Forté Foundation Now Accepting Applications for MBALaunch
Calling all women considering an MBA but unsure about how to navigate the competitive admissions process: The Forté Foundation’s 2019 MBALaunch program was made for you. This 10-month program offers female MBA candidates a powerful support network and road map for applying to top-tier business schools for the MBA Class of 2022.
Applications for the next season of Forté MBALaunch, slated to begin in January 2019, are open now.
What Is MBALaunch?
MBALaunch is a unique program designed to help exceptional female candidates excel in the high-stakes MBA application process. Beginning each year in January, the program includes a range of in-person and virtual events geared toward helping participants assemble their strongest possible applications. These include networking events, monthly webinars, and in-person peer group sessions offered in 11 host cities. In addition, the program is accessible via video chat.
Candidates accepted into the MBALaunch program can expect to:
- Cultivate a strong network filled with hundreds of women with similar goals;
- Gain intensive GMAT test prep that, on average, helps improve scores by 100 points;
- Receive help building a winning application;
- Hone interviewing skills with guidance from admissions consultants and business school representatives, and
- Get immediate feedback on their resumes, admissions essays, and more.
Who Can Take Part in MBALaunch?
The MBALaunch program is open to women looking to apply to any of the more than four dozen Forté member business schools in fall 2019 (for enrollment in fall 2020). Forté seeks candidates with a strong academic record and two to seven years of post-undergraduate work experience.
To take part, candidates must be able to travel to a host city (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, London, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, or Washington DC) for a one-day kick-off event. Then, candidates dedicate 10 months to the online and in-person program. After the kick-off event, candidates unable to participate in person can take part via Skype or Google Hangouts.
There is a $25 non-refundable application fee. Admitted applicants then pay a $550 program fee to take part.
Additional application eligibility information is available here.
Application Deadlines
The first MBALaunch applications deadline is October 8, 2018, with subsequent deadlines on October 15 and 22.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from our sister site, Clear Admit.
Top MBA Programs Gain Ground for Gender Parity
The Forté Foundation today released its annual women’s enrollment report for full-time MBA programs at its member schools, which include many of the top business schools in the United States and abroad. This fall, women’s MBA enrollment climbed to a global average of 37.4 percent, up 4 percent over 2013 figures, when the global average was 33.4 percent women.
In fact, the last five years of enrollment data at Forté member schools reveal steady gains in the percentage of women. For U.S. schools, women’s enrollment reached 37.8 percent this fall, up from 37.1 percent in 2016, and 34 percent in 2013. And for schools outside the United States, the gains have been even greater. In fall 2017, non-U.S. Forté member schools enrolled 36 percent women, up more than 3 percent year over year (from 32.8 percent in 2016) and almost five percent since fall 2013 (from 31.1 percent).
“I’m always heartened anytime I see a 1 percent trend overall,” Forté Executive Director Elissa Sangster told Clear Admit. “Year by year, it’s pretty significant for this group of schools to steadily have that same number increase—because it’s a lot of work to get more women into the pipeline and to matriculate those women,” she continued. “But this year, in particular, seeing those other schools outside the U.S. go up 3.4 percent in one year was very surprising.”
Two Schools Reach 45 Percent Women, Highest on Record
In fact, there were many signs beyond these overall statistics that show continuing progress toward gender parity among MBA programs. For one, 17 Forté member schools this fall enrolled 40 percent or more women—as compared to just two schools that reached this milestone in 2013. A total of 26 schools enrolled more than 35 percent women, more than twice as many as in 2013 (12 schools). Best yet, for the first time ever, two schools reached 45 percent or more women enrolled—the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and George Washington University School of Business. And three more schools—two in the United States and one in the United Kingdom—were close behind at 44 percent.
“The 1 percent [overall year-over-year gain] may seem small, but we’re seeing 17 out of 50 schools hit over the 40 percent mark, and that’s huge,” said Sangster. “To start seeing schools trend that direction makes a big impact because it’s a hard thing to obtain for any school at this point.”
Not only that, the progress demonstrates that gender parity is attainable, Sangster stressed.
“Although women’s enrollment in business school is a slow and steady growth story, at this rate we could reach an average of 40 percent women’s enrollment in top business schools in less than five years and 50 percent by 2030,” she said in a Forté press release. “Why is this significant? There is evidence that an MBA can provide both career advancement and significant pay gains for women, giving them greater economic mobility. And efforts to support women to pursue an MBA can contribute to a more diverse leadership pipeline at companies.”
The Forté Foundation is a non-profit consortium of top business schools, corporations, and the Graduate Management Admission Council, and its efforts to move the needle toward gender parity in the MBA and business more generally are widespread. Launched in 2001 after the results of a landmark research study, Women and the MBA: Gateway to Opportunity, Forté now has 51 member schools: 39 in the United States, four in Canada, and eight in Europe. It also has numerous initiatives to help close the gender gap.
“Our college efforts are very robust and have been growing over the last five years. We are connecting with women about their career options and bringing the MBA into the conversation early,” explained Sangster. “It’s important for women in their university years to really understand what type of opportunities they have, to have access to role models, and to know the landscape of what’s to come. I think Forté can be a real guide in that. We know that having those conversations with young women is critical.”
A few of Forté’s initiatives include
- The annual Forté MBA Women’s Leadership Conference, which brings together hundreds of women MBA students and top companies each year to help attendees explore career paths, meet recruiters and mentors, and hear from influential businesswomen;
- The Forté College to Business Leadership Conference, a similar event designed to introduce undergraduate women to career opportunities and summer internships at top companies;
- The “Rising Star” pilot initiative, launched in September 2015, which helps undergraduate women become well-informed about their many career options, and
- MBALaunch, a hands-on, 10-month program that provides guidance, resources, and ongoing feedback about the business school application process through monthly webinars, peer group meetings, and feedback from experienced advisors.
“MBALaunch allows us to give women unprecedented access to business schools, alumnae, admissions representatives, and admissions experts—and also to give them a cohort of like-minded women who can support them and encourage them through the business school application process,” Sangster said. In the past, many women went through the application process alone, she continued. “MBALaunch allows us to present the best version of those women candidates to business schools. That’s what makes a critical difference in terms of admission into your stretch business school.”
The Forté Foundation also awards a variety of scholarships through its Forté Fellows program. The program has exploded from just 33 inaugural scholarships awarded in 2003 to 1,300 scholarships awarded to the incoming Class of 2017 and another 1,100 scholarships awarded to second-year students in the Class of 2016. Overall, since 2003, Forté schools have awarded a staggering $142 million in scholarships to Forté Fellows.
It Takes an Entire Community Effort
To augment Forté’s initiatives, top business schools can continue to make progress on their own by keeping a steady eye on gender parity and getting the entire school involved in the process, said Sangster.
“The schools that are doing a great job at consistently keeping their numbers high have an entire community effort focused on the goal of gender parity,” Sangster said. “It’s not just the admissions team reviewing applications and making decisions. It’s the students enrolled in the school being actively involved in recruiting and matriculating those students. It’s the alums making phone calls and participating in local coffees or teas to talk about their own story and to reduce concerns about the investment that women will be making.”
“It’s not just one small group of people; it’s a team effort, a community effort,” she continued. “The schools that are maintaining their numbers and seeing a steady climb have a full-court press.”
So which schools are leading the way? The following 17 Forté member business schools have 40 percent or higher women’s enrollment:
- Alliance Manchester Business School
- Columbia Business School
- Dartmouth College (Tuck School of Business)
- George Washington University School of Business
- Harvard Business School
- Imperial College Business School
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan School of Management)
- Northwestern University (Kellogg School of Management)
- University of California Berkeley (Haas School of Business)
- The University of Chicago (Booth School of Business)
- University of Michigan (Ross School of Business)
- University of Oxford (Saïd Business School)
- University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
- The University of Texas at Austin (McCombs School of Business)
- University of Toronto (Rotman School of Management)
- Yale School of Management
- York University (Schulich School of Business
And the following nine schools have 35 percent or greater women’s enrollment:
- Arizona State University (W. P. Carey School of Business)
- HEC-Paris
- London Business School
- New York University (Stern School of Business)
- University of California – Los Angeles (Anderson School of Management)
- University of Cambridge (Judge Business School)
- University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign (Gies College of Business)
- University of Virginia (Darden School of Business)
- Washington University in St. Louis (Olin Business School)
To access the full Forté report, click here.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from Clear Admit.
Deadline for ’17 Forté MBALaunch Program for Women Extended to Nov. 11th
Great news. If you are a woman planning to apply to business school next fall—for enrollment in fall 2018—there’s still time left to take advantage of a great program from the Forté Foundation designed to help you craft the strongest application possible.
Forté recently announced that it is extending the deadline for applications for its 2017 Forté MBALaunch Program until Nov. 11, 2016. MBALaunch is a comprehensive 10-month program to guide promising female MBA applicants through each step of the application process, providing both a proven roadmap and an unparalleled support network to help you gain admission to your top school. Created by the Forté Foundation, it is designed to support the organization’s mission of increasing women’s access to business education and the business world at large.
MBALaunch applications are currently being accepted for women seeking to apply to MBA programs in fall 2017 (for enrollment in fall 2018). The deadline to submit is Nov. 11th. To be considered for MBALaunch, you must have a bachelor’s degree and demonstrate solid academic standing. Post-undergrad work experience—between two and seven years—is also preferred.
The MBALaunch program begins with a day-long kick-off event in major cities throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, followed by online webinars, advisor meetings and monthly in-person peer group sessions in your host city. Host cities include Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London and Toronto, and the kick-off events will take place in late January and February.
Interested applicants who do not live in or near one of the MBALaunch program cities can still take part as long as they agree to travel to the closest city to attend the kick-off event in person. After this first event, these participants will join the MBALaunch “Virtual City” group for the rest of the program.
How the Program Works
MBALaunch brings together hundreds of prospective female MBA applicants, creating a valuable network of peers who share the same goals. Intensive GMAT test prep is baked into the program, helping women conquer what many report is one of the greatest obstacles to applying. Two months of GMAT test-prep webinars target the most difficult testing areas, helping Launchers improve their scores and strengthen their candidacy.
The eight remaining months of the program are devoted to helping Launchers build their strongest possible MBA applications. Participants receive valuable feedback on essays and résumés from MBA alumnae. They also get to work closely with admissions consultants, business school representatives and Forté experts to hone their admission interview skills. Along the way, Launchers also learn about resources for financing their MBA and grow both their network of MBA alumnae and their networking skills.
The cost of MBALaunch is $500 (plus travel to the closest program city for the kick-off event if you don’t live in one). Compared to admissions consulting fees and GMAT test prep courses that can run several thousand dollars, believe us when we tell you it’s a steal. Not only that, participants who successfully complete the program receive application waivers from more than 25 Forté schools, as well as discounts from leading GMAT test prep providers and admissions consultants if you feel you still need more preparation. In total, these offers allow you to recoup the entire $500 cost.
How to Apply
Okay—so how do you apply? Complete an online application form, pay a $25 application fee and submit your resume along with answer to two essay questions. The final deadline round, just extended from October 30th to November 11th, applies to applicants for all cities.
Learn more about the Forté MBALaunch program.
This post was originally published by clearadmit.com
