Informational Interview Tips for Boston MBA Programs
Before you decide on your preferred MBA program, it’s vital that you gain as much information as possible. An informational interview, as discussed in the article How to Conduct an MBA Informational Interview, is an opportunity to delve deeper into a particular MBA program through a one-on-one discussion. If you live or are interested in going to school in the Boston area, we spoke with the Sloan School of Management at MIT as well as the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College to discover more about conducting informational interviews at Boston schools. Continue reading…
JHU Carey Team Wins Biopharma Case Competition
According to a press release on the school website, students from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School took home the $6,000 first prize at the 4th Annual Biopharmaceutical Case Competition.
Teams were made up of three to five students MBA and Healthcare Management programs representing top business schools such as the Wharton School of Business, MIT Sloan School of Management and Yale School of Management. Continue reading…
Sloan Offers New 18-Month Format for Master of Finance Program
MIT Sloan School of Management‘s Master of Finance program is now offering students the opportunity to expand the length of their program to 18 months. The program, which is normally completed in one year, will now be expanded across four semesters, instead of three. This new format of the program will also give students the opportunity to complete a summer internship. The first groups of students to complete this pilot program will graduate in 2017. The new program format will also offer students the option to complete a concentration in capital markets or corporate finance.
The new 18-month format for the program will have the same requirements as the 12-month program. The only difference between the program is the length of time students have to complete the program and the opportunity to complete a summer internship. The new format will first be offered for the next intake of MFin students in July 2016. Students begin the program by completing a six-weak term that focuses on using advanced mathematical models and methods to find solutions to complex financial issues.
MIT U LAB Returns for MOOC
MIT Sloan School of Management course, Transforming Business, Society, and Self with U.Lab, has returned to Mooc.org, part of the not-for-profit enterprise composed of 30 leading global institutions that aims to transform online and on-campus learning on an open source platform, for another session. The course, taught by MIT’s Otto Scharmer, was reviewed as “eye-opening” or “life-changing” by 88 percent of the students who had previously completed it.
According to edX, ” U.Lab has inspired the first-known use of a MOOC by a government as a platform for citizens to shape the issues that matter to them, it has been used in management teams of the world’s leading NGOs, and it is now being used in 42 Impact Hubs worldwide – by locally-rooted, globally connected communities of change makers to catalyze systemic change.”
Memorial Prize Awarded to London Business School Professor
Julian Birkinshaw, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School, was awarded the Richard Beckhard Memorial Prize for an article called “Combining Purpose with Profits,” according to a press release from the school. The award is presented by MIT Sloan Management Review and recognizes their most outstanding article dealing with the subjects of planned change and organizational development. The prize was given to Birkinshaw along with his two co-authors, Nicolai J. Foss, Professor of Strategy and Organisation at Copenhagen Business School and Siegwart Lindenberg, Professor of Cognitive Sociology at University of Groningen.
The winning article addressed an important and timeless question for managers: how can the tension between purpose and profits be best managed? The authors looked at the types of structures that companies can put in place that help provide purpose and direction for their employees, while also motivating individuals and drawing a group of people together in mutual pursuit. The judges praised the article for being in line with the beliefs of the late Richard Beckhard, organizational theorist and former MIT adjunct professor, for whom the award is named. The panel for the ward consisted of professors from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Birkinshaw was glad that his work was recognized in an official capacity. “It’s really pleasing to win this prize. Our intention in writing this article was to shift the debate towards how businesses can deliver on their purpose without sacrificing profit, and it’s great that the judges liked this perspective,” he said in a press release from the school.
Earning the MBA Becomes More Family Friendly
Women have always faced certain biases when it comes to business. Pay gaps, maternity leave and the overall balance of work and family life have limited women to positions that are available to them. However, over the last few years the number of women in leadership positions at Fortune 500 companies and in political office has increased. According to the Pew Research Center, “Women have made inroads in this area slowly over time.”
Twenty years ago, there were no female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Now, women make up 5 percent of CEOs in the country’s Fortune 500 companies, 17 percent of the corporate board members among Fortune 500 companies and there are now 104 women who serve as members of Congress, according to the Pew Center. The number of state legislators who are women has also risen from 4.5 percent in 1971 to 24.2 percent in 2015.
The corporate and political worlds are not the only places where women are beginning to see changes. Colleges and Universities are now seeing more women enrolled in MBA programs than ever before. According to Pew, in 2013 women earned 36 percent of MBAs. Specifically, the Sloan School of Management at MIT welcomed the largest class of women in the school’s history in 2014. The incoming class of MBA students at Sloan in the Fall of 2014 was 40 percent female, up from 33 percent from the last year.
