Duke Fuqua application essay tips

Required short-answer essay question

Instructions: Answer the following question in 100 words.
What are your post-MBA career goals? Share with us your first-choice career plan and your alternate plan.

What’s your professional direction? And if you cannot progress toward your career goal in the most direct way, what is another way you could reach your desired destination? Because you are dealing with a 100-word maximum for this short essay, you will have to think long before you start drafting and then write succinctly to get your point across. 

First required essay: 25 random things about yourself

The ‘Team Fuqua’ spirit and community is one of the things that sets the MBA experience apart, and it is a concept that extends beyond the student body to include faculty, staff, and administration. Please share with us “25 Random Things” about you. The Admissions Committee wants to get to know YOU – beyond the professional and academic achievements listed in your resume and transcript. Share with us important life experiences, your hobbies, achievements, fun facts, or anything that helps us understand what makes you who you are.

Your list will be limited to 2 pages (750 words maximum). Please present your response in list form, numbered 1 to 25. Some points may be brief, while others may be longer.

Have some fun with this list. It certainly allows for a more creative approach than most essay prompts permit. Note that the question asks you to go “beyond the professional and academic achievements listed in your resume and transcript.” So, you can list your Pez collection or perhaps your brief membership in a rock band, the fact that you took violin from ages 6 to 18, your role in a gospel choir, your volunteer work in a hospital, your needlepoint hobby, your favorite recipe or photo. Gosh, the possibilities are endless. Just make sure your listed items reflect the authentic you. Think of this list as a way of introducing yourself to potential friends.

I usually recommend that applicants go beyond their own memory and ask family and friends for suggestions, because we tend to see many things about ourselves as commonplace and uninteresting. These individuals can remind you of something unique about you, an event you might have already forgotten, or a fun fact about your personality.  

Watch: Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business on How to answer the 25 Random Things Question.

Second required essay: The Fuqua community and you)

Fuqua prides itself on cultivating a culture of engagement. Our students enjoy a wide range of student-led organizations that provide opportunities for leadership development and personal fulfillment, as well as an outlet for contributing to society. Our student-led government, clubs, centers, and events are an integral part of the student culture and to the development of leaders. Based on your understanding of the Fuqua culture, what are 3 ways you expect to contribute at Fuqua?

Your response will be limited to 1 page (500 words maximum).

Do your homework about the Fuqua MBA program (and yourself) before responding to this question. What activities and groups at the school appeal to you? How do you see yourself participating? Making a difference? Imagine how you would take part, collaborate, and sometimes lead. Although you can refer to similar activities in the past, keep the focus of this essay on what you would do in the future at Fuqua; choose three activities/groups that most appeal to you and explain why. 

One approach to responding to this question is to write a letter to a close friend or colleague and tell them how you would contribute to this very participatory culture. That letter could easily morph into this essay. 

Optional essay: Tell us more

If you feel there are circumstances of which the admissions committee should be aware, please explain them here (e.g. unexplained gaps in work, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance). Note that you should NOT upload additional essays nor additional recommendations in this area. The Optional Information section is intended to provide the admissions committee with insight into your circumstances only.

Your response will be limited to 1 page (500 words maximum).

Why isn’t your current supervisor writing your recommendation? Why is there a six-month gap on your resume? Why did your grades dip during the first semester of your senior year? What are your responsibilities in the position you now hold with your family business after leaving a prestigious investment bank, and why did you make that change? If these kinds of questions aren’t addressed elsewhere in your application, answering them (but hopefully not all of them) could be the focus of your optional essay. 

Although Fuqua provides a more generous word limit for this submission than other schools tend to do with their optional essay, make sure your essay is concise and focuses solely on the issues that need to be addressed or clarified. 

Additionally, Duke Fuqua offers an Optional Background Information section designed to gain more insight into who you are and your background. I especially recommend paying close attention to the “lived experiences” short essay, in which you are asked to share, in 200 words or fewer, any experience not mentioned elsewhere that might provide the adcom with additional understanding of your life. Was there a health, religious, or business challenge or a special activity that influenced you and has not been addressed elsewhere in your application? If so, take a moment to explain that in this section, and describe how that experience will positively influence your contributions to the MBA program. 

Duke Fuqua application deadlines

Source: Duke Fuqua website

***Disclaimer: Information is subject to change. Please check with Duke Fuqua directly to verify its essay questions, instructions, and deadlines.***

Duke Fuqua class profile

Here is a look at the Duke Fuqua MBA Class of 2026 (data taken from the Duke Fuqua website):

Class size: 427

Women: 51%

U.S. underrepresented students of color: 40%

International citizens: 41%

Average age: 29

U.S. students of color: 56%

First generation: 18%

U.S. military: 11%

Partnered: 37%

Countries represented: 51

Average years of work experience: 6.0

Middle 80% range of years of work experience: 3.00-9.38

Middle 80% GMAT range: 660-760

Middle 80% range of GRE Verbal/Quant combined: 305-330

Middle 80% range of average undergraduate GPA: 3.17-3.89

Undergraduate institutions represented: 261

Students with advanced degrees: 16%

Undergraduate majors: 

• Engineering/Natural sciences: 38%
• Business and accounting: 29%
• Liberal arts: 19%
• Economics: 11%
• Other: 3%

Industries:

• Financial services: 19%
• Consulting: 18%
• Technology: 14%
• Health: 11%
• Other: 10%
• Government: 7%
• Nonprofit/Education: 7%
• Manufacturing: 6%
• Consumer goods: 5%
• Retail: 3%

Related Resources

• How to get into Duke Fuqua, podcast Episode 536
• The Business School Selectivity Index: GMAT Scores, GPAs, and MBA Acceptance Rates, a free tool
• Should You Apply to MBA Programs in Round 1 or Round 2?

The post Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Tips and Deadlines [2025-2026], Class Profile appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

[powerpress]

Are you attracted to Duke Fuqua’s collaborative MBA culture, and intrigued by its flexible curriculum, and the strength of its entering class as revealed by the latest class profile? But you’re unsure how you can make your case for acceptance? Then pull up a chair. In today’s podcast, Fuqua’s associate dean of admissions pulls back the curtain on what Duke seeks in its applicants.

Welcome to the 536th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Before I introduce our guest, I have a question for you. Are you ready to apply to your dream MBA programs? Are you competitive at your target schools? Accepted’s MBA admissions quiz can give you a quick reality check. Complete the quiz, and you’ll not only get an assessment, but tips on how to improve your qualifications. Plus, it’s all free. 

It gives me great pleasure to welcome back to Admissions Straight Talk, Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Shari earned her BA at Dartmouth, and her MBA at Harvard. She worked at several elite companies, and in 2009 became director of recruitment for the Peace Corps. In 2012, she returned to the MBA world when she became the Associate Dean of MBA Admissions for Georgetown McDonough. She joined Duke as Associate Dean of Admissions in October, 2017. 

Shari, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. [1:53]

Thank you so much, Linda. It’s always a pleasure to be here with you, and so I was really excited to get that invitation again to share some time with you and your listeners.

Can you go over, first of all, that menu of MBA options at Duke Fuqua, and then perhaps focus a little bit more on the MBA program itself? [2:04]

Yeah, sure, absolutely. We have four different MBA options at Fuqua. We have the daytime MBA, which is your… Think about your traditional two-year full-time MBA. Residential, flexible concentrations, experiential, I can go into that detail a little bit more. We have an accelerated daytime MBA, so again, very similar profile as our daytime MBA in terms of the types of students. It’s one year, it’s full-time, residential as well. The one specific criteria though that is different is that the individual must already have a master’s, either a master’s of management studies, which is our degree, or a master’s in management, or some kind of equivalent business degree, because those sets of courses that you would take actually substitute for, or transfer for the core curriculum that you would take your first year.

That would be a one-year, early-experience program basically in business that you’re talking about? [3:09]

Well, the accelerated daytime MBA actually should be very similar, the profile should be similar to our full-time. It’s just for people who already have some kind of master’s in management, or specialized master’s in business degree, plus the full-time work experience. So we prefer they actually have a couple of at least a couple of years of work experience, plus they already have a specialized master’s, and therefore, they are joining the daytime MBA program with the second year MBA students and taking electives. And so therefore, they can do the program, and get the degree in one year, as opposed to the two full years.

And then we have our weekend executive MBA, so we have two executive MBA programs. We have a weekend executive MBA program, and that is for working professionals. It meets monthly, and Thursday through Sunday, and then there are some live classes that happen every other Saturday as well. And then we have the Global Executive MBA program, similar in terms of… It’s a Duke MBA, it’s the same faculty, same curriculum as your traditional full-time MBA, but these programs are for working professionals. The Global Executive MBA is six residencies, in different regions around the world, including Durham. So it’s basically, every two months, you go to a different country, your professors travel with you, your career center representatives travel with you, your IT support travels with you, and your residencies are in that country. That’s for 10 days, eight to 10 days, and you come back and you do more distance hybrid coursework. Again, all of these programs are lockstep, they’re team-based, they’re cohort-based, and they all, again, are the same Duke degree, the same faculty, and just a different format. They all offer some level of concentrations and/or certificates as well.

Can we focus on the full-time MBA program? Can you give a little bit more information on that one, on the two-year traditional program? [5:05]

Sure. Absolutely. So again, this particular program is for individuals who are wanting to perhaps pivot into a different function, industry, geography, or reset, or just want a fully immersive experience in terms of pursuing their MBA, and it’s really tailored for that kind of a profile. The curriculum is really designed to allow our students to learn both the breadth and the depth across all types of curriculum, as well as very much focused on leadership.

And so just to give you a sense of the structure of the program, the core is their first year, which is very traditional to most MBA programs, you start off with what we call a Summer Institute, and it’s kind of a leveling two- to three-week course. You’ll learn things like leadership, ethics, and organization, so how do you think about leadership in the context of the individual, the team, and then the organization? There are two courses that you also learn, Entrepreneurial Mindset and Action. So that’s really about, regardless of whether or not you decide to start your own business, we believe that there are some fundamental elements and characteristics of entrepreneurs that are really valuable for all of our MBAs to have. Regardless of whether or not you’re in an established organization, working for an organization, you still want to have some level of intrapreneurial kind of spirit.

And so we make sure that all of our students, it’s a mandatory course, go through that. And then the final one is Technology-driven Transformation of Business. And again, that’s really, not just recognition that technology is driving all aspects of our life, including business, so how do business leaders make those decisions using data, using information in ways that either support the goals of that organization while not doing harm as well.

And so that’s a required course. And then of course, during that, you would also start to get formed into what we call consequential leadership teams, which are four to five person learning teams. And those are the individuals that you will go through your first year with, you’ll do casing with, you’ll be in sections with, and they are actually managed by a second year MBA student who is a part of our co-leadership program. And so again, our students are really able to give practical leadership experience, practice their own leadership style on actual first year teams, helping them kind of just acclimate. You go through the first fall core, which is fall. We have six-week terms, and so they-

I was just going to ask about that. [7:40]

Yeah, we have six-week terms, four six-week terms in the daytime MBA program. They each meet twice a week for two hours and about 15 minutes. We don’t have classes on Wednesdays, and that was purposeful and intentional. We do have classes on Fridays, so if you don’t have classes in the middle of the week, it’s when students can work on projects, they can perhaps do work that’s associated with their clubs, their leadership roles outside of the classroom, like conferences, doing more recruiting, things like that. But if you have classes on Fridays, we notice that students will stay in Durham more often, and it really builds more of a cohesive community, off-campus as well as on-campus, by ensuring that our students are in Durham, communing with each other over the weekend.

And so that’s been a really nice aspect, and a little bit of a difference in our program. And then, like I said, all of our students are assigned to leadership learning teams as well. And then there’s one other course that I wanted to talk about that happens, not in that during that Summer Institute, but it happens once students come back from their internship. So this is also unique about, I think Fuqua, in that-

It’ll be the second year, right? [8:49]

Yeah, so your second year. You’ve had your internship, you come back, and we actually get you back into your learning team. So it’s not as if after your first year you disperse and you’re never with your learning teams anymore. You come back, it’s called C Lead Two or Consequential Leadership Two, and it’s really about reflection. You had your internship, you’ve had a full year of being with these individuals and your classmates, and learning, and trusting, and building skills, and you’ve now been able to apply them during the summer, so let’s come back and reflect on, what did you learn? Because there’s more trust, you can go deeper in terms of developing those relationships with your teams, and your cohorts. And you do more personal self-reflection, personal leadership development.

So we do a lot of things with Brene Brown, we’ll have guests come in and talk to our students. They’ll do their own reflection assignments, just to really be able to have time to put into perspective what they learned, how they want to show up for that second and final year as well, knowing what they know now, having a full year under their belt, having some practical experience with their internship, is there anything they’d like to change, or pivot, or really lean into in this final year, that would help them as they continue to transform into develop into their own leadership style.

And another course that they would take as part of that experience, we call it C Lead Two, is Business and Common Purpose in a World of Differences. So it’s really about, how do you as a leader take into consideration the notion of IQ, EQ, DQ, how do you lead with common purpose? How do you lead teams that might be disparate, different, and have differences of opinion, come from different backgrounds? How do you make sure that everyone’s kind of working towards a common purpose in a world that is very, very challenging at times? And where you have stakeholders that are not just your employees, just your competitors, but it could be society, the communities that your organizations operate in, how do you bring all of that together in order to really be able to make a difference, more of a societal impact, where things are very polarized? And so that’s a new… Not a new course, but a course that I think is unique, because you really are able to take fuller advantage of that kind of a course and thinking once you’ve come back, and had some perspective after your first year.

Thinking of all the implications in terms of what’s going on in the world around us, and it’s certainly necessary. And this is a second year course, so you’ve built up to it, right? [11:06]

Yep, exactly. So that happens in your second year. That’s exactly right.

Duke Fuqua touts the flexibility of its curriculum, and the many concentrations that it offers. Can you review that aspect of the program? It was great that you talked about the leadership opportunities, but what about the flexibility of the program, and its ability to meet different needs? [11:21]

Yeah. I would start off by saying that our concentrations and our certificates allow you to go deep. They are options. They’re not things that you have to take advantage of. There are some students who go through the entire two years, and take the courses that are meaningful to them, or most popular. So it’s an opportunity to customize, and to go deep, but it’s not a requirement. And sometimes, people will use concentrations and certificates to pivot into a particular industry or sector that they’re not necessarily familiar with, so they use it in order to demonstrate competency, or just sincere interest in, but the degree that you get is still a general management MBA.

And so we have over 100 electives, and the concentrations are really an accumulation and packaging of different electives. We have over 100 of those electives, they can be organized under functional concentrations, or topical concentrations. So some functional ones would be decision sciences, management, marketing, operations, strategic, consulting, FinTech, is one of our newer ones. We have topical concentrations like diversity, equity and inclusion, which again, is one of our newer ones. Entrepreneurship, the environment, social entrepreneurship leadership, and the like. So again, about 14 or so different combinations of concentrations. Certificates, similar to concentrations, maybe one level deeper in terms of the additional number of electives that you would take. And we have two concentrations, our health sector management concentration, which is very well-known, and that concentration is usually coupled with the health sector certificate, it enables individuals to get a certificate in an understanding of all the different parameters of the healthcare sector. There’s a bootcamp attached to it. There are all kinds of experiential opportunities that you could take advantage of. They align very closely with the health center that we have.

So a lot of students, very popular. And that certificate is open to our Executive MBAs, and our daytime MBAs. So during the bootcamp, you’ll have a combination of both programs, over 100 people usually in that bootcamp. And that usually happens at the beginning of your time, or right before orientation. And then we have the finance certificate, again, for folks who want to really double down deeply into the finance sector. We used to have the management science and technology management certificate, that’s more of a data analytics, but as of last year, our entire MBA program is now STEM certified. And so data analytics, and those kinds of courses are really infused throughout the entire curriculum. And so there’s not necessarily a need to have a specific concentration, because the entire degree is now very data-focused. So I’d say those are the kinds of concentrations and certificates that we have.

And I think you really illustrated the flexibility and breadth of the program really. [14:36]

Right. And so you can do two concentrations, or you can do a concentration and a certificate. Pretty difficult to do two certificates, and so that’s why we have a limit in terms of, if you do a certificate, we limit the number of concentrations, but in addition to concentrations and certificates, you can also do a dual degree. We have five different dual degree programs. We have one with our medical school, or law school, our school of public policy, and then we have two with our School of the environment, Nicholas School of the Environment. We have a master’s in environmental management, and the master’s of forestry, which is interesting. And then for those individuals who may not want to do a dual degree, but they really want to take full advantage of the breadth of what’s available across Duke University in a very interdisciplinary way, as an MBA student at Fuqua, you can take up to four courses, 12 credits outside of Fuqua at any of the professional schools on campus.

It is very flexible. Fuqua, pre-COVID, was also known very much for its global learning opportunities. Are they in full swing now? [15:34]

Yeah, full swing, we’re back traveling abroad.

I would say, there are three ways in which our students take advantage of global opportunities. One is our GATE, which is an experiential four credit course, Global Academic Travel Experience is what it stands for.

And in May, 2023, the locations changed a bit. We had one GATE as we were kind of slowly ramping back into the full swing of travel. And this year, we’ll be offering two. So last year we went to South Africa, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and a safari. This year, we’re going to go to South Africa again, but we also have a new climate-focused GATE, it’s going to be in Denmark and Norway, and it’ll be led by Dan Vermeer, who is our faculty director of EDGE, one of the centers for the energy in the global development environment.

So in addition to that, I’d say about 20, 25 students per GATE trip attend. It’s a course, so about two months, you’re spending in the classroom, learning about the individual country, and the dynamics, economic dynamics, political dynamics, and the cultural dynamics, and then you travel as a class and cohort with your faculty member over there for a week. So you really kind of get the lived experience as well. We meet with alumni over there, we’ll have corporate visits, and then there’s also… It’s an opportunity for cultural exchange as well.

We also have what we call exchange programs, so those are… So our GATE tends to be individuals in the first year, and then our exchange programs tend to be our students in the second year, and we have over 20 different schools that we have partnerships with. It is an exchange, so they are sending their students here, we are sending our students there. And so it varies from quarter to quarter, but it’s very flexible. So you may have the winter break and the spring break, a set of exchanges with schools, or you may have six-week term exchanges. So it really is based on how much time do you want to be away. I would say, the winter break and the spring break are probably most popular, because it’s a lot to be away your second year-

I was thinking about recruiting. [17:53]

Yeah, well, that too. If you haven’t fully signed onto a company, definitely, it’s helpful to be here, unless you’re trying to actually find an opportunity abroad, and then that’s helpful.

But mostly it’s because people don’t want to be that far away from their friends their last year in school, so I would say… But people do take advantage of the six-week term options. And like I said, they last from either a few days, to a week, to a whole term. And there are over 20 different schools that we have relationships with. And some of them are based on special topics, and so for example, we have the Asian business landscape through a partnership in Singapore, and that’s kind of the topic of that exchange program, kind of looking at Asian business through that landscape.

We have doing business in Israel actually, with our partner school in Tel Aviv. And like I said, we are starting up this program on climate, which will be interesting. So it’s really interesting. We have an opportunity with Copenhagen Business School as well with spring break. So they all vary, very flexible, but a lot of fun, and I would say, a lot of our students end up taking advantage of our exchange programs. And then lastly, just student-run treks and trips, and those are not necessarily organized by the school, but they definitely are organized by students. I mean, we’ve sent 70 people to Brazil, I mean, students go to all kinds of exotic and wonderful places.

The information you’re providing is adding so much more color, depth, texture to it, so thank you for all this. What about the application process itself? What changes have you made to the MBA application process this year? [19:22]

So not a ton, but I will say that we have some new testing options. We will accept the new GMAT Focus, and we will accept the new GRE, and we already accept the executive assessment. So we are a school that requires at least one form of a test, and so those are new changes. 

Any preference? [19:56]

Nope, no preference. I think it really depends. Do your homework in terms of whether or not the new GMAT Focus or the new GRE is the right test for you. But if you decide that that’s the case, we will accept it. The executive assessment is always an interesting option as well for some people, but it’s not for everyone. So again, we just encourage people to test out some of these, see which one you test better at, or feel more comfortable with, and go for it. Because the ones that you’re going to feel more comfortable with are probably the ones that you’re going to do your best on.

So regardless though, I would say… Encourage people to practice, prepare for it, but we don’t have a preference.

And there are no test waivers, right? [20:38]

Right. We do not provide test waivers for our daytime MBA program. For our working professional programs, we do offer a test waiver process that you can apply for.

And then another section that is new, we’re keeping our 25 random facts essay, but we do have a new optional section on the application, and it’s really just, we want to learn more about our applicants in terms of their lived experiences. Don’t think of it as an essay, but it is an optional section, and it’s just a place where they can share a little bit more about themselves, including whether or not they’re a first in their family to attend college, if they grew up with any kind of financial hardships, and then anything else that they feel they haven’t had an opportunity to explain that would speak to some of their lived experiences, their upbringing, or their background, what’s influenced them, that kind of thing. And it is really about this unique aspect of their lived experience that they feel will help them contribute to our Fuqua community.

So it’s more like, “What else would you like us to know about you?” Or- [21:44]

Yeah, that you didn’t get a chance to share any place else kind of thing.

And it is totally optional? [21:51]

Yep. There’s only the first-generation question and the financial hardship, those are yes/no, and so this smaller kind of optional field is about 200 words maximum.

I was just going to ask, is there any length limit to it? [22:06]

Yeah. Yeah, About 200 words maximum.

And then we will be keeping our fourth round, our application round. That probably means for us that we have five. So we have the early action, then we have the round one, round two, round three, and then we will have round four.

September 7th is early action, September 28th is round one, then January 9th, February 22nd, and April 4th would be round four, right? [22:25]

Yeah, so not a lot has changed, but we’re hoping that some of these things just provide more clarity, and give people a bit more space to really share themselves with us.

Now, in terms of the 25 things question, that is Fuqua’s signature question, and I’m just going to read it. “Please share with us 25 random things about you. The admissions committee wants to get to know you beyond the professional and academic achievements listed in your resume and transcript. Share with us important life experiences, your hobbies, achievements, fun facts, or anything that helps us understand what makes you who you are.” Do you have any tips for that one? I mean, you can have a lot of fun with it. [22:49]

Yeah, I would say have a lot of fun. I did it, I did it as a function of when I joined Fuqua as part of my interview process, I did it. Every single admissions person who joins our team, once they’re on our team, they have about a week or so to provide us with their 25 facts. So believe me, we haven’t asked you to do anything we haven’t done ourselves.

But I would say, use the real estate to share facts that speak to your personal lived experience, characteristics about yourself, maybe what you value, and why. Your passions, your strengths, your lessons learned, failures, hobbies, affiliations, family stories. Not so much in terms of focusing on the professional part of your life, because we have other places to find that information out. It’s also good to provide a sentence or two to just provide some context around why you decided to share that particular fact about yourself. It doesn’t need to be a full paragraph, just a little bit of something to give us some context. I would say be vulnerable, it’s okay to be witty. Let us see your personality in the facts. I think we have a video on YouTube that shares some tips as well in terms of how to answer that essay. I think we also might provide some examples. My 25 is out there in our blocks-

So I’ll find it, and link to it. Now, you mentioned the early decision round. How is that different from the later four rounds, other than the fact that it’s first? [24:47]

We call it early action. Yeah, early action. It’s a binding round, I’d say that’s the biggest difference. It’s a binding round, which means that we ask that you not apply to another binding round school.

And if admitted to Fuqua, you are saying, “I commit to withdraw my applications from any other schools that you’ve applied to that are non-binding.” And so if there’s another school out there that has a binding round, don’t apply to that. And then if you do apply to other schools that don’t have binding rounds, I mean, of course, you might do that. Then once you get a decision from us that says yes, you’ve been admitted, you’re saying to us that you would withdraw your application from those schools. Because it’s really saying that, “Look, if I get admitted to Fuqua, I’m coming.”

You’re saying it’s your first choice. [25:41]

Yeah, it’s just so much my first choice that I am applying knowing that if you admit me, I am saying that I will come. And so I would say, it’s for certain people, it’s not for certain people. One, I would say, it’s for people who are ready and prepared early. And so don’t rush to get into early action if you feel like you are not able to put forward your best representation of yourself in your application. Don’t rush just for the sake of getting into early action. ‘Cause like I said, we have a number of other rounds.

And early action is not our largest round, so that also gives you a sense. Most people apply in some other round. But I do say, it is for the people who know that they’re kind of down for Fuqua. So they’re signaling and letting us know that they really are committed, and that we’re their first choice. If you want to keep your options open, early action probably isn’t the round for you. If you are willing to put all your eggs in the Fuqua basket, and you get admitted, and you’re saying, “Yep, I’m there.” Then that’s probably… And you’re prepared, you’ve carved out time enough to prepare to submit it by the deadline, then it’s a good round.

It’s a good option. [26:56]

Right.

It’s a great option. [26:57]

Exactly.

So two questions on that. One, if one is admitted early action, is there a different deposit requirement? Is it a larger deposit requirement? Number one. Number two, is it an advantageous or disadvantageous from a financial aid perspective to apply to early action? [26:58]

I mean, you still have to pay the deposits. It’s not a larger deposit, but the deposit kind of upfront. We’re still looking at whether or not that will change or not in terms of maybe adding additional deposits down the road, but right now, it’d still be the same overall level of deposits, just kind of maybe when we would ask you for it. So right now, you do everything upfront, and we might want to spread things out. You do the majority, I would say, the bulk of it upfront, so 3,000 upfront, and then you then have your second deposit, which is the final deposit for everybody. We’re kind of looking to see if we want to spread that a little bit more as well, you have the third deposit, but that hasn’t been finalized. Scholarships, yes, absolutely. People who are admitted to our early action also are considered for scholarship, and actually get them. So it’s definitely not disadvantaging you if you apply early action in terms of being considered for scholarship.

We discussed the new optional section, and you mentioned the length, and any tips on that? Or just mostly focus on this idea of unusual lived experiences rather that you didn’t have place for in the other parts of the application? [28:13]

So the open text piece of that, I’m trying to think how to answer it, your answer doesn’t have to be as long as the other essays. It is open space to just share something we may not have asked anywhere else in the application, or the applicant wants to make sure we’re aware of, maybe their affiliations, areas of their background that have impacted their lived experience, how they show up in the world, and how it’s informed who they are, and the impact they want to have, and how they want to contribute to our MBA program. Again, I don’t want people to overthink it though. For some people, there’s going to be something to add, and they should use the space. For others, they may not have anything to add, it’s totally optional. We don’t look differently on people who don’t use the space, but it is a gift, it is an opportunity.

‘Cause sometimes it’s hard to know every single question we could possibly ask you to get every aspect of who you are in a paper-based application. And so this is that space to say, “Hey.” There’s no essay on this question, there’s no short answer question that they asked me, but, “Hey, did you know this unique thing about me?” Or, “Did you know I was a part of this thing?” Or, “Did you know this particular aspect of my background really influenced how I show up, my grit, my determination.” Or, “This particular experience was very informative, informed my kind of thinking around the world, or what I want to do.” And so it’s that kind of space to use. It is different than the optional essay that we always think about, where you’re clarifying why you have a specific type of recommender, or why you didn’t get the GMAT score that you wanted, the GRE score that you wanted, or how-

Or the GPA. [30:07]

Right. It’s something new and substantive, not a clarification about some aspect of your application.

Now, can you discuss for a second the interview process at Fuqua, and specifically the difference between open interviews and interviews by invitation? [30:17]

Yeah, I do think the interview is a really special opportunity for applicants to really show us who they are in their own words, and human-to-human, as opposed to us only knowing you from your application. And so I would say definitely take advantage of the interview, think about it as you would any job interview if you are invited. We really want to make sure that we can get to know as many of our applicants as possible, so that’s why we also have this open interview process. About half of our applicants are interviewed in some form or fashion, and so these two formats really make sure that we are able to really get to know as many applicants as possible.

So the open interview period is, we have a virtual component to that, or an in-person. And basically, the difference between open interview and an invited is that an open interview is self-initiated. So you’re kind of raising your hand, saying, “I want to make sure I get interviewed, so I want to sign up for this interview.” Versus the other interviews are by invitation only. And so that means we are reading through your application the first time, and kind of deciding, “Oh, we’d like to learn more about this person. We’d like to invite them to be interviewed.” So those are the differences.

We have two ways either open interviews or by invitation, either you can participate virtually. And our open interviews, the virtual dates are August 24th through October 6th, or you can participate in our open interviews on campus, so you can come to campus. And those dates are September 11th through October 6th. And so again, as you can see, everything, as it pertains to open interviews, is from October 24th through October 6th, basically.

August. [32:20]

Sorry, August 24th through October 6th. After that, it doesn’t mean you’re not going to be interviewed, but we then invite people to interview. And if you’re-

And they could be virtual or in-person, or… [32:29]

When you’re invited to interview, you’ll also have the option to do it virtually or in-person as well.

Some other things to keep in mind, regardless of the round that you apply in, you can still participate in our open interviews. And so what happens is, let’s say you decide to interview through the open interviews in, I don’t know, September 2nd, but you’re not going to apply until this the first round, or the second round, we’ll take that interview and we’ll save it. And then once you apply, we will add that interview, that will be your official interview, and we’ll add it to your application.

So is it recorded even if it’s in-person? [33:09]

When you say recorded, what do you mean?

Well, you say you save the interview, so do you save the notes, or do you save the recording, or… [33:14]

It’s the notes.

So we don’t record any interviews. So even if you’re doing the virtual.

Not even the virtual? [33:22]

No, no.

It’s just more for convenience, especially if someone’s living abroad and can’t get to campus. We want to make it convenient for them to interview. And it was kind of something from the pandemic that we thought, “Hey, it provides some flexibility, let’s keep this aspect.”

But they’re not recorded, they’re not recorded.But their interviewer does take notes, and then submits an interview report. And that report is then what’s added to your application. It’s on a first come first serve basis though, the open interviews, and with at least a 48-hour advance notice to request an interview.

Okay, sounds good. [34:01]

And the only thing we ask is that you have at least started your application to schedule the interview.

Traditionally, when you had interview days, and people would also use the opportunity to learn about Duke, are those opportunities now entirely online, or do you still have interview days, or… [34:09]

Yep, yep. We’re going to still have campus visits, and during your campus visit, you can also do your own campus interview.

And then we’ll also have different kinds of weekend events where you could also do an interview. So yeah, absolutely, there will still be an opportunity to visit campus, and do the interview during your visit, or we’re going to have specific Saturday interview dates, and so they’re on campus, and people can come to do an in-person interview. We’d love to have as many people as possible come visit, ’cause I do think it’s a really great way to see and feel it. But we want to be realistic, we want to make sure that there’s broad access for everyone, so that’s the reason why we’ve added these virtual opportunities. We actually will have virtual campus visits as well.

There is one thing I think that is worth noting, and that is, first of all, if you’re applying in early action, we do recommend that you sign up for an open interview, but in the event that you don’t, we still have an invited process, but it’s just a little tip. But I do want to talk about this aspect, so sometimes we get the question, or people don’t necessarily understand that, let’s say they’re not invited to be interviewed the first time, they think that signals that they will not be considered any longer for admission, and that’s not the case at all.

What do you mean they weren’t invited the first time? You mean in terms of reapplication, or you mean… I’m confused. [35:37]

So have invitation dates which we’re going to deliver our-

After October 6th, basically? [35:50]

Right. Invites to be interviewed. And some individuals think that if they don’t get that invitation on that date, that all is lost, and that’s not the case at all. Sometimes we continue to review applicants. There will be other times and opportunities on a case-by-case basis that we might want to invite people to be interviewed even after the invite to be interviewed deadline or date.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that you are going to be denied-

Just because you don’t get invited to be interviewed that first time. We also interview people off the waitlist, we interview people as we’re thinking about the wait list. So there’s always opportunities after the initial invitation to be invited, I don’t want people to think that it’s signaling something if in case they’re not invited that first time.

Let’s say somebody applies round one, and they’re not invited round one, could they be invited round two? Would there be some- [36:43]

Yeah.

Yeah, all right. [36:50]

Exactly.

And would there be some communication to them at the end of round- [36:52]

Yep.

Yeah, I mean, they’ll get a decision, but it’s not an automatic deny decision.

And the fact that they weren’t interviewed doesn’t really mean anything, I think is what you’re really trying to say. [37:00]

Right, exactly.

Thank you for clarifying.

Now, you mentioned COVID a couple of minutes ago. Last time we spoke it was the middle of COVID, that was the environment in which we were speaking. Today, it’s a little different environment. Today’s environment has its own noteworthy developments, a lot of different noteworthy developments actually, but I’d like to focus on one specifically, and that is AI and ChatGPT. I’m sure that AI is being taught at Duke, but are you concerned about its impact on the essay element of the application? I noticed there was a very robust plagiarism warning under the application instructions.  [37:06]

Yeah, yeah. Great question. First of all, let me say, I can only speak to our policy within admissions, as it may vary across the university, and then the Fuqua school in terms of classroom use, it’s really going to be up to the faculty to decide that. But within admissions, allowing the use of AI in their application, and we have decided to allow it. It felt like the way to be the most inclusive, while still requiring that applicants authentically represent themselves. We see a difference between plagiarism, and the use of AI, in that plagiarism is explicitly using material created by someone else, while we expect that the use of AI, at least in terms of how they might use it to answer our essay questions, which are unique to Fuqua, the use of AI, it has to begin anyway with this level of personal reflection. I mean, to answer our essay questions, you need some level of personal reflection, you need your own kind of content, and your own lived experiences to inform it.

We know that AI could be useful in terms of helping people organize their thoughts, or represent them better, differently through the use of AI tools. Similar to how people use Grammarly, or they may have friends who are English majors and they ask them to review their essays, or they may use admissions consultants to say, “Hey, take a look, provide some coaching and guidance.” Around their essays. So again, we view this as a tool that enhances the process, but should not, and does not replace the requirement for authenticity and the use of your own material.

And so in our minds, and I like to say, AI at Fuqua stands for authentic individuality.

I like that. [39:23]

I know, right?

And we’re going to assume positive intent, and that applicants are ethical, and they’re good agents in this process. And so we do require that your application be a true and accurate reflection and representation of your lived experience, and exclusively your own. And then we do, like you said, use plagiarism tools. So for us, all essays are scanned using plagiarism detection software, but again, we see a difference between plagiarism and the use of AI tools. So we have a long disclaimer about how expressing your ideas by using verbiage that’s not sourced right, is improperly credited, is a violation of our honor code, and it is grounds for denying application.

I’ve mentioned before on Admissions Straight Talk, but one of our consultants is also a journalist, and she decided to ask ChatGPT to write an essay for her, an MBA essay, and it took her a lot of time, and effort, and work to kind of coach ChatGPT to the point where the essay… Not so much that the writing was bad, but that it had the specificity that is required to have a good essay. [40:08]

Right.

In anything. And if it’s just mumbo jumbo verbiage, general stuff, I mean, yeah, ChatGPT can write that, and probably my eighth grade grandchild could also write that. [40:38]

Right. So that’s not going to serve you well though, right?

No. [40:55]

That’s not going to be your best-

No, it’s terrible. [40:56]

Reflection of who you are, right?

No. No, not at all. It won’t be informative, it won’t be reflective. And her point was that it was as much effort for her to get ChatGPT to a point where it was producing something of quality as it would’ve taken her to write it. [41:00]

Yeah, exactly. I would also note that, and this is less on ChatGPT and more on this plagiarism tool that we do have, it picks up on our own essays, if they see language is similar. So I would caution people, if they are using admission consultants, not to have anyone share any of your essays with anyone else, because if they apply to Fuqua, we’re going to see it. If you’ve applied to Fuqua, and they’ve used any aspect of your essay, and then they apply to Fuqua, it will pick up. And so just a caution there.

We’ve occasionally, over the years, had applicants use essays that we recognized as being previous clients’ essays. [41:48]

See? Yeah.

It wasn’t a good idea. [41:58]

It picked up on that.

It wasn’t a good idea. I mean, you can do it programmatically, we were just doing it.  What do you see coming down the pike for the MBA program at Fuqua? [42:00]

Yeah, so I think a lot of it’s still in design, but I expect more elective content on climate and AI-

From an academic perspective. We do expect to have a couple courses that connect climate to business, and we have already approved an elective in sustainable operations. We’re also offering a climate-centered, like I said, GATE to Northern Europe next year, which will be interesting. That’s the one that’s led by Dan Vermeer. We expect a faculty member who will propose a new course that’s focused on modern AI in business. It hasn’t been approved yet, but could be an elective next year. And then we’ll be offering the first versions of a seminar and lab focused on our venture capital. We already have a seminar and lab that we put out last year on private equity, and all of those offerings are part of our Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship initiative. And one thing that is interesting and new at Fuqua is that all of Duke University’s entrepreneurship activity is now housed out of Fuqua.

Yeah, so Duke I&E, which is Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship, which was the university’s ecosystem around entrepreneurship, merged with our Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, which was Fuqua, and all of it is now housed, staff, all the content, all the intellectual property, all the research, and the faculty, and the students from undergrad, to all the different professional schools, all of them are now working and collaborating within the halls of Fuqua. Which is really great, we’re really excited. They just outfitted a new space for them, and so an accelerator space for them, which will be nice.

That’s really exciting. What about reapplicants? It’s summertime, I’m sure there’s some people out there thinking about reapplying, what advice do you have for reapplicants to Fuqua? [43:53]

Yeah, for students who are reapplying, we do offer a cloning process for them, just to make it a little easier. So we’ll replicate their application from last year. We consider you a reapplicant if it’s just for the prior year, so it can’t be two years from now and that kind of thing. But if you decide to reapply from the prior year, then we’ll save your… Let us know, there’s an email that you can send, and a request form, and we will clone your application. There’s no need to re-enter their information into the online application. We can even move over their recommender feedback, so that that’s helpful, so they don’t have to go back out to the same recommender.

We offer them the opportunity to update any other information though on their application, and there is a reapplicant essay that they need to submit. And that really is just kind of being reflective of the prior year, and letting us know what they’ve learned, what’s different, what’s new. I do recommend that people just review their prior year’s application, maybe take a look at the 25, is it still relevant? Do they want to switch out anything, or change up anything? Being really pensive and thoughtful about the reapplication essay. And I say that because if you think about it, if you just rely on the cloning and you don’t update anything, and you know that last year’s application, for whatever reason, it’s just not always just because your application, but for whatever reason you weren’t successful, if you make no changes, what makes you think you’re going to be successful if nothing changes? So I would say-

Right. The definition of insanity. [45:34]

Right. That’s what I was thinking. Yeah, exactly. So I do think it’s worth their time to just take a look, see what they might want to refresh, and then also be really thoughtful about that reapplicant essay. But we try and make it as easy as possible. We’ll have events for reapplicants, and webinars, and sessions to really kind of help walk them through the process. But we welcome them, we welcome reapplicants, and we have a high rate of folks who we reapply who actually get admitted the following year. So I do think it’s worth reapplying. Absolutely.

What are some common mistakes that you see? [46:11]

I’m glad you asked that question. So I would say, one would be during the recruiting process, ask admissions reps to compare their programs to other schools. I think the better approach is to reflect on what’s important to you in a program as an applicant. Be prepared to share that, and then inquire with each school how does their program match up to what’s important to you, instead of how it matches up to another institution. I feel like it’s the applicant’s job to really know the differences between institutions, and it’s each admissions rep at an institution to know what’s unique about their institution really well. And it’s also just not good form or respectful for admissions reps to contrast institutions, as all these programs are really strong, and there’s just as much as similar as different. And I really believe that there’s a place for everyone, and so it’s really better to start with what’s important to you.

Another mistake I would say to shy away from is, I’ve seen applicants not explain aspects of their application that may be viewed as outside that middle 80% range, especially if it’s on the lower end. So if there’s anything that’s in your profile that you feel is not a strength, I would urge you to really tell us what you’ve done to shore up that area. Be proactive.  Demonstrate self-awareness and humility. At the same time, don’t allow us to assume, or make up a story about what happened in that particular space, or what that means, but really be proactive to say, “It looks like I’m a little different from this… Outside of this class profile range, but let me tell you why. What I’ve done, or how I’m unique in this other way, or how I’ve started to work on these aspects that might be a little bit different from what that class profile makeup in the aggregate looks like.”

And then I would just say, also doubting themselves upfront, not taking that bet in the first place. I really believe, again, that there’s an MBA program out there for everyone. I believe strongly in the value of the MBA. It’s been pivotal in my life, and it really surprises me that certain students will say… They’ll feel like they have to move mountains before they even are ready to apply. And I say, “You are good just as you are. You deserve this kind of investment in yourself through the pursuit of an MBA. And I’d say just go for it. Don’t doubt yourself.”

And then being really communicative, I also say another thing to just be aware of and be sensitive to is when you’re really communicative initially when you’re recruiting with our schools, but then you’re MIA once you get an offer. It’s not kind, it’s not the decent look. We want what’s best for everyone who’s applying, and especially those we admit, but we’re human beings in the process, so we can appreciate, and really like when there’s mutual respect throughout that process. So even if you decide after getting our offer that another school’s a better place for you, that is totally fine. I would just say be upfront, be honest, be in communication, don’t ghost the admissions team.

I completely agree with you. [49:09]

And then the last one, just more about when you’re preparing to start your program, once you get admitted and then accepted and you’re preparing to really start, make sure you’re paying attention to the many communications that you’re going to receive from the school to help you get ready to start. I would say stay on top of those emails. I see time and time again people not paying attention to the emails, and then before they know it, the program’s starting, or before they know it, they’ve missed some kind of deadline that’s going to be really important for them.

And so you’re going to feel, as an incoming student, much more prepared and calm, not scrambling when the time comes, if you stay on top of those communications, and meet the deadlines, and the checklists, and things like that that you’re being asked to do in order to get you prepared. ‘Cause really, the schools, they have your best interest in their minds when they are trying to stage the communications and say, “Hey, we need for you to do X, Y, and Z, because it’s really in your best interest to have all that done.” Because you will not believe how much information – you’ll be deluged. There’ll be a deluge of information once you start, and so if you’re not even in the mindset and practice of you responding and paying attention to that stuff even before you start, you’re going to feel lost, and that’s not what you want. You want to start your program feeling really comfortable, and calm, and prepared, and confident.

That’s great advice. Thank you so much. What would you have liked me to ask you? [50:24]

Let’s see. So I talked a little bit already about our test scores. I would say maybe the only other thing would be how we think about wait lists-

How do you think about wait lists? [50:38]

We maintain a selective and active wait list. It’s not ranked, so we don’t have any kind of ranking if you’re on the waitlist. And so if you’re put on the waitlist in round one, you may be admitted in subsequent rounds, so we try and look at every subsequent round to see if there’s anyone that we’d like to pull off the waitlist.

We encourage people to stay in touch and submit documentation. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming, but if there’s something new and different, or if you’ve retaken a test, or if you’ve gotten a promotion, or even if it’s just to say, “I’m still really interested.” And so definitely be in communication. We look at it as a two-way relationship when you’re on the waitlist. We have a healthy number of people that we admit off the waitlist every year, and they come and they thrive. I mean, I’ll tell you, there are a number of our co-presidents of our MBA student association who have been folks who have been admitted off the waitlist. So it’s a process that we take very seriously, and we know it’s a process that can be very angst-ridden, but we don’t want it to be. So I would say be in communication with us, and we’ll be in communication with you too.

Sounds good. Shari, I want to thank you so much for joining me today. Where can listeners and potential applicants learn more about Duke Fuqua? [51:49]

Yeah, so visit our website. I would encourage people to attend our events. We already are starting to be on the road, but if you’d like to learn more, you can always visit our website.

Relevant Links:

• Duke Fuqua Admissions
• Getting to Know Each Other Through 25 Random Things – Shari Hubert

Relevant shows:

• How to Get an MBA at Columbia Business School  – podcast Episode 528 
• How to Get Accepted to NYU Stern – podcast Episode 525
• How to Get Into Georgetown McDonough’s MBA Program – podcast Episode 512
• How to Get Accepted to Cornell Johnson MBA – podcast Episode 488
• How Service To School Helps Veterans Get Accepted to Grad School – podcast Episode 524
• Previous Interview with Shari Hubert – podcast Episode 434

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The post How to get into Duke Fuqua [Episode 536] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Duke Fuqua’s Assistant Dean of Admissions, Allison Jamison, announced on Tuesday that the school is adding an additional admissions round to the 2022-2023 Full-Time MBA and Accelerated MBA application cycle.

The program’s Round 3 deadline is now February 13, 2023, and the final round, which is now Round 4, has a deadline of March 28, 2023.

In addition, Fuqua is allowing Round 3 applicants to submit a self-reported score for the GMAT, GRE, or Executive Assessment as long as they take the test by February 28, 2023. 

The remaining due dates for Fuqua this cycle are as follows:

In the blog post, Dean Jamison explained that the school is making these changes in response to the recent layoffs, the winter COVID/flu/RSV surge, geopolitical struggles, and other various challenges people are facing at this time. Given these challenges, Fuqua wants to be flexible and helpful. Jamison stated that the program saw an increase in Round 2 applications over last year and that lower application volume did not motivate the change. 

Fuqua not only added the new round in February but is also giving applicants targeting the February 13 deadline more time for test prep by allowing them to submit a score after they submit the application, provided they take the test by February 28, 2023.

My Take

I have no doubt that Fuqua’s administration is motivated by a desire to help applicants prepare the best applications they can and to accommodate those affected by layoffs and circumstances they couldn’t anticipate.

At the same time, while Duke’s Round 2 applications are up over last year, last year’s Round 2 application volume might not have been the best. For most top MBA programs, it was not. It’s also possible that this year’s Round 1 volume was down and that Round 2 hasn’t made up for that decline. I conclude that whether its application volume is up or down, Fuqua feels it can stand to review more applications so that it can create the best class possible for its Class of 2025.

It seems to me that Duke Fuqua, like most of its competition, is not yet overwhelmed with applications. That situation could change radically if the recession and unemployment worsen.

The same can be said for the other MBA programs that have announced changes to their application process in the past four to six weeks and in response to increasing layoffs.

Applying before unemployment really soars is a good idea. Take advantage of these additional rounds and accommodations. 

The post Duke Fuqua Full-Time MBA Program Adds New Round to Its Admissions Calendar appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

U.S. STEM MBA Programs: An Overview

STEM certification programs have proven application bonanzas for top business schools. STEM certification may have begun pre-pandemic as a way to alleviate uncertainty in the visa process, but the programs have proven to be a robust inducement for MBA applicants, particularly from foreign countries. According to Poets & Quants, “At Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, the move to designate its entire MBA program STEM in early 2021 paid dividends this year. . . Its applications rose by an incredible 21%, an increase of 450 to 2,555, even though Cornell presumably felt the same domestic squeeze as its peer schools.”

[List of top STEM OPT U.S. Business Schools >>]

Cornell’s new MBA class has students from 43 countries, a dramatic rise from 30 countries from 2021. Cornell is receiving roughly double the number of international applications as domestic applications. Poets & Quants also reported strong upticks in foreign student enrollment among 27 B-schools surveyed: “In the top 10, the average gain was 10.2 percentage points, or 36.6%, with Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business the biggest by points — 18, or 72%, to 43% — and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania the biggest by percentage: 84.2%, or 16 points, to 35%.

“Across all 27 schools, the average gain from 2020 to 2022 was 14.6 percentage points, or 69%. The biggest gain was at CMU Tepper, which doubled its total from 28% to 56%; notably, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School gained 23.5 points, or more than 200%, to 35%. Three other B-schools more than doubled their international ranks in two years.”

Are you an international MBA applicant? We’ve helped hundreds of applicants get accepted to top MBA programs! CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT HOW WE CAN HELP YOU GET ACCEPTED >>

The GMAC’s survey from 2019 was the first to inquire about a program’s STEM-certification, and found that these programs were more likely to report growth in international applicants. A total of 195 of the 804 U.S. programs responding reported that their programs were STEM-certified (24%). Among them, the most common program types were Master of Data Analytics (28%); Master of Finance (22%); and Master of Information Technology (14%). And while a majority of both STEM-certified (53%) and non-STEM (57%) programs reported declines in total applications during this period, STEM-certified programs fared better among international applicants. In the 2019-2020 academic year, 43% of STEM-certified programs grew their international applications, compared with 26% of non-STEM programs.

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Given ongoing concerns over visa status and one’s ability to work in the U.S. after business school, programs that are STEM-certified are sure to be more appealing to this applicant pool.

While some MBA programs – such as Chicago Booth, Wharton, Virginia Darden – now offer specific concentrations that qualify international students for STEM OPT, others – such as Berkeley Haas, Carnegie Mellon Tepper, and Rochester Simon – qualify MBA graduates of all majors in their MBA programs for this extension.

During 2021, MBA programs have seen a rebound in international applicants, and many schools (NYU Stern, Darden, and Yale) are touting this return. Still, they are maintaining their STEM certifications because it will pave the way for their graduates to get jobs and stay in the U.S. long enough to pay off or pay down their loans. Despite its cost, the MBA degree continues to pay robust dividends right off the bat. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article: “At about 98% of universities that offer master’s of business administration programs, graduates typically made more money two years out of school than they had borrowed, a Wall Street Journal analysis of federal student loan data for nearly 600 programs found.”

STEM MBA Programs

Name of MBA Program	Majors That Are STEM Designated	MBA Essay Tips
Arizona State Carey	All MBA Platforms	Tips
Babson MBA	1) Business Analytics and Machine Learning 2) Quantitative Finance	Tips
Berkeley Haas	All Majors	Tips
Brigham Young Marriott	Management Science and Quantitative Methods	Tips
Carnegie Mellon	All Majors	Tips
Chicago Booth	All MBA programs	Tips
Columbia Business School	MBA and EMBA programs	Tips
Cornell Johnson	1) Two-Year Management Science MBA 2) One-Year Management Science MBA 3) Tech MBA 4) MPS in Management 5) MPS in Management - Accounting Specialization	Tips
Dartmouth Tuck	STEM track	Tips
Duke Fuqua	Second Major in Management Science and Technology Management (MSTeM)	Tips
Georgetown McDonough	Management Science major	Tips
Harvard Business School	Management Science track	Tips
Indiana Kelley	Accounting, Business Analytics, Finance, Marketing or Supply Chain and Operations	Tips
Lehigh University College of Business	Business Analytics (a concentration within 1-MBA)	Tips
Michigan Ross	STEM track	Tips
MIT Sloan	MBAn	Tips
New York University	Tech MBA Two-year full-time MBA	Tips
Northwestern Kellogg	Management Science MMM Program for Dual Engineering/MBA Degrees	Tips
Notre Dame Mendoza	MBA/Master of Science in Business Analytics Dual Degree	Tips
Pace University	MBA in Information Systems	Tips
Purdue Krannert	MBA-STEM	Tips
Rice Jones	All MBA Programs	Tips
Rochester Simon	All Specializations	Tips
Rutgers	STEM designation	Tips
Stanford GSB	1) All MBA majors 2) MSx	Tips
Syracuse	FT MBA, M.S. in Business Analytics, MS in Finance, MS in Marketing and MS in Supply Chain Management	Tips
Texas McCombs	14 of the 22 concentrations for the full-time MBA program	Tips
University of California, Davis	All Majors	Tips
University of California, Irvine	Analytics in Digital Leadership concentration	Tips
University of California, Los Angeles	All Specializations	Tips
University of California, Riverside	All MBA Programs	Tips
University of California, San Diego	1) Full-time MBA 2) FlexEvening 3) FlexWeekend	Tips
University of California San Francisco	1) Financial Analysis, MS 2) Information Systems, MS 3) Full-Time MBA 4) Marketing Intelligence, MS 5) Energy Systems Management & MBA 6) Environmental Management & MBA (4+1), BS/MBA 7) Financial Analysis & MBA (4+1), BSBA/MS	Tips
University of Connecticut	1) Business Analytics 2) Digital Marketing Strategy 3) Financial Analysis and Investments	Tips
University of Delaware Lerner	Major in Business Analytics	Tips
University of Georgia Terry	Only open to U. of Georgia undergraduates; includes 45 majors	Tips
University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler	All MBA Programs	Tips
University of North Texas Ryan	MBA in Business Analytics	Tips
University of Washington Foster	Management Science	Tips
University of Wisconsin - Madison	1) Specialization in Operations and Technology Management 2) Supply Chain Management	Tips
USC Marshall	Specialization in Management Science	Tips
Vanderbilt Owen	Finance Concentration	Tips
Wharton	1) Business Analytics 2) Business, Economics & Public Policy (BEPP) 3) Business, Energy, Environment & Sustainability (BEES) 4) Operations, Information & Decisions (OID) 5) Quantitative Finance 6) Statistics	Tips
Washington University in St. Louis (Olin)	Full-time MBA	Tips

We’re going to do our best to keep this table current. However, please do not rely on this table; confirm the STEM designation yourself to make sure that the MBA programs you apply to really have that designation. And if you find out a school has attained STEM certification and is not on the list, please let us know by emailing blog@accepted.com.

If you would like to learn how to get into top MBA programs that offer STEM OPT eligibility and are a good fit for you, register for a free consultation with me. 

At Accepted, we’ve helped hundreds of applicants get accepted to top MBA programs and look forward to helping you too! CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED.

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By Jennifer Bloom, admissions consultant at Accepted for 20 years and Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW). She is an expert at guiding you to produce application materials that truly differentiate you from the rest of the driven applicant pool. If you would like help with your application, Jennifer can suggest a number of options that work with any budget. Want Jennifer to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• STEM Applicants: Why Your Statement of Purpose is So Important
• Top MBA Application Essays: How to Answer Them Right (school-specific essay tips)
• The Questions You SHOULD Be Asking – ANSWERED!, a podcast episode

The post Top STEM MBA Programs: A Comprehensive STEM-OPT Eligible List appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

The Financial Times has released its global rankings of the best MBA programs and has considerably shuffled the deck. Several top-ranked programs fell several notches, while others rose considerably. For the first time since 2011, Wharton has returned to its status as #1 in FT’s list. 

Other programs that made giant strides in the rankings include Columbia Business School (ranked 8th in 2020), and Kellogg (Northwestern), now #5 (11th place in 2020). One reason for such huge fluctuations was that five of the top U.S. programs (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, and Columbia) were not listed at all last year at all, skewing that year’s results. 

Other highly rated programs that suffered serious tumbles in the rankings include London Business School, Tuck (Dartmouth), and UVA Darden. In fact, 69 of the 91 schools ranked fell in the rankings, many of them by double digits.  

Compared with last year, many of these schools’ rankings looked like riders on a roller coaster, with some plunging far below and others rising by as much as 20 points to unprecedented heights. 

As we have cautioned before, it’s vital to keep these rankings in perspective. They are based on many variables that have little or nothing to do with the quality of the curricula per se.

Do you see yourself in one of these top programs? Find out how working one-on-one with one of our Admissions Consultants can help get you ACCEPTED!

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Related Resources:

• Top 10 or Bust: Dispelling 2 MBA Myths
• Top MBA Programs Get STEM-Certified to Attract Int’l Students
• B-School Selectivity Index: Discover the Schools Where You are a Competitive Applicant

The post Financial Times Ranks Wharton as #1 in 2022 Rankings appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Looking for the best possible admissions advice?

How about admissions advice from the admission committee members themselves?

Linda Abraham, founder of Accepted and host of the Admissions Straight Talk Podcast has a collection of highly enlightening interviews with directors of admissions and adcom members of top business schools!

Listen in as Linda asks her adcom guests pointed and to-the-point questions about the schools, the admissions process, how to get in, and…how to get rejected.

Listen, enjoy, and apply successfully!

For a varied menu of thought-provoking and informative conversations with business leaders, entrepreneurs, MBA students, and more, check out the Admissions Straight Talk Podcast:

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The post From the Mouths of MBA Adcom Members: How to Get Accepted appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

According to the Wall Street Journal, salaries for business school grads have bounced back after flattening at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. In fact, these salaries are hitting record highs as consulting firms, banks, and tech firms try to entice top business school graduates to join them.

University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and University of Chicago’s Booth School both stated that this year’s graduate median salaries grew $5,000 to reach $155,000. This is a record starting salary for Wharton grads, with 99% of students looking for jobs receiving an offer by late summer. Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business’ MBA graduates’ average annual salary also hit a record, with salaries going up 4% to over $141,000 compared to last year. 

“Everyone is in a bit of an arms race in terms of compensation,” stated Maryellen Reilly, deputy dean of Wharton’s MBA program.

MBAs typically earn more out of grad school

In comparison to other grad degrees, the MBA is more likely to pay off in the job market. By two years after graduation, grads from most business programs tend to earn more than they borrowed. 

According to the nonprofit Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), last year’s pandemic led to a flattening of median salaries for US MBAs at $105,000. This year’s graduates can expect to make up to $115,000, which is an all-time high. 

These students can look forward to job offers from a variety of industries. According to Sheryle Dirks, associate dean for career management at Fuqua, “MBAs have more diverse types of job opportunities than ever before.” She added that salary offers in finance, consulting, and tech are showing the largest increases among Fuqua’s 2021 expected graduates. 

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Gaps continue between men and women

Regardless of higher salaries after graduation, there continue to be gaps between men and women MBAs. According to the Forté Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for advancing women’s leadership through business education, women’s enrollment in full-time business school programs peaked at 41% in 2021, up from 39% in 2020. 

Respondents to a 2020 Forté survey reported that women made an average of $147,412, 20% lower than the $177,112 reported by men. 

The pay gap increases with the number of years of work experience. There was an $11,000 gap for those with 0–2 years of work experience post-MBA, and a $60,000 gap for those with 9+ years of experience. According to Forté, women with 3–5 years’ experience earned an average of $152,000, compared to $172,000 for men with the same amount of experience. 

Women were less likely to receive promotions and more likely to have a smaller number of direct reports. “We’ve definitely seen right out of business school the choices men and women are making are similar—similar jobs with the same types of opportunities,” said Forté Foundation Chief Executive Elissa Sangster. “But once they move into their careers, a number of different things come into play.”

Nevertheless, now seems to be the time for both men and women to take advantage of the increased demand for MBA grads and the resultant rise in compensation. Keith Bevan, a partner at Bain and Co. consulting firm, echoes the trend across many firms to attract more MBA graduates to keep up with expanding client needs. “It’s just a more competitive market,” he said. “It’s a great time to be looking for a job after school.”

Would you like to ride the MBA salary wave? Work with one of our MBA admissions experts to unlock your competitive advantage and get ACCEPTED!

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Related Resources:

• Is an MBA Worth It, or Is the Sky Falling Down on the MBA Degree?, a podcast episode
• MBA Students Pay Off Student Loans Faster Than Other Grad Degrees
• M7 MBA Programs: Everything You Need to Know in 2021-2022

The post Starting Salaries for MBA Grads Climbing appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

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Would you like to be a member of Team Fuqua? [Show summary]

Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, describes its collaborative MBA program and gives insight into what Duke seeks in applicants. 

Duke Fuqua: Where decency meets diversity. [Show notes]

You’re interested in Duke’s collaborative MBA program and intrigued by its general management curriculum and the strength of its entering class as revealed by its newest class profile. But, you’re also unsure how you can make your case for acceptance. Then pull up a chair. In today’s podcast, Fuqua’s Dean of Admissions is pulling back the curtain on what Duke seeks in applicants.

Welcome to the 434th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for tuning in. Before I introduce our guest, I have a question for you: are you ready to apply to your dream MBA programs? Are you competitive? Accepted’s MBA admissions calculator can give you a quick reality check. Just go to accepted.com/mbaquiz, complete the quiz, and you’ll not only get an assessment, but tips on how to improve your qualifications. Plus, it’s all free. 

It gives me great pleasure to welcome back to Admissions Straight Talk Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Shari earned her bachelor’s at Dartmouth and her MBA at Harvard. She worked with several lead companies and in 2009 became Director of Recruitment for the Peace Corps. In 2012, she returned to the MBA world when she became the Associate Dean of MBA Admissions for Georgetown McDonough, which I think is around the time that we met. Then she joined Duke Fuqua as Associate Dean of Admissions in October 2017. Shari, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk.

Can you give an overview of the MBA program at Duke focusing on its rather distinctive structure? [2:21]

Sure. Absolutely. I think our curriculum is a huge asset in helping students really tailor their MBA to their specific needs and interests as they’re going through the two year program. The curriculum is designed to allow students to have breadth in terms of the business fundamentals and the leadership components through the core as well as deeper specializations should they be interested with our concentrations. We have 16 concentrations, as well as certificates and our second degree which is the MSTeM, the Master’s of Management Studies and Technology Management certificate.

Each of those concentrations and certificates really allows students to customize their experience based on their career interests, or their own personal interests. Our students start their first month in the program, all in a course called the Summer Institute, and we really revamped that last year. It’s a hands-on program, three courses that really emphasize how to think through business challenges critically and ethically, how to take ownership of your work, even if you’re working for somebody else, and how to find ways to bring common purpose to a team as you’re working together.

This particular set of courses really prepares them for the next two years, it’s a level setting course. The remainder of the academic year is broken down into four, six-weeks terms. Each term meets twice a week for two hours and 15 minutes. One thing that is unique to us is that we actually don’t have classes on Wednesdays as opposed to Fridays like some schools. That really enables our students to stay together over the weekend to create community and to really be connected even more. 

Another thing that’s unique is the way in which we structure our first-year leadership teams. They’re four to five person teams, they are called consequential leadership teams or C-Lead teams for short. And the nice thing is they’re actually managed or mentored by second-year students who are selected to be our Center for Leadership & Ethics fellows. So first-year students off the bat get peer mentored and managed by second-year students, which I think is quite unique. It allows the second-year students to get some hands-on leadership, peer mentoring practice, but also at the same time, we have true support for our first-year students as they’re going through and getting acclimated to the core.

I remember in a previous interview you mentioned that at Fuqua there’s IQ, EQ, and also DQ, the decency quotient. I think that’s something that’s very distinctive about Fuqua, can you touch on that for a minute?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. So I think the IQ and EQ is pretty self-evident. As far as the decency goes, there are a couple of principles that we all espouse, and we’ve actually created frameworks for decency, so that students can really have lived experiences and proof points, and it shows up in their experiences. So the first thing is the community commits to embracing habits of humility and empathy when dealing with each other and understanding different perspectives and different backgrounds. They act with integrity, they’re transparent, they’re honest. The principles include things like being accountable to ourselves and to others, both when it’s easy and when it’s hard. The last principles are caring, respect for all in the community, and then elevating others throughout the community. 

Some examples of how the framework shows up across both the first- and second-year cohorts in terms of learning about others and appreciating difference, is in our Daring Dialogues or Fuqua Talks. Our Center on Leadership & Ethics has a number of speaking sessions to help students become even more effective leaders. We have what we call Woke Wednesdays, we have implicit bias training, and identity workshops that are now infused during the first year throughout.

This is not required or mandatory but highly encouraged, and everyone participates. In terms of developing a habit, this notion of decencies is how do you develop a habit of including and respecting others? That shows up a lot in the first year through the C-Lead or the consequential leadership teams really allowing teams to create their own norms. How are they going to share feedback with each other? How do they have difficult conversations? How do they really support each other throughout their academic growth?

We also have what we call paired principles. There are six paired principles, and they are: authentic engagement, impactful stewardship, loyal community, supportive ambition, uncompromising integrity, and collective diversity. So these are all demonstrated by students and then twice a year in the fall and spring, students will actually nominate their peers and their classmates to be recipients of these awards. So who in the community demonstrates this?

In terms of the second-year students, the last component of this whole decency framework is really about setting an example, leading by example. By the time you’re a second year, hopefully you’ve started to really be able to have opportunities to flex those leadership capabilities and muscles. There are all kinds of fellowships, it’s not just the admissions fellows, which are the ones who are interviewing all of our incoming students, but also the co-fellows who are responsible for the leadership teams, we have career fellows, who actually support our first-year students as they’re going through the recruiting process and helping them prepare for their internships in their interviews.

We have what we call CASE fellows, people very interested in social enterprise and social advancement who work with students, faculty, industry, nonprofits, to really help provide social impact. So there are all these different ways that from the first year to the second year that we try to give students a real way of exhibiting decency throughout their experience. That’s really this notion of decency and how it comes to life. We wanted it to be more than just a tagline. We want it to be more than just something that the dean said, but really like, “Okay, well, then if we’re saying we are looking for folks who are decent coming in, how do we continue to cultivate that as a community, once they’re here?”

How has COVID-19 and the related restrictions affected the Fuqua MBA experience? What were some of the silver linings that you’re going to keep? [9:25]

I think the pandemic has taught ushttps://blog.accepted.com/how-to-answer-mba-application-and-interview-questions-about-covid-19-and-other-major-events-of-2020-video/ that it is hard to fully replicate the transformation experience entirely through a virtual format. There’s something special that happens in experiential programs when individuals are able to interact in-person, when there’s more organic and serendipitous experiences that happen to help bond relationships and cultivate culture. 

With that said, there were benefits that we did see because we were virtual. Our students had this really unique opportunity to have learned how to both thrive in and lead virtual teams. Those are skills that they really can take with them in a post-pandemic business environment and that will serve them well after they graduate. How do you manage virtual teams? As we’re seeing, just as staff and faculty, this notion of remote work is becoming more salient. How are you able to continue to create a culture of inclusion in a virtual format? Our students were able to do that: they lived through it, they were leading in it, they themselves created opportunities for inclusion for their classmates and themselves. They can take these skills with them that are portable when they go back out in the work world and have to manage teams that very much could be virtual as well. So that’s something that was a silver lining that came out of it. 

Other things that will probably stick, and we’re still in the process of having that play out, is that we saw that for some, in terms of the recruiting, our recruiters may do larger information sessions virtually, because those tend to be a little bit one way. They don’t involve as much engagement, they’re delivering information, not necessarily needing to receive a lot of engagement from the audience and from the recipients. So they do the virtual information sessions, but then they would come to campus for in-person, smaller, more intimate engagement opportunities. Or come to campus or perhaps have people do their interviews in-person. Those situations in which there needs to be more of a connectivity and relationship building opportunity, could be in-person, whereas other larger events might be more virtual. That’s probably going to be a bit sticky. In terms of admissions, we’re still conducting all of our events virtually for this remaining calendar year, and we’ll reassess to see the types of events that make sense or are most valuable to do in-person. For instance, our thought process is that perhaps once you’re an admitted student, it’s much more valuable to you to be able to come to a campus, see and feel people, meet people in-person before you make your final decision.

So what are those occasions or opportunities that are most important to you to have an in-person experience? Still, we would probably not do away with a lot of the applicational perspective types of events that are virtual, because it really was wonderful to be able to access so many individuals around the world, and have them access us as well. So we will continue to retain that opportunity, but just try and think a bit more critically about what in-person opportunities are much more valuable to both admitted student and for us as well, and have a hybrid format. 

Do you see yourself having the same number of in-person recruiting events in the future? [13:06]

We really did ratchet up a lot of our recruiting virtually and to some extent it is easier for both parties so there’s some benefit to that. I don’t want to say that we would ever go back to 100% only in-person. I think what we would need to do is figure out either a hybrid where we’re replicating that in-person experience in a virtual format for people who can’t make it to campus, or we are somehow creating a hybrid experience, where simultaneously there are people in-person experiencing an event at the same time as they’re doing it virtually. I think that’s a little harder, and so it may be that we’re creating more events. This event, even though it may not look the same in a virtual context, it’s still the same event so that we can make it accessible for people who can’t physically get to us. So for instance with our campus visit program, I could imagine right now it’s 100% virtual campus visit program. We’ve re-imagined an in-person experience, but virtually, once we are able to welcome people back on campus, we would continue to have in-person opportunities for these campus visit programs perhaps every Monday and Friday. And then Tuesdays and Thursdays might be the virtual version of that. So that we’re at the same time keeping both, but managing that from a capacity perspective.

You used to travel the world and host receptions in different cities. Do you see yourself going back to that on any level? [15:20]

Absolutely. I think we’ll go back to it, but people have to feel comfortable. Our dean has to feel comfortable. Right now Duke has a list of countries that are restricted or not restricted in terms of travel. So we’d have to pay close attention to that. But absolutely, we’re not saying that there’s no value in in-person, especially when you’re traveling to other countries. It’s just that, the silver lining is that we actually probably touch more people virtually. But yes, there’s still going to be value in physically traveling to all parts of the world as well as domestic states.

What changes has Fuqua made to the curriculum this year? [16:09]

It’s been an ongoing evolution, we’re always committed to innovating to make sure our curriculum remains relevant. Right now we’re still assessing what worked well online, that we might want to incorporate in future courses. For example we’re able to recruit a wider number of alumni to be protagonists and speakers in our classes and courses which worked well. Last year we launched three new courses. So the curriculum really changed drastically last year for lectures and incoming students.

We created their three courses, they’re part of the Summer Institute, one is called Creating Common Purpose in a World That’s Divided. The second course is Entrepreneurial Mindset and Action. Then there’s a Leading Technology Change course as well. Last year, these three courses were delivered in a hybrid format, this year they’re being 100% delivered in-person so that will also create some learnings and opportunities. Because many of those courses are experiential in nature, they have simulations and exercises. So what we’ve heard so far is that especially in the Entrepreneurial Mindset and Action course, there are a number of different interesting experiential exercises that are done and to be able to do that in-person has been really beneficial to students and I think something that is new and different.

It’s maybe not the curriculum itself, but the mode in which we’re operating, that is new and different. In addition to the curricular, those types of curricular changes, our faculty are continuing to update and infuse real world and relevant issues into their courses, especially as it pertains to diversity and race and social justice issues. One of our healthcare courses is starting to talk about healthcare disparities, and race. We have a Diversity and Talent Management course that is new. We have one of our accounting professors who does really great research on bond financing disparities with historically black colleges versus non historically black colleges. 

Again, I think our faculty are also realizing that there’s benefit in really capturing and infusing what’s happening in society, and as it changes and evolves as a result of either the pandemic or as a result of many of the social changes that are occurring, and making sure that that gets incorporated into our courses. I say those are the kinds of curricular tweaks and innovations that are occurring right now, as we again, continue to manage through this. We’re not over the pandemic yet. We’re still managing through it. I think many of us thought that it was just a one year phenomenon, and this would be post-pandemic but we’re not there yet.

Fuqua in the past offered many global study opportunities. What has come in place of the Global Academic Travel Experience? Does Fuqua have any plans to reinstate it? What are the guidelines? [19:18]

You’re referring to our Global Academic Travel Experience. We did have to curtail the travel component. The team is really focused on bringing that back. We really would want to have that as a component of the experience. It’s a very, very popular first year course that goes about a couple of months, but then it culminates into actual travel for a couple of weeks to the country. In the past, students have gone to Peru, South Africa, China, it really changes based on the interest of the faculty and interest of students.

So that’s had to be placed on hold, but they are looking at bringing it back, hopefully in March and May. Again, it’ll depend on the countries that we can go to, it might take on a slightly different format, to make sure that everyone’s safe. But the goal is to try and allow students to get back to travel. Again, we have to do it safely. In terms of our exchange programs, again, very, very popular. Pre-pandemic we had 20 different relationships with institutions. We’re looking at this fall, being able to have a few students go on some exchanges. A lot of it depends on the other school institution too and if they’re able to send people here.

But it does look like we might be able to have a few students go on some exchanges this fall, again, it usually happens in the fall and the spring. And they’re flexible, so you could have as short as two weeks or as long as the whole term, and everything in between. Typically, we have five to eight students who participate in a fall exchange for the entire term. We have 15 to 20 who might participate in a short term like May timeframe exchanges, and we have over 100 students who participate in the very short winter breaks, those kinds of exchanges.

I think a lot will depend on how this new variant plays out and what the travel restrictions are. We’re taking baby steps but definitely moving towards trying to figure out where we can send students safely. Then students have their own treks that they organize too. It’s a matter of trying to figure out where that can be done in a safe environment because we’re doing a lot of testing of our students as well in terms of entry level tests and surveillance testing, contact tracing, testing. There are a lot of precautions in place.

Is there anything that you would like people to know about Duke Fuqua that they usually don’t know, or any myths that you’d like to dispel? [22:11]

I think with that question, probably focus on our entrepreneurial offerings. I don’t necessarily know that people have a great appreciation for all the opportunities from an entrepreneurial perspective that exists at Fuqua. As I mentioned, we really believe entrepreneurship is a mindset. Regardless of whether or not you decide to start your own company or venture or you go into an organization that’s established and you are an innovator in that space, that’s really where we’re focused on ensuring that our students are level set. I think we’re one of the only top business schools who have a required course on entrepreneurship in the first year, and that’s the Entrepreneurial Mindset In Action course. 

I would also say that we believe strongly for those who are interested in creating their own venture, there are opportunities to do that too. We do have students who graduate, having started their own businesses. We have a wonderful student who created a business called BioMilk and they make lab grown breast milk, human breast milk and they raised 3.5 million already. She graduated a couple years ago. We have a course called New Ventures and it’s set up to really help people who want to start their own company with the discover, develop, and deliver framework. 

There’s also a broad range of ways to assist our students in financing their operation as well, which I don’t think are very well known. We have competitive financial tools, prototyping grants, we have summer internship grants. So for someone who wants to be a founder as opposed to going to a startup to do a traditional internship, we can provide some financing to subsidize and support that person’s ability to focus on their idea. We have a loan assistance program that will help students who graduate who are trying to found their own business and will help with the deferment of their debt for a couple of years. It covers their interest payments for a couple of years. We have a fast pitch competition for students as well. We have resources that are not just within Fuqua but within Duke’s ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation as well.

Then we just started a partnership with North Carolina Central, which is a historically black college, and so again have a pitch contest as well as other resources for black founders or for people interested in creating more social equity within entrepreneurship. So a lot of different aspects of entrepreneurship, and we think about it very holistically at Fuqua, which I think not everyone has an appreciation for. We have a new course actually that is focused on acquisition, Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition. There are many students who want to create their search fund to acquire companies so we have a new course that’s focused on that too.

Fuqua’s signature question is 25 things: “Please share with us 25 random thoughts about you. The admissions committee wants to get to know you beyond the professional and academic achievements listed in your resume and transcript. Share with us important life experiences, your hobbies, achievements, fun facts, or anything that helps us understand what makes you who you are” That’s a great question. Do you have any tips for it? [25:36]

Well, I love it too. It’s our favorite essay, we do it ourselves within admission. So anytime we hire a new staff member, they have to also create their own 25 list. So we feel your pain for those applicants who may struggle with the question, but I would say remember that the why and how are much more interesting than the what. What you’ve done or are doing is easily replicated, especially if you come from certain industries like consulting or banking, or if you’re interested in going into certain industries that are very over represented with MBA students. So, I always counsel people to really focus on the why, and the context because that’s really where you can differentiate yourself. That’s where your story is unique from anybody else’s story, even if what you’re doing isn’t.

I would also say we have a second essay that focuses on what you will contribute to the community. Again, why is whatever you’re saying you can contribute or the clubs that you want to get engaged in, why is that important to you? Where does that come from, is really important and it helps us understand you from a number of different perspectives, and also helps us understand this notion of decency and how that manifests itself.

I think it’s okay to use humor in your fun facts. So please, I encourage people to do that. I’d avoid trying to overuse it or superficial kinds of things or very short answers with not a lot of context. Perhaps focus more on your personal than the professional because there are other areas of your application where we can really understand your professional accomplishments. Talk to your friends and your family, they know you so ask them, what are the interesting things about you? What are the things that they think are unique or different or even frustrating and irritating? And finally, don’t be afraid to be vulnerable. Some of the most interesting facts are ones where people really open up and share an experience that may have stretched them or allowed them to grow in ways that they hadn’t expected or that was challenging to be quite honest to them.

Can you discuss the interview process at Fuqua and specifically the difference between open interviews and interviews by invitation? [28:25]

Well, open interviews are essentially self initiated interviews by the applicant versus an invitation that comes from the admissions committee, that’s at the basic level what the open interview process is. We really believe that the interview provides us a unique opportunity to really get to know an individual in their own words so we wanted to provide as many opportunities for our applicants to be able to connect with us in-person to connect with our students in-person. It’s virtual now but figuratively in-person. So that’s really what the open interview period is.

All applicants regardless of the round in which they apply, are eligible to interview during that period. What we’ll do is we will attach your interview to the round in which you actually apply if it’s not the early action round. I would say the only other thing is that they’re done on a first-come-first-served basis, we ask that you at least give us 48 hours to request that. The period this year is August 23rd through October 12th, and we really encourage any re-applicant to participate in that open interview period as well.

All you have to do is have started your application to be able to participate, and then schedule the interview from then on, based on a first come first served basis, but it really is a unique opportunity and I would say, take advantage if you feel you’re prepared. We recognize that for some it might be that period of time might be a little early, you may not have been able to do requisite research or prepared yourself in terms of your own self reflection. So don’t feel so compelled to do it, if you don’t feel prepared. The ultimate goal is to feel prepared, because it is your one and only interview.

If you decide not to, that’s okay. But know that what will happen is once you do apply, then we will take a look at your application and then determine whether or not we’d like to invite you to an interview or not.

Are all admitted students interviewed? [30:38]

Correct. So all admitted students are interviewed, but not all applicants are interviewed.

Fuqua is famous for its collaborative culture. Can you describe Team Fuqua and provide an example of the manifestation of the culture? [30:49]

I’ll describe to you this way: It’s a way of working that allows you to bring out the best in others, and by doing so you therefore bring out the best in yourself. If that makes sense.

It’s essentially based on the idea of believing that your success is my success, very simple. We definitely continuously have these examples, although sometimes they are, unless you experience them, it’s hard to really imagine and have it come to life. There are things that you would expect to occur in an MBA program that says that they’re focused on teamwork, like students speaking up on behalf of others in the classroom, supporting comments in the classroom, helping prepare for an interview when you’re both competing for the same opportunity – you’ve heard that before.

Choosing to lean into moments that might be difficult for you or for others in times where it might have been easiest to just lean out. I think what Team Fuqua is, is those moments that are unexpected. I’ll give you an example. So moments in which you don’t necessarily… something happens or you do something, or something is done for you, but no one is asking for credit. And sometimes you don’t even know who’s done it. But it still gets done. And it happens organically, sometimes without even knowing who’s doing the good deed. Some of it’s manifested and then it’s recognized through these seven principles, and the awards, right? I think that’s how it allows the community to perpetuate and build upon itself, because people acknowledge and recognize the good deeds, even though the person who did the good deed wasn’t necessarily looking for that recognition. 

One example is one student that I know, he lost a BCG and a Bain interview. So he interviewed for both firms and was turned down yet lots of classmates who he actually helped prepare for similar interviews did get the internship. He didn’t get the offer, but those students made a point of lifting him up when they found out that he didn’t get it. They lifted him up, they made sure he was okay, they focused their attention on celebrating him and supporting him in the moment, as opposed to considering or thinking about themselves and the fact that they just had some good news. And they took the time to thank him for the support that he provided to them, knowing that that support turned out to be successful. It was about supportive ambition. Putting someone else’s interests, concerns, issues before your own. That’s one example.

Another example is the night before a major accounting exam, one of the section’s members’ dogs ran away. And every single classmate of his went out. This was the night before an accounting exam. They went out and helped him look for that dog. The good news is they found the dog, and they all did well on the accounting exam. So again, it’s in the moment, unscripted, it was impromptu team building, but it was about a higher level need or concern, or something that’s really more important than the accounting exam in that moment for that student. You know how much pets are like our own family. It’s a great example of loyal community, which is one of our principles. 

During the pandemic, there were students who were quarantined and couldn’t get out. One of our students arranged for his classmates to go by their apartments and put up wonderful, encouraging signs in their windows to say, “Hey, we’re here for you, we’re thinking about you.” To lift their spirits. 

And finally another one that I just learned about was one of our students, a really beloved Indian American student. Unbeknownst to anyone, he put together care packages for every single member of our black and Latinx MBA organization during the height of the George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor injustices, and he didn’t need any recognition. I don’t even know to this day if they know that he was the one who organized it. But he really was empathetic and knew that they were suffering and wanted to just show compassion and that there were classmates thinking of them. That’s collective diversity, another principle in loyal community.

So those are some of the examples where it sounds conjured, it’s hard to explain it, but when you experience it, it becomes real.

I recently got a press release from Fuqua announcing that it is enrolling its strongest class ever. Can you unwrap that a little bit? What does that mean? [36:44]

Despite having recruited in the midst of a pandemic, there are many headwinds that were working in our favor, quite frankly, resulting both in the larger class and really the strongest class that we’ve had. And when I say strongest, I mean from a diversity perspective. We’ve had 48% women, which is the highest number of women we’ve had, in terms of racial diversity 44%, in terms of underrepresented racial diversity, a quarter of the class who are US citizens, is underrepresented. 37% of the class are international students, if you add in those who are dual, almost 50%. And they come from 54 different countries.

Not only is it diverse, but it’s also the strongest in terms of the academic quantitative profile, work experience, those kinds of things as well. Our applications were up in probably the largest volume since 2015. And then we really benefited from strong yield, we had the highest yield ever in our history. All of those factors allowed us to be even more selective this year than in the past. It’s a lot of things working out well, we don’t take any of it for granted. Some of these things are absolutely a result of things that we’ve done and others are in the industry of facts, and just good luck in some respects. So we’re going to keep moving it forward. And hopefully, we’ll be able to continue that trend.

What do you see coming down the pike for the MBA program? [38:34]

I think, to be honest, building on the momentum and equipping our students to be the future leaders, focused on doing good, but also doing well. I think because we just came off of starting a new curriculum, we came off of a high. In terms of our great class, we continue to remain relevant in terms of the courses that we’re offering. We see examples of our alumni doing really well. At this point, the school is really just focused on continuing that momentum, trying to figure out how we can make sure that this incoming class has a fantastic experience while keeping folks safe as well. 

In trying to understand how we not only survive, but thrive in a new normal. To be quite honest, I think we’re all having to come to the realization that this might be a new normal. So how do we thrive in it? And what does that mean? Right now, I think a lot of focus and energy is on that, making sure that our students feel good about their learning experience, and that was one of the reasons that we felt so strongly about bringing people back in-person, and also focused on the staff and the faculty. We’re keeping the ship moving in the right direction, but seeing what’s next as this new normal unfolds.

What would you have liked me to ask you? [40:28]

I’m glad you asked that. I know you had a question about our process and I wanted to peel back some of the layers

In terms of what’s new, not much is new. Again, we wanted to keep things simple. So we retain the essay question, we have increased the word count, just to give people a bit more room to express themselves. Once someone does apply, what happens is our Operations Coordination team takes their application and people should know that they can actually apply with unofficial test scores or unofficial transcripts. But if anything is missing, our team will make sure that the applicants are made aware.

So we get your application, what happens is it is read by the first reader, and that person then determines whether or not if you haven’t interviewed already in our open period, whether or not you’ll get an invitation for interviews. If you have, that interview will be on file. If there’s a second reader who reads your file after the interview comes in, regardless of when it’s conducted, and then makes a determination and talks to the Admissions Committee, there can be either a decision to admit, to waitlist, or to deny. After two reads, multiple conversations in committee, because there’s a committee to determine invitations to interview, there’s a committee for the actual decision once the interview comes back.

Is there a grading system, a numerical grading system? Or is it more of a qualitative analysis? [42:24]

It’s a bit of both. We have a rubric. But it definitely has the qualitative component as well. And it’s really holistic, that’s why there are so many conversations, because it doesn’t all just neatly come down to numbers, it really is a conversation on multiple levels and multiple times. After the second read, which incorporates the interview, that file then goes to the final decision or final committee. The final committee individuals will then sit and make a final determination based on the recommendations of both readers and take into consideration the interview. At that time, if it is an admit decision then we do also discuss and determine scholarship.

So there’s no separate scholarship applications. It’s all one thing? [43:22]

Yes.

Do you read a certain percentage of the files? [43:27]

So I read across programs, since they’re 10 degree programs. We have a very experienced daytime MBA program team. I sit on all final committees. But I have to admit, I don’t read all the files. 

And for those files that you do read, how do you approach them? What do you read first? What do you look for? [43:50]

That’s a good question. I like to read why they’re interested first and then what they hope to do. Both the plan A and plan B. So I’ll read both of those essays first, based on what they said that they were interested in. And then I’ll go back and take a look at their academics and work experience. And leadership and involvement is really important in our decision making so that’s always a place that I focus in on. 

Where can listeners and potential applicants learn more about Duke Fuqua’s MBA program? [44:44]

You can visit us at www.fuqua.duke.edu.

Related links:

• Duke Fuqua’s website
• Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Tips & Deadlines [2021 – 2022]
• Journey to Duke Fuqua: Marine-Turned-MBA, Entrepreneur, and Dad
• Why MBA? a free guide
• Accepted’s MBA Admissions Consulting Services

Related shows:

• Duke Fuqua Rattles MBA World with Exciting New Curriculum
• Are You Interested in NYU Stern?
• How to Get an MBA From Dartmouth Tuck
• How to Get a CMU Tepper MBA
• All About Becoming a Georgetown McDonough MBA
• Meet Duke Fuqua’s New MBA Admissions Director, Shari Hubert

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The post Duke Enrolls Its Strongest MBA Class Ever, Hear From Its Admissions Dean [Episode 434] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

One of the key pieces of an MBA application is the letter of recommendation. This letter, usually written by managers, gives the admissions committee an insightful perspective on the MBA candidate. However, since each program has their own unique form, and candidates are often hesitant to ask managers to fill out multiple recommendations, applicants often limit the number of programs to which they apply. Recommenders frequently cannot dedicate enough time to such letters, resulting in less thorough and perceptive recommendations.  

According to the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), the Common Letter of Recommendation was born out of the need to save recommenders and alumni time by enabling them to complete one, common, set of questions. Since the questions stay embedded in each school’s existing application system, few major changes are necessary. The Common LOR was developed by a group of leading business schools in conjunction with GMAC. These programs are leading the way, with the support of GMAC, to collaborate, collect information from industry professionals, and collate information from candidates worldwide.   

Benefits of the Common LOR 

• Delivers deeper understanding of candidates by applying the best practices from top programs and using the most up-to-date science in executive assessment 

• Allows for a wider diversity of prospective students and a greater number of applicants by enabling them to ask for multiple LORs. 

• Reduces recommenders’ time demands so they can devote more consideration to crafting a thoughtful and attuned letter. 

Common LOR sections 

The Common LOR is comprised of the following four sections: 

1. Personal Information About the Recommender 

2. Leadership Assessment Grid: Made up of 12 competencies and character traits that lead to successful leadership. They are divided into these five groups: 

• Achievement 
  
  
• Influence 
  
  
• People 
  
  
• Personal Qualities 
  

• Cognitive Abilities 

3.  Recommendation Questions (Open-Ended Questions for Recommenders) 

• Please provide a brief description of your interaction with the applicant, and, if applicable, the applicant’s role in your organization. 
  
  
• How does the performance of the applicant compare to that of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? (e.g., what are the applicant’s principal strengths?). 
  

• Describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response. 
  
  
• Is there anything else we should know? (Optional) 

Schools currently using the Common LOR form 

The widespread uptake of the common LOR is due in part to the longstanding lobbying of admissions professionals. Anna Ivey, former president of the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC), welcomed the development of more schools embracing the shared LOR model: “Applicants have for years found themselves in quite a pickle because they have had to dump so much work on their recommenders. In some cases, their recommenders have had to write more words than the applicants do in their essays. That has created all kinds of distortions, despite good intentions. 

“Any convergence around common recommendation questions not only makes the application process easier for applicants and their recommenders, but also helps preserve the integrity of those recommendations and the application process. Cutting down on the duplication and extra work for recommenders will make it more likely that recommenders write their letters themselves, and that’s a great outcome.” 

We can help you take advantage of the common LOR to get the most from your recommenders and supercharge your application. Our experienced consultants also work with recommenders to provide guidance in crafting compelling letters that will set you on the road to getting ACCEPTED! 

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Related Resources:

• Navigate the MBA Maze, a free guide
• MBA Recommendation Letters: 10 Tips for Writing them Right
• Ingredients of a Great MBA Letter of Recommendation

The post The MBA Common Letter of Recommendation (LOR): An Overview appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Poets & Quants conducted a survey of more than 300 students currently admitted to top MBA programs this year. Nearly one-third of students surveyed say that they might defer their admissions for the 2020 year if classes do not start on campus in the fall. 

These same students believe that there should be financial recompense for changes in class schedules due to the pandemic. 

• 43% believe tuition costs should be reduced by an average of 37.5% if the first part of their MBA program is changed to online classes.
  
  
• A number of the students responded that tuition should be cut on a prorated basis for any time they cannot have a full-time, on-campus MBA experience. 
  
  
• A scant 17% of survey respondents would be okay with attending online classes, with 96% saying that missing out on a full on-campus experience is a major concern.

Duke postpones start date for full-time MBA program

Shari Hart, Fuqua’s Associate Dean of Admissions announced that due to the COVID-19 crisis, the start date for the Daytime MBA Program has been postponed. Orientation will start on August 31, 2020, and classes will begin on September 3, 2020. Students who cannot make it to campus for the start date can begin the program online and come to the campus when they are able.

“Duke is very fortunate to have world-class healthcare professionals, scholars, and leadership to help with guiding any decisions on the university level,” says Hart. We are taking immediate steps to ensure we do everything possible to minimize the health and safety risks to students, faculty, staff, and the wider community in response to COVID-19.”

You can find more information on the impact of coronavirus on business school at BusinessBecause.

Introducing the “COVID-19 Admissions Round”

Long-held assumptions about the admissions cycles are being upended. More schools are extending their deadlines for R2 and R3 admissions, and are adding new admissions rounds – the so-called COVID-19 Admissions Round.

US and Canadian candidates may have “the opportunity of a lifetime” to attend a top b-school if travel restrictions and student visa application restrictions remain in place. 

According to Andrew Ainslie, dean of the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business, this means that students can get into a much better program than they might have before. “If they could have gotten into UCLA, now they might get into Duke. If Duke, perhaps now Chicago, or even Stanford. And that goes all the way down the pecking order. In fact, it gets better the further down you go. If you could only get into the 100^th best school, maybe now you can get into the 50^th ranked. If 50^th, perhaps now 25^th. My advice…is to go against the grain! Apply NOW, and apply to schools that a year ago you couldn’t dream of getting into. This is the opportunity of a lifetime to get an extraordinary education.” 

Do you want to take advantage of the new “COVID-19 Admissions Round” to attend the MBA program of your dreams? Team up with one of our MBA admissions consultants and work together to create an application that will GET YOU ACCEPTED!

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Related Resources:

• How Will COVID-19 Impact Your Admissions Journey: 5 MBA Admissions Experts Speak
• How Will COVID-19 Affect the MBA Admissions Process? [MBA Deadline Updates]
• International MBA Applicants and COVID-19: Risks & Opportunities [Short Video]

The post How Are Business Schools, Applicants, and Admitted Students Responding to COVID-19? appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Each year, thousands of MBA students graduate from business school and embark on the next chapter in their careers. This often means moving up to a higher role in a current field, taking on a new role, or jumping head-first into a new industry. The impact of these changes is often looked at in terms of quantifiable measurement, such as a higher salary, or increased long-term earning potential, but when you talk to MBA students you often realize there is so much more that an MBA education provides. I know this personally, as an MBA graduate myself, but also because for my book, MBA Insider: How to Make the Most of Your MBA Experience, I talked to hundreds of MBA students about their time in business school to understand how students were using business school to progress their careers and what they were learning in school that they found valuable and insightful. 

For prospective MBA students, here are some lessons you can think about as you prepare to start on your MBA journey.

Lesson 1: Become a lifelong learner

“Business school taught me that I never want to stop learning. I will always want to push myself to learn and grow, and become the best version of myself.”

– Katie Blach Ellington, Wharton, Class of 2017

Business school is a time for learning and growth. To do that, you need to step outside your comfort zone, even if it may seem challenging. Katie Blach Ellington learned this during her time at Wharton, where she regularly raised her hand for stretch opportunities. “I took on so many stretch opportunities which taught me that I never want to stop learning, pushing myself, and broadening my perspective and pushing myself to stay curious and continue to grow.” 

By embodying a growth mindset, or the belief that new skills and learnings can be gained over time Ellington was able to not only build new skills, but take on new experiences and opportunities that she may have found otherwise.

Lesson 2: Follow your own path

“The situations where I thrived the most were when I pursued activities, opportunities, that were aligned to me. It always just felt right.”

– Jasmine Ako, Yale SOM, Class of 2019

One of the benefits of going to business school is the chance to be surrounded by lots of intelligent, hard-working, and career-driven individuals. This can also be a challenge, as it can cause individuals to feel like they don’t belong. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed or overmatched when you are surrounded by so many smart people, which often leads to questioning yourself and your abilities. 

To quell this fear, Jasmine Ako learned the importance of honoring your interests. “Intentionally following my passions and interests helped me quell the imposter syndrome I had,” Ako said. Furthermore, upon reflection, Ako realized that when she prioritized her interests, it allowed her to focus on her values and vision for success, not the ones of others.

Lesson 3: Experiment and take risks

“Not trying something in safe space with lots of resources is a bigger risk than failing”

– Collin Keeler, Wharton, Class of 2019

While failure isn’t “free,” it costs a lot less in a learning environment such as business school. It is a great opportunity to take intelligent risks, and to stretch yourself. Whether that’s by taking a class you normally wouldn’t have taken because it was on a subject you weren’t strong in, taking on a club leadership role, exploring an entrepreneurial idea, or trying a new career or industry, the full-time MBA experience gives you the opportunity to try things, knowing that they may not work out but things will still be OK. 

During his time at Wharton, Colin Keeler decided to start BeenThere. While this was an inherent risk, Keeler knew he was surrounded with resources and access to people to support him along the way, so even if he made a mistake, or a misstep, he had plenty of resources at his disposal to pick himself back up. “I realized that the cost of trying something was higher than failing, especially in a place like business school,” Keeler said. 

Lesson 4: Practice self reflection and self awareness

“In a world that moves so fast and work that demands so much of our time and mental energy, business school allows you to pause and think about who you are, what you’re good at, and how you can make an impact on the world in a meaningful way”

– Shannon Griesser, Fuqua, Class of 2019

Business school is a unique experience because it gives you two years to hit the pause button to work on yourself and your career. This is a great time to take a step back and to not only reflect on what you’ve done, but where you want to go. But reflection isn’t something that happens naturally for most. Because life can get busy, it can be difficult to find the time.

Shannon Griesser made reflection a priority amidst her many other activities. She tried to make space to reflect on her experiences and what she learned, and used those reflections to inform her future decision making. On a regular basis, Griesser would take time to write down her ideas or thoughts on what she was learning or experiencing, and then tie them to how they were helping her work towards the goals she set for herself. Griesser also relied on others to get feedback. Having experts and thought leaders like professors, professionals and administrators advising you as you work through your reflection and learning is a critical component to helping you make sense of the experience.

Lesson 5: Set your team up for success

“When building teams or coalitions, it is important for leaders to understand what those on their team want to get out of an experience.”

– Triston Francis, HBS, Class of 2019

As Student Body Co-President at Harvard Business School, Triston Francis managed a team of 70+ peers and a budget of $1.3 million. For Francis, the learning opportunity came from thinking about how to motivate peers to be excited about giving up time in order to give back to the HBS community. “What I learned from this experience is that when building teams or coalitions, it is important for leaders to understand what those on their team want to get out of an experience.” 

Francis focused on empowering his peers through roles and assignments that aligned their individual interests with the needs of students and their unique skillsets. “I focused on designing roles that allow people who are working with you to have a phenomenal experience and get from it what they want all while having a positive impact on the broader student body,” Francis said.

Lesson 6: Career development is a lifelong process

“Business school isn’t just about landing a job when you graduate, but building the career development skills you will need to evolve and grow for the rest of your career”

– John Huang, Ross, Class of 2015

Students come to business school to find or transition to a new job. While many achieve that, the reality is that almost all MBA students will eventually have to change jobs or careers after they graduate. While the process of finding the right MBA internship and full-time opportunity after graduation is important, the value of those experiences is that they teach graduates skills career management skills that are useful and important for the rest of their careers, long after that first job post graduation. 

John Huang began his post-graduation career in an MBA Leadership Development Program at Wal-Mart, before moving to an early stage startup, which led him to spending a few years at Twitter, before finally ending up in a Product Growth role at a fast-growing startup. Along the way, Huang used these career management skills to identify each new opportunity and pivot.  

To learn more about what MBAs learn in business school, Check out MBA Insider on Amazon today.

Find out how Accepted can help you earn in a spot in your dream school! << Learn more >>

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By Al Dea, Founder, MBASchooled.com, Author of MBA Insider: How to Make The Most of Your MBA Experience

Related Resources:

• MBA Action Plan: 6 Steps for the 6 Months Before You Apply, a free guide to applying to business school at your best
• Business School Selectivity Index [Can I Get Into My Dream School?]
• MBA Application Timeline: How to Get Accepted in 2020

The post What Do You Learn in Business School? 6 Unexpected Lessons appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Harvard Business School has taken the top spot away from Stanford Graduate School of Business in the Financial Times 2020 global MBA ranking. 

Although the Financial Times ranking is designed to favor non-U.S. programs, 15 of the top 25 MBA programs are based in the U.S. This result comes despite the decline in applications to U.S. MBA programs – now in its sixth straight year.

The 2020 top 5 schools have not changed since last year, although their rankings have. Following Harvard are: #2 – University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School (up 2 spots); #3 – Stanford Graduate School of Business (down 2 spots); #4 – INSEAD (down 1 spot); and #5 CEIBs in Shanghai, China (unchanged). 

Volatile rankings

Financial Times global ranking methodology is based on 20 different metrics, including some that are inclined to favor non-U.S. schools. Some metrics that add to a school’s position include the percentage of students, faculty, and trustees who possess passports from a country where the school is not located, whether students and alumni worked in foreign countries, whether students had international class experience, and whether the school has a requirement to learn an additional language before graduation. 

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A new metric was added this year – Corporate Social Responsibility. This metric has a weight of 3%, and is based on the percentage of teaching hours from core courses devoted to CSR, ethics, social, and environmental issues.  

The FT’s most heavily weighted metric is salary data (40%). its use of “purchasing power parity”, or PPP  favor schools whose grads go to work in countries with lower cost of living. This hurts U.S. schools since most grads of U.S. MBA programs want to live and work in the U.S. 

The ranking does not take incoming student quality into account. GMAT and GRE scores, as well as undergraduate GPA’s, are ignored. 

<< Watch: Linda Abraham and Marco De Novellis of BusinessBecause discuss the value of MBA rankings >>

FT’s ranking is known to be volatile, which reduces its credibility because there are few year-to-year changes at schools that explain big changes in the rankings. This means that there were big winners and big losers again this year. 

Twenty-seven of the 91 returning b-schools had double-digit increases or decreases in their standings. Fully half of the MBA programs ranked by FT five years ago (39 of 78) have felt double-digit changes, and 23 of those changes have been adjustments in 20 or more spots.

Top 25 International MBA Programs

2020 Rank	School	2019 Rank	Y-O-Y Change
1	Harvard	2	+1
2	UPenn Wharton	4	+2
3	Stanford GSB	1	-2
4	INSEAD	3	-1
5	CEIBS	5	---
6	MIT Sloan	8	+2
7	London	6	-1
8	Columbia	9	+1
9	HEC Paris	19	+10
10	Chicago Booth	7	-3
11	Northwestern Kellogg	14	+3
12	UC-Berkeley Haas	10	-2
13	IESE	12	-1
14	Yale SOM	11	-3
15	Nat’l Univ. of Singapore	17	+2
16	Dartmouth Tuck	15	-1
17	Duke Fuqua	19	+3
18	Virginia Darden	23	+5
19	Cambridge Judge	16	-3
19	Hong Kong UST	18	-1
21	Oxford Said	13	-8
22	New York Stern	25	+3
23	Cornell Johnson	27	+4
24	ESADE	21	-3
25	IMD	22	-3
25	UCLA Anderson	26	+1

Do you see yourself in one of these top international programs? Find out how working one-on-one with one of our Admissions Consultants can help get you ACCEPTED!

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Related Resources:

• Navigate the MBA Application Maze: 9 Tips to Acceptance, a free guide
• Top MBA Programs Get STEM-Certified to Attract Int’l Students
• B-School Selectivity Index: Discover the Schools Where You are a Competitive Applicant

The post Financial Times Ranks Harvard as #1 in 2020 Global MBA Ranking appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Poets & Quants just released its 2019-2020 rankings of the top 100 U.S. MBA programs.

There were some minor changes in the top 10  – most prominently is Stanford GSB climbing two spots, passing Harvard Business School and UPenn Wharton, to claim the #1 position. It’s the second time in 10 years that Stanford has claimed the top slot.  

Other highlights include:

• Yale School of Management just barely broke into the top 10 by securing 10th place. 
• Purdue’s Krannert School of Management dropped 10 spots from last year, from 38th to 48th.
• Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business jumped 12 spots from 62nd place last year to 50th.
• UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management experienced a massive jump, from 94th to 71st place.

P&Q ranking methodology

P&Q’s rankings are based on the rankings of five highly-influential business publications, and are weighted based on P&Q’s assessment of each ranking’s methodology and credibility. The five included in P&Q’s ranking are U.S. News (weight of 35%), Forbes (25%), The Financial Times (15%), Businessweek (15%), and The Economist (10%). Combining the rankings in this way lessens the irregularities that are frequently seen in a given year. This allows applicants to get a better idea of a school’s overall reputation, which typically changes little from year to year.

Top 25 U.S. MBA Programs

2019 Rank	School Name	2018 Rank	Index
1	Stanford GSB	3	100.0
2	Chicago Booth	4	99.6
3	Harvard Business School	1	99.2
4	UPenn Wharton	1	98.8
5	Northwestern Kellogg	5	96.2
6	Dartmouth Tuck	9	96.1
7	MIT Sloan	6	96.0
8	Columbia Business School	7	94.8
9	UC-Berkeley Haas	8	94.4
10	Yale SOM	11	91.1
11	Virginia Darden	12	90.8
12	Michigan Ross	10	89.7
13	Cornell Johnson	13	89.6
14	Duke Fuqua	14	89.5
15	UCLA Anderson	15	88.1
16	New York Stern	16	87.6
17	Carnegie Mellon Tepper	17	84.5
18	Texas-Austin McCombs	18	82.8
19	Southern California Marshall	22	82.5
20	North Carolina Kenan-Flagler	19	82.5
21	Washington Foster	21	81.0
22	Emory Goizueta	20	80.6
23	Indiana Kelley	25	80.1
24	Georgetown McDonough	23	76.9
25	Rice Jones	24	74.6

Watch: Linda Abraham and Marco de Novellis discuss MBA rankings

Do you want to be a member of a top-tier MBA program? Explore our MBA Admissions Consulting Services and work one-on-one with an expert advisor who will help you GET ACCEPTED!

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Related Resources:

• The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Competitive MBA Applicant, a free guide
• Business School Selectivity Index [Can I Get Into My Dream School?]
• Highlights of Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2019 MBA Rankings

The post Poets & Quants Announces 2019-2020 MBA Rankings appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Chicago’s Booth School of Business remaining at the top of The Economist’s ranking of the world’s top MBA programs for the second year in a row is only one of a few stable things in this year’s ranking, according to the Poets & Quants website. This is the seventh time Booth has taken the top spot in The Economist ranking in the past nine years.

This year’s ranking shakeup is widespread. Nineteen of the top 100 MBA programs faced leaps or falls of at least 10 spots since last year. Seven schools have dropped out of the ranking completely, leaving room for seven new schools.

The biggest winners and losers

HEC Paris made the biggest gain in the Top 10. It jumped 10 places to #3, behind just Chicago Booth (#1) and Harvard Business School (#2).

UVA Darden (#9 in 2018) and Columbia Business School (#10 in 2018) are no longer found in the Top 10 (they’ve dropped to 16th and 15th, respectively).

University of Maryland (#81 in 2019) and Northeastern University (#82 in 2019) are no longer ranked in the Top 100.

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Why are these rankings so volatile?

The Economist looks at 21 different metrics to determine their rankings. This is the most metrics of any ranking. They place heavy emphasis on compensation and career placement, including salaries, pre-MBA versus post-MBA pay increases, and the percent of grads who find jobs through the career management center. These comprise 45% of the methodology.

The Economist also relies quite a bit on student satisfaction, which is determined by an annual survey of current MBA students and recent alumni. These survey results comprise 20% of the ranking and are composed of:

• New career opportunities (35%)
• Personal development/educational experiences (35%)
• Increasing salary (20%)
• Potential to network (10%)

The Economist’s Top 25 MBA programs

2019 Rank	School	YOY Change	2018 Rank
1	Chicago Booth	-	1
2	Harvard Business School	+1	3
3	HEC Paris	+10	13
4	Northwestern Kellogg	-2	2
5	UPenn Wharton	-1	4
6	UCLA Anderson	+2	8
7	UC Berkeley Haas	+4	11
8	Stanford GSB	-3	5
9	Michigan Ross	-2	7
10	IESE	-4	6
11	Duke Fuqua	+4	15
12	Dartmouth Tuck	-	12
13	SDA Bocconi	+11	24
14	Cornell Johnson	+6	20
15	Columbia	-5	10
16	Virginia Darden	-7	9
17	New York University Stern	-	17
18	USC Marshall	+10	28
19	MIT Sloan	-3	16
20	Washington Foster	+2	22
21	Yale SOM	-7	14
22	INSEAD	-3	19
23	Georgia Tech Scheller	+8	31
24	Warwick	-6	18
25	London Business School	+2	27

Is a top MBA program in your future? Learn what these rankings mean for you and how you can secure your spot at your top choice b-school when you work one-on-one with an expert Accepted advisor. Explore our MBA Admissions Services for more information on how we can help you get ACCEPTED.

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Related Resources:

• Are You a Competitive Applicant at Your Dream School? [The MBA Selectivity Index]
• Do MBA Rankings Matter?
• Are You a Good Fit for Your Target MBA Programs?

The post Big Changes in Economist 2019 MBA Rankings appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

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Interview with Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke Fuqua [Show Summary]

Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke Fuqua shares great information about major curriculum and programmatic changes the school is going through and why.

Learn about Duke Fuqua’s unique location, curriculum and program offerings [Show Notes]

It gives me great pleasure to welcome back to AST Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Shari earned her BA at Dartmouth and her MBA at Harvard. She worked at several elite companies, and in 2009 became Director of Recruitment for the Peace Corps. In 2012 she returned to the MBA world when she became the Associate Dean of MBA Admissions for Georgetown McDonough. She joined Duke Fuqua as Associate Dean of Admissions in October 2017.

Fuqua has announced a curriculum redesign with three main changes. What are they and how will they affect the class entering in 2020? [1:48]

We are always trying to look for ways to remain relevant, and with the landscape we find ourselves in it is a challenging environment for business right now. There are so many polarizing issues. After talking about the needs of our students, we settled on their need for a greater emphasis on how to develop as a leader who can rally others to move toward a common purpose. The idea of teamwork has always been a part of our culture, and more recently embodied by Team Fuqua, as has the focus on innovation, but we wanted to be very intentional about equipping students with the right skillsets to tackle this new business environment. The curriculum focuses around three themes that are tackled right at the beginning of the first year and then again at the end of first year. The themes are leadership and common purpose, entrepreneurship as a mindset, and technology in business. Right after orientation there is a three-week period with three courses – one is leadership ethics in organizations, the second is entrepreneurship for a lifetime, and the third is focused on technology and ethics. We believe an entrepreneurial mindset is important, regardless of whether or not a student decides to own their own business someday. An owner mentality is very beneficial for resilience and creativity. Business is very complex with the technology transformation over the last few decades. There is no shortage of data, but what is lacking is leadership around making informed decisions with that data. So for us the focus is on building leaders who will be ethical about how to use it.

At the end of the first year there is kind of a capstone course around mobilizing teams for common purpose and the need to have courageous conversations. We do this at the end of the first year as students have built relationships by then and are able to more boldly participate. There is such polarization in the workforce, which is a reflection of society – one can’t seem to disagree agreeably. We look for students who can understand and embrace diversity and difference and this new curriculum equips students with the ability to navigate that and ultimately have a positive impact on society.

How will Fuqua’s Accelerated MBA program work and who is it for? [13:17]

The program is a one-year MBA for those with a Masters in Management (MMS) from Fuqua and/or MMS from another institution. These are individuals who have studied the core competencies around business and are looking for the additional leadership credentialing but in a way that is accelerated. Some want to continue down the business path, and it is beneficial to alumni of our MMS who have taken much of our core, have work experience, and want to take their career to the next level. It also shows our commitment to lifelong learning to our alums – we already offer free exec ed courses to alumni. The MMS degree is much more widespread in Europe and we are looking at that and others who might want to layer on with a U.S. MBA degree. It’s a great option in an accelerated format, and is unique from other accelerated MBAs as you must have the MMS already. Our students start the same time as our daytime students, with the main difference being our accelerated students take electives with second years whereas the first years are taking the core. We anticipate them going back into their previous jobs or similar job functions, as they are not making a full-scale change in career since there is no internship opportunity.

Will applicants who have a BBA be eligible for it? [15:54]

BBAs do not qualify for it because the accelerated program essentially is part of the daytime MBA program. It is for those who have already taken the masters-level core courses, which our MMS students have, and can then go deeper in the electives.

Duke is extending the Management Science and Technology Management (MSTeM) track to its MMS program. Can you describe this track? Is it a STEM program for visa purposes? [19:16]

This track essentially offers the MMS core plus courses that are data analytic in nature. Students in the track take three electives – one is R programming, another is a technology in business course, and the third is a business analytics course. They take the courses in summer or every Wednesday when we don’t typically have classes. There is no additional application for the track, but there is additional cost. At the end the graduate qualifies for OPT if they go into a career that is STEM qualifying, so provides an opportunity to stay in the US. Folks doing the MMS at Duke Kunshan can take the courses, but don’t get the OPT.

What do you wish more people knew about Fuqua? [24:23]

Unless you are able to come here and visit us, people have misconceptions about our existence here in Durham. Durham is a wonderful place – a community that is vibrant and growing, a mid-size city, a great climate, and with no compromise on access. 60% of our daytime graduates last year ended up on the west coast or mid-Atlantic/Northeast. Fuqua is a wonderful supportive community, and Durham is not as well understood and known. Fuqua is the only top 10 school in a top 10 city. There are wonderful restaurants, culture, and 150 multinational Fortune 100 companies in our backyard, which provides great opportunities for speakers, internships, practicums, etc., to leverage what students are learning in the classroom. There is not a great appreciation for that unless you come here.

One of the more distinctive features at Fuqua are its two concentrations related to energy management: Energy and Environment, and Energy Finance. Can you touch on those? [26:50]

Students want to combine the tools of business and apply them to big challenges, and energy and sustainability top the list. These concentrations allow students to get specialized expertise to be more equipped and competitive in the marketplace to navigate the unique issues. Courses are very interdisciplinary and experiential, and can be taken at Fuqua, Nicholas School of the Environment, and Sanford School of Public Policy. There are lots of different ways to satisfy the concentration, including as a consultant to an energy company. In terms of careers for those with the skill set, Tesla and Sunpower are recruiters, and also there are opportunities in sustainability job functions at places like Nike, Amazon, and Facebook. We have a dedicated sector director in the career services office to help in this space.

We have also partnered with a group of 17 MBA schools with students participating in a summit called Climate Cap focused on climate, business, and capital. How do you prepare students to mitigate risk and take advantage of opportunities in the area of climate change? The idea is to be thinking about social and environmental responsibility.

We also have a dual degree with Nicholas School – it’s a three-year degree with an MBA and masters in environmental management. Students do their first year at Nicholas, second at Fuqua, and blend the third year.

What is the biggest challenge applicants face in presenting a compelling case for acceptance at Duke Fuqua? [31:31]

For some, depending on their background, they may have had limited exposure to diversity and inclusion, or how to demonstrate commitment to diversity and inclusion. We encourage applicants to explain how they have worked on diversity or can demonstrate the potential or desire to wanting to be open to inclusion and diversity.

What do you see coming down the pike for the MBA program at Fuqua? MBA education in general? [37:27]

We will always be trying to remain relevant and there may be differences in how we deliver content. We have a lot to get prepared for with this incoming class – the accelerated MBA has put a lot on our plate! More generally, I would expect to see more flexible and shorter duration programs as people look a lot harder at the investment, time away from the work force and the trade off. Depending on how you define it, “on the cusp of recession,” that will define it as well.

What would you have liked me to ask you? [41:13]

There is a lot of great news on the gender front with increases in women in our programs. At Fuqua we have about 48% women overall across programs. We are so excited to see that, and we will continue to support women in applying and also while here. I am really encouraged about what I see inside the community. We are a big supporter of the Forte Foundation and have seen a big increase in the type of scholarships given. Across the programs we have over 230 Forte Fellows at Fuqua, and we want to ensure women feel like they belong here and have the opportunity and access they need to succeed.

Related Links:

• Duke Fuqua Admissions
• Getting to Know Each Other Through 25 Random Things by Shari Hubert
• Accepted’s Duke Fuqua MBA Application Essay Tips
• Journey to Duke Fuqua: Marine-Turned-MBA, Entrepreneur, and Dad
• Accepted MBA Admissions Services

Related Shows:

• Get a Kellogg MBA: An Interview with Dean of Admissions Kate Smith
• A Bain Consultant-Turned Wharton MBA Starts Her Own Business
• Meet Duke Fuqua’s New MBA Admissions Director, Shari Hubert
• Michigan Ross’ Brand-New Online, Part-Time MBA

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The post Duke Fuqua Rattles MBA World with Exciting New Curriculum [Episode 335] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

AIGAC (the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants) recently released their 2019 MBA Applicant Survey, which substantiates the idea that today’s applicants continue to consider human interaction to be a competitive advantage. More and more, applicants see the importance of talking to current MBA students when selecting schools and making decisions. Current applicants continue to view growing in their careers as a priority, but not at the expense of making a positive impact on the world.

Additional survey findings include:

• Applicants applied to more schools this year: 4.5 schools this year compared to 3.8 last year.
• Due to the standardization of letters of recommendation, fewer candidates are being asked to write their own letters of recommendation.
• Working with an admissions consultant boosts self-awareness and improves communication skills prior to entering an MBA program.
• Selected social media outlets are being used more by applicants. More than 50% of applicants used LinkedIn as part of their school research this year. The use of Instagram increased from 19% last year to 25% this year.
• Female applicants expressed that schools got to know them less well than did males. With a score of 5 representing a school that got to know them best, females rated schools at 3.07 while males rated them at 3.20.
• The schools that ranked highest in getting to know applicants are:

1. 1. Vanderbilt University – Owen Graduate School of Management
   2. Cornell University – Johnson Graduate School of Management
   3. UVA – Darden School of Business
   4. Dartmouth College – Tuck School of Business
   5. UNC – Kenan-Flagler Business School
   6. Duke University – Fuqua School of Business
   7. Carnegie Mellon University – Tepper School of Business
   8. Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management
   9. UT Austin – McCombs School of Business
   10. Georgetown University – McDonough School of Business

The survey was completed by almost 1,000 applicants between March 16 and April 7, 2019. Of these, 778 applied to at least one school. Females made up 37% of the respondents. 58% of survey respondents reside outside the U.S.

Are you applying to a top MBA program? Not sure what your next step should be? Explore our MBA Admissions Consulting Services and work one-on-one with an expert advisor who will help you get ACCEPTED.

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Related Resources:

• Choosing an MBA Admissions Consultant, a free guide
• MBA Selectivity Index, discover the schools where you are competitive
• How Can an Accepted MBA Admissions Consultant Help You?

The post AIGAC 2019 MBA Applicant Survey Results Released appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Learn how real students navigate their way through the business school admissions process and b-school itself with our What is Business School Really Like? series.

Meet Andrew, a Marine veteran, entrepreneur, new father, and first-year MBA student at Duke Fuqua.

Andrew, thank you for sharing your story with us!

What made you decide to go to business school?

Andrew: Leaving the Marines I knew that in order to be hired into mid-level management positions, an MBA would be a good route for me to take.

How did you decide which programs to apply to? Were you willing to relocate to attend school?

Andrew: I only applied to Fuqua. I loved my experience so much that I put everything I had into being accepted. In theory, I would have relocated but I am local to Raleigh so relocating wasn’t my first choice.

Applying to only a single business school shows real dedication. What was your level of familiarity with Fuqua prior to applying? How did you know it would be a good fit?

Andrew: I visited Fuqua several times before applying, and I found everyone to be very open and welcoming. I was especially drawn to its veteran community. It didn’t take long for me to realize that Fuqua was where I wanted to be, and I decided that making a full commitment to Duke gave me the best chance to have success with its rigorous and competitive application process. My family and some of my friends thought I was a little crazy for applying only to Duke, but it was a risk I was willing to take, and I’m gratified it’s worked out so well.

Did you experience any bumps along the road to business school admission? How did you identify and deal with the issues?

Andrew: The experience in general is extremely stressful. I reached out to current students and alumni in order to get insight and help.

What about extracurriculars? What extracurricular activities did you participate in either in the military or your civilian life?

Andrew: I worked with a nonprofit organization called Warrior Wellness Solutions from 2013-2018. WWS is based in Durham and offers holistic health solutions to American military veterans who are wounded, ill, or injured. I’ve worked as a peer mentor and in event planning and fundraising. Working with the veteran community has been and continues to be a tremendously rewarding experience.

Duke is known to have some creative (and tricky!) application essay questions. How did you approach your essays? How, specifically, did you approach the 25 Random Things About You question?

Andrew: With my essays, I tried to caveat my experiences as an entrepreneur and Marine into a relatable experience with the culture at Fuqua. I took specific experiences I had and explained the lessons learned and how I would translate those lessons to better the Fuqua community I wanted to belong to. The essays are your chance to show a side of yourself outside of your resume. My 25 things essays highlighted highs, lows, growth, and experiences. I really tried to show the admissions team my true self outside of my resume.

Once business school began, what surprised you most about the experience?

Andrew: How thoughtful and friendly my classmates are. I wasn’t able to attend many social events because my wife was 8½ months pregnant. My section mates understood this and surprised me with signed books and baby gifts for my daughter. It was very touching and a huge surprise.

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter! How do you manage to juggle your roles as student, husband, and father?

Andrew: It was hard, especially at first, but I learned that Team Fuqua is for real. My classmates and first-year team really kept me afloat for the first few months after my daughter was born. They actually stopped class to surprise me with baby gifts. They bought us a mamaRoo bassinet and onesie pajamas, and my entire 76 student section signed books and left notes for my daughter. When I was struggling to keep up from lack of sleep, some of them took the time to help me in subjects within their areas of expertise, and they made sure I grasped the material well enough to pass my classes. It reminded me a lot of the Marines – the fact that it takes a team effort to achieve objectives. As for outside of the classroom, I put my duties as a father and a husband first. Things have gotten a little easier now that our daughter is older, and my wife and I have even found time to go out socially every once in a while.

How have your experiences and duties in the Marines prepared you for business school and for the world of business?

Andrew: Serving as a sergeant in the Marines taught me several things, including the value of teamwork and the importance of leadership skills. It also helped me develop the kind of work ethic that kept me going while attending school fulltime and working in my family’s entrepreneurial startup. Marines are taught to accomplish their mission no matter what roadblocks they may encounter, and even to make something out of nothing if that’s what it takes. I’m learning to apply those lessons in the business world and to share them with friends and classmates whenever it seems appropriate.

What is Juicekeys and what role have you played in the company?

Andrew: Juicekeys is an entrepreneurial startup created by my wife Kelly and her brother Chris. Kelly became interested in the power of healthy foods when she was transitioning from a career-ending gymnastics injury years ago. Like me, Chris is a former Marine, and he was exposed to many different juice bars when he was stationed in California. After he left active duty, he completed his MBA at USC Marshall and brought the vision of Juicekeys to Raleigh. It had very humble beginnings, with an original staff of only Kelly, Chris, and their parents.

In three years, we have grown from one to three locations and we now have more than 45 employees. I started at Juicekeys in a managerial position and later became the director of operations. It’s pretty much a jack-of-all-trades job that includes leadership development, supply chain, customer relations, and whatever else might be needed at a particular moment.

How did your civilian experiences in entrepreneurship make you a stronger MBA applicant?

Andrew: This is a great question! When people tell me they want to be an entrepreneur, I usually give them the Southern response of “Bless your heart.” Being part of a startup isn’t for everyone. I know what it’s like working 20-hour days and taking no pay in the hope of growing a business into a successful venture. And we’ve been able to create what I and others think is the best juice bar in North Carolina. I’m confident that the things I’ve learned at Juicekeys, and also in the Marines, will help me as a mid-level or senior executive in a company that values people with a Fuqua MBA.

What do you think your classmates would be surprised to know about you?

Andrew: I am a complete teddy bear. The Notebook is one of my favorite movies. I told my wife on our second date I was going to marry her. She told me I was “crazy.” I laughed and said “You’re probably right, but I am going to marry you.” When I proposed to my wife I got in touch with Nicholas Sparks and had him sign her favorite book with the inscription “Kelly will you marry Andrew, with love Nicholas Sparks.” This December will be five years that we have been together.

Did you grow up in the South, and if not, how do you have ties to the area? How has Duke’s location affected your business school experience?

Andrew: I grew up in Chicago and Southern California. My wife’s family is from Raleigh. I love the area and think Durham is a great place to live.

Was it difficult to become a student again after years spent away from the classroom?

Andrew: I’m actually in my fifth year of school at this point. I started my undergraduate degree in 2014 while I was transitioning out of the Marines. It was discouraging at first because after taking placement exams at the local community college I had to start with developmental courses. My math score, for example, was around the eighth-grade level. I graduated from Campbell University with a 3.92 GPA in 2018 and started at Fuqua last August. It was definitely hard at times, but I had an amazing support system to give me a reality check when I needed it.

Fuqua has definitely been the most difficult coursework I have personally experienced. The great thing is you’re always around amazing people who are extremely talented. So it is easy to push yourself in order to match the output of your peers. Working in teams has also been a huge help because more often than not one of us has experience in the subjects we may be covering and can help the group to understand better.

Have you participated in a student internship?

Andrew: I will be starting an internship in project management at Cisco this summer. I will be working on global strategy, planning, and operations. Cisco is a great company and it’s high on my list of places I’d like to work within the tech industry. I’m grateful for the opportunity and can’t wait to get started.

Why did you decide to pursue an MBA as opposed to one of the many related graduate degrees that seem to be gaining popularity in recent years (Master’s in Finance, Master’s in Management, Master’s in Data Analytics, etc.)?

Andrew: An MBA from Fuqua holds a lot of weight. We have world-class professors that teach every one of these subjects. For example, I could choose to major in Finance and Decision Sciences. In my opinion, not all MBAs are created equal. In my opinion, Fuqua is the best MBA program in the United States. We are truly a community that looks after one another.

What are your plans, post-MBA?

Andrew: I’d like to work in the technology industry in project or product management, with a backup plan of doing tech sales. The decision sciences, marketing, and strategy classes I’ve attended at Fuqua have been priceless in helping me prepare to accomplish that goal.

What advice do you have for students beginning their MBA journey?

Andrew: I would say be genuine, be intentional, be yourself, ask for help, and build relationships. I would not be at Fuqua if I didn’t have advocates in the form of admissions staff, current students, the Duke Armed Forces Association, and alumnus. I wanted to be at Fuqua more than any other school, so I really put myself out there with admissions. I sent updates on my progress and stayed in touch with staff. When the time came to choose candidates for acceptance there was no doubt how committed I was to coming to Fuqua.

Do you have questions for Andrew? Questions for us? Do you want to be featured in our next What is Business School Really Like? post? Know someone else who you’d love to see featured? Are there questions you’d like us to ask our students in this series? LET US KNOW!

You can learn more about Andrew by connecting with him on LinkedIn. To learn more about Juicekeys, click here.

Are you setting out on your own b-school journey? We can help you reach the finish line! Check out our MBA Admissions Consulting Services to team up with an admissions expert who will help you join the ranks of thousands of Accepted clients who get accepted to their dream schools.

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Related Resources:

• Best MBA Programs: A Guide to Selecting the Right One
• Meet Duke Fuqua’s New MBA Admissions Director, Shari Hubert, a podcast episode
• Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Tips & Deadlines

The post Journey to Duke Fuqua: Marine-Turned-MBA, Entrepreneur, and Dad appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

Times Higher Education (THE) in partnership with the Wall Street Journal recently released its analyzed reams of data about graduate management education and produced a ranking of “high-achieving global MBA programs.”

The study ranked the programs in 20 separate performance indicators, leading to an aggregate score indicating the strength of each program and school. These scores were then combined into the following 4 scores, called pillars, shown below with their weights:

• Resources – Faculty per student: 11%; Teaching qualifications: 6%; Career support staff per student: 4%; Career support effectiveness: 4%
• Engagement – Learning engagement: 5%; Interaction with teachers and students: 5%; Student recommendation: 5%; Real-world relevance: 5%; Research in teaching: 5%
• Outcomes – Salary difference: 12%; Network: 12%; Social good: 5%; Entrepreneurship: 5%; Opportunities: 5%; Worth: 5%
• Environment – International students: 4%; Female students: 3%; International staff: 2%; Economic diversity: 2%

Top 10 Two-Year MBA Programs

Rank	University	Country	Resources	Engagement	Outcomes	Environment	Overall
1	Stanford Graduate School of Business	United States	79.1	94.1	91	40.4	82.7
2	Cornell University: Johnson	United States	85.6	92.1	83.3	39.8	80.9
3	Vanderbilt University: Owen	United States	85.4	93.1	89.1	18.6	80.7
4	University of Chicago: Booth	United States	74.4	94.2	86.9	37	79.6
5	Duke University: Fuqua	United States	71.5	92.7	85	34.1	77.5
6	University of Virginia: Darden	United States	67.1	93.5	88.6	28.7	77.3
6	Yale School of Management	United States	67.1	93	85.1	40.9	77.3
8	Carnegie Mellon: Tepper	United States	73.3	91.9	77.9	26.7	74.1
9	Purdue University: Krannert	United States	53.1	89.8	82.2	54.7	73.5
10	China Europe International Business School (CEIBS)	China	67.5	86.9	76.7	45.7	73.2

Analysis of the Rankings

You probably noticed that there are prominent names missing from the THE/WSJ top 20: Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg, MIT, INSEAD, LBS, and UCLA to name a few. These schools declined to participate. In fact, the global MBA rankings only include 54 schools, which reduces its value automatically.

In addition, the THE/WSJ ranking produces results that make me question their credibility. (The basic problem with rankings is that if they don’t match our preconceived notions, credibility is lacking. And if they are credible and congruent with common knowledge and opinion, what’s the value in the rankings? Strengthening confirmation bias?)

However, for a scathing and thorough critique of these rankings, I will point you to Poets and Quants’ John’s Byrne, who wrote “The Wall Street Journal’s ‘Where’s Waldo?’ MBA Ranking.”

Do you need help choosing the right MBA program? Work one-on-one with one of Accepted’s expert advisors to select the best programs for you, build a personalized MBA strategy, and create an application that will get you ACCEPTED. Learn more about our services here.

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Related Resources:

• Navigate the MBA Application Maze: 9 Tips to Acceptance, a free guide
• B-School Selectivity Index: Discover the Schools Where You are a Competitive Applicant
• 3 Ways to Determine Which B-Schools Are a Good Fit for You

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Our guest today, Dr. Anne Steptoe, earned her BA in Classics and English at Harvard in 2009. She then worked for two years as a Health Policy Senior Analyst at Mass General Hospital and attended medical school at Brown. Along the way to her current position as a pediatrics resident at UNC Chapel Hill, she earned an MBA at Duke Fuqua and started her own social enterprise with a partner.[powerpress]

Can you tell us about your background?  Where did you grow up? What do you like to do for fun? [1:29]

I grew up in a small town in West Virginia. There were about 2,000 families in the town and relationships really formed the fabric of the town. A sense of community has always driven me, which I attribute to my time there. In terms of my free time, I am now a North Carolinian – and there is amazing food here and some of the best craft brewing in the country. And of course basketball enthusiasm is in the water here.

How did you go from an undergrad degree in Classics and English in 2009 to starting med school in 2011? [2:47]

I knew a couple of things at the start of college. I loved Latin, one of my singular passions in high school, and I was not done studying that. I also loved to read and wanted to spend my college years doing more of that. I didn’t see myself as a professor, which would have been a typical pathway for someone with my majors, so I wanted to be a student for a bit longer but needed professional experiences to answer the question of what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

I got interested in public policy, an obvious extension of the community idea, and had some internships on Capitol Hill. I sought out the most interesting people in our office, and as it turns out I was most drawn to the health policy legislative aide. I loved that she would be on the phone with a single mom walking her through how to sign her child up for CHIP in the morning, and then in the afternoon be in these huge plenary sessions about what the future of the entire healthcare system looks like. The micro and macro look at change was really fascinating to me.

This still didn’t get me to med school, though. I actually thought med school was the last path I would follow, since I had to be hospitalized as a 7-8 year old and thought doctors were the worst. But another summer I had been given a small grant to go to West Virginia to ask, what in retrospect seems like an arrogant question, about the disconnect between health policy on obesity vs what was happening on the ground. West Virginia has one of the worst obesity rates in the country. The reason I say the question was arrogant was because it was almost as if, “What are those pesky doctors doing messing up the beautiful portrait we have of how an ideal healthcare system should work?”

I did some qualitative research in a healthcare center in West Virginia, and after 1.5 days there realized we weren’t asking the right questions. There is a huge disconnect with people enthused about national level policies, but who don’t have the experience of healthcare on the ground. I was struck by how little I knew about how healthcare functioned, which was the turning point to med school for me. I was introduced to the concept of a doctor as a change agent in the community. Providers were stepping in as entrepreneurs in their communities in the absence of policy. From there I was hooked.

I was lucky enough to have figured this out at the end of my sophomore year so I had enough intro science classes that I was able to stack a few extra classes on to get the core med requirements before graduating. I took two gap years since I wanted to confirm this path, since it wasn’t a natural fit necessarily. I took a job at Mass Gen to test out my interest in the field, and to get other pre-reqs done, especially the MCAT.

You did your medical school studies at Brown Alpert Medical School. What did you like best about your med school experience? [9:56]

It was important for me to still be myself in the med school process, and that challenged me in ways I didn’t fully realize. One of the biggest issues is that most people have so little choice in their medical education process. All of us had a non-tailored curriculum which I knew was going to be tough. One of the reasons I chose Brown was its scholarly concentration program, which provides the space to go after other fields of interest as well – health policy was my choice. I found that to be a little oasis to remind myself to continue to learn ways of thinking that may not have made it into the med school curriculum.

What could be improved? [11:44]

The life of a med student can be very boring nuts and bolts sometimes. I realized after I was in, that I didn’t ask hard questions as an applicant to med school, or detailed questions about what it means for my life. A particularly hilarious example of this was that one of the reasons I chose Brown was the emphasis on humanities as a potential part of the curriculum. For me as a classics major I saw this as a way to not let my love of classics atrophy, and had this lofty vision that I would be taking a Latin class every other semester. I am sure there were smarter and more pragmatic applicants than me, but I was thrilled there was a policy that I could have gotten credit for any number of courses as long as I could justify they were med related.

However, after I started I couldn’t find anyone who had taken any humanities courses, and when I looked to older students, they said, “Maybe you could do it a little bit in your fourth year but it might be hard.” The curriculum really is all-enveloping, and for an interdisciplinary person it can be hard. Ultimately I learned that I needed to be honest with myself about what I needed in my educational experience for my career, and maybe I couldn’t get all of that through my medical training.

Today you are a resident in pediatrics at UNC. Did you ever have a rotation or period in your path to date when you thought of giving up on medicine? [16:58]

I don’t think I had a pivotal moment, but any thoughtful person can infer that at the end of a 24-hour shift you would have to be superhuman to not wonder if there are alternate ways to make an impact. For me it was more an accumulation of small moments when I felt like I was getting put on a conveyor belt and had lost a bit of control or felt separated from my vision of what I wanted in this career path. The absence of engaging certain parts of my brain was rough since a lot of medicine is memorization and typical clinical skill building but without emphasis on change that I engaged in and thrived on. There were moments I saw gaps in the system that I had no power to address. I had a little slip of paper in my white coat to write stuff down since that was all I was empowered to do at the time, with the hope that someday I could address them.

There were insights in the healthcare system where I wanted to make an impact that made me realize I’d like an MBA, so I could effect change now as opposed to in 7-10 years. I proposed MedServe as my scholarly concentration in health policy during my first year. Others were excited about the idea but told me it was too ambitious of a project for the med school framework, that I should do a small research study instead since that would be better for my residency application. Seeing potential for impact, but being told that now wasn’t the right time and med school wasn’t the right place led me to getting an MBA.

Did you find that Duke Fuqua’s MBA program provided the breadth that you didn’t get in medical school? [21:00]

Absolutely. The breadth and freedom was great. Other than college I think the MBA is the only professional degree that’s essentially a blank slate degree that you are responsible for crafting. For me, Fuqua was a canvas for me to try and accumulate a unique skill set to be a person that provides impact in healthcare through projects and programs.

What did you like best about Duke Fuqua’s MBA program? [22:04]

It’s hard to choose one thing! One is I loved the accessibility of it. I had no business experience coming into business school and just two years of work experience, with a very foreign skill set compared to most of my peers. I was very nervous about the process walking in but gave everyone on my team disclaimers early on about my background, almost apologizing for it. It took me two weeks at Duke Fuqua to realize the emphasis is on critical thinking over anything else. I built a threshold of knowledge with an emphasis on healthcare. I would have felt some isolation about my passions in reverse had there not been a strong focus on healthcare in the program. More practically I wouldn’t have found co-founders and volunteers for my business since I was a non-traditional student with non-traditional goals. There were many people excited about my field which was fantastic.

Can you tell us about your social enterprise, MedServe? First, what is it? [25:24]

MedServe is a two-year, service-learning program that works with students between college and med school to connect them with a full-time service engagement in primary care in underserved communities around the state of North Carolina. We recruit from 60 universities across the country and have candidates who matriculate from as far as the West Coast. We like to see some tie to North Carolina or with the types of communities we serve, but we have heard from those who come in that it is hard to find clinical engagements that connect community service with clinical medicine, so they are willing to move.

Did Duke play a role in getting MedServe going, and if so, what was that role? [27:08]

Yes, it played a huge role in a number of dimensions. I did not go the traditional route with an internship between my first and second year, but did market research and developed a business model instead, and received a sizable grant from the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship to do so. I didn’t realize it, but I had been doing research for MedServe for a long time, seeing the disconnect between being a doctor and the impact I wanted to make. I understood my colleagues and their similar experience, so I had more pieces to start the company than I realized. I felt like an outsider coming into Fuqua, but very quickly I gained the confidence and structure to start MedServe. I had the pieces of information to start, and then Fuqua offers a curriculum that allows students to get course credit for working on their own entities. I was hoping it would be a step-by-step guidebook on how to run your business, which it wasn’t, but it gave me the tools to build my confidence.

If I’m a listener and a senior in college and am interested in applying, can you walk me through the process and what would happen if I’m accepted? [30:01]

Our main application deadline is February 15th. We get feedback that our application process is long and a little bit intensive compared to other job opportunities, but there is method behind our madness for a couple of reasons. It is so important to get real clinical experience. I hated shadowing – it was a terrible feeling to hover over someone’s shoulder and feel like an onlooker. It is important to us that if you are going to go out and get clinical experience it is to figure out the broader impact you want to make in medicine.

We are not comparing people against each other in terms of who is minutely better or more qualified than another applicant, but instead, we want to have “spark matching.” For example, we offer a fellowship at a clinic in eastern North Carolina that in addition to the resident populations serves migrant farm workers. I would trust any of my fellows to be confident and caring, but in this case, fellows who have thrived had spent a year in rural Alaska on public health issues and had also spent time in South America in cultural immersion. Another had done community outreach with the Hispanic population in North Carolina.

I hope the MedServe experience is a time to deepen passions about things participants already care about. That to me is the broader point, which is how we select applicants. We conduct interviews geared toward confirming who the person is in comparison to the paper application. Applicants do a final interview with clinics themselves to confirm that what I think is a great spark match is with the clinic also.

NOTE: After the interview, Anne clarified that if you listen to this podcast after the February 15 application deadline, you should still contact them and apply.

I’ve applied, been accepted, and placed in the clinic you think is the best fit for me. Do you provide any training? [34:01]

We do. Some of our candidates come in with clinical experience, maybe having been an EMT, for example, but others have no clinical experience at all. There is a skillset that is very tangibly new and fellows are doing it in new communities maybe hundreds of miles from where they went to college or grew up. We have a two-week training boot camp which provides background knowledge in the public health landscape, the business of healthcare, and concrete things like taking vital signs, and we talk about the mindset for service that is productive to prepare for from a personal and emotional standpoint. It can be tough to be the only fellow in a tiny town in western North Carolina.

Fellows are paid a $20K annual stipend, and while I wouldn’t say I am proud of the salary, I tried to find a salary that is a living wage in the communities we work in. We know it’s not a glamorous salary, so we try to provide support around financial planning, help with housing, and just overall be as supportive as we can.

A lot of our role after they are in the field is in continuing education. We have quarterly skill summits that happen throughout the two-year experience, to continue gaining knowledge so fellows can talk through and troubleshoot difficult situations. We also talk about the med school application process, the MCAT, etc. We especially gear this content towards students who have an interest and passion for service, and whose goals are a bit different than traditional applicants. This is the program I would have joined after college if it existed!

If a pre-med wants to become a scribe, what is the advantage to him or her of participating in MedServe over just becoming a scribe or working in a primary care doctor’s office? [39:43]

The experiences that will impact you will happen in both roles, but the things I hear from fellows that drive them to our program is the desire to be exposed to making an impact through a clinical career in medicine. They spend half of the two years in a clinical role, and the other half is spent in a community role, as part of a community health team or health coach, for example, with dedicated time and exposure to healthcare system issues that are very specific to this population of people. I hope it is an exciting and engaging experience for two years. We make this position not just a job but a program. I am very proud of the cohort nature of the program, where fellows network with each other – I don’t think students have access to this as a position in an individual practice. I think the cohort will ultimately be one of the biggest benefits to them in the future, and also fosters the sense of community.

Do you plan to expand MedServe beyond North Carolina? What are your plans for the future? [42:41]

With MedServe we continue to operate at a scale where we have more qualified applicants than we can take and more requests from clinics than we can accommodate. Our fellow acceptance rate last year was about 10%, so I see a lot of potential for growth. I would love to take this program back home to West Virginia at some point. For now, we have been working to scale the program in North Carolina, and we will have a much larger footprint this year. There are similar dynamics in other states, but I am mindful of not wanting to scale the program at such a rate that the things that make the program really special get lost in the process, so we are taking it one level at a time. As I mentioned, the next step is to expand in the state, and we will about triple the size of the next cohort. We are getting such a high quality of applicant that we can start meeting some of the demand out there.

For me personally, my path is a little bit set for the moment, as I am in my internship year of residency, so I actually have four more years as a pediatric resident. What’s great is that UNC has allowed me to do 2.5 months clinically, then have 2.5 months to work on MedServe. This is the first time I’ve been in the position to be able to tailor the academic process with my passions. To the credit of UNC they were receptive of the idea, and I am midstream right now. After that, I really see a much broader set of options than before. What I do know is that I will be working in the healthcare system on new and innovative ideas in communities that help drive that change – through MedServe, or through innovative health systems with new models of delivering care.

What would you have liked me to ask you? [51:24]

I think we talked about the process of me being an applicant and all the things I wish I had known, but I would say the lesson I really learned is to not lose yourself in the process of getting a professional education. There are lots of expectations in professional fields, and students often focus on just meeting the demands, and are surprised there is a job and career path at the other end. It’s a true job-seeking process and it requires some thought on what you really want to do while you’re in the middle of it. If you have truly been on a conveyor belt driving to do well in what the profession asks of you and then figure out what you want – it can be a real problem. For me I couldn’t spend 10 years not engaging a part of my brain, so that is what has guided me, not just doing what is demanded of me.

Related Links:

• Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Tips & Deadlines
• MedServe
• From Idea to Launch: How Fuqua MBAs Began MedServe & 4 Lessons They Learned in Launching a Social Venture
• Accepted’s Application Services 

Related Shows:

• Meet Duke Fuqua’s New MBA Admissions Director, Shari Hubert
• Meet Dr. Akshat Kumar, Wharton MBA ‘19
• Be a Happy Doc!
• Medicinal Magic and Magical Medicine: An Interview with M3 David Elkin
• Med School Uncensored: A Realistic Perspective on Medical Training

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The post Pediatrician and Social Entrepreneur: Meet Dr. Anne Steptoe [Episode 246] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome back to AST Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Shari earned her BA at Dartmouth and her MBA at Harvard. She worked at several elite companies, and in 2009 became Director of Recruitment for the Peace Corps. In 2012 she returned to the MBA world when she became the Associate Dean of MBA Admissions for Georgetown McDonough, and she joined Duke Fuqua as Associate Dean of Admissions in October.[powerpress]

Can you give an overview of the Duke Fuqua FT MBA program for those listeners who aren’t that familiar with it, perhaps focusing on its more distinctive elements? [1:32]

All of our programs excel at creating a certain type of leader – one who collaborates well with others. We call it Team Fuqua, which we define as a special way of working that brings out the strengths in others to work toward a common goal. You are required to work in teams for much of the program. The teams are intentionally diverse in order to learn from each other – not just gender and race diversity but functional background and industry as well. Team Fuqua is not just a student concept but it follows into your career as well. Tim Cook is arguably our most famous alum, and he talks about how he developed his own collaborative style from Fuqua. The program taught him how to learn, collaborate, and think.

From an academic perspective, our faculty are developing new courses for the ever complex world we live in. We were one of the first business schools to offer courses in block chain (cryptocurrency). Cam Harvey, a faculty member, is one of the experts. Last month we started a new course, CEO Activism, which is about the decision-making process in complex situations that leaders have to go through to decide whether to speak out about a political or social issue or not.

Finally, one thing I’ve been impressed with is the student-led culture. Students are constantly organizing events and conferences with high level people, and they manage the campus visit program. Students are always finding ways to learn from each other. One example is from a student who was in the military who founded Operation Blue Devil which gives students a firsthand perspective about what it’s like to serve. Another example is Fuqua Talks and Fuqua Listens – initiatives that help develop a more inclusive culture. With Fuqua Talks anyone can get up and talk about what they feel is important. With Fuqua Listens there is a topic of discussion – the most recent one was about professional athletes kneeling during the national anthem.

What does it mean to be a consequential leader? [6:21]

Team Fuqua embodies what it means to be a consequential leader, and is synonymous with demonstrating collaborative leadership, which is the ability to pull out the strengths of others to make the best team. This is the key to innovation – it’s not just a nice concept but a winning strategy to harness the best team.

One great example of this type of leadership is when a research firm interviewed recruiters about the value of our graduates. One recruiter mentioned an exercise where MBA students from several schools came in to solve a problem in the same room. Not surprisingly, most students approached the situation by highlighting their own strengths, hoping to land that job offer. The recruiter said that Fuqua students were generally different. Instead of discussing their own strengths they worked to understand the other team members’ strengths, and built relationships to solve the problem collectively. This is such a great demonstration of being a collaborative leader of consequence and the value of Team Fuqua.

What’s an example of something entrepreneurial and really cool that a Fuqua student or alum is doing? [9:58]

Anne Steptoe is a recent alum with a passion for healthcare as a tool to improve communities. She felt strongly that if more med students were exposed to the power of primary care in their communities they would choose that route. She herself was a medical student who decided to get her MBA. She started MedServe, which is kind of like Teach For America for med students. The non-profit sends med students to underserved communities to work in primary care. The program has been highly successful and she credits many of her successes to Fuqua.

We have a number of resources for those with an entrepreneurial mindset, to support their ventures in business school. The Bullpen is our Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, which is an incubator. They also partner with American Underground which is another well-known incubator and accelerator in the downtown Durham area. We also have P for E (Program for Entrepreneurs), which is a series of activities, and 25% of the course credit is given to students for working on their own startups. We also have Duke Gen which provides students, staff, and faculty resources to start up their own business, and we have the Duke StartUp Challenge which provides $100K in cash prizes for teams with the strongest startup ideas. We have a number of alumni mentors who’ve started their own businesses who mentor our MBAs. We also have the Legal Clinic with Duke law students, which focuses on issues associated with starting businesses. The Career Center also has resources to connect with startups for internships and full-time jobs.

Durham and Research Triangle Park is a haven for entrepreneurship and startups, and Durham also has a rich history of supporting black-owned businesses and diverse entrepreneurs as well.

How does Fuqua’s location on the Duke campus and in the heart of North Carolina’s Research Triangle, but far from the business centers of NYC, Boston, or Silicon Valley provide opportunity to Fuqua students? [13:41]

Fuqua’s location is a huge bonus for us. Durham is a wonderful place with great food, an eclectic community, arts and culture, and a hipster vibe similar to Brooklyn or Austin. As a result, students tend to stay in Durham on weekends and bond rather than disperse. In 2016, the Northeast was the number one destination for graduates, and the West Coast was number one for interns in 2017. The South was number three in employment. The majority of students do want to venture out, and we organize structured travel over fall and winter breaks to visit companies in fields of interest outside of the area. In the most recent employer report, the median pay for the Class of 2017 was $145K with 96% employment three months out.

Applicants should not be concerned about achieving their career aspirations wherever they may be.

Recruiting is changing. There are more recruiters, and more opportunities, but the hiring path is more diverse and splintered than it was ten years ago. How is Fuqua adapting to those changes? [16:52]

Our approach is twofold. One is to offer multiple channels that meet company hiring needs, and the other is to teach students about the skills needed for the job search so they can tap into channels that are more network focused.

For instance, even within what might be considered traditional campus recruiting we offer lunch and learns – so more informal events. We offer video sessions and interviews for those who don’t want to travel to campus. We support Just In Time recruiting needs by actively posting jobs – those types accounted for 15% of internships last year. We host spring events outside of the normal fall recruiting timeframe in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, and we partner with the Duke Center for Entrepreneurship for students who want to work with startups in particular.

In terms of educating students about job search skills, one requirement is for students to set up an informational interview with someone outside of the traditional recruiting construct. The purpose of this is to help them become more familiar with the real world process and think beyond companies that come on campus. Essentially we are equipping our students for the worst case scenario, regardless of their interests, to hit the ground running, network, and do the research they need to find unique opportunities. Essentially we are preparing them for the post-post MBA job search.

Duke Fuqua accepted slightly less than 1 out of every 4 applicants. Who gets interview invitations? From those invited to interview, who gets accepted? How do you winnow it down? [20:29]

Every application is reviewed and discussed by the adcom, and we want to talk to as many people as possible, so much so that we offer an open interview schedule in September to take away the uncertainty. This allows us to hear everyone’s story who would like to tell it to us. The rest is by invitation only.

Every application is read a second time and discussed a second time after the interview, and we look to admit people who are most likely to attend but also have the most positive impact on the community while here.

As an aside, people believe we don’t admit anyone in Round 3, but we do admit in every stage of the process, so submit whenever you have the strongest application. It’s never too late to think about applying. One caveat to that is from an international applicant perspective, we do encourage them to apply in Round 2 for visa reasons.

One of the Fuqua essays is to share 25 unique things about yourself. We are told members of the adcom need to share the same thing. What are some of the things you shared? [24:17]

I am named after Shari Lewis of the Shari Lewis and Lambchop show. My favorite female actor is Meryl Streep and male actor is Robert DeNiro. I enjoy karaoke but am tone deaf. I love Brussels sprouts and eat them whenever I can. I grew up with a single mom in Indianapolis, IN, and she put me through college which I am forever grateful for. I am an avid spinner. I am deathly afraid of horror movies and rollercoasters – if you get me on a rollercoaster I will cry. I am the worst travel partner because I fall asleep in any moving object even if I just drank a cup of coffee. In theory I could become a vegetarian, but in practice I’m held back because I love pork even more. I am in the best place because in North Carolina there is a pork restaurant on every corner.

What advice do you have for applicants putting together answers to Fuqua’s essay questions? [26:36]

Our questions are really designed to get to know you. When people try to fake their way through the 25 random questions or tell us what we think they want us to hear it is easy to see through that. Stay away from simple things like “My favorite team is…” or “I was born in…” We get it that it’s hard to come up with 25, but we encourage people to share context and how it will make you a better or more unique MBA candidate, or insights behind random facts you are sharing, like how these facts shape who you are today.

We take the essays and interviews very seriously, paying particular attention to the quality of the content in the essays. We look for people who will change the world for the better and with humility lead and bring out the best in others.

What can those invited to interview expect? [30:24]

A very warm and welcoming experience. In the US we require that you come to campus, unless you live on or close to the west coast because we believe it is critical to come here and see our culture in person. If you are on the west coast we have interview hubs. For those who come to campus they can expect to be interviewed by one of our many second year students who are trained (admissions fellows). Interviews off campus are by our alums.

Outside of the US we have international hubs as well in geographically dispersed areas with the nearest alum. If people are really remote we set up a Skype with a second year student.

In terms of the interview format, they are 30-45 minutes and behavioral-based, nothing tricky, and all the interviews are in English. Although we will be getting to know you and assessing fit, this is also the opportunity for applicants to ask us questions as well. If you come to campus it includes a class visit, or a student or alum panel if on Super Saturdays. During open interviews there are classes as well to attend.

If invited to interview outside the open interview period, you will see a list of activities available that day in and around your interview. We also provide weekend interview dates in case you can’t get off work.

For listeners living in China, interviews will be earlier than in the past – just before the Spring Festival.

The interviews are blind (nothing other than the resume), and the location of the interview does not influence outcome at all.

What advice would you give to someone thinking ahead to a Fall 2018 application? [33:40]

Give yourself plenty of time. There is lots of soul searching in the application process, and you don’t want to feel rushed. You want to be able to think through why you want an MBA and how it accomplishes your goals. Make sure you build in time to visit schools on your short list if you can, as it makes a difference for your own perspective. You learn so much from being on campus interacting with students and staff. Take advantage of open interview periods. We begin traveling in June for events so check our calendar and meet us on the road. Reach out to alums in your network. We offer unique and cool diversity weekends for veterans, women, LGBT, and an underrepresented diversity workshop as well.

What do you see coming down the pike for the MBA program at Fuqua? MBA education in general? [35:09]

Dean Boulding is really focused on making sure this education remains relevant. We will continue to watch what’s happening in industry and adapt our program accordingly. For example with data analytics there is now a focus on key insights; this was a direct result from hearing about this gap from industry that students were very tech savvy but unable to gain insights.

We will also adapt curriculum to focus on challenges that business leaders face, like the CEO Activism course I mentioned earlier. Professor Aaron Chatterji is one of few studying this and how it’s been shifting.

One thing we are already working on is the new certificate in data analytics (Management Science and Technology Management) which requires completion of eight electives. Faculty approved it really quickly and it allows us to shape data analytics in all areas of business.

We also have our one year Master of Quantitative Management which is new as of last year. Our Master of Quantitative Management in Health Analytics online will launch this fall. Faculty have taken really great care to make it authentic to our on-campus programs. It will have about 40 students assigned in teams of five, with synchronous and asynchronous content, so with flexibility built in, and an in person orientation and capstone at the end.

Changes in our EMBA program address accessibility and diversity, now with one single Global Executive MBA program to be more diverse in ages and stages. With the Weekend MBA it now meets once a month instead of every other week to provide more flexibility for those outside of the Durham area and for working parents.

What would you have liked me to ask you? [40:10]

One thing I’ve been really encouraged by is our resources for international students. We have a genuine commitment to diversity. We offer so much help to them. We have increased the no cosigner international student loan borrowing eligibility from 80% to 90%. We also have visa services, an international house to help with driver’s licenses and other paperwork, and we introduce international families to each other, teach students how to approach companies that sponsor, etc.

Related Links:

• Duke Fuqua Admissions
• Shari’s blog post – “25 Random Things About Yourself” 
• Shari’s blog post – “How Fuqua Welcomes and Supports Our International Students”
• CEO Activism Class and the Professor Teaching It
• Accepted’s Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Tips & Deadlines
• MBA Admissions Consulting Services

Related Shows:

• 16 Grad School Application Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make
• Different Dimensions of Diversity
• Focus on Fit

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The post Meet Duke Fuqua’s New MBA Admissions Director, Shari Hubert [Episode 245] appeared first on Accepted Admissions Blog.