MBA News Bites
Stacy Blackman’s Weekly Roundup of B-School Intelligence
New custom loan program for international MBAs at Wharton — The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania announced the launch of a custom loan program with Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) that will provide needed assistance to international MBA students who do not have a U.S. co-signer. The program, which covers tuition and living expenses, is also available to current first-year international students for their second year of study.
Harvard begins case study to examine its own damaged brand — Under attack for not preparing alumni to handle the economic crisis, Harvard Business School will dissect its own performance in a case study that also ponders how the school’s reputation has been tarnished, Bloomberg reported this week.The article states that HBS’s 219 professors will tackle the case at a May 27 meeting and may use the discussion to propose curriculum changes.
B-schools advising grads to focus on small business opportunities — With the dream jobs on Wall Street all but dried up, career offices are encouraging students to consider smaller businesses come recruiting time, BusinessWeek reports. Tracee Petrillo, career services director at Babson College’s F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business, tells BW smaller companies have access to a lot more talent than they ever had before.
Doing an MBA now puts you at the eye of the intellectual storm — Doing an MBA in the current climate isn’t just about taking shelter from the storm, QS Top MBA’s David Williams reports. Dr. Rob Straw, vice director of the Executive School of Management at the University of St. Gallen, says “You are right up close to the volatility of the market, working with and talking to people who are immediately involved in the crisis, and yet you are not personally affected. You can see the sweat but aren’t sweating yourself.”
Mentorship 101, according to The Harbus — This week’s issue of Harvard Business School‘s independent weekly explores mentorship in an interview with Larry Chiang, author of the upcoming book, “What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School.” “People focus on finding a job, but if you find a great mentor, finding a job is the easiest thing you can do, and it’s absolutely essential to entrepreneurship, ” says Chiang.
The dearth of female MBAs in the UK — Many UK business schools struggle to name any high-flying women MBA graduates they have trained and produce the same small handful of achievers over and over again, Britain’s The Independent reports. But is blatant discrimination is still rampant in the workforce? A variety of academics weigh in on the issue.
*
For a concise, thoughtful guide that will help you navigate the MBA admissions process with greater success, order our NEW book, The MBA Application Roadmap.
