Drexel LeBow MBA Admissions Answers 5 Questions
In our latest installment of the MetroMBA “5 Questions” series, we speak with Kate Sonstein, Associate Director of Graduate Recruitment & Admissions at the Drexel University Lebow College of Business. Sonstein discusses the importance of experiential learning and the quality of the students, staff, and faculty at LeBow.
1. What advice would you give an MBA candidate interested in Drexel LeBow?
“There are so many great things to think about when coming back to get your MBA, and sometimes it can be overwhelming. My best advice includes two simple things: be yourself and put your best foot forward on your application.
It’s important that you’re true to your personality and qualities in the admissions process because you are looking for an MBA that is the best fit for you, not your friend or colleague. You are on a search to find a home for the next 1.5-2 years of your life, and it is important that the MBA you select meets your individual needs at an academic, personal, and professional level. Otherwise, you could end up with a program that does not provide the type of interaction that is the best fit for you.
You also need to gain an understanding of the program and school where you are applying and demonstrate that in your essay and communications. Don’t just Google a few classes and stick them in your essay—believe me, we can tell. Big tip: spell check everything! And make sure your recommenders know why you are applying so they can write you an impactful letter. The best applications are those that are unique and showcase your strongest qualities, but also those that are genuine.”
2. What is Drexel LeBow’s greatest asset and what do you wish MBA students knew more about?
“Drexel LeBow is a community of ambitious, hard-working people who are striving to be the brightest and the best in their field. At Drexel LeBow, we are your greatest asset—our faculty, both with high impact research and industry collaboration; our staff, including our experienced career services team and involved college leadership; our advisors, guiding you through your experience every step of the way; and our students, go-getters always striving to be the best in every aspect of their experience.
I think our MBAs are still learning more about our newest feature in the curriculum: graduate minors. Graduate minors at Drexel are an opportunity to build an additional functional area of study at the graduate level through courses offered in other subject areas. Minors are offered across the university in over 50 different disciplines including data science, health administration, project management, and business analytics management. Minors can be built into the Drexel LeBow MBA plan of study without any additional courses—students simply put their 18 free elective credits towards their minor.”
3. What opportunities, outside of the classroom, does LeBow offer MBA students to get hands-on experience?
“Hands-on experience is crucial to the graduate experience, particularly in an MBA program. At LeBow, both our full-time and part-time students have the opportunity to participate in experiential learning opportunities, regardless of what other commitments they manage outside the classroom.
Consulting courses and projects are a key aspect of experiential learning at LeBow. Our students work with many industry partners through our Business Solutions Institute to solve complex business problems, working with decision makers and company leadership alike. Students can opt to work with a for-profit or not-for-profit company in a consulting course, or work on a consulting project through the Institute.
LeBow also offers the opportunity for residency-based courses, both domestically at one of our two Pennsylvania campuses or internationally. Domestic residencies are offered based on topical learning, such as Six Sigma or Negotiations for Leaders, or as a consulting course option. Our international residency course includes 10 weeks of study about a specific foreign market, and then concludes with a trip to that country (or countries) in the last week of term.”
4. How does LeBow support its MBA students for post-graduation?
“Throughout the MBA experience, our Graduate Career Services Team works closely with all our MBAs, regardless of their specific career goals. Opportunities including workshops, one-on-one coaching, and industry engagement events are integral to the MBA experience.
As an alumnus, we also strongly encourage involvement and engagement with the College and our current students. In addition to our University and College level alumni groups, we have the Drexel LeBow Graduate Alumni Association for our MS and MBA alumni that is quite active. The group hosts a number of events each year, including our signature night of Alumni Networking each April.
Alumni also have lifetime access to our Graduate Career Services Team. The team consists of a variety of professionals with different backgrounds and expertise who are available as they transition to multiple roles throughout their career, or simply for professional development advice and feedback. We encourage our alumni to be as involved as possible—it’s all about who you know!”
5. What’s your favorite online blog that you would recommend for students?
Overlooking the Schuylkill River, between West and Center City Philadelphia.
“I’m not originally from Philadelphia, so some of my favorite blogs are about Philly and all the amazing things it has to offer. My [number one] choice is always Uwishunu.com (if you say it out loud it sounds like “You wish you knew”) and it always delivers. They do weekly and monthly city happenings and highlight some of the best events and food spots in the city.
Our main campus is also located in the University City area of Philadelphia, and they have a great blog that I love to use to keep up with our neighborhood. Philly is a city filled with culture, history, art, and some of the best food you will eat so there is always something to explore!”
Drexel Culinary Collaborations and First Place Finishes — Philly News
With so much news happening in Philly business schools, it’s understandable if you need a hand catching up. Here’s your Philly news brief.
Drexel EMBA Class Spurs Culinary Collaboration — LeBow News
Thanks to his Drexel LeBow College of Business EMBA class, chef and restaurateur Kevin Sbraga has found a way back into the kitchen. Sbraga, a chef with prior business experience in the Philadelphia area, came up with the idea for a one-day pop-up kitchen in a Business Problem Solving class taught by associate clinical professor of management Suresh Chandran.
According to a news story on the Drexel website:
“We were talking about innovation as a disrupter, and that made me start to think about how the real estate landscape is changing for retail as well as restaurants,” Sbraga says. “I reached out to a hospitality buddy of mine who has some experience in the tech field. I asked him, ‘How can we create a virtual restaurant? A restaurant experience without the brick and mortar,’ and his response was ‘delivery’.”
Sbraga was one of the first restaurateurs in the city to adopt the now-popular food delivery app Caviar, helping deliver the first batches of Nashville hot chicken to Philly for a special one-day event. “The Hot Chicken was far and away the best-selling dish from The Fat Ham’s menu on Caviar. It was widely regarded as some of the best hot chicken outside of Nashville, so featuring it was an easy choice,” a Caviar spokesperson said.
LeBow EMBA grad and chef Kevin Sbraga was one of the first in the city of Philadelphia to help introduce the now-popular food delivery app Caviar.
You can read more about Sbraga’s food and pop-up concept here.
Penn State Smeal MBAs place first in Fisher Invitational Big Ten+ MBA Case Competition — Penn State Smeal News
Four Penn State Smeal MBAs recently took first place in the Fisher Invitational Big Ten+ MBA Case Competition at Ohio State. The team of first-year students were coached by Nancy Mahon, clinical associate professor of business communication.
Teams had 24 hours to develop a comprehensive pitch outlining concrete recommendations to address the challenges facing Bob Evans restaurant chain. Competition judges included key Bob Evans senior leadership as well as executives from other corporations. The Smeal squad defeated teams from Illinois and Wisconsin in first round before beating second-place Purdue and third-place Michigan State in the finals.
“I’m extremely impressed with our team’s efforts and professionalism,” Mahon said. “I’m especially proud of our students’ representation of Smeal.”
You can read more about the recent Penn State Smeal event here.
Is It Possible to Change Bad Behavior – Permanently? – Knowledge@Wharton
The recently-created Behavior Change for Good Initiative course at The Wharton School, taught by celebrated UPenn professor Angela Duckworth and Wharton’s own Katherine Milkman, looks at the quality of daily living in a broad and curious way.
In the most recent Knowledge@Wharton podcast episode, the two discuss the program’s vast social experiment angles, asking how people can change bad or not-well-liked behavior on a permanent scale. This includes the launch of the StepUp program with fitness chain 24 Hour Fitness. “Duckworth and Milkman are hoping to recruit hundreds of thousands of current and new members of the chain to sign up for the program,” they explain “Those who do will become part of a large-scale tournament in which scientists have developed 57 different paths they hope will lead to positive behavior change.”
“We want to see which ideas truly yield the biggest changes in behavior, not just during the course of the program, which is 28 days, but also in the year following it.”
You can check out the most recent podcast episode here.
Villanova Wins, Wharton and Temple Land Donations, and More – Philly News
Philadelphia was up late this week watching the Villanova win its second NCAA Championship in three years, but that wasn’t the only exciting news out of the City of Brotherly Love. Here’s your weekly Philly business school news brief!
William P. Lauder Endows the William P. Lauder Wharton Leadership Fellows Program with $4 Million Gift — Wharton News
The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania announced that alumni William P. Lauder has committed $4 million to endow the William P. Lauder Wharton Leadership Fellows Program. Wharton Leadership Fellows are second-year MBA students who mentor, coach, and support first-year students in developing their potential and strengthening their performance as learning teams.
“I have always believed that great leaders are also great teachers, coaches, and mentors,” said William P. Lauder, who serves as Executive Chairman of The Estée Lauder Companies. “That’s what I expect of leaders at The Estée Lauder Companies, and what I hope to model for MBA students … I am thrilled to support this outstanding program’s continued growth and evolution.”
Lauder is also a member of the University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees, the Lauder Institute Board of Governors, the Wharton Leadership Advisory Board, and a lecturer in the Wharton School. His family has a track record of giving back to the Wharton community, including funding for the Lauder Institute, student fellowships, and numerous capital projects, such as the recently completed New College House at 3335 Woodland Walk.
Read more about Lauder’s gift and the Leadership Fellows program here.
Stanley and Franny Wang Make $2 Million Gift to Fox School of Business — Fox School News
In similar news, a $2 million gift from Temple alumni Stanley and Franny Wang will support a fully endowed chair professorship at the Fox School of Business, and create an endowed fund for the Stanley and Franny Wang Chair in Business and Management. According to dean Dr. M. Moshe Porat, the fully endowed chair will be held by a leading scholar in a department soon to be chosen.
“I am continually humbled by the generosity of our school’s graduates, and Stanley and Franny Wang serve as shining examples of this philanthropy,” said Porat. “The Fox School has a proud tradition of providing leading and cutting-edge business education. Stanley and Franny’s transformative gift will significantly enhance our efforts to attract the world’s top professors and most-renowned researchers—both now in our centennial year and throughout the school’s next 100 years.”
Learn more about the Wangs and their generous gift to Temple here.
Associate Professor Korschun Receives Fulbright Award, 2nd for LeBow Faculty in 2018 — LeBow News
Daniel Korschun, associate professor of marketing and Stephen Cozen Research Scholar in Marketing, has received a Fulbright award to travel to Italy for a research project. According to a press release, Korschun will teach and conduct research on political statements by corporations at Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli from September to December 2018.
“With the two-party system here in the United States, these decisions are made in a simpler context,” Korschun said. “In Italy, they don’t have that—there are a lot more shifts in how people see their political identity. That makes it more complex to disentangle what’s going on in people’s minds.”
Korschun is the second LeBow professor to be awarded with the prestigious Fulbright Award: Economics Professor Konstantinos Serfes received a Fulbright award to visit the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom during spring 2019.
Read more about Drexel’s Fulbright Scholars here.
Villanova’s Title Proves it is the Best Team—and Program—in All of College Basketball — ESPN
Okay, okay—not business news—but a big deal for Villanova and the surprisingly championships-filled city of Philadelphia.
Drexel MBA Team Earns Second Place, and More – Philly News
Let’s review some of the biggest news coming out of Philadelphia business schools this week.
MBA Students Weather the Storm and Win Second Place — LeBow News
Four first-year Drexel University LeBow College of Business MBA students braved a winter storm in order to compete in the inaugural University at Buffalo MBA Case Competition in Buffalo, New York. The Drexel team ended in second place, winning a $3,000 prize. The competition was hosted by the University at Buffalo School of Management and sponsored by Dun & Bradstreet.
“It was an all-star group, and it was a huge learning experience for us,” said Cory Terzis, who—along with Joseph Dipre, Dhruv Gandhi and Zach Hauck—made up Drexel’s team.
The Drexel LeBow MBA team / photo via lebow.drexel.edu
You can read more about the team’s experience here.
In Memoriam: Erivan K. Haub — HSB News
Erivan K. Haub, the namesake of the Haub School of Business at St. Joseph’s University, passed away on Tuesday, March 6, in Pinedale, Wyoming. St. Joesph’s business school was named after Haub in 1997 following the Haub family’s support for business education at SJU over a three decade period of time.
“There is no doubt that the international business world lost an extraordinarily successful and influential entrepreneur with the passing of Erivan Haub,” said University President Mark C. Reed, Ed.D. “More importantly, Saint Joseph’s lost a partner who will forever be remembered for his generosity and friendship.”
You can learn more about the life and accomplishments of Haub here.
Postponed: Women’s Leadership Initiative Launch — UD Daily
In a previous edition of Philly News, we reported that Lerner College at the University of Delaware was hosting the Women’s Leadership Initiative Launch at the Roselle Center for the Arts on National Women’s Day. However, bad winter weather prompted organizers to postpone the event. According to the school, the event will be rescheduled, likely in the fall of 2018.
According to University of Delaware, the Women’s Leadership Initiative, “… is the preeminent driver of learning to propel transformational women leaders and advance gender equity in the workplace.”
The event was set to feature alumni speakers like Terri Kelly, president and CEO of W.L. Gore and Associates, Inc., Mary Ellen Payne, former VP of sales and marketing at Verizon Communications, and several others. There is no word on who will be able to attend the make-up event.
Read more about the Women’s Leadership Initiative Launch here.
Drexel Study Confirms Sitting Is Hurting You, Your Employer
Sitting has gotten some bad press in recent years. The negative health effects of sitting for long periods and sedentary lifestyle in general are so severe, some are even referring to sitting as “the new smoking.” A sobering study in Annals of Internal Medicine linked sitting for over 90 minutes at a time with nearly a 200 percent greater risk of early death. Moreover, The Washington Post associated hunching over a computer for extended stretches of time with organ damage, muscle degeneration, leg disorders, foggy brain, strained neck, and serious back issues. In 2012, the British Psychological Society (BPS) estimated that in a typical workweek, people spend about 5 hours and 41 minutes per day sitting, more than enough time to take a serious toll on employees’ health.
Natalie Pedersen, JD, professor at the Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business, and Lisa Eisenberg, JD, Kline School of Law alumna, coauthored a paper in which they assert that employers should be held liable for health issues their employees experience as a result of a sedentary lifestyle.
Pedersen told WorkersCompensation.com that, “What we were trying to figure out was if there were certain instances where an employer would be liable for those kinds of workers’ compensation claims that might arise from a more sedentary work life. It’s definitely sort of a newer theory.” Pedersen went on to say that as the health risks associated with a sedentary job gain more recognition, “… I think we’ll see more of this sort of liability.”
The paper, “If Sitting is the New Smoking, What Does This Mean for Employers? A Look at Potential Worker’s Compensation Claims in the Sedentary Workplace,” which the coauthors wrote for the Lewis & Clark Law Review, analyzed workers’ compensation claims surrounding sedentary workplaces throughout the US.
Solutions to the sedentary workplace problem, like incentives for employee fitness, standing desks, and breaks built in to the work day are becoming more commonplace. Holding employers legally accountable for the health of their employees in environments with prolonged sitting could lead to a dramatic decrease in premature death and aging.
Philly Schools React to Eagles Super Bowl Triumph
Philadelphia Eagles fans around the world rejoiced last night, taking home the first Super Bowl victory in the history of the organization. A handful of Philly business schools also joined in the jubilation after the upset of the New England Patriots, sharing a round of joyous reactions.
Drexel University and the LeBow College of Business was among the first to share their reaction to the Eagles victory, posting a celebratory video from University president John Fry.
On behalf of #Drexel Dragons everywhere, congratulations to our Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia @Eagles! #SBLII #SB52 #SuperBowlChampions #flyeaglesfly pic.twitter.com/VLtQkxezgn
— Drexel University (@DrexelUniv) February 5, 2018
Temple University and the Fox School of Business were a bit less formal in their congratulatory Eagles reaction, posting the following.
“True leadership is about action.” #FlyEaglesFly https://t.co/NSip55sAE6
— Fox School (@foxschool) February 5, 2018
Hey @Eagles,
That was fly. #FlyEaglesFly— Temple University (@TempleUniv) February 5, 2018
The West Chester Philadelphia campus took things a bit further, lighting up its buildings in heavy Eagles green.
WCU’s Philadelphia campus showing just a tad 😉 of Philadelphia @Eagles pride #flyeaglesfly #superbowlchamps #ramsup #wcuphilly pic.twitter.com/QsXFeio5Gr
— West Chester U (@WCUofPA) February 5, 2018
Villanova Business went a bit of a different direction, with students Michelle Maduras (’19 VSB) and Kriya Amin (’19 VSB) review the night’s ads in a live feed. Some of their favorites from Sunday night came from Mountain Dew, Doritos, and, of course, the New York Giants’ Dirty Dancing inspired tribute.
That's all from us! Thanks for following our SuperBowl takeover, and congratulations to the @Eagles, #FlyEagelsFly!!! pic.twitter.com/54q7KeFNee
— Villanova Business (@VU_Business) February 5, 2018
Out of Chicago, experts from the Northwestern Kellogg School of Management revealed their thoughts on the Super Bowl 52 ads, which you can check out over at Clear Admit.
