Berkeley Welcomes Record Number of MBAs in for Class of 2020
Last week, UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business unveiled stats for the incoming students that comprise its full-time MBA Class of 2020.
With 291 full-time MBA students (along with 276 evening and weekend students), the Berkeley Class of 2020 is larger than any before.
The new class one of the most academically accomplished in school history. Average GPA for this year’s first-year class is 3.66, off just .05 from last year’s. But an increase in average GMAT offset the tiny backslide in GPA. At 726, it moved up one point higher than last year’s incoming class.
In terms of professional experience, Haas students come from various backgrounds. About a quarter of the students come from the consulting industry, and another 20 percent come from banking/financial services backgrounds. The industries drawing the third-, fourth-, and fifth-most Haas grads are high tech (10 percent), nonprofit (9 percent), and healthcare/pharmaceutical/bio (7 percent). In addition, 5 percent of the incoming class has military experience.
The percentage of women in Haas’s incoming class is also up over the previous year, something we’ve also seen this year at Northwestern’s Kellogg School, Duke’s Fuqua School, and USC Marshall, among others.
About 43 percent of the incoming Berkeley Class of full-time MBAs are women—a 3 percent increase. International students from 30 countries make up around 34 percent of the class, down from 39 percent last year. Here, too, Haas is not alone. Many U.S. schools have shared, in both in published class profiles and informal conversations, that international application volume was down, or at best, flat year over year.
Former Haas Dean Richard Lyons stepped down in June after 11 years with the school, a role in which he raised more money than any prior dean and oversaw the construction of Connie & Kevin Chou Hall. The addition of the new building helped make it possible to expand the Haas class, an effort Lyons championed. He and other supporters viewed it as a way to help ensure that Haas has enough graduates to command attention from the world’s top recruiters without compromising the intimacy and culture.
“Part of the reputation of the school is a function of its scale, and there are times where you are just not at the right reputational scale. You’re too small,” he explained in a 2017 interview with Clear Admit.
“It’s a super intimate experience—there’s no question about that—but target companies want to go to a place where there are enough people graduating that they can send a team of recruiters, for example. If you are too small you are below the threshold.”
Ann Harrison, a renowned economist and member of the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, will serve as Haas’s next dean. Harrison begins her term on January 1, 2019. Professor Laura Tyson, the current interim dean since Lyons left, returns to her prior faculty positions next year.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from Clear Admit.
Stanford GSB Has Updated Its Financial Aid Policy
Six weeks into a process to revamp financial aid protocol at Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), the school has shared the most recent updates in an ongoing review and re-imagining of how financial aid is awarded.
The decision to reassess the process, which Clear Admit covered two weeks ago, came not long after a data breach exposed that Stanford misrepresenting how it distributed financial aid. Data analysis revealed that the school had not been been awarding scholarships exclusively on the basis of need, but rather disproportionately based on other criteria including gender, immigration status, and work experience.
Dean Jonathan Levin clarified the Stanford financial aid policy in a public letter and pledged greater transparency moving forward:
“Stanford GSB’s communications over the years have explained the base level award process, but have not discussed the incremental fellowship awards,” he wrote. “I believe that a preferable approach, going forward, is to be significantly more transparent about the principles and objectives being applied in making financial aid awards, and about how different awards are made. We are committed to working on this for the current admissions cycle.”
In a letter to the Stanford GSB community on April 10, Assistant Dean for MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Kirsten Moss shared some of the progress the school has made in recent months, praising the student leaders who have guided much of the process.
“In February, the Student Association conducted several focus groups to learn about our students’ experience with financial aid at the GSB,” Moss wrote, adding that in March many of the focus group participants attended a co-design workshop to prototype new financial aid models. “We will be using these prototypes as the building blocks for the design of a new financial aid process,” she added. This month, the school will conduct additional focus groups with alumni and meet with faculty members from core academic areas.
The school has also established an advisory group made up of faculty, staff, and alumni to counsel its senior leadership and has hired a new financial aid project manager. Christi Opitz, a former Cambridge Associates investment consultant and HP finance department member, will “fully focus on supporting this initiative in the coming months.”
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from our sister site, Clear Admit.
What is the Most Valuable San Francisco MBA?
There’s no doubt: San Francisco is a great city to earn your MBA. Located near Silicon Valley, business schools throughout the area provide not only an excellent education but also opportunities to interact with many tech and industry leaders in the area. But which MBA programs in San Francisco are the best?
This is not an easy question to answer. You can check rankings, to see which MBA programs perform well based on surveys and statistics provide to The Financial Times, U.S. News and World Report, and The Economist. And that’s a great place to start, but probably the most essential value when determining the right MBA program for you is your return on investment (ROI).
The ROI of an MBA program is one of the best indicators of what your MBA is actually worth. It looks at statistics such as average salary increase, post-graduation employment, tuition cost, cost of living, and more. To help you out, we looked in-depth at the best business schools in San Francisco to see which offer the best ROI. Continue reading…
Los Angeles News: Black Panther’s Success, UC Irvine Commencement, and More
We’ve rounded up some of the biggest news coming out of Los Angeles business schools this week.
‘Black Panther’ success amplifies findings of UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report – UCLA Newsroom
The immense success of Black Panther, the newest entrant into the Marvel cinematic universe, is pushing against the old Hollywood narrative that diverse casts often hinder the financial success of films, according to UCLA Anderson. Less than two weeks after its debut, the film has already grossed $400 million in the U.S. alone, with gross worldwide sales surpassing $727 million.
According to Forbes, the film is approaching the all-time pantheon of financially successful films:
This puts the MCU action drama’s 11-day domestic total at $411.7 million. Yes, it is already past Captain America: Civil War ($408 million in 2016) and Iron Man 3 ($409m in 2013) to be the third-biggest MCU grosser. And it’s pennies away from topping Wonder Woman ($412.5m in 2017). Once it tops Wonder Woman, presumably by the end of this sentence, Black Panther will be the fifth-biggest comic book superhero movie of all time in unadjusted North American grosses, behind only The Dark Knight Rises ($448m in 2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron ($458m in 2015), The Dark Knight ($534m in 2008) and The Avengers ($623m).
UCLA Anderson points out that the Black Panther box office success underscores its Hollywood Diversity Report, which it explains in full below:
UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business Announces Experian North America CEO Craig Boundy as 2018 Distinguished Executive Commencement Speaker – UCI Paul Merage School of Business Newsroom
The Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine recently announced that the 2018 Distinguished Executive Commencement Speaker will be Craig Boundy, CEO of Experian North America. Over 670 graduates will be part of the event, including students from Undergraduate, MBA and PhD programs, as well as the first-ever graduating class of the Master of Finance and Master of Science in Business Analytics programs.
Boundy has a long career in business, with experience in marketing services, decision analytics and customer service. Beginning in a role with British Telecommunications, Boundy has moved through the ranks before joining Experian in 2011 and ultimately moving into the CEO role in 2014. “The opportunity to share my experiences and inspiration with the graduates from the Merage School is an honor,” Boundy said. “Our future success lies in our ability to develop agile leaders ho anticipate disruption and capitalize on creating new opportunities in the marketplace. The graduates from the Merage School are those leaders.”
Read more about Boundy and the Merage Commencement Ceremony here.
USC Marshall Online MBA Breaks Top Ten in U.S. News Rankings – U.S. News & World Report
After some considerable changes to the U.S. News & World Report Online MBA ranking, the USC Marshall School of Business online program jumped to the 8th overall spot—four spots higher than last year.
The school’s Vice Dean for Online Education, Sandra Chrystal, Ph.D, said, “We look forward to sustaining the success of the Online MBA program well into the digital future by maintaining our dedication to delivering an innovative, high-touch, advanced business education to accomplished working professionals who need online flexibility to stay on track while earning their degree.”
You can read more about the USC Marshall online program ranking here.
Why More and More MBAs are Coming to LinkedIn: #LinkedInLife
Since its 2003 launch, LinkedIn has been shaping the way people find jobs, becoming the most extensive professional social network on the planet. With over 530 million users, it is clear how the platform could pair job seekers with a multitude of career prospects. LinkedIn was just voted Company of the Year by HRDive for the comprehensive recruitment resources it offers its users. However, a network this expansive presents its own pool of opportunities. In fact, Glassdoor dubbed LinkedIn one of the 25 best places to work in 2017. For a company that prides itself on such a unique work environment, its employees even have their own hashtag (#linkedinlife). The company’s rising importance as a recruiting tool in the global economy (hence, over 30 offices worldwide) and its award-winning work environment make a career at LinkedIn an excellent option for MBA grads.
#LinkedInlife
LinkedIn takes a values-centered approach to building its employee culture. According to the company’s website, the values that define LinkedIn are: integrity, humor, transformation, collaboration, and results. Employees are entitled to a multitude of benefits, including 401(k) and Roth contributions, paid parental leave, 17 paid holidays, and an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP). The company also demonstrates its commitment to inclusive strategies by providing back-up childcare resources for employees whose children have special needs.
The Human Rights Campaign designated LinkedIn as one of the best places to work for LGBT equality in 2017. LinkedIn makes an effort to provide resources for its community’s LGBT members, including (but far from limited to) supporting gender reassignment surgery and ensuring that domestic partners and same sex spouses are included in U.S. Benefit programs.
In addition to a unique and inclusive set of standards and values, LinkedIn provides an environment that is far more exciting than that of the standard corporate job. According to The Undercover Recruiter, each floor of LinkedIn’s London office is structured according to a theme. The sports-themed floor has a Wimbledon Room with astroturf on the walls and an umpire chair.
Inside LinkedIn’s San Francisco headquarters/Photo by Eric Laignel.
Getting Hired
In recent years, LinkedIn has trended toward using its website and platform, as well as hosting regional events for recruiting as opposed to using traditional job fair settings. MBAs at LinkedIn can find jobs in sales, marketing, finance, product, and business development through the Student Careers program. At LinkedIn, the community is organized into teams, and each team has its area of focus. Professionals seeking careers specifically in business can choose from about fifteen possible teams. The Corporate Development and Strategy team, for example, leads the way in determining company strategy and analyzing market activity and opportunities. The Global Solutions team focuses on marketing, hiring, and sales. Those who wish to focus exclusively on marketing can look into the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions (LMS) team.
In a 2015 interview with Cosmopolitan, LinkedIn Global Talent Acquisitions Leader Tey Scott discussed how, despite its headquarters being located in Mountainview, CA, the company hires talent from everywhere—which can mean a lot for both domestic and international MBAs.
“We hire from around the world, and we have an amazing relocation assistance program that supports all levels of hires,” she says. “We offer temporary housing, and help employees find daycare, schools, or other things that suit their needs—whether it’s a student relocating from [the East Coast] to Silicon Valley, or someone who has to relocate an entire family and sell a house.”
Scott continues, saying, “We also try to help people get to know the new area they’re moving to. For recent graduates and students, we’ll put them in a LinkedIn group and start conversations with them so they can figure out what neighborhoods they want to live in, and even help them find roommates.”
The company has also made an active effort to convert interns into full-time employees, she adds. “The goal is to convert as many people who come through it into full-time employees. We have interns in all of our locations globally, and we even host interns from other Bay Area tech companies for an annual intern hack day at our headquarters. Undergraduate and MBA interns must be enrolled full-time in a program and return to the program following the internship.”
Find out more about LinkedIn’s MBA internship opportunities here.
Graziadio Dean David Smith on the Economic Impact of the New Rams Stadium
Dean David Smith of the Graziadio School of Management at Pepperdine University recently shared his views on the new stadium that will be built for the Los Angeles Rams.
The stadium, which is projected to earn the city’s economy over a billion dollars in revenue, will also create roughly 40,000 jobs for Los Angelenos. With the possibility of both the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers using the field for home games, the new project has been dubbed “NFL Disney World”.
