Haas Alum Discusses Inclusion and Accessibility on Business School Campuses
Alvaro Silberstein MBA, ’17, chose to attend the Berkeley Haas School of Business not only for its proximity to Silicon Valley and educational strengths, but also because the school had a proud history of helping students with disabilities.
Continue reading…News Roundup – Haas Launches Deferred Admissions, Tuck MBAs Attend Climate Conference, and More
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from this week, including UC Berkeley admissions deferment for its MBA program.
Haas Launches Deferred MBA Admissions Program – Berkeley Haas Newsroom
The Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley has announced a new program, Accelerated Access, which allows graduate and undergraduate students to defer MBA admission in order to obtain work experience.
Launching January 22, 2020, Accelerated Access will at first only be open to students in their final year of study, but UC plans to expand the program to include all students across the university system. Applicants who are accepted will gain conditional admission with a two to five year deferment period.
Morgan Bernstein, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Haas, says, “Accelerated Access is an innovative way for students to secure a seat in our MBA program, providing a way for them to pursue full-time work that aligns with their passions, with reassurance that they will be able to return to a top-ranked MBA program in a few years…We have so much talent here in the Berkeley community—and this is another way that we are cultivating and committing to that talent.”
The goal of Accelerated Access is to open admission to students who may not have previously considered pursuing an MBA due to a lack of professional experience.
The opening year of the program has two application deadlines: Thursday, April 2, 2020 and Thursday, June 11, 2020. The application process has similar requirements as the regular MBA program, with one notable difference. Haas has waived the $200 application fee for Accelerated Access students. In addition, qualified applicants will be eligible for up to five scholarships worth $100,000.
Read here for more on Accelerated Access and UC Berkeley admissions.
At COP25, Tuck Has a Front-Row Seat – Tuck School of Business News
A delegation of ten Dartmouth Tuck School of Business students attended the United Nations’ COP25 conference in Madrid last December. Led by Professor Tracy Bach, the delegation was able to observe climate change negotiations in action.
One delegate, Melena Sanchez Montanes, (T, 20), is the Director of the Tuck Social Venture Fund. She says of COP25, “It was very energizing to see all these young people committed to finding solutions to climate change and an amazing experience to see the negotiators working live on behalf of their countries and hearing what’s important to them.”
Tuck’s Revers Center for Energy and the Center for Business, Government & Society each had a hand in sending the delegation. It is one of numerous experiential opportunities offered to Tuck students interested in sustainability, impact investing, and energy innovation. Tuck offers electives devoted to the business of climate change and to leadership in the new global economy.
Another Tuck delegate Kevin Yuan (T, ’20), recently accepted a position with Nike as global manager of sustainability. He became connected with the brand at a previous COP conference in Poland, and his new position will allow him to work on such projects as seeking ways to offset Nike’s carbon footprint.
Yuan says:
“The climate crisis can seem like this huge problem, where we don’t even know where to start, and it can feel defeating and deafening. But if you find your sliver of the pie and give it everything you can give, the world will be in a better place … As the world’s largest apparel company, Nike is a bellwether, and I feel uniquely empowered to impact climate change because of Nike’s global presence.”
For more on the delegation and COP25, read here.
How I Got the Job: Program Manager II, Twitter – Vanderbilt Owen News & Events
Shanah Gaskill, a current MBA at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management, recently shared the experience of her application, interview and hiring process as a Program Manager at Twitter.
Her story is part of the school’s “How I Got the Job” series. Gaskill began her career in marketing at Uber, where she eventually became a Senior Marketing Manager. There, she discovered her yen for ‘people-centered’ projects. Gaskill’s desire to use these skills prompted her to consider a future in HR, in addition to pursuing an MBA. This decision led Gaskill to the Owen MBA, which offers a concentration in Human and Organizational Performance (HOP).
“Coming to get my MBA, specifically at a school that was focused on HR, would allow me to make the jump. In [Twitter’s] interview process, being able to speak to what I was learning in class was super cool. What we learned in the HOP classes are very applicable to the HR roles that we’re going into,” Gaskill says.
Her success in the interview process won her a summer internship at Twitter, which has led to a full-time position as a Program Manager on their Global Talent Management Team. Of her new position, Gaskill adds, “I’m just really excited to work with and learn from my colleagues … They just pour so much into their employees that everyone there is so proud to work there … everyone is [dedicated to] the same mission.”
Read here for more on Gaskill’s MBA experience at Owen, including a helpful timeline of events that led her to Twitter.
World’s Leading Behavioral Science Conference Comes to the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management – Rotman News Releases
The University of Toronto Rotman School of Management‘s Behavioral Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR) research center will host a global conference on behavioral science on July 13 and 14, 2020.
Behavioral Exchange 2020 (BX2020) brings together industry, academic, and government experts to explore innovations in the field of behavioral innovations. The conference’s 500 delegates will share their expertise in the areas of public health, diversity and inclusion, global finance, and sustainability as each pertains to human behavioral science.
Click here to learn more about the upcoming event.
Top 5 California Salaries for Business School Grads
California’s a great place to jump into business grad school. Depending on what part of the state you choose, you got mountains, beaches, and endless sunshine. On top of that, California is among Forbes’ best states for business. California is 31st, in fact. And with the fifth-biggest economy in the world at $3 trillion, the state offers plenty of opportunity for those looking to make it in the world of business.
Continue reading…Berkeley Haas MBA Deadlines Revealed for 2019-20
The newest wave of full-time MBA deadlines have been announced by the University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business, leading into the 2019-20 season.
Berkeley MBA Deadlines 2019-20:
Round One
Application Deadline: Sep. 26, 2019
Decision Notification: Dec. 12, 2019
Round Two
Application Deadline: Jan. 9, 2020
Decision Notification: March 26, 2020
Round Three
Application Deadline: April 2, 2020
Decision Notification: May 7, 2020
Learn more about the University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business MBA programs here.
Fighting the Gender Pay Gap at Berkeley Haas
The gender pay gap is still alive and well in business, particularly in tech. At least that’s what Christina Chavez, a ’19 Berkeley Haas MBA student, discovered when she logged into an online compensation board named Blind while working at Microsoft a few years ago. There was a shocking difference between what male and female colleagues were getting paid. So, when Chavez was accepted into the Haas MBA program, she put pay equity and transparency as one of her top goals.
Last fall, Chavez’s goal came to fruition with the help of her classmate Jack Anderson, a fellow member of the Haas Gender Equity Initiative. Together, they set up a spreadsheet where classmates could share details about their compensation packages. Then, using salary data and research provided by Professor Laura Kay, they created a Haas Wage Gap Infographic.
“We earned 96 cents to the dollar in the last MBA class, and people were like ‘yeah we’re approaching equity,’ but this gap grows over time,” Chavez says.
Transparency and the Gender Salary Gap
Christina Chavez, Haas MBA ’19
Unfortunately, for alumni with more than ten years of experience, the salary wage gap between men and women is much more extensive. So, the goal of the project is to expand what’s already offered through CMG Bears (a Haas Career Management Group tool) and to understand the long-term salary gap concern better. Transparency is a critical weapon to close the gap.
And transparency is particularly important when it comes to compensation outside of salary. While recent research conducted by Professor Kray and Margaret Lee at the Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership (EGAL), revealed that alumni base salaries between 1994 and 2014 were only 8 percent higher for men, it was in the bonuses, share values, and options where men far outpaced women. Overall compensation for Haas women MBAs averages about $290,000—66 percent of men’s $439,000 average.
More than Negotiation Skills
While you might think, at first, that it’s all a matter of negotiation skills, that’s not what Kray and Lee’s research finds. Yes, it’s essential to know what compensation is available and what other people are earning in comparison; the problem for women is that there is an inherent bias toward men. Men tend to be put in charge of larger teams than equally-qualified women, and they get paid more because of it.
“You can change processes, but the long-term problem is people’s individual biases,” Kellie McElhaney, the founding director of EGAL, says. “If they believe things like men do a better job at leading big teams, or that women bosses are unlikable, this is unconscious and conscious bias at work.”
Read the full article in the Haas Newsroom here.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from its original source, Clear Admit.
Wharton Takes Over Top Spot on New U.S. News MBA Ranking
Harvard loses its crown, Wharton ranks first, and Purdue stumbles in new U.S. News & World Report “Best Business Schools” ranking.
The annual U.S. News & World Report Best Business Schools ranking, largely regarded as the most prominent MBA ranking system in the United States, debuted its newest annual listing, with The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School taking the top mantle.
The Philadelphia metro business school ascends past Harvard Business School and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business—both tying for first last year. Both schools took a minor tumble to the third overall spot, sitting in a three-way tie with the MIT Sloan School of Management. Stanford’s Graduate School of Business lept into the second overall spot, which comes just a few months after the Silicon Valley school maintained its status as the best in the world according to the Financial Times.
U.S. News & World Report Top 10 Business Schools
| School | This Year's Ranking | Last Year's Ranking |
|---|---|---|
| Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) | 1 | 3 |
| Stanford Graduate School of Business | 2 | 4 |
| Harvard Business School | 3 (tie) | 1 (tie) |
| Booth (University of Chicago) | 3 (tie) | 1 (tie) |
| Sloan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) | 3 (tie) | 5 |
| Columbia Business School | 6 (tie) | 9 |
| Kellogg (Northwestern University) | 6 (tie) | 6 |
| Haas (UC Berkeley) | 6 (tie) | 7 (tie) |
| Yale School of Management | 9 | 11 (tie) |
| Fuqua (Duke University) | 10 | 11 (tie) |
Within the top 50 business schools, this year’s ranking largely resembles last year’s. In fact, only three business schools—the University of Pittsburgh Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, the Iowa State University Ivy College of Business, and the The Manderson Graduate School of Business at the University of Alabama—moved into the top 50 since last year. The three business schools to fall out of the top 50 were Rutgers Business School, the Haslam College of Business at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business. All three moved down the ranking by at least 10 spots each.
U.S. News Ranking Rising Business Schools
No school saw a better year-end turnaround than the aforementioned Iowa State University Ivy College of Business. The Midwest business school moves from the 79th spot last year to 47th this year; a 32-spot increase. On the news of the new ranking, Dean David Spalding says in a press release, “This significant rise in the ranking is a direct result of the quality work our faculty do every day in the classroom. At a time when some universities are dropping their full-time MBA programs, the Ivy MBA continues to excel. Our internationally known faculty provide a top-notch MBA experience that helps our MBA graduates advance their careers to the next level.”
Iowa State University’s Ivy College of Business earns the biggest ranking bump from U.S. News this year, moving up 32 spots from last year.
Ten schools in the top 100 saw double-digit rankings jumps, with Iowa State accruing the greatest increase. The University of Kentucky Gatton College of Business and Economics, the Oklahoma State University Spears School of Business, and the Babson College F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business all saw a rise of at least 20 spots this year as well.
Purdue, Case Western Stumble
On the opposite end of this year’s ranking is Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management, falling a total of 21 spots from 53rd last year to 74th this year. The University of Kansas School of Business and the Saunders College of Business at RIT join Krannert as this year’s three biggest falling schools, each dropping at least 20 spots respectively. Like most of the annual U.S. News rankings, the placement fluctuation is much more apparent the further and further down the list you go, with schools in the top 50 largely remaining stable.
U.S. News 2020 Ranking Methodology
To formulate its ranking, U.S. News & World Report analyzed “475 MBA programs accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International.” A total of 367 schools responded to its surveys, but only 131 schools made the final ranking “because they provided enough of the required data on their full-time MBA program that were needed to calculate the full-time MBA rankings, based on a weighted average of the indicators.” Those indicators, with the weighted values, are as follows:
Quality Assessment (0.40)
• Peer assessment score (0.25)
• Recruiter assessment score (0.15)
Placement Success (0.35)
• Mean starting salary and bonus (0.14)
• Employment rates for full-time MBA program graduates
Student Selectivity (0.25)
• Mean GMAT and GRE scores (0.1625)
• Mean undergraduate GPA (0.075)
• Acceptance rate (0.0125)
Did The Methodology Changes Affect This Year’s U.S. News Ranking?
Last September, calls for changes in the MBA ranking methodology seemed to be answered by several large publications, including U.S. News. The company’s Chief Data Strategist, Robert Morse, noted, “There is an active and ongoing debate about how to best measure quality in education, and we pay close attention to that debate. Over time, our ranking model has put more emphasis on outcomes measures … As part of this evolving process, we’ve wanted to measure whether schools were successful at serving all of their students, regardless of economic status.”
The overarching issue seemed to lie within a framework that continually rewarded students and business schools that actively enrolled more and more students from affluent families. In response, U.S. News decreased its ranking value of acceptance rates, which previously rewarded schools that were more selective. Now, as seen above, the weighted value of acceptance rates is less than 1 percent.
However, the changes in the formula did not seem to bare much tenable change in the outcomes. The top 50 schools were largely unchanged, with only minor variances. Several schools, such as Iowa State and Oklahoma State were handsomely rewarded in the new ranking, moving up at least 20 spots each. However, schools rising and falling by 10, 20, even 30 spots in a given year isn’t a new occurrence. In fact, last year, nine schools in the top 100 rose at least 10 rankings from the previous year.
