMAT exam for at least three years. The other 72 students posted messages on Scoretop indicating that they had seen certain questions on their GMAT exam. Their scores cancelled, these students will be permitted to retake the exam again immediately.

In all 84 cases, the admissions council notified schools that students had improperly prepared for the exam, although what individual schools will do with that information remains to be seen.

According to the Journal, two of the students who acknowledged that they had seen certain test questions on the Scoretop site – but who had not posted actual questions themselves – are current students at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Chicago is considering action against the students, but “we haven’t decided anything,” Rose Martinelli, director of admissions, told the Journal.

Meanwhile at Stanford, 11 students’ scores were cancelled, according to the Journal report. Of those, 10 were denied admission, but one had already graduated, Admissions Director Derrick Bolton said in a statement.

Stanford plans to meet with the student who has graduated “to discuss this situation,” Bolton said. For students whose scores were cancelled and who plan to reapply, they will need – “at minimum” – to supply an explanation, Bolton continued, encouraging that they “might learn from the experience by reflecting on their actions and taking ownership for their errors, then sharing those explanations and insights with us.”

Other top business schools – including Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale – report that they had no students with tainted scores actually enroll. And a spokesman for the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania said in an email to the Journal that officials still “analyzing the situation are not yet prepared to discuss next steps.”

Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, for its part, will hold an “ethics fireside chat” this month on campus to discuss the Scoretop cheating scandal.

GMAC, meanwhile, has posted an extensive FAQ on the subject of score cancellations. It also announced that it plans to implement palm-vein scanning technology going forward to help reduce other types of fraud among test-takers, including “proxy” test taking, in which applicants hire high-scoring imposters to take the exam for them.

We’d love to hear what you think of the conclusion to the Scoretop scandal. For anyone who missed it last week, click here to participate in Clear Admit’s online poll about whether the punishment fits the crime.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Wharton School, Law School at University of Pennsylvania Launch Joint Three-Year JD/MBA Program

The Wharton School and Law School at the University of Pennsylvania yesterday announced the launch of an accelerated three-year joint JD/MBA degree program. The program, which will begin in September 2009, will target potential applicants with around two years of experience in either law or business-related fields.

“Business today operates in a complex legal and regulatory environment,” Thomas Robertson, dean of the Wharton School, said in a statement announcing the new program. “Success requires the ability to navigate through this landscape,” he continued.

Among elite schools, the University of Pennsylvania joins several others offering a combined JD/MBA program, including Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and Yale. But far fewer schools allow students to complete both degrees in a mere three years, as the new U. Penn program does. Northwestern transitioned from a four-year to a three-year JD/MBA degree program several years ago, and the Kelley School of Business and the Indiana University School of Law—Bloomington together offer a three-year joint program as well. 

The structure of the new Penn program will be as follows: Students will spend their first year taking classes in the Law School, followed by a summer of four Law and Wharton courses designed specifically for the JD/MBA program. The second and third years will include both Law and Wharton courses, and in the summer between the two students will be expected to gain work experience in law, business, finance or the public sector.

To enroll in the three-year combined program, applicants must be admitted by both schools. Students in the joint program also must perform 70 hours of supervised pro-bono legal work as a requirement for graduation. The program is expected to enroll approximately 20 students each year.

To learn more about Penn’s new three-year JD/MBA program, click here. For a discussion of the pros and cons of an accelerated joint JD/MBA, click here.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Wharton School to Host November Net Impact Conference

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania will host the 2008 Net Impact North American Conference this November, which is expected to draw close to 2,000 graduate business students, professionals, academics and corporate responsibility leaders together to address issues of sustainability in business.

The conference, entitled “The Sustainability Advantage: Creating Social and Environmental Value,” will feature speakers from both the corporate and nonprofit worlds sharing their approaches to sustainability and underlining the power of partnerships in championing corporate responsibility.

Topping the roster of scheduled speakers are Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO John Brock, World Wildlife Fund President and CEO Carter Roberts and Wal-mart Senior Vice President of Sustainability Matt Kistler.

Net Impact is a global network of students and leaders using business to improve the world, and the event at Wharton this fall marks its 16th annual North American conference.

In addition to featured speakers, the two-day conference also will provide participants with an opportunity to participate in panel discussions on a range of topics, including energy and environment, international and community development, and social impact finance. Networking events, a Career Expo and in-depth workshops for students wishing to start their own Net Impact chapters on campus will round out the conference offerings.

“The speakers and sessions planned for this year’s agenda promise to make this conference our largest to date and we look forward to engaging participants around these important issues of business sustainability,” Net Impact Executive Director Liz Maw said in a statement.

Wharton, for its part, is pleased to have been selected as this year’s conference host. “There is a strong interest among our faculty and students in studying and engaging with questions related to the social impact and responsibilities of business,” said Anjani Jain, Wharton vice dean, in a statement. “The conference is a wonderful opportunity for us to assemble prominent thinkers in this field all at one time.”

Wharton’s Net Impact chapter – Wharton Social Impact – was established in 1993 and is part of the larger Wharton Alliance for Social Responsibility. Its activities and initiatives on campus include providing career resources to students interested in positions in social impact fields, hosting a range of networking events on and off campus, and evaluating a developing the Wharton curriculum to ensure that it includes courses and materials that address socially responsible business and public interest issues.

This year marks the first time Wharton has hosted the annual Net Impact Conference.

For a comprehensive overview of the 2008 Net Impact North America Conference, click here. To learn more about Wharton Social Impact, click here.

Trivia Tuesday: School-Wide Socializing

Welcome to another edition of Trivia Tuesday, our ongoing series exploring the programs, resources and opportunities available at the leading business schools.

Although most of our columns have focused on the academic options schools offer, this week we turn our attention to students’ opportunities for socializing with classmates. Since creating a strong network of friends and future colleagues is one of the lasting benefits of business school, prospective students may want to examine the ways in which schools help classmates get to know each other and build relationships. One popular method schools use to bring students together is program-wide happy hours. These events are usually held at the end of the academic week and tend to be organized by the MBA student government.

For instance, a staple of Wharton’s social life is Pub, held Thursday evenings throughout the academic year. MBA students pay a membership fee at the beginning of the year for access to all club events as well as all the rotating wines and beer, pizza and non-alcoholic drinks they desire. Other Wharton clubs take turns sponsoring the weekly pubs; previous themes included Japan Night, Pink Pub: Wharton Women in Business, and Europa Oktoberfest. With over 85% of Wharton students typically joining the Pub, it is one of the best ways to meet Wharton classmates.

MIT Sloan’s Consumption Function happy hours (C-Functions) are also a popular part of student social life. Held most Thursday evenings during the academic year, the C-Functions are a great way to get together with classmates and other members of the Sloan community in a relaxed, non-academic setting. The events are organized by the Sloan Activities Board, but are usually sponsored by other clubs on campus and have weekly themes. Past themes include the 1970s, Brazil, Meet the Faculty, Oktoberfest and the Canadian C-Function.

In a similar vein, the Chicago GSB hosts weekly Liquidity Preference Functions each Friday afternoon, Columbia Business School hosts Thursday Happy Hours in the Uris Hall deli (with rotating post-Happy Hour destinations), and Kellogg students gather each Friday in the Atrium for the Kellogg TG (reputedly short for “Thank God it’s Friday”).

Most schools invite prospective students visiting campus to drop by the happy hour, and attending one of these events can be a great way to talk with current students and learn about the campus culture.

For more information on the social side of the leading MBA programs, be sure to talk with current students or to check out the Clear Admit School Guides!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

“Explore Wharton: Diversity in Action” Registration Now Open

Each year, the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania hosts a two-day event designed to welcome prospective students from diverse backgrounds to visit campus, meet students and learn more about the admissions process. Explore Wharton: Diversity in Action 2008 will take place on September 25th and 26th, and registration is now open.

Co-sponsored by the Wharton African American MBA Association (AAMBAA), the Wharton Hispanic American MBA Association (WHAMBAA), Wharton’s Out for Business (Out4Biz), Wharton Women in Business (WWIB) and the MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Office, the event is open to prospective women, under-represented minority and LGBT students.

A full schedule of events provides participants with opportunities to sit in on Wharton classes, hear from the admissions office staff and meet and network with current students and professors.

“For me, the best part of Explore Wharton was meeting current students because it gave me a feel for Wharton’s truly diverse community, which encompasses countless nations, work experiences and life stories,” said Reena Bajwa, a recent Wharton grad who participated in the program as a prospective student.

To learn more about the event or to register, click here.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Wharton School Dean’s L