Darden's Demanding, Fulfilling Schedule

The school makes no excuse for its rigorous reputation. Students quickly learn how to work in teams and squeeze in meals, even pizza in a cup
by Scott Clemente

Pizza in a cup. This is by far the biggest innovation I've come across since starting classes 10 weeks ago. While I don't think you'll ever find this remarkable product in the aisles of your neighborhood supermarket, I think it does a good job of illustrating how busy first-year students at University of Virginia's Darden School of Business find themselves.
Let me explain. As a first-year, you quickly learn time efficiency. Between classes, working on cases, and attending various recruiting and club events, there is little time for anything else, including eating. It is the situation a friend found herself in three weeks ago. I was sitting in the library, working on cases for classes the next day, when my friend walked up to my table with her book bag slung over her shoulder and a coffee cup in her left hand. There was nothing unusual about this, but when she sat down I noticed what looked like a pizza crust sticking up over the top of the coffee cup. I asked her what it was, and she confirmed my suspicion that there was a slice of pizza stuffed pointy-side first into her cup.
Now, why would someone ever do that? Well, on this particular day my friend had gone straight through three classes in the morning, right into a presentation by PepsiCo (PEP) about its summer intern program, to a meeting for the marketing club. She had just enough time to pick up a slice of pizza from the cafeteria on her way to the library, where she was going to work on her cases before meeting with her learning team later that night (more on learning teams later). There was only one problem—food isn't allowed in the library. Her solution? Pizza in a cup. The cup concealed the pizza and allowed her to sneak it in.
If you talk to enough Darden students you will hear stories like this repeated often—from people doing laundry at 2 a.m. to a second-year who thought he lost his car keys only to return to his car and find them in the ignition…and the car still running! The dean of Darden, Robert Bruner, recently wrote: "Our reputation on Web chat boards and in the B-school rankings is that Darden's MBA program is the most demanding of all. We make no apology for that reputation." In short, it is intense.
School Days
A typical day at Darden starts off with your first class at 8 a.m. Afterward, the school meets for the Darden tradition of First Coffee, a brief informal gathering in between classes. It gives people a chance to socialize and catch up on any funny events from the previous weekend or any late-night study sessions. After First Coffee we have our second class, another break, and then typically a third class that gets done just after 1 p.m.
After classes we have from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. to attend any recruiting events, work on cases for the next day, and hopefully squeeze in some time for personal matters that need to be taken care of. It gets busy. I have classmates who put reminders in their Outlook calendars to call their parents out of fear of forgetting.
One for the Team
At 7 every night we meet with our learning team. This is a group of five to six classmates who are assigned to the team by the school. The team's purpose is to work through the cases for the next day's classes, and generally help each other learn. My learning team consists of six people, including Katie, a former AOL (TWX) communications manager originally from Tennessee; Ian, a professional cyclist and entrepreneur from Virginia; Vikram, a business developer from a software company in India; Jihyun, a television news director from South Korea; and Saul, a corporate development director from Spain.

Every night from 7 to 10 we attempt to bring our varied backgrounds and different points of view together to come up with solutions to such problems as: Did Apple (AAPL) make a mistake by cutting the price of the iPhone so quickly? How did Zimbabwe find itself in an era of 10,000% inflation and what can it do to get itself out of it? Is the Mirage Las Vegas (MGM) properly accounting for uncollectible accounts from its casino customers on its financial statements? All are real business problems and none have straight black-and-white answers.
Honing Co-Working Skills
Analyzing these problems is complicated by two factors. First, because of the case structure at Darden and the way classes are set up, you do the homework before you learn the lesson. The consequence of this is that you are constantly kept at the forefront of your learning curve and must initially struggle through the new concepts as you encounter them.
The second complicating factor is that when you put six people in a room, each with very different cultural and career backgrounds, and each used to having the right answer, you end up initially with what can best be described as a human train wreck. In our team, each person wanted to demonstrate their knowledge or skill in a particular subject and none of us ever wanted to admit that our answers were wrong.
As you can imagine, this led to a lot of wasted time. Indeed, the hours we spent debating whether the net present value of the investment in our decision analysis case was $1,567,524 or $1,567,526 are ones we'll never get back. However, over the first several weeks, each of us learned that we may not always be right. We learned to leverage each other's experience and background to not only learn from one another but perhaps take a different path to attack the problem at hand.
The end result is that now, as a group, we develop a deeper and more thorough analysis of any given case than each of us could have done individually. That's significant because at Darden it isn't enough to have the right answer. What's more important is to be able to explain how you arrived at that answer to the other 60 people who share your classroom at 8 a.m. the next day.
Direct, Invigorating Experience
These classes typically start off with another Darden tradition called the Cold Call, which occurs at the beginning of class when the professor calls on a student to give an overview of the case and begin the discussion. Some inside information for those of you who may end up here next year: If you ever find yourself unprepared to start the class off, when the professor scans the room deciding who to call on, maintain eye contact! I once made the rookie mistake of looking down at my computer when the professor looked my way. This is the equivalent of a wayward gazelle limping into the middle of a pack of lions. You can imagine how it ends.
After the Cold Call the class proceeds with a discussion of the case and the various analyses different people have come up with. Instead of lecturing, the professor guides the discussion and most of the talking is done by the students. It may not be the most comfortable way to learn but it makes for an incredibly interesting learning environment.
To date, my experience at Darden has reaffirmed my decision to come back to business school. The best way I can describe it is to quote author Michael Crichton. In his book Travels, he wrote how he would often take trips to various parts of the world to be reminded of who he really was: "Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends and your daily routines, you are forced into direct experience. That's not always comfortable but it is always invigorating."
In making the decision to pursue my MBA, I left behind my friends, my routine, a good job, and the overall comfort of home in Denver. I am working harder than I have in a long time but every morning I wake up in anticipation of the day, knowing that I am going to be challenged and that I will learn something new. The best is the stuff I never saw coming. Like if you have to, you can in fact eat pizza out of a cup.

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First-Semester Shock

"If you are heading to business school in the fall, you should expect to hit a low point sometime in November"
by Sarah Baranowski

"You have got to be kidding me," I thought. I was sitting in an MBA information session the day after my GMAT. A busy schedule had just been laid out before me. It included challenging classes, center activities, networking opportunities—all kinds of things that I wanted in an MBA program. The workload was heavy, no question about it, but a little hard work doesn't scare me. What threw me was the rigid schedule. The lockstep course structure means that you take classes when they are offered; you do not fit your credit load or your class schedule to the other things going on in your life, whether professional or personal. Required evening events, like exams and reviews, are par for the course too. (Can you imagine what would happen in the typical office if a manager regularly scheduled meetings at 7 p.m.?)
At the risk of asking a dumb question, I raised my hand and said, "So what happens if you just can't make it to one of these things?" I was met with a perplexed look. "I mean, what if a student has another obligation at night that can't be rescheduled? Are there any options?" The answer I got threw me even more. The basic gist of it went something like this: If you have that sort of concern, then maybe you should reevaluate your priorities and decide whether an MBA is really something you should be doing. In other words, give yourself over entirely to the MBA experience, or don't bother getting an MBA. That moment was the first hint of things to come. I began to adjust my expectations.
A "Crazy Way to Live"
When I began the semester and started talking to fellow students, I realized that many of us are unable (or disinclined) to give up our other pursuits in life. Some of us have children. Some of us have jobs. Some of us are starting up businesses. Some of us have other academic studies or professional training to complete. Some of us have ties to family or community or causes that we want to maintain. The MBA is designed to consume every moment and then some, but plenty of people who belong in business school do not have every moment to give. Nevertheless, we all decided to forge ahead and make it work.
Now I have finished midterms, and I am closer to the end of the semester than the beginning. I am pretty satisfied with my progress. But before the halfway point, when exams are piling up and every waking minute is devoted to the program, the doubts creep in. You think, why am I punishing myself this way? You think, how did I end up here? You think, being a student is a crazy way to live. You think, I might not make it.
If you are heading to business school in the fall, you should expect to hit a low point sometime in November. Plan for it, because it will happen no matter what you do ahead of time. For my part, I started to see combinations of panic and fatigue on the faces in my cohorts first. I felt like I was doing reasonably well. Then midterms hit, and I fell apart. I realized that I don't know how to take tests anymore, especially tests that have anything to do with math (my last math class was more than 15 years ago). The stress plays out in everyone differently, but everyone learns one common lesson: the value of grace under pressure.
First semester is like a finishing school and a boot camp wrapped up in one package. On the finishing school side, I have decked out my wardrobe with formal business attire, learned lessons in business meal etiquette, and dressed up more often in the first couple weeks than I had in the past couple of years. Then to cover boot camp, add to the mix conditions of sleep loss, identity loss, and mounting pressure to perform well on demand. Like I said before, it is one long lesson in grace under pressure. Is it worth it? Definitely. But I need a reminder once in a while.

To that end, let me tell you, and remind myself, why the first semester is worth the stress, late nights, and self doubts. If you have a first semester in your near future, then you may want to bookmark this spot and come back to it around, say, Nov. 9 next year. Here it is—my personal list of reasons to stick with it:
Reason #1: You have earned a place at the table.
In the Wisconsin full-time MBA program, every student is a member of a center, which corresponds to a specialization. My specialization is Operations & Technology Management. Each center has an industry board comprised of executive-level managers who have expertise within the specialization. My center brought its industry board together for its annual meeting earlier this semester. The board is comprised of VPs, COOs, CIOs, and CTOs for the most part. All of the center's students were invited to sit in on the meeting. As I watched the day's activities, I realized the extent to which I was capable of participating in the discussions. I also happened to be deep in the thick of midterms and facing the cold fact that I am working my tail off just to pull Bs in some of my classes. It was fortunate timing; I needed a confidence booster. I left knowing that I belonged at the table. Grades didn't mean a lick.
Reason #2: You will never look at a business problem the same way again.
The amount of learning packed into a few brief months is amazing. At first it was overwhelming, and then exhilarating, and now (in November) exhausting. But in spite of my mental and physical exhaustion, I cannot question the value of what I have learned, and I find myself eager to begin putting these lessons to work on the job. On a similar note, the business fundamentals in the first semester have also validated my work experience. No book ever told me to ignore sunk costs, for example, but I knew it anyway from experience. It's gratifying to put a framework around intuition.
Reason #3: You meet all the right people.
It's great fun to be surrounded every day by a really smart group of people. It's even better when you get to see how different smarts tackle the same problem in different ways. With students, faculty, and business leaders in one place, and with perspectives that cut across industries and fields of practice, I have deepened my already healthy respect for the power of diverse thinking. First semester is a constant stream of new faces and new ideas; many of them are at the C-level or VP-level of management; some of the most valuable are sitting next to me in class.
Reason #4: It ends in December.
Can I keep up this pace indefinitely? No. Can I last until Dec. 20? Yes. The key is to work hard and get as much as possible out of the experience, knowing that the opportunity will not last. I cannot help but wonder if there isn't a way to prepare driven, intelligent people for roles as business leaders and strategists without pushing us to the breaking point. Perhaps it is too early for me to say. But one thing I know: it's all temporary. At the end of December, I will be enjoying the holidays with my family, and I can spend much of January recovering.

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MBA students left high and dry

Spare a thought for the classes of 2007 and 2008. It seems investment banking jobs are proving hard to come by.

A student at a leading European business school says banks are still coming to present on campus, but that with the exception of Credit Suisse, few appear to have any full-time places left for 2008: “Places have already been filled by last year’s summer interns. If you missed the boat last summer, it’s a lot of work to find a place – especially if you don’t already have a finance background.”
A spokesperson for London Business School assures us it’s too early to establish what’s going on in terms of banks’ recruitment, but that banks are still coming on campus and conducting interviews.
Really? Other business schools are a little more explicit about the situation. Sandra Schwarzer, a finance careers manager at INSEAD, says they’ve had an “exceptional” year in terms of summer interns and that banks are on campus making offers, but admits that three have already filled corporate finance places – largely with interns.
And another London-based business school careers service manager says MBA students are definitely less popular among banks: “There are a lot more MBAs on the market, and banks appear to be more interested in MSc students with a really good specialty background.”
Malcolm Horton, head of European graduate recruiting and programme management at Lehman Brothers, says this year is no different from any other: “There are some business areas that don’t need to top up offers made to interns with additional full-time hires, and there are others that are still looking.”
Summer interns typically account for 65% to 90% of full-time associate hires, says Horton.
In many cases it looks like 90% may be closer to the mark.

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Student Funds Get Responsible

A new breed of student-run investment funds looks for social returns along with dividends
by Alison Damast

Student-run investment funds at business schools typically have had one goal: to teach students how to make money. Now a new generation of business-school students is giving that old-fashioned model a face-lift, aligning their investments with socially responsible business practices.
It's a movement that's quickly gaining steam. Students and faculty at Columbia Business School and the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business launched funds this fall directed solely toward socially responsible investing. The funds are an extension of a flurry of new electives, specialized research institutes, student clubs, and internships focused on social and environmental issues (BusinessWeek.com, 10/10/07).
This new breed of student-run funds has taken a variety of forms, from funds that invest in mainstream index funds to nonprofit arrangements aimed at helping "micro" entrepreneurs.
Students are clamoring to apply their new knowledge in this field to the financial markets, says Rich Leimsider, director of the Center for Business Education in New York, part of the nonprofit Aspen Institute. "It is definitely a new concept for business-school students to be doing this, " Leimsider says. "This is obviously a real-life example of putting your money where your mouth is."
Haas Fund Eschews Blanket Restrictions
Among the most high-profile of these funds is the Haas Socially Responsible Investment Fund, launched this fall with a seed gift of $250,000 from Haas alumnus Charlie Michaels. The school has since managed to raise a total of $1.3 million for the fund, which will be managed by four MBA students and two master's in financial engineering students.
The idea emerged from a discussion between Michaels and Haas professor Kellie McElhaney in which they both lamented the way most socially responsible investment funds are run. Typically, these funds screen out entire industries such as tobacco, alcohol, or firearms from their investment portfolios, a move that can have a significant impact on returns and could eliminate some companies that integrate socially responsible activities into their operations, said McElhaney, a professor of corporate responsibility and the director of the Center for Responsible Business.
Michaels and McElhaney decided to create a fund that would not impose those blanket restrictions on categories, but rather encourage students to make more significant investments in companies closely aligned with the philosophy of the fund. "We were trying to get away from the negative screening process of eliminating an entire industry," McElhaney says. "We wouldn't screen out a tobacco company, but we'd take a shorter position on tobacco than an energy company that more closely matches our criteria."
Putting Ideals into Practice
Most of the students running the fund were required to take a class in socially responsible investment techniques, offered by the school for the first time this semester. They spent the past few months developing their investment criteria and plan to evaluate firms on their social, environmental, and financial performance. By January, they expect to start investing in companies.
"For us, it is an opportunity to put our stake in the ground and prove that social investing can be a big part of a business-school curriculum," says Michael Pearce, a second-year Haas student who worked as an analyst for UBS (UBS) before attending business school. "It's one thing to read about it in class or learn about it in a club, but it's another thing to see if it actually works out in practice."
Columbia Takes a Micro View
At Columbia, students are hoping to make a dent in global poverty by creating a nonprofit investment fund dubbed the Microlumbia Fund. The students will make two to three low-interest "micro" loans a year to small, entry-level microfinance programs or banks in developing areas. These groups will then assist would-be small business owners in their communities.
The idea developed last year, when a group of first-year students took a class in social entrepreneurship. Since then, about 20 students have gotten involved with the group and have raised $10,000 for the venture. They hope to raise $100,000 and make two to three investments of approximately $25,000 each by the end of the year, says Katharine Leonberger, a second-year student and co-founder of the group. "It's not huge money," Leonberger says, "but even giving a loan of $25,000 to such a small institution can make a big difference."
The group will closely track its investments, sending a team of four to five students to third-world countries each year to work with microfinance institutions and entrepreneurs.
Raymond Fisman, the Lambert Family Professor of Social Enterprise and a faculty adviser to the group, applauds the approach. He hopes the lessons students learn from running Microlumbia will extend beyond their years as business-school students. "It's not like the primary function of a university should be to fund small-scale enterprise," Fisman says. "The primary goal should be to help our students understand how, when they go out into the world, they can do these things themselves."
A New Twist on Student Funds
Student-run investment funds have been around since at least 1952, when Gannon University in Erie, Pa., created what is believed to be the first one, says Edward Lawrence, a professor of finance at the University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Business, who is compiling a directory of student-run investment funds. There are now about 200 in the world, approximately 190 of which are in North America.
Socially responsible investment funds at universities are a relatively new phenomenon, Lawrence says. Although the first one was launched at Bluffton University in Ohio in 1956, most have been launched in the past three to four years, he says. For example, NYU's Stern School of Business launched a social-entrepreneurship venture fund in 2004, and the Villanova School of Business launched a socially responsible investment fund the same year.
Other schools are following suit, though, given the resources required, only the largest schools are likely to create such funds. "Business students have become more socially oriented, and they realize that it is not just about making money," Lawrence says. "It's about having an impact in a positive way in the rest of the world."

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Now, Virginia University to train Indian managers

Virginia University in the US is set to enter the fast-paced education scene in India with certificate programmes for senior managers of Indian companies — for a steep fee of Rs 200,000 per candidate. “Whether it’s economy or education, India is a huge market. We are all getting attracted towards India’s fast expanding corporate sector, stable government, talented and young human capital and a vast English-speaking population,” said Darden School of Business dean Robert F Bruner. “We are going to start customised executive certificate programmes for Indian executives. The programmes will range from three to five days and the fee will be $5,000 (about Rs 200,000),” Bruner informed. The author of the book “The Panic of 1907” said the residential courses would be for senior managers of growing Indian companies. “I have interacted with seven top companies this time and they have shown real interest in our courses. We are also planning to give customised courses to individual companies,” said Bruner

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ISB to scale up ties with foreign varsities

Indian School of Business (ISB) is scaling up its partnerships with universities overseas. A slew of tie-ups are on the anvil — one with premier institutions in Brazil, Russia and China, another with Cornell University and a third with Columbia University. The proposed tie-up with institutions in Brazil, Russia and China is expected to generate new courses that will help executives tap business opportunities in these countries. The partnership with Cornell University is for joint research and curriculum development, while that with Columbia University is to develop a rating system for transnational corporates. “The goal of our tie-up with institutes in Brazil, Russia and China is to develop a programme for those who are entering BRIC (Brazil, Russia, China and India) countries to start their operations. It will also help train executives in an existing organization and generate more business opportunities,” ISB dean M Rammohan Rao told ET. According to him, the new programme will help executives understand the factors that triggered growth in the BRIC economies. ISB’s Wadhwani Centre of Entrepreneurial Development (WECD) and Cornell Centre (Cornell University) have agreed to work on a joint initiative, Sustainable Global Enterprise Initiative-India (SEGI). “It is aimed at developing a unique Indian model of corporate sustainability. The initiative will include establishing a Base of the Pyramid (BOP) Learning Laboratory-India. The initiative will also seek to build an executive council of serious and informed business leaders who can help to drive the agenda,” said Rao. Besides an executive council, faculty network and curriculum development, the programme will also involve applied research. It will offer a post PGP immersion programme for ISB graduates, develop an executive education programme and foster faculty and student exchanges across the two institutions. The B-school already has formed academic alliances with the Kellogg School of Mnagement at Northwestern University, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the London Business School (LBS). Kellogg, Wharton and ISB signed a memorandum of understanding in November 1997 to share expertise and academic resources.

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Indian students dominate Harvard Business School

For the first time, Indian students will have a majority representation among the foreign students at the Harvard Business School (HBS). Out of the 900 students who joined this year and will graduate in 2009, 38 students are from India or of Indian origin. The Indian contingent has pipped the one from Canada, which usually has the maximum representation. The number of students from Canada has remained constant at 35 for the graduating batches of 2008 and 2009. According to, HBS assistant director in MBA career services, Kurt Piemonte, “Increasingly, we find Indian students want to head back to the country to pursue their careers. There is a real interest in India and the trend of returning to India to work is catching up. The number of students who have not been in the US before and want to return to India to work is rising.” Apparently, this also holds true for second generation Indian students, for whom the only link to India is their parents are also opting to work from the country. HBS alumni in the country have taken keen interest in familiarising HBS students with India during field visits, he added. As is well known, about 15% of HBS’s faculty are either from India or of Indian origin, making them the highest international representation after the US. Today, many of these professors teach cases based on frontline Indian companies like TCS, ITC e-choupal and ICICI Bank. In addition, HBS also holds an India conference annually and invites business leaders from India to share their perspective. Also, as part of its plan to globalise its curriculum, in 2005, HBS opened the India Research Center (IRC) in Mumbai, one of the six research units across the world. The research centre will help build HBS’s knowledge about the Indian economy and the corporate sector through case studies and original research work. HBS plans of offer its first executive education programme in India in February 2008.

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Chicago GSB Announces Creative New Way For Applicants to Present Themselves

To enable prospective full-time MBA students to present a more complete picture of their candidacy, applicants to the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business will now submit up to four slides about themselves with their application, the school announced today.

In announcing the new requirement the school noted that prospective students are asked to supply facts about themselves throughout the application, but the slides will allow applicants to be creative and tell the admissions committee about themselves using a medium that parallels the communication tools used for professional and social networking.

“This is a departure from the text-only application that we used in the past because under the old format we were unable to capture important information showing how prospective students define themselves,” said Stacey Kole, deputy dean at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

The slides may contain pictures, graphs, text, or anything else that prospective students want to include, according to the school.

The requirement applies to students seeking to start the MBA program in September 2008. Applicants must still submit two traditional essays as part of the application process in addition to a maximum of four slides.

“There is no right or wrong way to satisfy the new requirement,” said Rosemaria Martinelli, associate dean for student recruitment and admissions for the school’s full-time MBA program. “The important thing is that applicants can express themselves in ways they could not before in essay form,” she said.

In today’s business environment, communication is fast and concise, Martinelli said. “Whether it be e-mail, PowerPoint, or a two-minute elevator speech, successful businesspeople need to learn how to express their full ideas in very restrictive formats. We feel the new application requirement represents this very common challenge,” she said. “But instead of using this tool to sell a product or request new business, applicants are using it to present themselves.”

In addition to the slides, applicants for next year’s entering class must also answer two essay questions. The first essay, limited to 1,500 words, is: “Why are you pursuing an MBA at this point in your career? What are your personal and professional goals and the role an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business plays in your plans to reach these goals?”

The second essay, limited to 500 words, asks: “If you could step into someone else’s shoes for a day, who would it be and why?”
“Feedback from our current students shows that one of the unique things about our MBA program is that it challenges people to think in different ways and to be prepared for the unexpected,” Martinelli said. “We keep that in mind as we select our essay questions. The new requirement for slides just takes that to another level.”

The slides submitted with the application will not be judged on technical ability but rather the self-expression that is revealed, the school said. “Slides allow people to stretch beyond just the written word and one inch margins into a different space where an applicant can be much more expressive,” Martinelli said.

“The slides will be printed and placed in each applicant’s file for review, which means all the bells and whistles such as Flash, video clips, embedded music and hyperlinks won’t be considered in the evaluation process,” she said. “This clearly levels the playing field for everyone.”

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business is one of the leading business schools in the world. The school’s faculty includes many renowned scholars and its graduates include many business leaders across the U.S. and worldwide.

It is consistently ranked as one of the top ten business schools in the world and usually as one
of the top five. The Chicago Approach to Management Education is distinguished by
how it leverages fundamental knowledge, its rigor, and its practical application to business challenges.

Chicago GSB offers full-time and part-time MBA programs, an executive MBA program, a Ph.D. program, open enrollment executive education and custom corporate education.

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M.B.A. Programs Pay Off for Women Seeking a Return to Wall Street

Efforts on Wall Street to re-engage women who are trying to return to the work force, many of whom left for family obligations, have started to yield results.

During the last few years, some of the nation’s premier business schools began to address that demographic group with executive M.B.A. programs. Of those, perhaps the most encompassing is the annual program started last fall by the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, with a curriculum that combined academics and career opportunities.

With a median age of 47 and an average of eight years out of the work force, 41 students — 35 women and 6 men — participated in the first Tuck program, known as Back in Business. Of those, slightly more than half have found high-level and often high-paying work, according to the program’s director, Anant Sundaram.

He said that of those, “one or two ended up with consumer products companies, four with nonprofit organizations and a dozen with banks or financial services firms.” Three others returned to their own businesses, one went on to graduate school and another “had great offers but has postponed getting back into the work force.”

Those in the program said that the biggest issue facing them was not whether their skills were rusty; rather, it was the confidence that they had lost while not working. As Diana Allan, a graduate, said when polled by another program graduate, she realized that she should “never apologize for being out of the market.”

Several Tuck graduates landed at Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Citi, where Hans Morris, an early champion of the program, was chief financial officer of the markets and banking division before becoming president of Visa Inc. in September.

One, Janine Abbatecola, 40, a 1989 Cornell graduate who left her job at Credit Suisse in 2003, landed at Goldman Sachs, she said, because of Tuck’s “career evening where eight, nine companies, one of which was Goldman Sachs, came.” She subsequently “came to an event at Goldman, wound up connecting with a recruiter and meeting with a group, and everything took off from there.” She took a job as a vice president in Goldman’s equities division, a position similar to the one she had held at Credit Suisse. (Goldman has hired six other women through its own initiative for those who have taken career breaks.)

Another Tuck participant, Bette Rice, 50, joined Merrill Lynch in the late 1980s but left in 2002 when “my kids were in middle school,” when she was a director working on fixed income products. Ms. Rice decided to try the Tuck program when her daughter was applying to college, and she found that it “contributed a lot to the soft skills — how to put together your approach to re-entry and to think through the job market, my skills, résumé and core competencies.”

While she interviewed at several places, she decided in January to return to Merrill Lynch.

Not all of the Tuck graduates have joined Wall Street firms. Some have opted to try their hand at entrepreneurship while others, like Anne Donoghue, turned to the nonprofit world.

Ms. Donoghue, a publicist, did some consulting work after being laid off at Warner Brothers in 2001, but she devoted time to her nieces and nephews after her brother-in-law died in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The program, she said, “gave me the confidence that I had something to contribute.” Ms. Donoghue, now 44, eventually decided that she wanted to work at a nonprofit organization. She learned through a networking site that the American Kennel Club was looking for a director of publicity.

While the need to explain their career gaps was not an issue, the women interviewed said, compensation, as expected, was a question. Those interviewed said their pay at least equaled their earlier earnings.

As Catherine Tanelli, 46, who now works in Citi’s investment banking division put it: “If you do the math, and look at straight numbers, my salary is higher now although it is five years later. I don’t know what it would have been had I stayed, because I probably would have had one or two promotions, with commensurate salary increases. My new position is as if time stood still.”

While there are many successes, Professor Sundaram said that consumer products companies have been more reluctant to hire those who have taken time off. “In part, many organizations don’t have champions like Hans Morris,” he said, adding that “some in H.R. have trouble dealing with this demographic and are struggling with how to appropriately place these people.”

Tuck is not the only business school with this type of executive program. Harvard Business School, for example, has had a program for its alumni for five years. Wharton started its first program in March, according to Professor Monica McGrath, who is directing the program.

Professor Sundaram said that the Tuck faculty is now reviewing applications for the next class, set to begin this month. He said that Tuck would adjust the program slightly this year, concentrating more heavily on refreshing financial knowledge as well as career skills, with less emphasis on leadership. The program has three sessions — two on the Dartmouth campus and one in New York. The cost is $13,500, but more than half is underwritten by corporate sponsors, which this year include Citi, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and MetLife. The participants pay for the rest.

While Professor Sundaram is pleased with the results to date, he acknowledged the difficulties in placing these high-level professionals. “It’s been a slog — out of 41 participants in the charter class, maybe 22, 23 are in positions close to what they are looking for. A handful, when confronted with the reality of the workplace, have recalibrated and decided they’re not quite ready. But there are a dozen who are very talented and hungry to do things, and who are, nine months later, still looking.”

Ms. Allan, 52, is one participant who is still looking. She said, “It’s a little harder to re-enter when you’re trying to change industries at the same time. It’s possible, because I’m talking to some people, but it’s finding the right fit — the right industry, the right level and where the job is challenging. The world is not as open to returnees as you would hope, but it’s getting there. I’ve been pleased with how people look at the résumé and accept that’s what I did.”

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The Basics of MBA Budgeting

Handling tuition and unexpected expenses can be draining for business school students. Here are some tips for managing your money - by Francesca Di Meglio

Being shaky with personal finances is the dirty little secret of many business school students. While most would-be MBAs know corporate finance like the back of their hands, personal finance is a whole other matter for many of them. Bonnie Lack, director of financial aid at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business, says many MBA students do not know how to balance their checkbooks, fail to regularly check their credit score, hold too many credit cards, and mistakenly think they make too much money to qualify for student loans and aid.

Worse, they feel like they should know all this stuff, so they don't ask questions or get help. B-schoolers who could use a hand getting their finances in order can do something about their situation and still have a life. Here are some tips from personal finance experts and fellow students on how to budget your money even when you're without a salary and unexpected expenses come up:
Start Early

The moment you start contemplating going back to school, you should take stock of the money available to you. How much do you have and how much do you need to get through testing, applications, visits to schools, tuition, books, living expenses, the job search, etc.? And how will you make up the difference—loans, help from mom and dad, living off investments?

Those who get an early start—at least a year before joining a B-school—can stash some cash for their starving-student days. Most experts agree that you should save either six months worth of living expenses or $10,000 before returning to graduate school. Lack suggests that people start "living like students" as soon as they decide to apply to B-school. That means packing lunches, forgoing designer clothes and unnecessarily pricey outings with friends, and basically living below your means.
Expect the Unexpected

If you've done your homework, you've calculated the big ticket items such as tuition. But you should also sweat the small stuff, which can add up. Jerel Harvey, a second-year student at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, was taken aback when he discovered that campus parking fees would cost him about $400 annually. Add that to the student activities fees and costs for traveling to conferences and job interviews, and Harvey says students can easily break the bank.

Extracurricular activities such as studying abroad and networking events are often initially unplanned and expensive. For study abroad, some students take out more loans. Getting student loans with lower interest rates is better than using credit cards that tend to have high interest rates. Dinners and networking trips will come out of the student's own pocket. Attend events, suggests Harvey, that give you the most bang for your buck, where you'll meet lots of people in your sector or be able to make an impression with your first choice of employers. Stay home for all the others.
Finding A Job Costs Money

There are many chances for students to go on trips to meet with potential employers. Be choosy, and prepare to have to leave at a minute's notice—and be able to afford the airfare, hotel, and accommodations—for an interview for your dream job. Some students estimate that the job search can cost between $5,000 and $10,000.

There's the temptation, of course, to build up credit card debt and use summer internship earnings to pay it down. Use credit cards only when you have the cash to pay it off at the end of the month, says Dianna Barra, author of Quick and Easy Budget Book (Idea Designs; December, 2002) and owner of Idea Designs, a publishing group that offers resources and advice on issues such as emergency preparedness and budgeting your household. "When I was younger, I learned that a person who understands interest earns it, and those who don't, pay it," she says.
Track Your Spending

Because those little things—such as the morning cup of coffee—add up, Jerrold Mundis, author of How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously (Bantam; January, 2003) suggests keeping tabs on every penny you spend for at least 30 days, ideally for three months. Include everything from laundry to Starbucks (SBUX) to renting videos. That will help you realize how many costly things you could do without. "Just doing this reduces expenses by 10% per month," says Mundis.

Write out a detailed budget for yourself and decide exactly how much money you need to allocate for necessities (food, utilities, shelter, commuting, etc.), says Jason Rich, series editor of Entrepreneur magazine's Personal Finance Pocket Guides. Don't forget to include a column for miscellaneous things such as dental work, auto repairs, or travel expenses for a job interview. "It might be a cliché, but expect the unexpected," says Michael Scrafford, a second-year student at Kenan-Flagler. He suggests thinking of your tuition as only 50% of the B-school tab. The other 50% is for living expenses and all of these other costs that you might not have even thought about before returning to school.
Keep It Simple

Think about ways you can cut back on the unnecessary stuff. "Do you really need cable?" asks Rich. In fact, Carnegie Mellon's Lack says you should consider making a simple home for yourself for the two years in B-school. Forget video game consoles and stereo equipment, she says, because you'll rarely be in your room anyway.

Lack even suggests that graduate students consider getting a roommate to divvy up expenses. This might not be the right choice for married couples, but usually one spouse works while the other attends B-school. In those instances, the spouses should stretch any income that's coming in as much as they can.

Experts remind students that they can save money and still have fun. One route to affordable good times is taking advantage of student discounts and free cultural activities on campus or in the city or town where you're studying, says Mundis. Learning to cook and making meals at home is almost a requirement, say students. And life's luxuries—from name-brand cereals to flat-screen TVs—will have to wait until after grad school.
Families Face Special Problems

One Kenan-Flagler student/mother, Patrycja Krzok, found that caring for her son's financial needs was a challenge. Student loans don't factor in children. She has to pay more for medical insurance to get him covered, too, and he needs supplies for school. That's not to mention the usual food and shelter required for everyone, which is more expensive for families. Even Krzok's books were not covered by her loans, and they often cost up to $400 for each modular. Her son's grandparents pitched in to help her make ends meet for him, and she tried to get student loans to cover as much as possible. Krzok advises anyone entering school with a family to start living on a reduced budget even before B-school, so everyone can adjust to the new lifestyle—and you can determine how much you're really going to need.

Don't be too arrogant or too afraid to ask for help. Talking to an accountant is a great idea, says Rich, because a professional can advise you on how to get rid of debt, set up a budget, and understand the tax benefits to being a student (BusinessWeek, 2/20/07).
Keep the Long View

Most people who go back to school for an MBA are looking for a lifetime of benefit from the degree. "You will come out of it alive," says Krzok. "It's about short-term sacrifices for long-term gain." Tuition may be upward of $80,000, rent could be well over $1,000 per month (even more at urban campuses), and dinners out could cost hundreds. But an enriched mind, after all, is priceless.

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More International Graduate Admissions

A new report shows business schools are increasing numbers of international students as well as expanding their own programs overseas

Come fall, U.S. business schools will reach even more international students. According to a study released Aug. 28 by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), a jump in overseas applications and admission offers will increase international student populations at U.S. schools—particularly business programs. It also predicts the significant expansion of U.S. programs abroad.
According to the group's interim findings, admission offers for international business students rose 10% for the upcoming school year, while applications were up by 15% from last year. It's the second straight year of sharp increases in applications and offers of admission to international students.
Equally Competitive
How many of these international students will actually make it to campus is another matter, says Kenneth Redd, the author of the study and director of Research & Policy Analysis at the Council of Graduate Schools. After September 11, stricter visa requirements decreased the number of international students coming into the U.S. Some of the restrictions that were put in place have been eased, Redd says. "We're hoping to see that the changes made by the State Dept. will alleviate some of the barriers for student visas and will be reflected in our enrollment numbers, but there seems to be a backlog of complaints from our consulates."
Does the smaller growth in admission offers mean that spots for international students are getting even more competitive? Not quite, says Redd. The bulk of the increase probably comes from foreign students applying to several U.S. schools at one time, he says.
While application rates for business programs have been leveling off since 2005, this year's study shows a significant increase in international students who want to pursue business-related fields. "What you're seeing is business increasing faster than the overall average," says Redd. "It's an indication of foreign students who are wanting to learn about American business practices."
International Degree
According to the survey, the international applicant pool is also growing faster at universities that have smaller international populations. They're "getting more involved with recruitment and enrollment, so there's more internal activity away from the traditional 50 campuses," says Redd. For example, of the 50 universities with the largest international populations, admission offers to students from China grew by 15%, but for those outside of the 50 largest, there was a 38% surge.
It's telling that, as international education is becoming increasingly important, the CGS for the first time gathered data on the joint and dual-degree programs that U.S. universities have recently developed abroad. The study found that nearly 30% of American universities have established collaborative degree programs with international universities. But what's more indicative of future global business trends is that almost a quarter of U.S. schools plan to establish at least one international program in the next two years. For business schools that number is significantly higher—44%—than other fields, including engineering and social sciences.
International programs include dual-degree programs (in which graduates receive degrees from both institutions) and joint-degree programs (in which graduates receive only one degree), as well as other programs including MBA and executive MBA options.
The August survey by the CGS is the second of three that studies international applications for the upcoming academic year. A final report analyzing actual enrollment trends will be issued in October.
Dizik is a BusinessWeek.com project assistant.

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Reflections from India

Education and educators are highly regarded in India, which makes teaching a pleasure and a privilege

by Marshall Goldsmith

During a recent trip to India, I had the opportunity to work with many dedicated professionals at the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad.

ISB is an amazing place. It is a new institution that was formed with the support of Kellogg, Wharton, and the London Business School. The admission standards are extremely selective. Although it is only a few years old, ISB is already one of the top five schools in the world in terms of average GMAT score. I was there to teach a two-day executive education class on coaching to 50 top leaders from across India.

I love teaching in India. Every participant in my program was eager to learn. There is nothing that a teacher loves more than dedicated students who want to learn. The first day of my program lasted from 7 in the morning until 10 at night. I tried to answer as many questions as I could, but eventually I ran out of time! My students were willing to listen as long as I was willing to teach.

Deep Respect for Education

I was amazed at the sincerity and interest shown by the participants in my course. There was absolutely none of the cynicism or skepticism that I sometimes encounter in the U.S. or Western Europe. As a rule, people in India have a deep respect for education and for educators. At the end of the two days, I was given a lovely card with a personal thank-you note from each participant. I was very moved by their gratitude.

As I headed to my room at around 10:30 p.m., I saw three young ISB MBA students working on an assignment and decided to stop by and introduce myself. I asked them several questions about their lives, their futures, India, and the new global economy.

When I asked, "How many hours a day do you work?" one young woman laughed and said, "28!"

Income Gap Widens

All three agreed that they started studying each day early in the morning and finished late at night. They didn't seem to mind. They realized how fortunate they were to be admitted to such a selective program. They were grateful for the opportunity to be there and wanted to learn as much as they could.

As a country, India still has hundreds of millions of extremely poor citizens who live in villages. The differentiation in incomes between the rich and poor has increased dramatically in the past 10 years.

I asked the MBA students, "How do the poor people in the villages feel about fortunate students like you? You are going to be making a lot of money when you graduate from ISB. Is there increasing resentment out there in the countryside?"

Emigration Not as Attractive

Their answer surprised me. The students all knew people in the villages. The general feeling was that, in almost every village, there was a resident who had left, attained a good education, and achieved a much more affluent life. If there was not a person in the village who had made it out, there was a relative in a nearby village. The students felt that even poor villagers saw hope for their children or grandchildren through hard work and education.

The world has changed a lot in the past few years. In the past, brilliant students, like the ones that I met at ISB, all dreamed of going to America or Europe for a quality education. Now they can get a quality education in India. In the past, brilliant young students all planned on leaving India to get great jobs. Now they can get great jobs in India.

The students went on to discuss India's problems. Corruption, lack of infrastructure, and emerging competition in Asia all represent real challenges for India.

U.S. Heading Backward?

As I listened to these brilliant young students, I thought about America. In the past few decades, we have made progress on many fronts and may have gone backward on others.

In some ways there seems to be a decreasing respect for education—and for educators—in our country. The average high school teacher used to make a little less money than an accountant or consultant, but not that much. Today the difference in income is huge.

In general, teachers don't seem to get the same amount of respect that they did when I was a student. And, unlike the people whom I met in India, many Americans are not very confident that their children and grandchildren will have better lives (BusinessWeek.com, 8/21/07) than they have.

The Future Is in Knowledge

As parents, teachers, leaders, and citizens, we can learn a couple of lessons from the people whom I met in India. Individually and collectively, we may need to revisit our priorities. We may need to demonstrate more respect for education and for educators. In the competitive world of knowledge work, educated individuals and educated societies are going to have a huge competitive advantage. We may also need to connect the value of a great education with our hope for a brighter future.

Many years ago, most Americans were farmers. Those days are gone. More recently, many Americans worked in manufacturing. Those days are soon to be gone. The future of America is going to be determined by knowledge workers. Education will be a key factor in determining our collective success as a society and each person's success as an individual.

Hard-working, educated people who have hopes and dreams for a better future are going to win, no matter what country they come from.

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Scandal in Mind, Fuqua Welcomes MBAs

New-student orientation puts renewed emphasis on the honor code and ethics in the wake of cheating expulsions at the Duke B-school

by Alison Damast

With a new MBA class arriving, administrators at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business are trying to move beyond last spring's cheating scandal, while simultaneously addressing cultural differences that may have led to the incident, which resulted in mass suspensions and expulsions (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/30/07, "Duke MBAs Fail Ethics Test"

Preventing such a situation from happening again is a top priority for the school, which greeted a new class of 431 first-year students in early August. Among the orientation activities was a session on the school's honor code, during which they talked about how international students might view ethical issues through different lenses.

The cheating scandal, which resulted in the one-year suspension of 15 students and the expulsion of nine students, was on many students' minds as they arrived on campus for orientation. Over the summer, school officials had been working hard to contain the fallout from the nationwide publicity over the scandal and calming fears of incoming students that a Duke MBA had become tainted. "When they first brought up the honor code, it was like, 'Oh gosh, what is going to happen now,'" said Kaamil Isles, a first-year Fuqua student. "You worry that the actions of a few students or subset of students will affect how teachers perceive us and potentially, the people who hire us."

Sending a Strong Message

Administrators hope to assuage students' fears that the school has lost trust in them by reassuring them that the school does not plan to change its educational practices. However, the school is taking new steps this year to ensure that all students, no matter what culture they come from, understand how to interpret and abide by the school's much-vaunted honor code. "We wanted to send a strong message to the students that we were not willing to change our teaching methods in response to the honor-code violations," said Bill Boulding, senior associate dean for daytime programs.

Over the summer, administrators conducted an exhaustive review of how the school presents the code to students during orientation and over the course of their two years at the school, from the admissions process to investigations of alleged violations. They asked professors to make sure that students are clear about how to conduct themselves during assignments and exams. There will be renewed emphasis on the code in academic settings this year. It will be discussed in more depth in a new three-week program at the school called the Global Institute and will be woven into the school's new curriculum, debuting this year.

Orientation for first-year students was a starting point for discussion on the topic. At the event, administrators and students guided a discussion of the honor code within the context of last year's cheating scandal. Boulding, who spoke at the event, emphasized that students need to buy into the school's honor-code culture, no matter what country they come from or education system they were raised in. "I wanted to drive home the point that we are all one culture here at Fuqua and we all have to accept the same standards, even though you might have been brought up in an education system where the accepted practices varied considerably," said Boulding.

Questions About Cultural Distortions

Indeed, the cultural issues at play in the case are ones that have taken on renewed importance in recent months. Nearly all of the 38 students found guilty of cheating by the school were Asian, according to papers filed by Robert Ekstrand, a Durham (N.C.) attorney who last spring filed appeals on behalf of 16 students. Those appeals were all denied by the school. Duke officials would not release details on the case, except to say that the students involved were from "multiple countries and multiple continents."

"It is a cultural issue, a very serious one. It is subtle and is capable of repetition without notice," Ekstrand said in an interview earlier this month. He declined to discuss details of the cases because, he said, the issue remained open.

Meanwhile, in a brief submitted to the school during the appeals process, provided to BusinessWeek by one of the disciplined students, Ekstrand asserted that the students may not have been given a fair trial by the school because of the manner in which the investigation was conducted, one that did not take into account the legal cultures the students came from.

Tripped Up by the U.S. Legal System?

According to the document, in the students' home countries, confessions are looked upon as a way to bring a person back into the larger group. The accused is expected to show remorse and his desire to be reintegrated. It's a philosophy that is "fundamentally different than that of the American legal culture," Ekstrand wrote. "When they were confronted with allegations of wrongdoing, they were predisposed to avoid even the appearance of a disagreement with the school's allegation. To these students, it would be illogical for them to admit violating the code, and then dispute the extent of the wrongdoing."

This worked against them during the initial judicial board hearings, Ekstrand wrote. Many of these students offered long and rambling confessions that expressed their remorse and repentance for their actions. Judicial board members may have misinterpreted the students' remorse, viewing their confessions through the lens of the American legal culture, Ekstrand argued.

Indeed, two of the students found guilty by the school, both of whom are Asian, spoke with BusinessWeek in Durham earlier this summer and agreed that cultural differences played a role in how they chose to answer the school's charges and defend themselves.

"Totally Changed Our Career"

One of the students received a one-year suspension, while the other was expelled. Both filed appeals that were turned down. They said they were unclear what evidence the school had against them when they were asked to issue a confession by the investigator assigned to the case. They also said they did not understand what it meant to have "the right to avoid self-incrimination," an option guaranteed to students in Fuqua's honor code.

The two students, who had established an e-mail address with the name "Fuqua Facts," asked that their names not be disclosed because they are hoping to return to Duke. They remained on the Duke campus after most of the other accused students had left, hoping to reverse the school's action, "I spent a lot of time during the hearing to say how I felt regretful and sorry about the charges. I didn't defend myself point by point," said one student from China, who received the suspension. "Now, I think this was a significant mistake."

The other student, a former financial-services worker from Beijing, who was expelled, added: "Even if we made a mistake, we just wanted to talk to the school. This has totally changed our career and lives."

But while the students and Ekstrand hold out hope that the incident will be reviewed, Duke business-school officials say they have no plans to reopen the issue. "For us, it is the end of the appeal process," Boulding said.

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American M.B.As. Flock to Asia

By Cris Prystay

When William Lee, a manager at Microsoft Corp., decided to seek to leapfrog his career by getting an M.B.A., he signed up for a joint-venture executive program in Singapore run by the Anderson School of Business of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the National University of Singapore. Mr. Lee, 37 years old, lives in Reno, Nevada, and his job is entirely based in the U.S. By the time he graduates in August, he will have flown to Asia four times over 15 months to earn a degree he easily could have done at home.

The commute is worth it, he said. This way he can ramp up his Asia experience to help fast-forward his career.

"That's where the economic growth is. If you want to be a business leader in the next 10 to 15 years, understanding the Asian business environment is important," Mr. Lee said. "When I was weighing which school to go to, credibility came to mind. The perception that I have a better understanding of the environment is easier to sell when I can say I've gone over there to study and observe the business environment and meet Asian business leaders."

U.S. and European business schools that have expanded to Asia in the past few years to tap growing demand for management education there are starting to see new demand from an unexpected clientele: students from back home.

A number of high-profile business schools, including the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and French business school Insead, have set up campuses or joint-venture executive M.B.A. programs with local universities in Asia to tap demand from both local students and global expatriates working in the region. As Asia's booming economies, led by India and China, gain more global muscle, business students world-wide have become eager to get Asia on their résumés. These schools have seen a pickup in enrollment from students who commute from places as far away as London and Los Angeles.

"These students want the Asia exposure, even if they aren't working there now. They view the trend in business as requiring a significant understanding of Asia," said Judy Olian, dean of the Anderson School of Business. In the class that just began in May in UCLA's program based in Singapore, 48% of the students are U.S. residents, up from 29% in May 2004.

The growing number of Asia-bound M.B.A. commuters, meanwhile, lends fresh credence to business schools' decision to head to Asia themselves. For nearly a decade, U.S. and European business schools have wrestled with how best to address Asia's boom. While some have plowed ahead in Asia, others have held back, concerned that offering a satellite degree would hurt the brand power of the degree offered at their U.S. campus.

"As important as Asia and other international markets are in the global economy, we don't believe we could expand the faculty to fulfill the needs of a full-fledged 'branch campus' abroad without diluting the nature of the kind of education we offer," said Krishna Pelapu, senior associate dean for international development at Harvard Business School. Harvard has more than 200 full-time professors who are occupied at home with full course loads; it would be difficult to get faculty of the same stature and quality to teach abroad, he said.

Other business schools believe they can strengthen their brand by offering a degree overseas. Kellogg, for example, has run an executive M.B.A. in Hong Kong through a partnership with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's School of Business and Management for 10 years, and it also offers joint-venture M.B.A.s in Israel, Canada and Germany.

Kellogg's brand is based in part on the quality of the student the school admits and the quality of instruction, said Dipak Jain, Kellogg's dean. Students admitted in places like Hong Kong must have the same qualifications as the students who take the program at the school's campus near Chicago, he said.

For staffing reasons, Kellogg offers only its part-time executive M.B.A. overseas. Its professors fly to Hong Kong on weekends and teach half the courses, and business-school professors from HKUST teach the other half. "We only partner with schools we know have quality people who can deliver the quality experience," Mr. Jain said.

"We think the quality of our program and our brand has gone up, overall, because we have programs in Europe, in Asia and a new one in Miami," he said. "In the Hong Kong program, for example, we have electives on doing business in China; students in our German program or in Chicago or Tel Aviv can go to Hong Kong and take these electives. Or they can fly to Hong Kong and take the whole M.B.A. program."

Dutch citizen Michael Hamelink, 39, commuted from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Singapore to do his executive M.B.A. at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business program five years ago. "At that time, I had just moved from Hong Kong back to Johannesburg, and I was impressed by the huge impact Asia had on the world economy and especially China on the business world. This made me choose to commute to Singapore to sense and gather most of Asia's business insights," said Mr. Hamelink, who now is chief financial officer of KLM City Hopper, KLM's regional airline for Europe. He said he would like to return to Asia to work in the next few years, and that the contacts he made in the program would prove helpful.

Kellogg and Chicago charge the same prices for the executive M.B.A. programs they run in the U.S. as those they run elsewhere. UCLA and National University of Singapore charge slightly less for the Singapore-based degree compared with UCLA's own Los Angeles-based executive M.B.A.: Fees for the degree in Los Angeles cost $100,000, and fees for the Asia-based program are $69,800.

But there also is the cost for travel. The Singapore-based program, set up in 2004, is broken into six intensive two-week blocks that are split between countries: two sessions in Singapore, one in China, one in India and two in Los Angeles. Students pay for their own flights and hotels for the 12 weeks the course is in session.

Assuming a student pays $250 a night for a hotel, he would save about $15,000 on the Asia-based program. Students get two degrees, one from UCLA and one from the National University of Singapore.

"We have quite a few Americans based in the U.S., but who have Asia responsibilities and/or interests, such as supply chains out of Asia, or working for an Asian company, or marketing to Asia," said Jochen Wirtz, a business-school professor who is co-director of the UCLA-NUS program. The program's structure of two-week sessions "allows participants to fly in from anywhere. We are probably the only program in the world where some 50% travel from another continent -- not just country -- to attend our sessions."

Mr. Lee, the Microsoft manager, said cost savings weren't a factor in his decision to go the Asian route. He had first considered doing a full-time M.B.A. at an Ivy League school, but the Singapore-based program struck a chord.

He has loved the pan-Asian exposure, including meetings with senior business executives that the school set up. Students also work on a real piece of consulting business as part of a final project. Mr. Lee prepared an Asian market-entry strategy for a hedge fund based in the U.S.

"I had never been to Asia before the program, but I know you have to understand Asia if you want to take on a senior business role," he said. "That's where the growth will be. The U.S. economy simply isn't growing like the Asian economies."

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MBA Applications Surge

Demand for admission to U.S. graduate business schools has risen, and the growing number of applicants is entering what some say is the most competitive pool in recent years.

The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) reported Aug. 15 that applications to business schools are being buoyed by a confident outlook on the economy and increasing demand from employers for management degrees. In turn, schools are choosing from a pool of applicants who are equally or better qualified academically than last year's class. The majority of the group's member schools are in the U.S.

Admissions officers have had a strong group of applicants to choose from this year. Nearly three in five full-time master's and MBA programs reported that their applicants are of better quality than those seen last year, according to the GMAC survey.

Better Applicants, More Programs

That doesn't surprise California admissions consultant Stacy Blackman, who helps students navigate the admissions process and work on their applications. "I think the quality of the applications that are submitted is going up," said Blackman. "People are understanding the process better and what it takes to submit a strong application."

The boom in applications mirrors an increase in registration volume for the GMAT—the B-school entrance exam—which this year jumped by 6.2% within the U.S. and 21% outside the U.S. And nearly two-thirds (64%) of full-time MBA programs reported an increase in application volume compared to 2006. Rosemaria Martinelli, director of admissions at University of Chicago's business school, said applications overall have been up "substantially" for the past two years. "It's very competitive out there. We've seen double-digit increases for all applications two years in a row," she said.

One of the key movers in the growing number of applicants is demographics, says Rachel Edgington, director of market research and analysis for GMAC. A cohort of students dubbed "millenials"—those from the generation born in or after 1982—fueled much of the growth in domestic applications this year, Edgington said. "This younger generation is a much larger pool then the past generation and they are starting to enter into the application pool," Edgington said. "Just in sheer size, they are much larger."

Degrees in Specialized Fields

Schools are responding to demand from students by creating an array of new flexible MBA programs, ranging from part-time programs to master's degrees in specialized business fields. In just the first half of 2007, 641 new graduate management programs were introduced, according to the GMAC report. That's a sharp leap from a decade ago, when only 74 new programs were created.

The GMAC survey collected data from 445 programs at 252 business schools, 70% of them in the U.S. This is the first year that the survey received data from PhD programs and master's degrees in specialized business fields, such as master's of science in management or finance.

Fifty-six percent of full-time MBA programs said application volume from domestic candidates was up this year, a significant reversal from recent years where growth was flat. At NYU's Stern School of Business, applications from domestic students outpaced those of international students this year, said Isser Gallogly, executive director of MBA admissions. "We saw a tipping of the scales because domestic was a little higher than international growth this year," he said.

That's not to say interest from international applicants is subsiding. Applications from students abroad, particularly those in India and China, remain strong.

Growth in Part-Time Programs

India is fueling most of the growth in international applications seen by full-time programs in the U.S., with 64% of B-schools reporting India as the country from which they received the greatest number of applications. "With India, the numbers were already high and for some schools, the numbers can't get much higher," Edgington said.

Another area showing considerable growth is part-time MBA programs, where applications increased "noticeably" over the past year, Edgington said. More than two in three part-time MBA programs reported that application volume increased over 2006 and the trend is expected to continue over the next few years, she said. Women and minorities are driving the increase in application volume, drawn by the more flexible schedule and time frame offered by such programs. Not surprisingly there is a larger proportion of women in part-time programs (37%) than among full-time programs (27%).

PhD Applications Decline

While the appeal of an MBA remains strong, the lure of a PhD in management education appears to be on the decline. PhD programs were the only program surveyed in the report that did not report strong application volume from applicants this year. Most PhD applicants—two out of three—are foreign citizens, many of whom are now opting to apply to MBA programs instead, Edgington said.

"What we see now is that the international prospective students see the MBA as more valuable than PhD in terms of global currency, name recognition, and employer respect," Edgington said.

The PhD decline confirms fears in the B-school world that there will be a shortage of qualified professors in coming years. With application volume expected to increase over the next three years, B-schools may find themselves overwhelmed with students and lacking professors. It's a problem the next generation of B-schoolers may want to tackle.

Source

India beats Harvard

The number of Asian examinees of the GMAT has increased significantly. This is the finding of the Asian trend report, which had recently been published by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). The report outlines, that Indian citizens are representing the - by far – biggest group of participants and tend to prefer Indian business schools.

n the year 2000, a total of 35,441 GMAT examinees had taken the test, in 2006, there were already 50,367 participants. India is the country, where most of the examinees come from. As in the year 2000, only 6,128 Indian citizens were taking the worldwide common Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), in 2006, there were 16,541 examinees.

With 10,142 participants, Chinese citizens represent the second biggest group. However, the increase is considerably less (8,756 examinees in the year 2000). South Korea (6,977) and Taiwan (5,401) made it to a third and fourth place with also notable gainings. Against this, the number of test-taking examinees declines in Japan, Singapore and Indonesia.

However, the figures don´t give a complete picture because the six Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Indore, Lucknow, and Kozhikode don´t ask for GMAT and use their own Common Admission Test (CAT). In January, 200,000 examinees had taken the test and by this, applied for one of the 1,300 places to study at the leading Indian business schools.

S still ahead
Among the ten most popular countries, Asian citizens are sending their score reports to - in order to study there, the United States are still on top with 76 percent (80 percent in 2002). Followed by Great Britain with five percent and India with four percent. As the only European country, France, with two percent, is ranking on sixth place of the top ten countries. Compared with 2002, especially India could move up in the rankings by four places.

Among all business schools, Asian GMAT participants apply for, Harvard Business School is on first place. The Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad debuted in second place, still ahead of Wharton School. With its ninth place, Insead is the best European school, still ahead of the London Business School, which holds rank nine.

The high positioning of the ISB among Asian citizens is astonishing. Especially because the business school, which was established with the support of Wharton and Kellogg, does not supply of an international accredition, yet. Moreover – like the IIMS – it does not award any MBA degree but a diploma for its Post Graduate Programs in Management (PGP).

Indian citizens tend to prefer a school in India
The ranking list of those countries Indian citizens prefer to study at, shows how strongly Indian residents have shifted their focus on their own country. Still, the United States are on top with 71 percent, leaving the others far behind, though, with a considerable decline. In 2002, still 85 percent intended to study there.

Yet, India (with nine percent) has displaced Great Britain from its second to a third place. Herein, France held its sixth place with three percent as well. Switzerland (0,7 percent) made it to place nine, ahead of Spain with 0,4 percent. In 2002, Germany still ranked on tenth place with 0,3 percent. Now, it seems to have apparently lost its attractiveness for Indian citizens as a location to study at.

The score is even more astonishing among the most popular schools for Indians. Meanwhile, the Indian School of Management has even displaced Harvard from its first place. As the best European business schools, Insead and LBS made it to place five and six.

Source

New York Suspects Student-Loan Kickbacks

By CHAD BRAY

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said an investigation by his office has revealed widespread, questionable financial arrangements among student-loan providers and a number of colleges and universities, including kickbacks to some schools.

Mr. Cuomo said his inquiry has uncovered practices by lenders that, at a minimum, create questionable conflicts of interest with schools and could be illegal under the state's consumer-protection law.

The practices include paying kickbacks to schools based on a percentage of loans directed to a lender, paying for trips to resorts for financial-aid officers, and setting up funds or lines of credit for schools in exchange for being placed on preferred-lender lists.

Such practices can drive up the cost of loans to students and limit their choices of lenders, Mr. Cuomo said.

"Preferred student loans often mean preferred for the school at the expense of the student," he said.

The attorney general said his office is "actively investigating" the student-loan practices at 100 public and private colleges and universities inside and outside of New York and has sent letters to more than 400 schools, urging them to end questionable relationships with lenders.

Mr. Cuomo didn't name any of the schools involved, but they include Ivy League institutions, his office said. Mr. Cuomo said his investigation is continuing, but his office hasn't reached the point of pursuing enforcement actions against the lenders or any schools.

Source

Reviews: Admission Consultants/essay editing services in India

Hi People, I have joined many threads to find out this information and found people are as confused as I was. I researched quite a few consultants and below are my findings:

Based in Delhi

1. Genesis, Delhi – Their response was quite assuring to me. They provide assurance of getting you placed in good schools, charging 100,000 – 200,000. They also claim to assure huge scholarships. I think that the claims are just too tall. I got feedback from other informal sources that they only make these claims after scrutinizing the profile of applicant. If the profile already appears promising, then they provide admission and school guarantee. My opinion is it’s not quite honest approach if what I heard is true. It’s like a doctor treating a healthy person and providing a wellness guarantee.
2. Princeton Review, Delhi - They seem to be the most feasible in terms of charges. They charge 32,000 for 5 applications. However when I interacted with the guys, I did not find them convincing enough to do justice to my profile. Also, when I told them that I may apply to 7-8 schools then they were far more interested in money than any other talk. I am not going to enroll with them.
3. Jamboree, Delhi - Gosh! Sky high rates. 30-35K for 3 applications! They do not have full time essay editors. I could not speak with anyone who would be able to answer any B-school specific queries. Personally think that to answer questions like “Why MBA” and “Why this school” you actually need someone who has been through the process and knows about your profile and what schools are looking for. Jamboree is regarded good for GMAT prep though – I will rule out for any essay editing.

Online

1. EssayEdge.Com - Probably the best known online consultants for editing business school essays. Editors are mostly Americans and have their distinct style of writing which might not be suitable for an Indian applicant like me. As per my understanding, in the admissions committee, mostly current students evaluate the applications from their region in the first place. If any Indian would evaluate my application, he would easily figure out that essays have been written or edited by an American. . Essayedge is also very expensive for me.
2. ApexWriters.Com – These are current students and alumni. I interacted with a current student and one admission consultant. When I insisted on speaking with one of the editors, they also put me through a Sloan student. I also interacted with some past applicants, received positive feedback. Apex also offered to edit one paragraph of my essay for free and I was impressed with the critique. I am going with them.
3. Essaylabb.com – When I called these guys, I could not get convincing answers for my queries again. I could not get justification of their charges. Also, they are not the guys who have gone through it …

I have enrolled with apexwriters for one school and after evaluating the services would take a decision on other schools.

Please add your experiences too.

Pls note: These are my personal views and findings, I request all the applicants to do their own due diligence.

Cheers!
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