Elite business schools are locked in an “arms race” of building bigger and more elaborate business campuses to recruit the best students and faculty and climb magazine rankings, says Yale School of Management finance professor Matthew Spiegel in a recent Bloomberg article exploring how Harvard Business School drives Yale and MIT Sloan‘s “edifice complex.”

In this case, Yale is keeping up with the Jones with a $180 million project designed by Lord Norman Foster, architect of London’s famed “Gherkin” building. The new SOM complex will open in 2013 and help level the playing field among top MBA programs.

“You can’t be in a dump if everyone else is in a spectacular building,” says dean Sharon Oster.

The fervor for high-profile expansion projects isn’t new. Bloomberg reports the trend took off after the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania opened its 324,000-square foot, $140 million Jon M. Huntsman Hall in 2002; ever since, rival business schools have scrambled to keep up.

For example:

• University of Chicago opened its $125 million Harper Center in 2004
• Ross School of Business opened a 270,000-square feet, $145 million building in 2009
• MIT Sloan School of Management will open new facilities this year
• Stanford Graduate School of Business will open the  $350 million Knight Management Center in 2011
• Columbia Business School and Kellogg School of Management also have plans for new buildings in the works

New buildings mean more office space for faculty and more classrooms for profitable executive education programs, Bloomberg reports, and larger schools can also enroll more students, who pay as much as $80,000 per year in tuition, room and board and other expenses.

While a business school’s physical condition isn’t the most important consideration, “you do consider the facility, you do consider what school will allow you to access the latest technology,” says a prospective applicant from Los Angeles to Columbia, Stern School of Business and McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

But the real payoff comes from wealthy alumni, whose donations pave the way for these super structures. “The better the experience people have, the better they feel about the place, the more likely it will be that they would support it at some point,” says Robert Dolan, dean of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

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Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business announced last week that it has added five new full-time professors to the school’s faculty. They begin teaching at the school in August.

“With a range of experience and expertise, each of these professors will enhance the classroom experiences of our students,” said George Daly, dean of the business school.

“With research interests in such areas as operations, employee behavior, capital structure and debt, and pricing strategies, these new faculty members also will contribute to the depth of research conducted by our already outstanding faculty.”

The new hires include Vishal Agrawal, assistant professor of operations and information management; Christine Porath, assistant professor of management; Luc Wathieu, visiting associate professor of marketing; Stephen Weymouth, assistant professor of strategy; and Jie Yang, assistant professor of finance.

To read more on the backgrounds of each of these new professors, follow this link.

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When high-profile companies like Toyota or BP exhibit questionable leadership in the face of crisis, many people are left scratching their heads as they wonder where our business leaders come from and how they are trained.

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has decided to tackle this question head-on by requiring all first-year students to enroll in the largest experiential learning exercise in the school’s history, which will transform their understanding of what it means to be an effective leader.

Incoming students will be put on the “hot seat” to teach them both theoretical and practical aspects of leadership and teamwork through a business simulation titled “Foundations of Teamwork and Leadership”.

All 817 Wharton first-years will be grouped into teams, which will take on the role of senior management of a hypothetical company. They will guide the company through a series of real-time scenarios designed to teach them how to negotiate both internally and externally; make team-based decisions; face challenges; and deal with group dynamics and organizational change.

All aspects of this progressive teaching practice, developed over three years by Wharton management professors Nancy Rothbard and Sigal Barsade, will reflect real or potentially real scenarios that future MBAs will deal with in leadership and teamwork roles they are being groomed to fill.

Next week, as students select their roles, begin to work as a team and embark on the obstacle-ridden path set before them, Wharton is banking on this unique leadership learning program to educate the next generation of business leaders. May they better handle the curve balls that come their way.

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The full-time MBA program at USC Marshall School of Business has released its essays and deadlines for the 2010-2011 admissions season. The deadlines and notification dates are as follows:

Round 1

Application deadline: November 1, 2010

Notification: February 1, 2011

Round 2

Application deadline: January 15, 2011

Notification: April 1, 2011

Round 3

Application deadline: March 15, 2011
Notification: May 15, 2011

Essay Questions

1) What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will USC Marshall help you
achieve these goals? (750 words) If interested in a dual-degree program, please address in this
essay.

2) How will other USC Marshall MBA students benefit from your background, experience,
leadership and teamwork skills? (500 words)

3) Select three from the following and describe: (250 words each)

a) A challenging international experience
b) A personal or professional setback
c) An entrepreneur you admire
d) Your family, including any ties to USC
e) Your most significant accomplishment
f) A situation where your professional ethics were challenged

4) Optional Essay: Please add any additional information that you would like the Admissions
Committee to consider in evaluating your application. (250 words)

All materials must be submitted to the admissions committee by 11:59pm PST for consideration during the round.  Please note: If you are an international student, or want to be considered for a fellowship, the recommended application deadline is January 15, 2011.

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Graduate programs in business saw mixed trends in applications in the last year, according to a global B-school survey released Wednesday by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC).

Only 44% of full-time MBA programs saw applications increase this year, compared to 66% reporting such an increase last year and 77% the year before that. A similar percentage of part-time programs reported an increase, relatively level compared to results a year ago.

Executive MBA programs may be a key growth area for business schools. Of those surveyed, 59% reported gains in applications this year, compared to only 37% a year ago.

“The findings from this survey underscore the importance of flexibility and creativity in delivering management education,” said Dave Wilson, president and chief executive officer  of GMAC.

“People can always derive great value from going to business school; our surveys attest to this fact. But many changing factors affect the kinds of programs that best meet their needs. Applicants need to find the very best fit for their own game plan.”

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Soojin Kwon Koh, admissions director at the Ross School of Business, has issued the first installment of her application tips in hopes of demystifying the process for prospective applicants.

The University of Michigan is still in the final testing stages before rolling out a new online application system campus-wide, and Soojin expects the full-time MBA application to go live by Sept. 1

And now, for Soojin’s first application tip:

The first essay question asks you to briefly introduce yourself, and the director acknowledges that the short word count may leave some applicants wondering, “What can/should I say about myself in 100 words?”

“While I can’t tell you what a ‘successful’ response might look like, since this is the first time we’re using this question,” says Soojin, “I can share a couple things we’re not looking for in Essay 1:

1. A summary of your resume or your stats (e.g., where you went to school, your GMAT score, etc.). We’ll already have reviewed those before we get to your essays, so no need to repeat.
2. A preview of your responses to the other essay questions (e.g., your goals, why Ross, your passions, etc.).

You may wonder how you can introduce yourself without referencing your career to date. It’s okay to weave it into your essay, but don’t let that be the sum total of what you write.”

As an exercise, Soojin asks applicants to imagine what they would say to the director if they met at an event and had only one minute to make a positive, lasting impression.

“Don’t feel like you have to approach it in a particular way or talk about a particular aspect of yourself,” she urges.

In addition to working on your essays, Soojin suggests applicants use this time to give your recommenders their questions so they can begin drafting their responses.

To learn more about Ross, check out dean Robert Dolan‘s recently published statement to prospective applicants explaining what sets Ross apart from other MBA programs.

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