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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Three professors from Yale School of Management generated a lot of buzz and commentary in the B-school universe earlier this week with their piece on teaching ethics to MBAs, published Monday by the Wall Street Journal.

Dr. Rodrigo Canales and Dr. Cade Massey are assistant professors, and Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski is an associate professor, of organizational behavior at Yale SOM. Their article Promises Aren’t Enough: Business Schools Need to Do a Better Job Teaching Students Values, addresses the continued hot topic of an MBA Oath.

While the professors laud the notion of future business leaders acting ethically and keeping greed at bay, they believe “such oaths sound much like chastity vows taken by thousands of teens every year. The problem in both cases is not a lack of sincerity, but a failure to adequately prepare for the moment of truth.”

The danger with such oaths, they say, is that they create a false sense of moral inoculation, and MBAs who take an ethics oath without enough supporting leadership education are likely more vulnerable to ethical breaches.

The professors discuss how situational forces drive behavior to a surprising extent, what business schools need to do to effectively teach leadership and ethics, and why experiential learning is the best way to prepare students for the difficult decisions they will face—often under enormous pressure.

To read more from the Yale SOM community regarding the MBA ethics pledge, see our piece from May which explores the areas of concern that Yale SOM students and faculty have with a business oath.

Deans Judy Olian of UCLA Anderson School of Management and Rich Lyons of Berkeley Haas School of Business tweeted their recommendation of the article and are in agreement with much of what Canales, Massey and Wrzesniewski  put forth. Check out the full article and leave us a comment letting us know your thoughts below.

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When four students at MIT Sloan School of Management approached the Career Development Office to ask for support in offering a social media workshop for MBA program students last summer, they were entering breakthrough territory.

With the CDO’s approval,  Amanda Peyton, Ariel Santos, Brian Cantwell, and Sarah Park created a pair of workshops, “Twitter for Beginners” and “Social Media for Beginners.”

The goal: to create a peer-to-peer learning environment where students share and test ideas about how best to leverage social media tools as part of the job search.

Each workshop laid out practical techniques for using Twitter and other online tools to help students research companies and distinguish themselves in interviews.

Students who participated in the “Twitter for Beginners” workshop came away with an expanded understanding of how to network and follow emerging industry trends online.

One workshop attendee wrote, “I used to wonder, ‘Why use another Facebook that does less?’ Now I realize that the way you build your network, interact with people, and gather information using Twitter is totally different from the way you use Facebook and Linked In.’”

Students come to MIT Sloan to explore new careers, which means efficiently and creatively expanding one’s professional networks is a critical endeavor. These workshop organizers – whose backgrounds represent a range of experiences in technology and online media – recognized an opportunity to supplement the traditional career development offerings and support their peers in this regard.

A year later, many top programs have begun adding courses on social media to their MBA curricula. Social media skills just may provide an all-important edge when the time comes to parlay an MBA into a stellar job offer.

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On Vault’s MBA blog Thursday, Madison Priest tackled a subject that will really get you thinking if you’re interested in CSR and torn between whether you should specialize in sustainability during your MBA, or just go for generic business skills.

Priest polled colleague Aman Singh Das, Vault’s corporate responsibility editor, and discovered that even though sustainability solutions require specialized knowledge and specific skill sets, executives still prize traditional business skills such as the ability to think systemically, understand complex legislation related to sustainability and financial analytic skills. 

As Singh explains from the company’s perspective: The reality of the current market is that an MBA is good for generic management skills, not specialization, when it comes to sustainability and CSR….

Companies say they don’t necessarily need someone who has done two years in-depth study on CSR guidelines and regulations. They have more value for someone who has managerial skills–someone who can lead departments and work sustainability into their role as an accountant, an analyst, etc.

Carolyn C. Wise, Vault’s senior education editor, adds her belief that when it comes to MBA specializations, you don’t want to close yourself off.

“If you’re totally set on one type of job, then absolutely specialize–particularly if you worked in that industry before…But if you are a career-changer, and you don’t know precisely where you want to go, specializations can sometimes hurt rather than help,” Wise says.

For more ideas on how to brand yourself and your specialization, and to learn Vault’s take on whether the rebounding market will generate more or fewer pure CSR jobs, read Priest’s original post here.

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In the aftermath of the financial crisis, MBA programs have had to fine-tune their offerings to appeal to a broader pool of applicants, many of whom are just as interested in doing good as doing well.

Earlier this week, Forbes.com highlighted the 10 most innovative business school classes around. These specialty courses offer hands-on experience solving real problems for real companies–and countries–Forbes’s Terra Stanley writes.

Below you’ll find five of the B-school classes highlighted in the piece; follow the link to the original article for the other half of the list.

Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University
“Innovation for Humanity”
When it launches in January, this program will send students to a developing nation such as Rwanda, Peru, Kenya and India, where they will study infrastructural weakness in water, energy and health systems, and work with scientists and the locals to develop solutions. The goal: to understand how to build sustainable businesses in developing markets.

McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University
“Business, Government and the Global Economy”
This course examines how politics interacts with market forces. Introductory topics include regional trade agreements and obligations under the World Trade Organization.

Later students independently research various topics to debate, interviewing company representatives and diplomats.
Previous debates have covered the U.S.-Vietnamese catfish trade dispute, and how less stringent copyright and patent rules on pharmaceuticals would enable more Africans with HIV and AIDS to access health care.

Foster School of Business, University of Washington
“Women at the Top”
Women are populating upper management ranks more than ever. Students meet women leaders–like Wendy Collie, senior vice president of Starbucks, and Joanne Harrell, chief of staff of the OEM division of Microsoft–and learn what helps them succeed. Students (both male and female) write a “Ten Year Difference Plan” at the end of the course, in which they present their values and aspirations involving family, career and legacy.

Olin Graduate School of Business, Babson College
“The Gig Economy and the New Entrepreneurial Imperative”
“No one I know has a job anymore; everyone has gigs.” So said Tina Brown, founder of the Daily Beast. In this class students learn how to navigate the “gig” life of sequential jobs and temporary consulting work–a smart hedge at a time when full-time corporate jobs are increasingly tenuous.

Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame
“Business on the Frontlines”
There’s sprucing up a languishing company, and then there’s dropping into war zones and helping to rebuild entire economies. Here students study peace-through-commerce efforts, and then spend 10 days on a field visit to map out rebuilding strategies, from farming to tourism. Past destinations have included Bosnia, Lebanon and Uganda.

“It’s not just about getting the experience; that’s for field trips,” says Keith Flatley, MBA, class of 2009, on the school’s website. “This is about getting something done.”

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There are many reasons to choose a top-ranked business school for your MBA program, and given the substantial investment, future financial compensation certainly makes it to the top of the list for many people. 

Bloomberg BusinessWeek partnered with PayScale to rank the top business schools based on how much their MBA alumni earn in two years, 10 years and 20 years. As might be expected, the top-ranked—and most expensive—MBA programs produce the highest-salaried grads over the span of their careers, according to the research.

So, without further ado, here are the Top 10 Highest Paid Business School Alumni:

1. Harvard Business School
Median career total compensation for Harvard graduates: $3,867,903

2. University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School
Median career total compensation for Wharton graduates: $3,491,372

3. Columbia Business School
Median career total compensation for Columbia graduates: $3,349,669

4. Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Median career total compensation for Stanford graduates: $3,327,145

5. Dartmouth College, Tuck School of Business
Median career total compensation for Tuck graduates: $3,146,031

6. Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management
Median career total compensation for Kellogg graduates: $3,085,680

7. MIT Sloan School of Management
Median career total compensation for Sloan graduates: $3,031,132

8. University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
Median career total compensation for Booth graduates: $2,970,437

9. University of California at Berkeley, Haas School of Business
Median career total compensation for Haas graduates: $2,960,527

10. New York University, Stern School of Business
Median career total compensation for Stern graduates: $2,918,748

To learn more about the methodology behind this research, as well as how regional, industry and economic issues affect the outcome, read the original article on Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

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