Financial Times 2019 Executive Education Rankings: What You Need to Know
The Financial Times just released its 2019 Executive Education rankings, and the top-ranked schools are right where you’d expect. For the fifth year in a row, IESE Business School ranked first for customized Executive Education, followed by Duke Corporate Education in second and IMD in third. For open Executive Education, IMD ranked first for the eighth year in a row with INSEAD rounding out the fifth position.
However, beyond that, there were some surprises for the top five schools on each list with five programs rising sharply. Continue reading…
Best Real Estate MBAs in the Mid-Atlantic Region
After World War II, a housing boom created a demand for real estate business expertise. Decades later, demand only increased in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Now with unprecedented levels of international real estate investment at play, demand for this specialization has reached a fevered pitch.
This rings particularly true for investments in the Mid-Atlantic region where many top real estate MBA programs are headquartered.
Best Mid-Atlantic Real Estate MBAs
Located in Charlottesville, UVA’s Darden Graduate School of Business consistently ranks among the top MBA programs nationally. In addition to Darden’s Real Estate specialization, the Real Estate Club offers alumni connections, internship info sessions, ARGUS training, LEED certification study sessions, and “case competition preparatory sessions.”
The Real Estate Club also participates in the Darden Finance Conference, offering participants the chance to connect with real estate executives in the financial sector. UVA offers in-state tuition of $94,524, $97,524 for non-residents, and $98,796 for international students. Ninety percent of graduates are employed after graduation with a median base salary reported at $125,000.
One out of 10 UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School MBAs complete the school’s Real Estate Concentration, making it one of the largest programs of its kind in the nation. Real Estate MBA students choose from development and/or finance/investments tracks. Here are just a few of the available courses:
- Argus Certification Training
- Financing Real Estate in Today’s Capital Markets
- International Real Estate Investment
- Real Estate Law
- Real Estate Macroeconomics
- Securities Markets
Kenan-Flagler tuition is a hefty $132,648 but the average starting salary is reported at $116,543 with 11 percent of placements in Real Estate.
Founded in 2005, the George Washington School of Business Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis (CREUA) strives to offer a high-caliber real estate curriculum to both GW graduate and undergraduate students. The Center also conducts real estate research on “walkable urban place development and management,” for which a graduate certificate is offered to MBAs. Tuition at GW is $105,700 and the average starting salary is $96,000.
The University of Maryland at College Park was among the first schools to offer the MRED degree. At UMD Smith, MBA candidates have the option to pursue an MBA/MRED dual degree. Dual degree candidates can expect to begin their studies with MBA coursework and then cross over to MRED focus as the program progresses.
Full-time MBA students can expect to pay $44,766 per year for in-state tuition, while out-of-state students can expect to pay $53,946. Smith reports that 95 percent of its graduates are employed within six months of graduation with an average salary of $114,845.
Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business is home to Steers Center for Global Real Estate, which aims to provide its MBA students an “industry-grade education that produces students who are uniquely competitive in the global real estate job market.”
The Center’s major selling points are its diversified Four Quadrant curriculum model, immersion in the Washington DC market, and the Real Estate Clinic.
Tuition is $59,700, with an average salary of $116,946 and 98 percent percent of employment-seeking students receiving a job offer within three months of graduation.
School v. School: UNC Kenan-Flagler vs. Duke Fuqua School of Business
The MBA application process is not for the faint of heart. Elite programs have increasingly required applicants to follow paths unique to their schools, which makes the process of narrowing down the options to find the right fit even more essential. Our School v. School series saves you the headache by offering a point-by-point comparison of two stand-out programs located in North Carolina’s Research Triangle: UNC’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business and Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Read below to find out how the intense UNC vs Duke rivalry shakes down when it comes to business schools.
Inside the 2019 ‘U.S. News’ Best Online MBA Program Ranking
Where is the best online MBA program in the country? Who tops the charts when it comes to student engagement, student excellence, academic faculty, and more? The U.S. News & World Report just released its 2019 ranking for the “Best Online MBA Programs” in the US. The Online MBA programs at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School each came in tied at first place. Continue reading…
3 Online MBA Scholarships Worth Remembering
Navigating the maze of scholarships available to MBA students (really, students in general) can become a bit overwhelming. And for students hoping to earn a degree online, the search can seem never-ending. To help, we’ve broken down a handful of the most intriguing Online MBA scholarships.
Applications Down 4.5 Percent at HBS, But Applicant Quality Remains High
The release of the Harvard Business School (HBS) Class of 2020 profile statistics last week revealed that the Boston school—like many of its U.S. peers—saw a decrease in overall application volume, but median GMAT score and GPA remained unchanged from the prior year at 730 and 3.71 respectively. The admit rate, 11 percent, was also unchanged year over year. So though he was working from a smaller pool of 9,886 applicants (down from 10,351 last year), Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Chad Losee did not sacrifice on quality.
Harvard Business School Application Slips for Class of 2020
HBS is one of many leading U.S. business schools to see application volume drop off in this most recent application cycle. A strong economy paired with concerns among international applicants about potential student and work visa challenges made for even more dramatic declines at schools like UNC Kenan-Flagler and Georgetown’s McDonough School, which reported double-digit drops of 18.3 and 16.2 percent respectively. Yield at HBS–which is to say the percentage of admitted students who chose to enroll–slipped from 91 to 90 percent. Still, HBS remains far and away the leader in this statistic.
Applications are down 4.5 percent at HBS, but declines across other U.S. MBA programs was much more apparent.
At HBS, the 4.5 percent application volume decline was spread between both international and domestic applicants. International students make up slightly more of the HBS class this year, 37 percent compared to 35 percent last year. They hail from 69 countries as compared to 70 for the Class of 2019.
Another interesting development is the increase in GRE takers among admitted students. A record-setting 15 percent of the incoming class got there on the strength of their GRE scores, up from 12 percent last year. It’s only in the past couple of years that schools have begun to disclose the percentages of students who submit GRE scores in lieu of GMAT scores, which used to be the gold standard. But at HBS and elsewhere, a growing number of applicants seem to be taking schools at their word that they are indeed test agnostic.
There were not a lot of major shifts elsewhere in the statistics for the newest HBS class. The percentage of women is down by one point, slipping from 42 to 41 percent. U.S. ethnic minorities remained constant year over year at 26 percent of the class. The average age also remains unchanged at 27.
Applicants from Private Equity, Tech, Increase
In terms of prior work experience, there were again few shifts from the prior year. Slightly more students came in from private equity/venture capital (16 percent, compared to 15 percent last year), tech (also 16 percent, up from 15), and government/non-profit (7 to 8 percent). These upticks correlate with small declines in students from industrial/heavy manufacturing and other services. Military veterans make up 5 percent of the Class of 2020, on par with the Class of 2019.
And in terms of what students in this year’s entering class studied as undergraduates, again HBS showed little fluctuation. Economics/business majors make up the largest portion—46 percent, up from 45 percent last year. STEM undergrads also increased one percentage point, from 36 to 37 percent. Humanities/social science undergraduates made up just 17 percent of the class, down from 19 percent last year.
To view HBS’s complete Class of 2020 profile, click here.
