Indiana, UNC Keep Top Spot in New U.S. News Online MBA Ranking
One year after the University of Indiana Kelley School of Business and University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School grabbed the top mantle in the U.S. News & World Report “Best Online MBA Programs” list, the two schools managed to hold the first spot yet again in the publication’s updated 2020 Online MBA ranking.
Continue reading…The 5 Best Northeast Part-Time MBA Programs
As applications to full-time MBA programs have waxed and waned in recent years, there is understandably quite a bit of speculation about the future of the degree. While full-time applicants might be dipping in the U.S., the explosion of part-time programs making the business school experience more accessible to a whole new swath of people.
We’ve already taken a look at the best part-time offerings in the Midwest and DC metro, but which programs come out on top when it comes to the Northeastern U.S.?
The 5 Best Northeast Part-Time MBA Programs
The NYU Stern School of Business’s Langone part-time MBA rates as the fourth best part-time MBA program by U.S. News and World Report.
The program features an accelerated option allowing students to opt for a flexible class schedule, as well as evening and weekend courses to complete their MBA in two years without interrupting their work schedule. Current Langone students, faculty, and alumni have access to the Langone Speaker Series, which “… provides a unique platform to deepen conversations about timely events with the decision-makers that are helping shape today’s industries.”
Students can also expect the Langone LAB, a concentrated one-day orientation program that connects incoming participants with classmates, professors, clubs and other opportunities.
The current tuition rate for the NYU Stern part-time MBA is $2,228 per credit. Over the course of the required 60 credits, this total comes to $133,680; which does not include the cost of living on campus for those opting to live near the university.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst Isenberg School of Management, one of the more underrated business schools in the crowded academic metro, offers a customizable part-time MBA to fit the student’s preferred focus, available in one of six areas: business analytics; entrepreneurship; finance; healthcare administration; marketing; and sports management.
Classes can be taken either completely online (Isenberg’s online MBA was first in the country, founded in 2001) or in-person at the Amherst campus. To help expedite the education process, part-time MBA applicants can even choose to take up to two courses during the application process. In addition, the UMass Amherst part-time MBA tuition is among the most affordable in the entire Northeast, at a total cost of just $35,100 ($900 per credit). For the 17th highest ranked part-time MBA program in the entire U.S., the cost saving is hard to ignore.
The Boston College Carroll School of Management’s part-time MBA program, ranked 28th overall by U.S. News & World Report, operates much like the aforementioned Amherst part-time program, with the option to take classes both in person or online. However, the entire program cannot be completed remote, with a maximum of 30 percent of classes available online.
A staggering number of electives are available in the program: over 150 overall. Students can complete the program on a fairly flexible schedule, with the option to complete it in two, three, or four years. In addition, the BC Carroll part-time program is one of the only ones on the list that does not require GMAT/GRE scores for entry.
The part-time FLEX MBA program at Lehigh University’s College of Business and Economics is geared toward working professionals who want more control over the pace of their MBA learning experience. Program formats include part-time, accelerated, and online. The ClassroomLIVE feature offers students the option to attend classes in-person, on campus, or in real-time online.
Students can also opt to get their feet wet with an Executive Certificate as part of the part-time MBA track. Tuition for Lehigh’s Flex MBA program $38,700 for the full 36-credit program, with the current cost per credit hour at $1,075.
Villanova School of Business, the 35th ranked part-time program in the country, offers part-time MBA students two distinct format options: The accelerated “Fast Track” program, and the “Flex Track” program, which offers evening, weekend, half-semester, and online course choices so students can work at their own pace.
Tuition and the length of time to complete Villanova’s various part-time programs varies. The Fast Track program costs $1,190 per credit and takes 24 months to complete, while the Flex Track costs $1,065 per credit and typically takes three years to complete. However, the Flex Track can last as long as seven years.
Work Friends May Not Get Better Benefits, According to UCLA – LA News
As we fully unroll into the new year, we take a look at some of the biggest recent news coming out of Los Angeles.
UCLA Anderson Professor on Work Friendships’ Effects – UCLA Anderson News
Research by Eugene Caruso, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at UCLA Anderson School of Management, recently received note in the online forum Quartz at Work.
Caruso, along with colleagues from the University of Chicago and Hebrew University, studied the consequences of friendships between managers and employees. Through a series of experiments, the team discovered that when a boss makes a decision, such as who gets a bonus, they are actually less likely to give it to a friend in order to appear impartial. This tendency remained much of the time even when the friend was the more highly deserving candidate for the bonus.
Notably, when managers had to make a decision on a bonus that would remain private, they were more likely to choose the deserving friend. Participants in the research were told that the friend had performed only slightly better than the other bonus candidate, and that the choices were to give the friend the merit-based bonus or to flip a coin to decide between the two. In the public decision scenario, the deserving friend received the bonus 27 percent of the time. When the deserving worker was the non-friend, participants granted the bonus over 60 percent of the time.
The research overall revealed that participants were more likely to approve of the merit-based bonuses. The study can serve as an important model for HR managers on the unintended outcomes of workplace relationships.
Read more about the team’s research here.
Mihaylo Professors on China Trade War and the SoCal Economy – Mihaylo News
Associate Professor of Economics Pedro Amaral and Lecturer Aaron Popp of Cal State Fullerton’s Mihaylo College of Business have examined the impact of the U.S. and China Trade War upon one of the most influential economies, that of Southern California. The region serves as a hub of trade with East Asia.
Cal State Fullerton professor Pedro Amaral
In the panel discussion last month sponsored by the CSUF Economic Association, Amaral and Popp presented their research.
“About 46 percent of total Chinese imports are being tariffed, but L.A. is serving a smaller percentage of those products [that are being tariffed]–41 percent. But any later round of tariffs will have a harder impact on the local economy,” Popp notes.
Reflecting upon the long history of the tension between the two world powers and the nature of China’s transition, Amaral says, “China has had an incomplete transition into capitalism, which the West still ponders about China …We used to think that once they got into free trade, they would become a freer society upon the embrace of the market economy. But they haven’t, which is something my liberal mind struggles with.”
You can read more on Popp and Amaral’s discussion here.
Graziadio Strategy Professor on Corporate Boards and Entrepreneurship – Graziadio News
Dr. Mark Tribbit, Pepperdine Graziadio Assistant Professor of Strategy, was honored recently for his scholarly research with the 2018 Emerald Literati Award. For the past 25 years, the award has acknowledged valuable contributions to scholarly research.
Tribbit’s research, “An Agency Perspective on the Board of Directors and Corporate Entrepreneurship,” examined the effect of takeovers upon internal entrepreneurship. The outcome of the research will help corporate boards to foster entrepreneurial efforts by staff.
Dr. Mark Tribbit, Pepperdine Graziadio Assistant Professor of Strategy / Photo via newsroom.pepperdine.edu
In addition to his professorship, Tribbit serves as the Academic Director of Graziadio’s full-time MBA program. Experienced in management for corporate, retail banking, and wholesale, Dr. Tribbit received his MBA from Villanova University, and his Ph.D. in strategic management from Drexel University.
You can read more about Dr. Tribbit’s award and his full article here.
The Muddled World of Leadership Cliches, and More – Philadelphia News
As November draws to a close, let’s take a look at some of the biggest business school stories coming out of Philadelphia business schools this week.
Three Big Leadership Clichés – and How to Rethink Them – LinkedIn
Geoffrey Garrett, Dean of The Wharton School and official LinkedIn “Influencer,” recently took to the social media site to talk about the gamut of leadership cliches that dominate the conversation around those roles.
In a conversation with a group of upper-level executives at the Wharton CEO Academy in New York, Garrett pivoted away from the following three cliches, turning them into something more modern, useful, and promising:
1.) Stick to your guns
2.) Question everything
3.) It’s a marathon, not a sprint
On sticking to one’s guns, Garrett emphasizes certain elements of 1980s corporate and political culture that found esteeming value when a leader does not waver on their principles. “Sticking to your guns is valued because it signals strength, courage and commitment under adversity, which is why we so often think about war heroes in this way,” he says.
He notes, however, that there is value in knowing when to “fold ’em” with a key Kenny Rogers reference in tow. “There is no simple score sheet to tell you when the positives from sticking to your guns become outweighed by the negatives. But the world is littered with examples where leaders wait too long to make the switch. Think General Lee’s historic defeat at Gettysburg in the American Civil War, Jeff Immelt at GE or John Chambers at Cisco,” Garrett continues.
“Most leaders will change course eventually because there is not much valor in heroic defeats. But the best leaders will change course long before the writing is on the wall. Compare the demise of Kodak with the transformation of IBM. But how do you know when the writing is on the wall? The answer is judgment, arguably the most valuable trait in a leader. It’s easy to recognize in hindsight, because good leaders make good decisions—the definition of good judgment.”
To see the rest of Garrett’s advice on leadership cliches, head over to LinkedIn.
Drexel Students Win Second Annual Diversity Case Competition – Drexel LeBow News
Students from the Drexel University LeBow College of Business brought home a brand new title as winners of the second annual Diversity and Inclusion Business Case Competition.
Drexel LeBow defeated 11 other local challenging universities in a competition with a goal to “help create a diversity training protocol for Home Away From Home, a global hotel chain,” according to the business school.
Winners from the LeBow College of Business at the second annual Diversity and Inclusion Business Case Competition / Photo via lebow.drexel.edu
The LeBow team of “Johnny Zhu, Kimberly Gain, Stephanie Arredondo, and Rachael Wright” nabbed first place with their curiously-titled “Raising Our One Family (ROOF)” strategy. Zhu explains, “ROOF stands for the overall company-wide training, which is rolled out in the form of top-down management and tailored to individual locations, corporate level, and field level. This proposal is not a mold, but a 360-integrated training approach where as a family, employees are living out the mindset of diversity and inclusion, not only to guests but to each other as well.”
To learn more about the Drexel LeBow team and the case competition, click here.
The Bizarre Bias That Affects How You Shop – BBC
The work of Beth Vallen, a researcher at the Villanova School of Business, was recently highlighted by author Martha Henriques in the BBC regarding just how pervasive “anti-fat” bias can be.
Henriques notes that overweight people tend to statistically suffer when it comes to things like job offerings, and even get less eye-contact than people of average weight and size. It is perhaps not so surprising to find that business models are often altered for overweight people.
In “Shape and Trait‐Congruency: Using Appearance‐based Cues as a Basis for Product Recommendations,” a new study authored by Vallen and colleagues Karthik Sridhar, Dan Rubin, Veronika Ilyuk, Lauren G. Block, and Jennifer J. Argo—published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology—found that overweight customers were offered more products that resembled their body types, even if the products, such as bottles of perfume, were not wearable.
Speaking with Henriques, Vallen says, “Our thinking was these subtle prejudices that lead to these effects are based on something more than superficial shape-matching.”
“We wanted to show that this was a bias that reflects the thoughts and decisions processes of all people, not just sales people.”
To read more about the study, head over to the BBC website and the Journal of Consumer Psychology.
July MBA Application Deadlines Are Coming Up
Yes, it’s finally summertime and the livin’ is easy, but that doesn’t mean you can sleep on these upcoming MBA application deadlines. Take a look at which programs have deadlines coming up, and get these applications in now so you can hurry back to the beach and work on that tan! Continue reading…
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.
