Ask the AdCom: What’s a Can’t-Miss Course?

Hey everybody! We’re back with another installment of “Ask the AdCom,” where we share a wide range of tips and advice from admissions team members from a dozen top business schools. Since AdCom members are human, too, we know our readers will enjoy seeing  a different side of what makes these guys tick.

This fun space is not really about the application process but more about real-life topics, like what’s a good book to read, best place to study, where you can find a killer meal near campus, and all the fun stuff happening at b-school that creates those lifelong, cherished memories for MBA students.

We hope you become inspired, too!

Today’s question is: Name a must-take course.

Virginie Fougea, Associate Director of Admissions at INSEAD, says:  The MBA’16 J class has just elected Pr. Henning Piezunka (teaching New Business Ventures) and Pr. Peter Joos (teaching Financial Accounting) for the “Best Teacher” awards. ‘The First Hundred Days’ is also very popular.

Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of MBA Admissions  at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, recommends:

• Start-Up Factory with Eric Koester
• Understanding Entrepreneurship with Professor Jeff Reid
• 1st-Year Core Finance with Professor Lee Pinkowitz
• Social Enterprise with Melissa Bradley
• Firm Analysis and Strategy with Professor Jeff Macher

Kelly R. Wilson, Executive Director of Admissions  at CMU Tepper School of Business, recommends Corporate Restructuring, taught by Dean Bob Dammon.

John Roeder, Assistant Dean Graduate Admissions  at SMU Cox School of Business, recommends Master Negotiation with Robin Pinkley.  Everyone should take a Negotiations course in their MBA as the skills and tactics are useful in business, buying a car, dealing with a spouse…Robin wrote THE book on Salary Negotiations (Get Paid What You’re Worth).  This may be why our students are so successful in their average post-MBA salaries.

Melissa Fogerty, Director of Admissions at Yale School of Management, notes: About 65% of our students at SOM take at least one elective course outside of the School of Management at other Yale schools, and the most popular non-SOM course this academic year was Renewable Energy Project Finance at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

If you are interested in sustainability and the environment, this practicum exposes students to real-world tools of the trade and the theory underlying them, exploring what one would encounter if working for a utility project developer, project finance lender or infrastructure equity investment firm.

Judi Byers, Executive Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Cornell’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, shared these student recommendations:

• Peter Su, MBA ’17: Critical and Strategical Thinking
• Sydney Chernish, MBA ’16: The most helpful and enjoyable class was Oral Communications. It’s a small, hands-on class where you present speeches and receive professor and peer feedback in a constructive and positive way.
• Najeen Riazi, MBA ’17: Management Cases or Macroeconomics.
• Daniel Greenhaw, MBA ’16: Negotiations.

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Look out for the #AskAdCom in our social media channels, and we’ll see you again next week when we check in to Ask the AdCom some fun student clubs.