Prospective MBA students tend to be ambitious, in need of specific skills and motivated by a purpose beyond making money. It’s more possible than ever to find a program that meets those needs in today’s business school climate, where demand for the traditional two-year program, a daunting investment of time and money for many, has been softening lately.
While the appeal of traditional programs — which equip students with a broad range of business knowledge, from accounting to marketing — remains strong at top institutions, many schools are working harder to make that investment pay off. Here are seven common ways MBA programs are evolving to better satisfy grads.
[See how to cut the cost of an MBA.]
1. They’re getting more specialized.?If you know which industry you’d like to land in, you can probably find a program tailored to your intended path. Specialization — more electives, more areas of concentration, even distinct degrees — is hot.
At the University of California–Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, for example, MBA students can pick from one of 11 specializations, including energy and clean technology, real estate, and health management. In addition, there are plenty of classes on cutting-edge topics.
Gregory La Blanc, a lecturer at Haas, has launched three in the last four years, in data science; the future of the workplace; and blockchain, the secure, decentralized ledger of online transactions that is behind bitcoin and that many experts say will transform a host of industries. “The outside world is moving very, very quickly,” he says. “If students feel like the stuff they’re learning isn’t relevant or is outdated, they’ll be frustrated.”
Where industry demand for specific knowledge is strong, some schools are creating entirely separate degrees.
New York University’s Stern School of Business will welcome students this spring to two new one-year MBA programs, one for those interested in fashion and luxury goods and one in technology for those who want to add business skills to their tech expertise. The goal, says Raghu Sundaram, vice dean for MBA programs at Stern, is to combine the breadth of an MBA with the depth you’d get in coursework for a master’s in data science, say.
2. They’re focusing on doing good. The desire to do meaningful work is common among today’s students, says Meeta Kothare, managing director of the Social Innovation Initiative at the University of Texas–Austin’s McCombs School of Business. “They expect that their jobs and careers and the products they buy and companies in which they invest will reflect their values,” she says.
Job opportunities aren’t limited to nonprofits or socially conscious startups, either; even Fortune 500 companies are paying attention to environmental and social impacts on their bottom lines and hiring accordingly.
At McCombs, the Social Innovation Institute provides suggested course sequences to guide students to expertise in four areas: how organizations can take into account environmental and social considerations in their decision-making; how investors can take account of such concerns in choosing where to put their money; social entrepreneurship, or starting new ventures with a social or environmental purpose in addition to making a profit; and how the public and social sectors can innovate to tackle problems.
And there are plenty of extracurricular options too; for example, Haas, McCombs and other schools have programs that allow MBA students to take temporary nonvoting seats on nonprofit boards.
3. They’re making work real. That sort of real-world experience is an increasingly important part of the MBA curriculum, given the velocity of change in business wrought by tech and globalization.
“We have to put students in situations that very closely mirror the world we’re preparing them for,” says Scott DeRue, dean of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
In addition to consulting gigs, Ross now offers MBA students a chance to embed with a company with the objective of taking responsibility for a business segment.
Aaron Schmit, who will graduate in 2018, was intrigued by the chance to work with Shinola, the Detroit-based luxury goods startup. Schmit, 29, whose pre-MBA experience was in investment management, saw it as a chance to get experience in corporate finance as an employee, albeit an unpaid one, rather than as a student working on a project.
He and fellow students were part of the team working on Shinola’s recently launched high-end headphones, from scaling up manufacturing to marketing to pricing.
[Learn about MBA programs that teach real-world skills.]
4. They’re starting it up. “We see so many applicants who have been working for Fortune 500 companies and who see business school as a way to transition to something more entrepreneurial or to a fast-growth tech firm,” says Matt Symonds, co-founder and director of business school admissions consultancy Fortuna Admissions.
So schools are catering to would-be founders, adding entrepreneurship coursework and concentrations and accelerators like Babson College‘s WIN Lab, which stands for Women Innovating Now. In an eight-month program, lab participants get training, coaching and feedback as they develop a growth strategy and funding plan for their business.
“We want them to build confidence and get the skills they need so that when they graduate, they are ready” to actually run it, says Heatherjean MacNeil, WIN Lab’s co-founder and global director.
The Rady School of Management at the University of California–San Diego launched in 2003 with entrepreneurship as its focus. Every MBA student takes a three-course lab-to-market sequence covering idea generation, market testing, coming up with a viable product, and working in teams to develop a growth path.
Alums have launched 150 ongoing businesses, says Robert Sullivan, Rady’s dean. He notes that the same skills that make entrepreneurs successful are also essential for “intrapreneurs” who want to manage change within an established company.
5. They’re stressing soft skills. In today’s job market, students who stand out know how “to thrive in highly ambiguous situations” where change is constant, says DeRue.
When the National Association of Colleges and Employers asked members what skills were in demand, top vote-getters were the ability to work in a team, a knack for problem-solving, written and verbal communication skills, and a strong work ethic.
Communication skills are especially in demand, says Jeff McNish, assistant dean of the career development center at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. “Employers want students to be able to articulate an idea in a compelling, convincing and concise way,” he says.
That means an increased emphasis on these skills in the core classes, faculty teaching business students skills like persuasion and strategic writing, and writing centers where students can get individual help.
[Ask these questions about how MBA programs are taught.]
6. They’re emphasizing leadership.?Academic interest in perhaps the ultimate soft skill — leadership — isn’t new.
“But over the last 10 years or so there’s been an increased focus on the need for MBA students not just to be great functional managers, but also great managers of people,” says Sridhar Balasubramanian, senior associate dean of MBA programs at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.
At Kenan-Flagler, students complete a 360-degree evaluation before they start, getting feedback from co-workers and bosses at their previous job. Then they home in on strengths they can build on and weaknesses they can improve.
And a six-credit course dealing entirely with leadership skills includes challenges of all types — for example, a surprise assignment to manage the school’s cafeteria for a day — to help students learn to think and act on their feet.
At the University of California Los Angeles Anderson School of Management, a new leadership development program has participants methodically work on four skills per quarter such as collaboration and managing conflict.
These capabilities will pay off even if graduates aren’t immediately in a top management role, says Gary Fraser, assistant dean of student affairs for the full-time MBA program; students also need to learn how to influence people when they don’t have direct authority over them.
7. They’re coaching for career success.?Career coaching and one-on-one advising have come to business school.
“We really work with individual students to understand who they are, what their value proposition is, and how they fit into the marketplace,” says John Rooney, director of graduate business career services at the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. “What are your strengths? What are your preferences? Your values?”
At Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, students work to nail down their personal brand and story in the two weeks before school starts, through the Me Inc. program.
“We want to give each student an opportunity to better understand their personal values and transferrable skills,” says Eric Johnson, Kelley’s executive director of graduate career services.
Scott Price, 29, says the program really made him think about what was important to him in a future job and why. He started his MBA with an eye toward going into brand management and marketing, but soon realized he was more of a generalist.
“It’s not just preparing for job interviews,” he says. Though he did well on those, too: After graduating this year, he’ll head to Louisville, Kentucky, to join the leadership development program at GE Appliances.
This story is excerpted from the U.S. News “Best Business Schools 2019” guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.
More from U.S. News
See Which MBA Programs Lead to the Best Jobs, Salaries
Consider MBA Concentrations When Choosing Business Schools
How MBA Applicants Can Address 3 Common Job Challenges
7 Ways MBA Programs Work to Make Investment Pay Off originally appeared on usnews.com
