Social Impact MBAs: Programs That Help Students Make a Difference in the World
For years, social impact has been a growing area of emphasis at business schools. Increasingly, MBA students are stating that a well-paying career isn’t enough: They also want to make a difference.
As Sherryl Kuhlman, the managing director of the Social Impact Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, told U.S. News & World Report: “Our students want to make the world go round in a different way. [They are no longer willing to] take a job they don’t like so they can give their money away later. They want to merge the money and the purpose.”
MBA programs incorporate social impact into their programs in various ways, through global experiences, coursework, clubs, competitions, and more. MBA students may also have opportunities to team up with corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations to get hands-on experience during their graduate studies.
So if you’re interested in social impact, what opportunities should you look for within an MBA program?
Centers and Initiatives
Some schools run entire centers and initiatives dedicated to the idea of social change. Typically, these centers provide the foundation around which a variety of social impact opportunities are built, including research, career help, events, and course development.
For example, the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin recently launched its Social Innovation Initiative, which provides students, faculty, and the community with preparation to promote social change. The initiative offers graduate-level curricular offerings, with courses such as “Energy Technology and Policy” and “Invisible Global Marketing.” There are also many extracurricular activities such as the Social Impact Investment Fund, a peer-created fund that provides financial support for MBA students pursuing internships in the social impact space.
“The creation of the Social Innovation Initiative is a crucial step in bringing UT’s overlapping communities together to collectively address the world’s most pressing challenges,” Dr. Meeta Kothare, managing director of the initiative, said in a press release. “The interdisciplinary nature of the initiative is key because the most impactful social innovations often result from collaborations among private, public, and social sectors.”
At Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), the Center for Social Innovation aims to bring about social and environmental change through research, education, and experiential learning opportunities. For MBA students, the center offers social innovation courses, study trips, the potential to participate in an investment committee, and fellowships to provide leadership opportunities. The school even hosts an annual ceremony each spring drawing together a tight-knit core of students, faculty, and alumni who share a commitment to social innovation. Three classes of awards are handed out to a dozen students at the event, and Dean Emeritus Arjay Miller, 101, attends to encourage the continuation of a community of social innovation he helped found at the GSB while dean from 1969 to 1976.
Then, there’s the Yale School of Management Program on Social Enterprise. This initiative supports faculty, students, alumni, and practitioners in their pursuit of using business skills to achieve social objectives. It does this by offering a span of programs including courses such as “Global Social Enterprise” and “Managing Sustainable Operations,” as well as research, conferences, and publications. For extracurricular activities, students can participate in the Social Impact Lab, a weekly forum with opportunities to engage with industry leaders and each other, as well as the Economic Development Symposium, an annual conference that brings together eminent scholars, action agents, and key opinion leaders to work on solutions to pressing economic development issues.
Programs
For many business schools, social entrepreneurship is offered part and parcel with their MBA degrees. These programs can range from a one-week social enterprise trip overseas to a formal concentration within the MBA program.
At Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, MBA students can elect a Social Impact pathway concentration. This pathway is designed for students who want to create positive social change and includes required courses on a variety of topics from “Leadership and Crisis Management” to “Public Economics for Business Leaders” and “Health and Human Rights.” Within the pathway, there are three tracks: policy, nonprofit, and social innovation, each offering in-depth coursework to position students for their desired careers.
Meanwhile, MBA students at Emory’s Goizueta Business School can explore social impact through an annual seven- to 10-day Social Enterprise @ Goizueta Trip. These trips take students to countries around the world to observe the challenges that local economies face and develop market-based solutions. Alumni and evening MBA students can also travel to Nicaragua to visit coffee farms and meet growers. Full-time MBA students can visit Nicaragua or El Salvador to explore social enterprises on the ground and work on community health projects.
Competitions
Some schools offer hands-on experience in social impact to their students in the form of social venture competitions.
Through Harvard Business School (HBS)’s Social Enterprise Initiative, which aims to educate, inspire, and support leaders across all sectors to create social change, MBA students can participate in the New Venture Competition (NVC). The competition offers participants a grand prize of $50,000 as well as workshop opportunities, feedback, and business plan development advice.
Designed for students and alumni interested in using their business skills to create innovative approaches to tackling social problems, the Social Venture Competition at NYU Stern School of Business is similar to that of HBS’s NVC. Over the last 11 years it has awarded more than $900,000 to startup social ventures developed by students.
Clubs
Net Impact is one of the most popular social impact clubs, with chapters across the globe. More than 100,000 individuals have joined more than 300 chapters across the world to take on social challenges, protect the environment, and orient business toward social impact. The Net Impact chapter at UCLA Anderson School of Management, for example, has been awarded Gold Status, which recognizes it as a high-performing chapter and qualifies it to serve on the national Net Impact advisory board.
One of highlights of Net Impact is the annual Net Impact Conference, which welcomes attendees from across the globe to hear from keynote speakers, such as Clif Bar CEO Kevin Clearly and Derreck Kayongo, the CEO of the Center for Civil and Human Rights. Attendees at the Net Impact Conference can also take part in a variety of workshops, panels, and boot camps on topics ranging from civic engagement to equity.
In addition to Net Impact chapters, many MBA programs also offer their own social enterprise-focused student organizations. For example, the Social Enterprise Club at Columbia Business School connects students with faculty, alumni, professionals, and organizations to develop business skills and create social, environmental, and economic value.
Scholarships
At Oxford Saïd Business School, MBA students have the opportunity to apply for the Skoll Scholarship, a competitive award for students pursuing entrepreneurial solutions to urgent social and environmental challenges. The scholarship provides funding as well as opportunities for the award winners to meet and interact with world-renowned entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and investors. To qualify, an applicant must have three years of experience in social enterprise and be an incoming MBA student.
At Duke’s Fuqua Business School, there’s the CASE Social Sector Scholarship for incoming daytime MBA students. Scholarship recipients receive at least 25 percent tuition support as well as funding from the CASE Summer Internship Fund. Incoming MBA students who can demonstrate their commitment to applying their business skills in the pursuit of social impact are eligible to apply.
This is far from an exhaustive list—rather it’s a sampling of the wide-ranging opportunities to study social impact across MBA programs around the world. We hope it can provide a jumping off point as you begin to investigate social impact opportunities at your target schools.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from Clear Admit.
The San Francisco One-Year MBA Programs You Need to Know
One-year MBA applicants already know which industry or area of concentration they want to pursue. They are MBA candidates who want to advance their current careers, rather than change them. Others chose the one-year route because it can be difficult to leave two years of work and salary. If you’re a prospective MBA in the San Francisco metro looking to make moves within your industry, we’ll show you what One-Year MBA options are out there for you.
Who Pursues One-Year MBA Programs?
According to U.S. News & World Report, accelerated MBA programs appeal to those who want to continue working in the same industry but want to move into a higher position; those who want to save time and money; and those who may want a faster return on investment for their MBA.
One-year MBAs condense what would be a semester’s worth of core business courses in a full-time program into only a few weeks. Most incoming students enter with a strong base of business knowledge. One-year programs typically do not feature a summer internship, which means that accelerated MBAs may not offer the same career opportunities that a full-time program does.
Popular One-Year MBA Programs
One-year programs have been popular in Europe for years, but have grown in popularity stateside over the past decade. Not all business schools offer a One-Year MBA, but a handful of top schools do, including:
- The Columbia Business School – Accelerated MBA Program
- The Kellogg School of Management – One-Year MBA Program
- The Johnson School (Cornell University) – Accelerated MBA
- The Goizueta Business School (Emory University) – Full-Time MBA, One-Year Experience
One-Year MBA Offerings in San Francisco
San Francisco is the cultural, commercial, financial, and educational epicenter of Northern California and Silicon Valley. Naturally, it is also home to some of the country’s premier business schools, like UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and Stanford University Graduate School of Business. However, those schools do not offer One-Year MBA programs.
Schools in the Bay Area that offer Accelerated MBA programs are:
- San Francisco State University College of Business
- Lucas Graduate School of Business – San Jose State University
Let’s take a closer look at these school’s One-Year MBA offerings.
San Francisco State University College of Business
San Francisco State’s full-time MBA degree is known as the Fast-Track MBA. The program features both afternoon and evening classes and can be completed in 12 months.
In order to graduate, students must fulfill a Professional Development Workshop series, eight foundation courses and ten advanced requirement courses. In the first semester of the program, students complete 15 units of core coursework, along with four workshops. After completing these requirements, students select 15 units of electives from nine possible areas of specialization, such as Accounting, Operations Research, Electronic Commerce, Finance, Information Systems, International Business, Management, Marketing, and Sustainable Business.
The program ends with a case study in Strategic Management, which evaluates strategy formulation, implementation, techniques and decision-making in the context of the economic, social, political and competitive global environment.
Tuition costs for the San Francisco State Fast-Track MBA program amount to $3,540 plus $270 per unit for part-time California residents and $5,546 plus $270 per unit for full time residents. For out of state and international students, part-time tuition is $3,540 plus $666 per unit while full-time tuition is $5,546 plus $666 per unit.
Lucas Graduate School of Business
Lucas Graduate School of Business at San Jose State offers an Early Career MBA Accelerated Track, designed for individuals who are willing to follow a very intense academic pace and wish to complete their MBA degree in 12 months. The fast-paced program is made up of 2-3 courses per session with 6-8 weeks of courses per class. The program is offered once a year starting in fall, and spans 12 months.
The Early Career MBA curriculum consists of 42 semester credit units containing 11 core courses and four electives. The core courses are often prerequisites to electives, such as Business Communications, Managing in the Global Economy, Developing and Managing People, Accounting Principles, Marketing Management, Law and Ethic, Managerial Decision Analysis, and Silicon Valley Experience.
Following core coursework, students must take a minimum of four classes (12 units) of elective coursework in the disciplines of: Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Organizational Development, Global Business Development, Entrepreneurship and Venture Development, Information Systems, and Operations Management. Students may also participate in an international semester in the summer term.
Tuition costs for the Accelerated MBA program is $25,072 for in-state residents and $41,704 for out-of-state residents.
Wharton, Stanford Top Forbes’ 2017 Business School Ranking
For the first time ever, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania topped the biennial Forbes list of the best business school’s in the United States.
Coming in second place on the Forbes 2017 rankings, revealed earlier today, was the Stanford Graduate School of Business, which was followed by Harvard Business School, Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, and Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business rounding out the top five.
Forbes‘ top 10 U.S. business schools (2017)
Rounding out the top 20 were some familiar MetroMBA favorites, such as Columbia Business School (6th), Chicago Booth (7th), MIT Sloan (8th), UC Berkeley Haas (9th), UCLA Anderson (15th), the McCombs School of Business UT-Austin (17th), and the Mays Business School at Texas A&M (20th).
Just making the final cut on Forbes’ newest list, which includes only 70 schools, was the Fox School of Business at Temple University (60th), Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business and Management (65th), Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business (66th), the Kogod School of Business at American University (67th), and the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University.
Method To The Madness
Nearly every major publication that reveals its own respective business school ranking list has its own principle methodology in which it follows. For instance, unlike Forbes, the Financial Times ranking system relies more on alumni survey responses for its final ranking. While Forbes does utilize surveys in its ranking, its primary focus is on how graduates fare on their return on investment.
In the ranking release, Forbes staff writer Kurt Badenhausen notes:
“Our ranking of business schools is based on the return on investment achieved by the class of 2012. We examined more than 100 schools and reached out to 17,500 alumni around the globe. We compared graduates’ earnings in their first five years out of business school to their opportunity cost (two years of forgone compensation, tuition and required fees) to arrive at a five-year MBA gain, which is the basis for the final rank. Schools whose alumni had response rates below 15 percent or a negative return on investment after five years were eliminated.”
In regards to Wharton topping the 2017 list, Badenhausen writes, “These days most Wharton MBA students head to finance or consulting jobs upon graduation (79 percent of the class of 2012), which traditionally are the most lucrative areas for MBAs. The concentration in these sectors pushed Wharton’s current total compensation for the class of 2012 to the highest of any school in the world at $225,000.”
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The exceptional cost of living around Stanford and shockingly low admissions rates (6 percent) contributed to the business school falling off its top spot from the prior year. Stanford GSB graduates, however, were given enormously valuable stock options after earning employment, with a median value of $380,000. Despite the astronomical figures, Stanford GSB grads still saw a dip of around $40,000 in total five-year compensation compared to the Class of 2010. Similarly, HBS grads saw a $28,000 five-year drop compared to the Class of 2010. Wharton 2012 grads, in contrast, gained $18,000 compared to two years prior.
In regards to employment, not much has changed since 2012. McKinsey and Co. was the top employer of the Wharton Class of 2012, hiring over 50 of the school’s 800-plus graduates. Alongside McKinsey were Bain, BCG, and Deloitte, which are still the school’s top employers. However, since then, Amazon has overtaken Goldman Sachs in the Wharton recruitment war.
Thomas Jueng, Seoul native and 2012 Wharton grad, tells Forbes, “Wharton was a great springboard to make a transition geographically and job position-wise with a strong brand name and network as well as providing practical knowledge.”
Read the entire Forbes list of the best U.S. business schools here.
Top MBA Programs for Producing Founders: 2017-2018 Report
Recently, PitchBook released its latest 2017-2018 Top 50 Universities Report. The ranking focused on those universities that produced the “ultimate building blocks of the venture industry: founders.”
This ranking is vastly different from rankings of top schools for entrepreneurship by U.S. News & World Report, Princeton Review, and Entrepreneur Magazine, all of which focus on factors like peer assessment surveys, curriculum, and entrepreneurial study options. Instead, PitchBook looked at a single criterion: founders of companies who received venture capital (VC) funding between January 1, 2006, and August 18, 2017, and where they went to school.
The report provides a fairly detailed breakdown of top undergraduate programs, companies (by capital raised), MBA programs, female founders, unicorns (companies that have attained the coveted $1 billion evaluation), and more. This article will focus solely on the results that relate to MBA programs, including information on female founders and unicorns.
Top MBA Programs
For the 2017-18 academic year, the top 10 MBA programs to produce founders who received VC funding were ranked as follows:
- Harvard Business School (HBS): 1,203 entrepreneurs, 1,086 companies, and $28,495 million raised
- Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB): 802 entrepreneurs, 716 companies, and $18,259 million raised
- University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School: 666 entrepreneurs, 585 companies, and $16,001 million raised
- INSEAD: 455 entrepreneurs, 406 companies, and $7,795 million raised
- Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management: 445 entrepreneurs, 417 companies, and $5,680 million raised
- Columbia Business School: 441 entrepreneurs, 410 companies, and $5,465 million raised
- MIT Sloan School of Management: 437 entrepreneurs, 384 companies, and $7,797 million raised
- University of Chicago Booth School of Business: 405 entrepreneurs, 368 companies, and $5,470 million raised
- University of California – Berkeley Haas School of Business: 344 entrepreneurs, 314 companies, and $5,191 million raised
- UCLA Anderson School of Management: 247 entrepreneurs, 232 companies, and $3,957 million raised
HBS stands out immediately for producing founders who receive VC funding. Harvard produced twice as many founders as its next closest competitor, and those founders pulled in $10M more in funding for their 1,000+ companies.
As for the reason behind Harvard’s success, there are multiple elements that contribute to its production of entrepreneurs. The school is home to the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, which offers programs for budding entrepreneurs including curricular offerings (over a dozen courses), a New Venture Competition (which offers $300,000 in cash prizes), the Rock Accelerator, the Harvard Innovation Lab, and even a Loan Reduction program that supports graduating entrepreneurs with a one-time, need-based award of $10,000 to $20,000. HBS’s extensive alumni network also provides students with connections with managing directors, partners, and founders of top VC firms including Bain Capital Ventures, Apax Partners, and Accel Partners.
Another standout for the 2017-2018 year was INSEAD. The only non-U.S. MBA program to appear in the top 10, it also moved up a spot this year over last. INSEAD grew from 393 entrepreneurs, 348 companies, and $6,131 million in capital raised to 455, 406, and $7,794 million respectively.
INSEAD’s students are supported by the INSEAD Centre for Entrepreneurship (ICE), which was founded in 2003. The center offers MBA students a chance to participate in the INSEAD Venture Competition (IVC), Entrepreneurship Bootcamps, and the Entrepreneurship Teaching Innovation (ETI) Fund, which supports the development of the “Your First Hundred Days” elective for budding entrepreneurs.
Another MBA program of note is MIT Sloan School of Management, which was fourth in capital raised on this year’s PitchBook ranking. This could indicate more successful companies coming out of MIT or a higher percentage of VC funding available to Massachusetts’ graduates.
Some of the unique entrepreneurship opportunities available from other top programs include Stanford GSB’s Startup Garage, an intensive, hands-on project course for MBA students, as well as MIT Sloan’s Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, which includes an accelerator, coaching, and various events. Finally, the Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship Center offers resources, events, and courses for MBAs looking to explore, develop, launch, and scale a startup.
Top Female Founders & Unicorns
PitchBook also reviewed the top MBA programs for female founders. Once again, HBS and Stanford GSB ranked first and second, respectively, with 202 and 119 female founders. Columbia Business School ranked third with 77, Wharton ranked fourth with 71, and MIT came in at fifth with 60 female founders.
As for the unicorns, the top five MBA programs are similar to the previous lists.
- HBS: 22 entrepreneurs, 17 companies
- Stanford GSB: 14 entrepreneurs, 11 companies
- Wharton: 11 entrepreneurs, 8 companies
- INSEAD: 8 entrepreneurs, 7 companies
- MIT Sloan: 6 entrepreneurs, 6 companies
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from Clear Admit.
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A Recommendation Revolution Is Underway in MBA Admissions: What You Need to Know
I’m busy, you’re busy, your boss is most definitely busy. Indeed, publications ranging from Men’s Health to the Atlantic, the Washington Post to Forbes are all reporting that “busyness“ has become the new status symbol for our times. Which is part of what makes asking someone to write you a letter of recommendation for business school so daunting. Now, try telling that person that you actually need five different letters for five different schools. Oy vey.
As uncomfortable a spot as it puts applicants in—it’s no better for recommenders. Even your most vociferous supporter is going to wonder what in the world she’s gotten herself into when she realizes that helping you in your pursuit of acceptance to business school means taking time away from work or play or family or whatever else to labor over leadership assessment grids, each a little different from the one before, and write 10 slightly different answers to 10 slightly different questions. Here’s hoping that your top-choice school doesn’t happen to be the last one she gets around to…
Good news. The graduate management education industry recognizes the strain that letters of recommendation put on applicants and recommenders alike and has been wrestling with ways to make the process easier for everyone involved. To this end, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) established a committee made up of admissions representatives from dozens of leading business schools to brainstorm about ways to lessen the burden while still collecting the third-party assessments of candidates that are so critical to the MBA application process.
GMAC Pilots Common MBA Letter of Recommendation
As an outgrowth of that committee’s work, GMAC last year piloted a common MBA letter of recommendation (LOR) that schools can choose to incorporate into their applications to reduce the burden placed on applicants and recommenders alike.
“The Common Letter of Recommendation (LOR) effort is intended to save you and recommenders valuable time by providing a single set of recommendation questions for each participating school,” reads the GMAC website. “This allows your recommenders to use the same answers for multiple letter submissions, alleviating the workload of having to answer different questions for each school multiple times. You benefit because it makes the ask for several different letters to be written on your behalf much easier.”
Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, NYU Stern School of Business, and Michigan’s Ross School of Business were among the first schools to pilot the Common LOR last year. In addition to a single set of open-ended essay questions, the pilot Common LOR also included a leadership assessment grid inviting recommenders to rate applicants on 16 “competencies and character traits” grouped into four main categories of achievement, influence, personal qualities and academic ability.
“At Johnson, we saw the Common LoR as a clear opportunity to improve the admissions process for candidates and their recommenders in a way that would also add value to our own assessment of applicants,” Judi Byers, Johnson executive director of admissions & financial aid, told Clear Admit. “A thorough and consistent review is important to us and the grid provides a straightforward base of insights that can be assessed and compared reliably while the accompanying letter adds meaningful detail and context,” she added.
Soojin Kwon, managing director of full-time MBA admissions and program at Ross, sees applicants and recommenders as the main beneficiaries of the Common LOR and is pleased that more schools are coming on board. “As more schools adopt it, applicants won’t have to feel like they’re burdening their recommender with completing multiple rec letters with different questions and ratings grids,” she told Clear Admit. “This year, more than a dozen of the top 20 schools are using it.”
Ross was also among the schools to first pilot the Common LOR last year, and Kwon served as part of the GMAC committee that helped craft it.
Common Questions Easy to Agree on, Common Leadership Grid Not
“What we found in using the Common LOR this year past year was that the questions gave us helpful insights into applicants, particularly on the important area of constructive feedback. The questions, however, were fairly similar to what we and other schools were using before, so it was easy for the AdCom to use it,” she notes.
Those questions are as follow:
- Please provide a brief description of your interaction with the applicant and, if applicable, the applicant’s role in your organization. (50 words)
- How does the performance of the applicant compare to that of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? (E.g. what are the applicant’s principal strengths?) (500 words)
- Describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response. (500 words)
- Is there anything else we should know? (Optional)
“The rating grid was quite different from what we’d used in the past,” Kwon continued. “It was also the most difficult part for the GMAC advisory group to develop and get agreement upon. The group worked this past year to revise and simplify the grid so that AdComs could get more meaningful insights from it.”
This year, the 16 competencies and character traits from the original grid have been distilled to 12, with specific questions about analytical thinking and information seeking omitted. Johnson and Ross have both incorporated the revised leadership grid into the LOR distributed to applicants as part of their applications, as have most other schools that have this year decided to incorporate both the grid and open-ended essay question portions of the form. UT’s McCombs School of Business and Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, notably, still seem to feature the earlier version of the leadership grid in their application, the one that calls on recommenders to assesses applicants on 16 competencies and traits.
