Saturday

Check out US News 2008 rankings

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1Harvard University (MA)

2Stanford University (CA)

3University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

4Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)

5Northwestern University (Kellogg) (IL)

5University of Chicago

7Dartmouth College (Tuck) (NH)

8University of California–Berkeley (Haas)

9Columbia University (NY)

10New York University (Stern)

11University of Michigan–Ann Arbor (Ross)

12Duke University (Fuqua) (NC)

12University of Virginia (Darden)

14Cornell University (Johnson) (NY)

14Yale University (CT)

16University of California–Los Angeles (Anderson)

17Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) (PA)

18University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)

18University of Texas–Austin (McCombs)

20Emory University (Goizueta) (GA)

21University of Southern California (Marshall)

22Ohio State University (Fisher)

22Purdue University–West Lafayette (Krannert) (IN)

24Indiana University–Bloomington (Kelley)

25Georgetown University (McDonough) (DC)

25Georgia Institute of Technology

25University of Maryland–College Park (Smith)

25University of Minnesota–Twin Cities (Carlson)

29Michigan State University (Broad)

29Texas A&M University–College Station (Mays)

29University of Washington

29University of Wisconsin–Madison

29Washington University in St. Louis (Olin)

34Pennsylvania State University–University Park (Smeal)

34Vanderbilt University (Owen) (TN)

36University of Rochester (Simon) (NY)

37University of Florida (Warrington)

37University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign

39Boston College (Carroll)

39University of Notre Dame (Mendoza) (IN)

41Arizona State University–Main Campus (Carey)

41Babson College (Olin) (MA)

41Boston University

41Brigham Young University (Marriott) (UT)

45Tulane University (Freeman) (LA)

46University of California–Davis

46University of Georgia (Terry)

48Rice University (Jones) (TX)

49Wake Forest University (Babcock) (NC)

50University of Iowa (Tippie)

Friday

Today's Students: Living Large

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They're splurging like the high-paid executives they expect to become

An epidemic has hit America's top MBA programs. At Harvard Business School, it's called FOMO: fear of missing out. Symptoms include a chronic inability to turn down invitations to any party, dinner, or junket attended by anyone who might be a valuable addition to one's network—no matter the cost.

With their incomes about to get a big boost at graduation, many students are spending far more than absolutely necessary, in part on luxuries like leisure travel and in part on networking events. Nobody wants to quibble over the costs when they're partying with folks who may advance their career. Says Mike Altman, a student at the University of California at Los Angeles' Anderson School of Management: "It isn't worth coming off as cheap or petty when you're building a network for life."

At top B-schools, where high-rolling investment bankers set the pace, those extras add up. Harvard suggests MBAs budget $23,784 a year for room and board, but Harvard grads responding to a BusinessWeek survey last year estimated their annual living expenses at $37,000, with more than 40 reporting $80,000 or more.

Columbia Business School, where some MBA grads reported spending as much as $85,000 a year, recommends that students budget about $2,080 a month for room and board. But student Aakash Nijhawan says most people he knows end up spending at least that much on housing alone, to live in the trendier precincts of Manhattan, such as Tribeca or SoHo, in an apartment "that's not the size of a shoebox."

The B-school set doesn't stint when it comes to travel, either. There's the winter "learning experience" in China, spring break in the Caribbean, and weekend jaunts to Vegas or Vail. The wine-tasting trip to Napa, sponsored by the University of Chicago Wine Club, and the celebrity-spotting excursion to Cannes, offered by UCLA's Entertainment Management Assn., are not to be missed. And who could turn down an invite from a University of Chicago club to break bread with the Sage of Omaha himself, Warren Buffett?

REFORMED CHEAPSKATE
For Nijhawan, who will return to investment banking at graduation, that's a no-brainer. "When you work in banking, you're working really hard, and sometimes vacations get canceled," he says. That's how he rationalized spending $5,000 for a student trip to India and about $1,500 for spring break in Hawaii—quite a bit more than the $3,900 a year Columbia recommends students budget for "personal expenses" including travel and clothing.

When he graduates in May, Nijhawan hopes to spend the summer in Greece and the Bahamas before starting his new job at Citigroup (C ). With the money he stands to make there—the median starting salary for Columbia grads in his field is $125,000—he's not worried about paying back his loans. In fact, with what he managed to save before B-school, he probably could have paid for it all in cash. Still, he wasn't ready to give up the high life. "I wanted to live more comfortably," he says, "and I budgeted accordingly." While he gave up the Brooks Brothers shopping sprees and $300 dinners, he kept his spacious 1,200-square-foot apartment in Hoboken, N.J., and his stylish BMW 325i.

UCLA's Altman, a onetime member of the U.S. national rowing team, considers himself "a bit of a cheapskate." Even so, Altman eventually realized that with the $40,000 he was spending each year on tuition, it made no sense to pinch pennies. "I made such a huge financial commitment," he says. "I need to get as much out of this as I can."

BusinessWeek Article

More Crowding at Top B-Schools

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Thanks to the rising number of applications and ongoing curriculum changes, several schools are reducing entering class sizes

Rounds three and four are shaping up to be tough ones for this year's applicants to some top-ranked B-school programs. Admissions directors say that application volume is up, compared with recent years—as much as 30% at some schools. Several B-schools have announced that their classes this fall will be smaller than in years past.

New curriculum implementation at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and Yale School Of Management means both schools are accepting fewer applicants this year.

Stanford Admissions Director Derrick Bolton says that the class size in the past few years has been around 378, but this year, admissions will be bringing it back down to the official target size of 360. This is because of the extremely resource-intensive nature of the new curriculum, which includes small seminar classes and one-on-one advising (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/6/07, "Stanford's New Look MBA").

At Yale, Admissions Director Bruce Delmonico is aiming for a class size of 195. This includes 30 to 40 students who deferred from last year's class after the new curriculum resulted in an unexpectedly high yield (see BusinessWeek.com, 1/3/07, "A Tighter Fit at Yale").

But Stanford and Yale aren't the only schools where applicants might feel the pinch. Virginia's Darden School also saw an unexpectedly high yield last year. Assistant Director of Admissions Wendy Huber says that this year, admissions is aiming for a class size more on par with previous years—310 to 315—compared with last year's larger-than-average class of about 332 students.

Admissions Director Carol Swanberg says Syracuse's Whitman School is downsizing to strengthen its class profile (see BusinessWeek.com, 1/17/07, "Sizing up Syracuse's Downsizing").

It won't take effect this year, but Columbia's business school is considering shrinking its class size by about 60 students for "various reasons" unrelated to the school's planned move to a new campus (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/15/06, "Columbia's B-School Move Draws Ire").

Admissions Director Linda Meehan says the dean's office hasn't made a final decision about when or if such a change would happen.


Complete article

Miller is a reporter with BusinessWeek.com in New York.

Stanford changes curriculum

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n a move that could be a clue to what the future of management education might look like, Stanford University's Graduate School of Business is announcing a major reconstruction of its highly rated MBA program on June 6. The new curriculum, to be implemented in the fall of 2007, introduces two ideas that are uncharacteristic of the MBA world: flexibility and customization.

Unlike the traditional MBA curriculum, made up of core course requirements in the first year and electives in the second, in the new Stanford design each student will be matched with a tailored course schedule based on past education, work experience, and future goals. According to Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, a frequent critic of management education, the change is the most important thing that has happened in his 27 years at the school.

"This makes students more responsible for their education and potentially engages them more profoundly and more deeply," Pfeffer says in a release about the program.

While curriculum changes at schools are not unusual, they are often implemented by struggling schools to boost application numbers. It is rare when a school like Stanford, which is ranked highly and doing well, attempts a shift of this magnitude (see BW Online, 8/10/05, "Pushing MBAs Beyond the Books").

"PART OF THE MATURATION." The new curriculum model comes after a task force of 11 faculty members, led by economics professor Garth Saloner, was asked to examine the current curriculum and develop a new design that would better fit the needs of future business leaders. After getting feedback from hundreds of current students and alumni, a clear consensus arose centered on three distinct issues: Programs don't address the diverse background and experiences of students, the linear approach of most MBA programs doesn't suit everyone, and students were not adequately prepared for the global business environment.

"This is part of the maturation of the MBA," Saloner says.

With these issues taken into account, the new design starts students in a common program in the first quarter of study, not dissimilar to the old core of courses. The program will be based on five courses aimed at raising fundamental questions and engaging students, and will include courses like "Teams and Organizational Behavior" and "The Global Context of Management." In these courses, broad philosophical issues will give faculty members a chance to get to know the students and better understand what kind of curriculum each will need. Class sizes will be smaller, and students will be challenged in a way that wasn't possible with the wide diversity of the common MBA makeup.

"We aren't getting rid of the basics, but we feel that we can teach them better by motivating them more strongly in the beginning," Saloner says.

NO MORE ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL. Also, students will be paired with a faculty adviser who will help to craft an individual learning plan for each student. According to Stanford Dean Robert Joss, the new highly interactive curriculum along with the faculty-student advising and placement component "will challenge every student to his or her fullest capability."

After the core quarter, students each begin on their own path of study that will vary by pace, depth, and assumed knowledge. "What we heard from many students was that the current, one-size-fits-all curriculum wasn't working," Saloner says. "More experienced students felt underchallenged and students with limited business background were overwhelmed." With the new curriculum, students will be matched with course loads based on their prior knowledge and experience. For instance, a student strong in economics but lacking in operations knowledge would be placed in a high-end economics course with other students strong in that area and a base-level operations course.

In the second year, students will take part in intensive one-week seminars in specific subjects, meeting each afternoon for three hours. They will also be required to take part in a global experience that could be in the form of a study trip, an internship overseas, a service-learning trip, or a student exchange with Tsinghua University in China (see BW Online, 12/8/05, "Pressure at the Top").

FLEXIBLE FACILITIES. With about 750 full-time MBAs, Stanford is a relatively small program compared with other top schools. This, along with a large endowment, puts the business school in a unique spot to make such a change. "This is something that will play to our small size," Saloner says. "It will be harder for schools that are much bigger than us to do."

The new curriculum will require Stanford to hire 5% to 10% more faculty members to accommodate for the smaller class sizes, as well as the eventual construction of a new building that would be more conducive to this learning style. "The curriculum is meant to be flexible, and we need the same flexibility in our facilities," Joss says, adding that administrators have in mind a new campus that will deliver a more flexible space offering smaller seminar rooms and breakout areas, rather than the large lecture halls common in the current building. A new building proposal has been developed and will be presented to the Board of Trustees in June.

It will be a few years before it becomes clear what these changes will mean for Stanford and for the MBA world, but if the excitement within the school is any indication of what's to come, expect positive results. "Once in a while you come up with something and you feel like you really have it," Saloner says. "This is one of those times."

Business Week Article here

A Marathon Day of Marketing Myself

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When you're stressed from internship interviewing, the Super Bowl is a great way to take the edge off. At least many of my classmates were hoping it would be that way. As the lone Colts fan in a sea of Bears' orange and blue, I watched my classmates wilt with each of Rex Grossman's mistakes. In between plays, conversation inevitably turned to internships.

"I can't wait until this is over." I can't count how many times someone said that to me on Super Bowl Sunday. Ironically, these Bears fans were talking about interviewing, not the game. Interviews started a week after we returned from winter break. There was no time to settle into a routine and deal with this semester's reading intensive courseload.

Instead, everyone was attending recruiting dinners, researching companies, and rehearsing "STAR" stories. (For those not in the loop: Situation, Task, Action, Result—stories that demonstrate how you led teams and became a superstar at former jobs.) Every day, someone was dressed up, leaving class early, or coming to class late for meetings with recruiters. I spoke with one classmate who had an interview on Wednesday, and her nerves had kept her from sleeping since the previous Sunday. Talk about stress.

Complete article here



2007 Talent Shortage Survey Results

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Manpower Inc. (NYSE: MAN) surveyed nearly 37,000 employers across 27 countries and territories in late January to determine the extent to which talent shortages are impacting today’s labor markets. The survey results revealed that 41 percent of employers worldwide are having difficulty filling positions due to the lack of suitable talent available in their markets, which is 1 percentage point stronger compared to last year’s survey.

Employers having the most difficulty finding the right people to fill jobs are those in Costa Rica (93%), Mexico (82%), New Zealand (62%), Australia (61%) and Japan (61%). The talent shortage appears to be least problematic in India (9%) Ireland (17%), Netherlands (17%) and China (19%).

Global Results
The top 10 jobs that employers are having difficulty filling across the 27 countries and territories
surveyed are (ranked in order):
1. Sales Representatives
2. Skilled Manual Trades
3. Technicians (primarily production/operations, engineering or maintenance)
4. Engineers
5. Accounting & Finance Staff
6. Laborers
7. Production Operators
8. Drivers
9. Management/Executives
10. Machinists/Machine Operators


Total Number of Respondents: 36,629
Employers indicating difficulty filling positions: 41%
Employers indicating no difficulty filling positions: 59%
Margin of error: +/- 3.9%




Complete article here

Tuck to introduce societal leadership programme

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The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth announced that from next year, they would be introducing a societal leadership programme in the second year MBA syllabus. Students would be able to develop leadership skills by positioning themselves to handle complex social issues from a business perspective. It will be year long elective and will establish collaboration between Tuck students and Dartmouth undergraduates performing research and anyalislsis through the new Paganucci Fellows Programme. "As part of Tuck's strategy top offer the world's best leadership education, we are launching this programme to better prepare our students to be responsible, engaged business leaders", says the current Dean Paul; Danos, who conceptualised this program. "This programme will be innovative in structure and content combing cross-disciplinary and experiential learning."

Wednesday

Wharton to Host Biggest Business Event so far

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Wharton School to Host Biggest Business Event in its 125-Year History


100 Speakers to Include Legends in Business, Academia, and Government to Discuss Economic Challenges in ‘07

Philadelphia, PA, March 26, 2007 -- The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania will host the Wharton Economic Summit: Next Moves in a Global Industry, on April 12-13, 2007 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA.

The event, to be the largest in the School’s 125-year history, will feature 30 faculty-moderated panel discussions on topics including:

Emerging Markets Private Equity
Real Estate Mergers & Acquisitions
Sports Business Work/Life Issues
Media & Entertainment Executive Compensation
Globalization Risk Management
Outsourcing Family Business
Technology Energy
Hedge Funds Philanthropy
Business Strategy Leadership

The event will also feature four keynote speeches by global business and policy leaders, and a plenary session on leadership and ethics. Key speakers include (in alphabetical order):
  • Art Collins, Wharton alumnus, chairman and CEO, Medtronic, Inc.
  • Rajat Gupta, senior partner worldwide, former managing director worldwide, McKinsey & Company
  • Jon M. Huntsman, Wharton alumnus, founder and chairman, Huntsman Corporation
  • Michael Milken, Wharton alumnus, chairman, the Milken Institute; chairman, FasterCures
  • Stan O’Neal, chairman and CEO, Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.
  • Jeremy Siegel, Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Wharton Economic Summit Website

Yale SOM revamps its MBA curriculum

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Yale School of Management Launches Innovative New MBA Curriculum

New Haven, Conn., September 5, 2006 – The Yale School of Management today introduces an innovative MBA curriculum that replaces courses in finance, marketing, and other subjects that have been the mainstay of business education for the last 50 years with multidisciplinary courses that cut across functional boundaries to provide management education in a richer, more relevant context. Yale’s new approach aligns the way management is taught with the way managers operate every day and challenges students to shape their career goals around their personal values and aspirations. The 208 students of the Class of 2008 begin the new courses today, the start of the 2006-2007 academic term.

“The management profession has experienced profound change in the past few decades, but management education has not,” said Joel M. Podolny, Dean of the Yale School of Management. “Most business school curricula are based on a model that made sense in the past. But today, a successful manager must be able to identify and frame business problems and move across a variety of organizational, political, and geographic boundaries to solve those problems. Our new curriculum teaches the integrated skills contemporary managers need.”

Complete article here

Internship Interviews at B-Schools

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A Marathon Day of Marketing Myself

"Interviewing with multiple companies in one day was a pretty grueling process. You become a robot spitting out stories on auto-pilot"

When you're stressed from internship interviewing, the Super Bowl is a great way to take the edge off. At least many of my classmates were hoping it would be that way. As the lone Colts fan in a sea of Bears' orange and blue, I watched my classmates wilt with each of Rex Grossman's mistakes. In between plays, conversation inevitably turned to internships.

"I can't wait until this is over." I can't count how many times someone said that to me on Super Bowl Sunday. Ironically, these Bears fans were talking about interviewing, not the game. Interviews started a week after we returned from winter break. There was no time to settle into a routine and deal with this semester's reading intensive courseload.

Instead, everyone was attending recruiting dinners, researching companies, and rehearsing "STAR" stories. (For those not in the loop: Situation, Task, Action, Result—stories that demonstrate how you led teams and became a superstar at former jobs.) Every day, someone was dressed up, leaving class early, or coming to class late for meetings with recruiters. I spoke with one classmate who had an interview on Wednesday, and her nerves had kept her from sleeping since the previous Sunday. Talk about stress.

New Language

One and a half months later, all 18 brand-management students have at least one internship offer. The list of companies includes S.C. Johnson, Nestlé (NSRGY), Procter & Gamble (PG), Kraft (KFT), Colgate (CL), Kimberly-Clark (KMB), General Mills (GIS), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), ConAgra (CAG), Johnsonville Sausage, and Intuit (INTU).

My situation was a bit unique. The other Consortium fellows and I interviewed with companies last June at the Consortium's Orientation Program, or OP. At first glance, interviewing during the summer may seem less stressful. It's good not to have to juggle interviewing and classes during the school year, but it also has its drawbacks.

Many of my classmates who interviewed on campus only had one round of interviews. Most Consortium fellows have to go through at least two rounds. Also, you have to remember that I'm a career switcher. I had to learn how to speak like a marketer and deal with case questions before the academic year started. Even though I had done a lot of research about marketing, there's no substitute for taking a marketing class, having marketing career experience, or going through a semester-long preparation.

Same Old Questions

Luckily, UW's Center for Brand & Product Management created an OP boot camp for the six Consortium fellows specializing in brand management. For an intense 48 hours, we were given a crash course in marketing and behavioral interviewing. Representatives from Kraft (KFT) conducted mock interviews. We left armed with a binder full of tips and sample questions.

Even though I felt the brand center did a good job of preparing us, I was still nervous about interviewing. Journalism interviews don't require as much forethought. There are no STAR stories, case studies or "if you were a spaceship, what color would you be" type questions.

Interviewing with multiple companies in one day was a pretty grueling process. You hear the same questions over and over again. "Walk me through your résumé." "Tell me about a time you lead a team." "Why the switch to brand management?" You become a robot spitting out stories on auto-pilot.

I ended up getting internship offers from S.C. Johnson, General Mills, and P&G. Each company followed a different process. S.C. Johnson made an offer on the spot, whereas, Mills flew me to Minneapolis for a second round in which I had to write a case analysis and interview with three people individually. I interviewed with P&G twice over the phone and was accepted to the company's summer marketing camp.

Proving Your Worth

That was the most intense week of my life. We learned about marketing during the day, had social events all evening, and participated in a 24-hour case competition. On the final day, we had a three-on-one internship interview. It was a great experience, but I was worn out when I got home. I literally slept for the entire day.

It was a tough decision, but I accepted with S.C. Johnson. The company has strong brands, a great culture, and it's only 100 miles from where my family lives outside of Chicago. Carlos, another Consortium fellow, is going there as well.

It feels great to have that process out of the way, but the pressure is far from over. After three months of having companies court you and making you feel special, you have to prove your worth all over again during your internship. Internship offers are great, but it's the full-time offers that make all of this hard work worthwhile.

Investigative Shopping

Meanwhile, there's still a semester's worth of work to complete. So far, things are less hectic than last semester. I'm taking the core classes—Operations Management, Ethics (one hour), Managing Behavior in Organizations, Economics for Managers—and two specialization courses: Marketing Channels and Marketing Communications.

Communications is the most fun and probably the most work. My team is creating a marketing-communications plan, including a commercial, for a local mall. In fact, my teammate Soly and I are on our way to visit two malls in order to do some research. If we happen to do some shopping along the way, well that's just part of the job.

(Coffey is a member of Wisconsin - Madison's MBA class of 2008.)

Article taken from Businessweek.com

Sunday

Discussions about India at Kellogg

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Nation’s rapid economic growth suggests ‘unlimited potential,’ say experts at India Business Conference

By Aubrey Henretty

March 6, 2007 - By serendipity or cosmic design, the Kellogg School’s India Business Conference coincided with Holi, the Hindu Festival of Colors, on March 3. Kellogg Dean Dipak C. Jain welcomed attendees with a remark on the appropriateness of the arrangement.

“You cannot pick a better day than this, the beginning of a new season,” he said, to discuss India’s “Unlimited Potential” — this year’s conference theme. However, he added, the distinguished business leaders, diplomats and academics had not gathered at the James L. Allen Center to predict the future.

“Anything you predict is going to turn out to be wrong, anyway,” said the dean. “More than prediction, we need to think in terms of anticipation.”

Promising economic numbers are among the data shaping such anticipation. Organizers of the student-run conference accented India’s spectacular commercial growth, currently expanding at more than 8 percent each year. (The Economist recently suggested this figure could surge into double digits in 2007, although researchers questioned the sustainability of such growth as the government tries to avoid inflationary pressures.) Such development has enormous future implications for domestic and multinational companies.

Complete story here

Bill Gates to speak at Harvard

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Bill Gates to speak at Commencement

Microsoft co-founder is principal speaker at Afternoon Exercises By Ken Gewertz
Harvard News Office

William H. (Bill) Gates, one of the world's most influential business leaders and foremost philanthropists, will be the principal speaker at the Afternoon Exercises during Harvard's 356th Commencement on June 7.

"I am very pleased that the Harvard community will have the opportunity to hear from Bill Gates on June 7," said Paul Finnegan, president of the Harvard Alumni Association. "His contributions to the world of business and technology, and the great example he has set through his far-reaching philanthropy, will rightfully put him on center stage in Harvard Yard. I look forward to greeting him in June."

Gates is a member of the Harvard College Class of 1977, which will celebrate its 30th reunion during Commencement Week.

Born in Seattle in 1955, Gates showed an early interest in math and science, and as a student at Lakeside School he taught himself computer programming. By the time he arrived at Harvard as a freshman in 1973, he and his fellow computer devotees at Lakeside had already founded several for-profit companies and sold their programming services to a number of clients.

While at Harvard College, Gates pursued his passion for computer programming and came to know his classmate and future business partner Steven Ballmer (who lived down the hall at Currier House). As an undergraduate, he teamed with his childhood friend Paul Allen to develop a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer, the MITS Altair. With a foresighted vision of the immense future potential of desktop computing, Gates left Harvard during his junior year to devote himself to building Microsoft, the company he and Allen founded in 1975.

Over the years, guided by Gates' leadership, Microsoft has risen to become the world's largest maker of computer software, with annual revenues now exceeding $44 billion. He served as the company's chief executive officer until 2000 and is currently its chairman and chief software architect. As of July 2008, Gates intends to relinquish his day-to-day role at Microsoft to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He will remain as Microsoft's chairman.

Gates and his wife, Melinda French Gates, created the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. The foundation is "guided by the belief that every life has equal value" and supports initiatives intended "to reduce inequities and improve lives around the world." With an endowment of more than $30 billion, the Gates Foundation is the world's largest philanthropic foundation. (Its endowment is expected roughly to double in size within the next several years as the result of a pledge from Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.) The foundation currently makes grants totaling more than $1.5 billion a year.

Complete article here

Friday

Companies offering perks to lure employees

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Published: March 21, 2007 in http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/

During a telephone interview, Gopi Kallayil, senior product marketing manager for Google, lists which of the company's much-publicized employee benefits he takes advantage of.

"Let me pull this up because there are so many," he says. When his computer produces a list a moment later, Kallayil makes his way down the screen and continues: "The free gourmet food, because that's a daily necessity. Breakfast, lunch and dinner I eat at Google. The next one is the fitness center, the 24-hour gym with weights. And there are yoga classes."

There is a pause before he adds that he also enjoys the speaker series, the in-house doctor, the nutritionist, the dry cleaners and the massage service. He has not used the personal trainer, the swimming pool and the spa -- at least not yet, anyway. Nor has he commuted to and from the office on the high-tech, wi-fi equipped, bio-diesel shuttle bus that Google provides for employees, but that is only because he lives nearby and can drive without worrying about a long commute.

Is Google's generosity purely altruistic? Of course not, which is not to say that any nefarious motives are at work, either. To be sure, Google is a funky company that calls its offices a "campus" and has created a "collegiate" atmosphere where employees dress casually and can have fun. But make no mistake: All these perks -- some quirky, some traditional -- show that Google means business, according to management experts from Wharton and elsewhere. The company wants to achieve several goals: Attract the best knowledge-workers it can in the intensely competitive environment for high achievers; help them work long hours by feeding them gourmet meals on-site and handling other time-consuming personal chores; show that they are valued; and have them remain Googlers, as employees are known, for many years.

There may be a potential downside to all this largesse: Some employees may come to feel uncomfortable at the company if they see the perks as an impingement by their work lives on their personal lives, according to one Wharton researcher. For the most part, however, what Google and other firms are doing

makes eminent sense for both the companies and the people they employ.

Peter Cappelli, management professor and director of the Center for Human Resources at Wharton, says

simply: "These benefits help companies recruit people who are willing to spend most all of their time at work."

Steven E. Gross, global leader of the broad-based rewards consulting business at Mercer Human
Resource Consulting, says that Google, with its vast array of benefits, is trying to differentiate itself from other companies that want to hire people with the same talents. These companies, too, have been expanding their employee benefits in recent years. "It's all about the employment brand," Gross says.

"There's a great demand for technical-professional types -- the folks Google is going after," Gross adds. "What you see happening with knowledge-workers is the creation of a different type of employment . . .


Complete article here

Monday

India, China and US coming together

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MDI, India ; University of International Business and Economics, China and University of Maryland, USA are developing a full-time 2 year program in global entrepreneurship. Students will do first year in their home country and then join the student community at other schools.
This will be a new program starting 2008, chances of admission can be good . . .

The whole story at Financial Times

MBA salaries increasing

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The base salary and bonus has really jumped high, the number of companies in campuses has increased a lot and companies are making 10-15 recruiting presentations.
Does this clearly means that the ROI on a decent MBA is luring enough to make us work hard for a good good application . . .

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aynpPWL1QRS0

Friday

Survey states: MBAs are cheaters !!!

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Yes, you have read right.

A study conducted by the Academy of Management Learning and Education which included 5,300 students in the U.S. and Canada has found this alarming fact. MBA students admit cheating more than any other degree seeking student.

Here is the complete article for you:

http://www.collegejournal.com/mbacenter/newstrends/20061026-kostigen.html

Thursday

Congratulations Waitlisted . . . oops!

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First it was UNC and now Georgetown University. The staff sent a mail to students in error which confirmed their wait list status. Out of these applicants 256 had already been extended the admission offer and 68 were denied admission.
Read more -
http://www.georgetownvoice.com/2007-03-15/news/300-mba-applicants-accidentally-waitlisted

Saturday

Resume formats of top business schools

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Guys, you can check out how to make the powerful resume. Here goes the link for resume samples of various business schools.

http://businessmajors.about.com/od/sampleresumes/Sample_Application_Resumes.htm

Friday

Learn the names of US states

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So folks, looking at USA as a destination. Good to start with learning the names of these 50 states. Nah! I am in no mood of lecture . . . Did this in my spare time, now I can remember most of them. This wants 10 minutes from you. It is interesting and informative, check out this link whenever you can spare 10 minutes. Cheers!

http://www.ironicsans.com/2007/02/50_states_in_10_minutes.html

Thursday

OG - 11 edition has some corrections

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Check out :

GMAT OG-11 corrections

Worth reading for Indian applicants

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US students in India double

Archana Mohan / Ahmedabad December 06, 2006

B-SCHOOL: Over 1,700 American students complete their higher education in India.

How strong is the shift in focus of students towards India and China? Consider this: Over 1,700 American students completed their higher education in India — an increase of 52.7 per cent compared to the previous year. Comparatively, China, which has housed 6,389 students from the US this year has seen a jump of 34.9 per cent compared to the year before, states a recent study titled ‘Open Doors-2006’ that underlines trends during the academic year of 2005-2006.

The report is published by the Institute of International Education (IIE) — a leading not-for-profit educational and cultural exchange organisation in the US. The census is based on a survey of over 2,700 accredited U.S. institutions.

The UK yet again emerged as the favourite destination for students from the US with 32,071 students preferring to study there occupying a 15.5 per cent share in the total pie of American students studying abroad.

The other surprise gainer in the list has been Argentina whose intake of 2,013 students has resulted into an unprecedented increase of 53 per cent, the highest percentage hike among all countries.

With every institute in India looking for global collaborations and trying to increase the number of student and faculty exchange programmes, it’s little wonder that Indian international scholars studying or teaching at US campuses have seen the highest increase among all countries with 13.9 per cent followed by China with 11.6 per cent and Korea with 7.3 per cent. Indians have once again topped the list for being the leading place of origin among students studying in the US campuses.

However, there has been a dip of 4.9 per cent in the percentage of students going to the US which has most likely come about due to other emerging destinations like Australia, New Zealand and Netherlands who offer easier and more economical routes for students to apply.

“Indian students are an integral part of US education, especially our full-time MBA programme. Year after year, Indian students make up 5-8 per cent of every class. Hence, we have established the Indian Graduate Business Association (IGBA) that creates a friendly, welcoming environment for all students interested in Indian business and culture, “ says David E. Platt, Director, Centre for International Business Education and Research, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin.

Many universities like the Montana State University have even held International weeks with India as a theme this year acknowledging the presence of Indian students on the campus.

The university which earlier had no plans to establish an India Centre is now open to collaborating with Indian universities for joint degrees as well as sending its students to India and vice versa for study internships, says Yvonne Rudman, Director for Academic & Technical Programs, Montana State University.

Incidentally, Business and Management studies are still the most preferred streams for students with 17.9 per cent pie of students opting for it.

Engineering is a close second at 15.7 per cent but the field that has seen a vast decline has been Maths and Computer science which has seen a massive percentage drop of 10.3 per cent this academic year.

The University of Southern California with a considerable Indian population along with the Columbia University have yet again emerged as the campus with the largest non-American student populations in the country.

The report states that 63.4 per cent of all the international students depend on personal loans and family funding for their education while only 25.9 per cent are funded completely or partially by a US college or university.

A dismal 2.6 per cent of students are funded by their home country.

Wednesday

Business school Rankings 2007

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USNEWS Ranking - 2007



The comprehensive list contains average GMAT scores, placement statistics, tuition fee details and class size. For the complete list you have to buy the premium edition for $8.
Reference:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/mba/brief/mbarank_brief.php


1. Harvard University (MA)

2. Stanford University (CA)





3. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)





4. Northwestern University (Kellogg) (IL)





6. University of Chicago





7. Columbia University (NY)





7. University of California–Berkeley (Haas)





9. Dartmouth College (Tuck) (NH)





10. University of California–Los Angeles (Anderson)





11. Duke University (Fuqua) (NC)





11. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor (Ross)





13. New York University (Stern)





13. University of Virginia (Darden)





15. Yale University (CT)





16. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) (PA)





16. Cornell University (Johnson) (NY)





18. Emory University (Goizueta) (GA)





18. University of Texas–Austin (McCombs)





20. University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill





21. Purdue University–West Lafayette (Krannert) (IN)





22. Ohio State University (Fisher)





23. Indiana University–Bloomington (Kelley)





23. Michigan State University (Broad)





23. University of Minnesota–Twin Cities (Carlson)





26. University of Rochester (Simon) (NY)





26. Washington University in St. Louis (Olin)





28. University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign





29. University of Southern California (Marshall)





29. University of Washington





31. Texas A&M University–College Station (Mays)





31. University of Notre Dame (Mendoza) (IN)





31. University of Wisconsin–Madison





34. Arizona State University–Main Campus (Carey)





34. Brigham Young University (Marriott) (UT)





34. Georgetown University (McDonough) (DC)





34. Georgia Institute of Technology





38. Pennsylvania State University–University Park (Smeal)





38. University of California–Irvine (Merage)





38. University of Maryland–College Park (Smith)





41. Boston College (Carroll)





41. Southern Methodist University (Cox) (TX)





41. University of Florida (Warrington)





44. Boston University





44. Rice University (Jones) (TX)





46. University of California–Davis





46. University of Georgia (Terry)





48. University of Pittsburgh (Katz)





49. Babson College (Olin) (MA)





49. Tulane University (Freeman) (LA)





49. Vanderbilt University (Owen) (TN)








Wharton has made it again, This is one school which remains at the same position.

University of Pennsylvania: Wharton

U.S.A.

1





Columbia Business School

U.S.A.

2





Harvard Business School

U.S.A.

3





Stanford University GSB

U.S.A.

3





London Business School

U.K.

5





University of Chicago GSB

U.S.A.

6





Insead

France/ Singapore

7





New York University: Stern

U.S.A.

8





Dartmouth College: Tuck

U.S.A.

9





Yale School of Management

U.S.A.

10






For complete list, check out latest interactive rankings of Global MBA here:

http://rankings.ft.com/rankings/mba/rankings.html


Executive MBA rankings:

http://rankings.ft.com/rankings/mba/rankings.html


European Business Schools:

http://rankings.ft.com/rankings/ebs