Forté Announces New MBAExplore Program for Pre-MBA Women
Deciding whether or not you want to go to business school to earn your MBA is not usually a spur-of-the-moment decision. There are a lot of questions you need to answer first. Is an MBA the right degree for you? How will it impact your career? Does it make sense financially? To help women who may be considering these and other questions, the Forté Foundation recently launched its new MBAExplore program. The deadline to apply is July 8th.
This half-day program gives women the opportunity to learn more about what an MBA is and isn’t. It takes women on an intimate exploration of the myths and questions surrounding business school to help them map their journey to the MBA. Women who have already traveled the MBA path teach the program, sharing their first-hand experience with participants.
Inside MBAExplore
The MBAExplore program provides valuable information around each of the following topics:
- Taking and passing the GMAT
- Financing and affording the MBA
- Understanding the classroom case study
- Figuring out if the MBA is right for you
Throughout the half-day, participants will have a chance to learn about the daily life of an MBA student. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions of business school staff as well as current MBA students. The goal is to provide every participant with the information they need to determine if the MBA is right for them.
The MBAExplore program is the precursor to Forté MBALaunch, a 10-month program designed to help prospective women business school applicants build their b-school applications. MBAExplore is all about helping women gain the confidence, guidance, and information they need to take the first step toward their MBA degree. Learn more here.
Register Today
Registration ends July 8, 2018, and the MBAExplore program will be held in Washington DC on August 13, 2018, and New York City on August 28, 2018. You can register now for just $49 at the location of your choosing. Space is limited. Don’t miss out.
Learning from MIT Sloan’s First All-Female Senate Leadership Team
Women in leadership positions are still relatively rare. According to the latest report from MSCI, a research and analytics firm that helps leading investors build and manage portfolios, it could likely be 2027 before women fill just 30 percent of directorships in publicly held companies. Currently, they only hold 18.1 percent of such posts. But despite these discouragingly low numbers, significant progress is being made in other arenas. Recognizing and encouraging progress toward greater gender equity in business and in business school is extremely important if we want to help foster even more.
Fortunately, we need look no further than MIT Sloan School of Management to find clear signs of progress. During its most recent Senate election, two women were named co-presidents, marking the first time in the school’s history that its student government can claim an all-female top leadership team.
Avery Beach and Jennifer Zheng ran for co-presidents as a way to give back to MIT Sloan, a program that they said “has changed our lives.” They went on to explain, “Each of us felt strongly about the school’s potential and thought we could contribute to making it even better. We also believe that representation is extremely important. By running for co-president, we hope that we’ve inspired others, including underrepresented voices, to take on future leadership roles and continue Sloan’s mission to improve the world.”
Both women feel that it has been an extremely valuable opportunity to serve as the school’s first all-female Senate leadership team. In these roles, they have had a chance not only to develop their leadership skill set, but also to expand their network and impact their community.
“Our role as student leaders involves understanding how to influence key stakeholders, managing an organization of 60 students, and making frequent public speaking appearances,” explained Beach and Zheng. “We have learned and grown through this experience in an environment where it is okay to make mistakes. These failures and successes have made us better leaders, and this experience will translate into our work after school.”
Avery Beach and Jennifer Zheng
Serving as co-presidents of the Sloan Senate has been important to both women personally, but the experience has also convinced Beach and Zheng that it its important for other women, particularly female MBA students, to take on leadership roles within their programs and schools.
“Women are often underrepresented at the top of the career ladder,” they said. “By leading early and regularly, women can stand out in the current job market as well as in their future careers, such as during promotions. We hope that women continue to strive for these experiences.”
In the end, Beach and Zheng have felt empowered by their positions as Senate leaders and hope other women will feel the same. “As we look to the legacy we’ve left at the school, we hope to be remembered not only as effective female leaders, but as effective leaders—that is what will make a difference,” they said.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from our sister site, Clear Admit.
What Women Want in an MBA: Financial Aid and Flexibility
In honor of last Wednesday’s International Women’s Day, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) today released a new report entitled “What Women Want: A Blueprint for Change in Business Education.” For readers who may be too young to remember the 2000 romantic comedy also called “What Women Want,” it starred Mel Gibson as a chauvinistic advertising executive who suffers a blow to the head that renders him suddenly able to hear everything women around him are thinking. Though first instinct would be to assume that the two—Gibson’s rom-com and GMAC’s research—have nothing at all to do with one another, that’s not entirely true.
Continue reading…
Imperial College Business School Recognized for Combatting Gender Inequality
Gender inequality in higher education is a common issue, which is why the Imperial College Business School has been working to support equality and diversity for staff and students. And recently, the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) recognized its efforts by awarding the school with a Bronze Athena SWAN award. Continue reading…
An In-Depth Look at the Forté Foundation for Women MBAs
According to Catalyst.org, women make up only 36.5 percent of MBAs earned in the United States. Even worse, a landmark study by the University of Michigan Business School revealed that women make up less than 17 percent of corporate board members in America’s 500 largest companies. The Forté Foundation is working to change those numbers. It’s a non-profit consortium dedicated to launching women into fulfilling, significant careers through access to business education, opportunities and a community of successful women leaders. Continue reading…
REGISTER: Smith School Program on Women and the Part-Time MBA
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is hosting an event designed specifically for ambitious women interested in the school’s Part Time MBA program. Joyce Russell, Ph.D., Vice Dean, will lead the program off with some opening remarks before prospective MBAs get to network with alumna, current students and representatives from Admissions and the Office of Career Services. This session is on Saturday, January 31, 2015, from 8:30 am – 12:30 am at Smith School’s DC Campus. You can register for that here. Continue reading…
