A Day in the Life of an INSEAD MBA

Chenting Zou, an MBA Class of 17 student has written the following blog about a typical day in the INSEAD MBA program. 

As the end of P1 is nigh, I thought it’s about time I start recording my INSEAD experience. Overall, this first term has been chaotic, thrilling, perplexing, and a lot of fun. I suppose it was €14,700 well spent.

Inspired by a recent company presentation called, “Day in the life of [prestigious consulting firm] employee”, I had the urge to capture a snapshot of a recent (and typical) day in P1. Before I applied to INSEAD, I didn’t know much about what I would do on a day-to-day basis, so I hope this is useful for people who are thinking about coming here and those who have been admitted but aren’t yet quite sure what a daily MBA life entails.

[Please note that this is only my daily routine, which is certainly not representative of all INSEAD students.]

7:30am – Wake up and leave for campus within 20 mins. I chose to rent a studio that’s halfway between the train station and INSEAD, so it’s a zombie-like 30 minute walk every morning.

8:20am – Arrive on campus, rush to get a cup of free coffee at Freddy’s bar. Down one cup, and fill it up again for the lecture.

8:30am – First lecture of the day was Prices and Markets. After discussing microeconomic theory about pricing pharmaceutical drugs, the whole class plays a game theory exercise.

10:00am – Play a quick game of Foosball in Freddy’s. Get another coffee in the 15 minute break before the next lecture.

10:15am – Financial Markets Valuation class. My favourite 🙂

12:00pm – Skip the optional Uncertainty, Data, and Judgment tutorial for a presentation on Amazon job interviews.

1pm – Speedy lunch with section-mates. We chat about last night’s Robin Hood Valentine’s auction, and the various students and staff who were “sold” for charity.

2pm – Coffee chat with fellow 17D’s and a 17J about his pre-INSEAD consulting job.

3pm – Waste two hours walking to the bank in Fontainebleau centre and trying to explain for the third time that my bank card has still not arrived. Nothing :/

6pm – Work on a group assignment with my five group mates. We’re getting better at splitting the questions so this one took much less time than the previous assignments.

7.30pm – Enjoy the tapas, sangria and live music at Freddy’s as part of Iberian week.

10pm – Get home and catch up on emails.

Receive email reminder about the P2 Managerial Accounting exemption exam.  After spending the next hour reading through textbook chapter summaries, I come to the realisation that spending four hours trying to cram the content for an exam I had a low chance of passing wasn’t worth it. Decide to prepare on imminent summer internship job interview instead.

Receive email about the upcoming bidding process for campus exchange. Mild panic. Book appointment with career coach to figure out my employability in Asia.

12am – Skype a friend from London and we arrange a trip to Lisbon, along with other INSEAD-ers, between P1 and P2.

1am – Collapse in bed.

Chenting Zou, MBA’17D

Chenting was born in China but spent most of her life in the UK, with the exception of a two year stint in Singapore and Hong Kong. She has 4 years' experience in the healthcare sector and her latest job before INSEAD was at a mobile health app that delivers AI triage and online doctor consultations. In her spare time, she enjoys dabbling in salsa, painting and Louis Theroux documentaries.

For more information, please check out The INSEAD MBA Experience blog

Babson Offers New MS In Business Analytics

Program Name: Master Of Science In Business Analytics

School: Babson College’s F.W. Olin Graduate School Of Business

Length of Program: 18 to 24 months

Cost: $55,000

Babson’s F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business have launched a Master of Science in Business Analytics, building on the MBA concentration in analytics course started in 2012. Babson also founded an MS in Finance.

Last year, 30% of Olin students who have concentrations were concentrating in analytics. The Babson MSBAtakes a uniquely integrated approach to analytics that develops graduates into data translators who can be the bridge between the technical and business areas of an organization.

The tagline is: ‘Business analytics for an entrepreneurial world.'” There is a demand for 2-4 million “business translators” in the U.S. who are comfortable enough in  IT and statistics. 

The ideal applicants are those with three to 10 years into their career and who have a demonstrated educational or practical foundation in quantitative or technical fields. A GMAT or GRE score is required from all applicants. There is one essay. Applicants must also have an undergraduate degree from an accredited institution with a GPA of 3.0 or above. All applicants must be interviewed, as well.

The program has rolling admissions; the application process is now open.

The Olin MSBA consists of 18 required core credits and 12 elective credits, with semesters structured so students typically learn two to three subjects at a time. Core courses are Introduction to Analytics and the Principles of Entrepreneurial Thinking and Acting, Methods (Information Technology; Data Exploration and Analytics), and Applications (Marketing Analytics; Economic Analytics). Students can choose from a variety of analytic elective courses, including Digital Marketing, Supply Chain Management, and Private Data Security, among many others.

Building off its reputation as a top school in entrepreneurship, Olin requires all MSBA students to start with the entrepreneurial mindset  course.  Principles of Entrepreneurial Thinking and Acting. Then comes data management, data storage, data manipulation, and so on. Following that are courses in data visualization, data mining, marketing analytics, and economic analytics — forecasting and trendsetting.

The final course is a partnership with a local company on a project in which students, working in teams, tackle some specific problem, applying what they’ve learned to a real-life business situation. 

The first offering of the capstone project will be in May 2018 or January 2019.

For more information see Babson's MSBA website.

The Best Business School Campuses

For more information please see Poets&Quants

Average GMAT Scores At The Top 50 U.S. MBA Programs

P&Q Rank & School	2015 GMAT	2014 GMAT	2013 GMAT	2012 GMAT	2011 GMAT	5-Year Trend
1. Harvard Business School	725	726	727	724	724	+1
2. Stanford GSB	733	732	732	729	739	-6
3. Chicago (Booth)	726	724	723	720	719	+7
4. Penn (Wharton)	732	728	725	718	718	+14
5. Northwestern (Kellogg)	724	713	713	708	712	+12
6. Columbia	715	716	716	715	716	-1
7. MIT (Sloan)	716	713	713	710	710	+6
8. UC-Berkeley (Haas)	715	717	714	715	715	——-
9. Dartmouth (Tuck)	717	716	718	717	718	-1
10. Yale SOM	721	719	714	717	719	+2
11. Duke (Fuqua)	696	690	694	690	689	+7
12. Virginia (Darden)	706	706	706	703	701	+5
13. Michigan (Ross)	708	702	704	703	703	+5
14. UCLA (Anderson)	713	715	706	704	704	+9
14. Cornell (Johnson)	697	692	691	694	691	+6
16. New York (Stern)	720	721	721	720	719	+1
17. UNC (Kenan-Flagler)	701	697	683	692	689	+12
18. Texas-Austin (McCombs)	694	690	690	692	692	+2
19. Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)	690	687	691	693	686	+4
20. Emory (Goizueta)	678	678	681	677	681	-3
21. Indiana (Kelley)	668	668	664	664	670	-2
22. Washington (Foster)	688	682	670	670	675	+8
23. Washington Univ. (Olin)	695	699	696	698	696	-1
24. Georgetown (McDonough)	692	691	688	683	686	+6
25. Notre Dame (Mendoza)	682	686	690	687	692	-10

Source: Poets & Quants 

Top 50 With Biggest Five-Year Decreases In GMAT Scores

Top 50 With Biggest Five-Year Decreases In GMAT Scores

School	Five-Year Change	2015 Average GMAT	2011 Average GMAT
Pittsburgh (Katz)	-15	607	622*
Temple (Fox)	-14	632	646*
Penn State (Smeal)	-14	636	650
Wisconsin-Madison	-11	669	680
Ohio State (Fisher)	-10	664	6674
Notre Dame (Mendoza)	-10	682	692
Southern California (Marshall)	-8	679	687
Rochester (Simon)	-8	667	675

Business school admission officials are weighing GMAT scores more heavily than ever. The general view is that GMATs are the single most important factor in MBA admissions.

The consultants singled out three schools in particular where they believe the GMAT assumes increased importance in admission decisions: The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Yale University’s School of Management, and Columbia Business School. Slightly more than half the respondents named Wharton for putting greater weight on GMATs in the past five years; a little more than a third named Yale while just a tad over 25% pointed to Columbia.

While the scores show they were right on the button with Wharton, they may very well have misjudged Yale and Columbia. 

But over the past five years, Yale has reported only a two-point rise in average GMATS to a record 721 last fall, though that average is up seven points since 2013. 

Columbia, meantime, is actually down a point in the past five years to 715, most likely due to the fact that the school offers less scholarship support than many of its peers.

Higher GMAT scores are perceived to create a virtuous circle of school selectivity and positive impact in the U.S. News ranking. Word from the corner office can set a trend in motion–15 years ago the dean at Columbia wanted GMAT scores of admits to all start with a 7. 

In the past three years, the biggest GMAT score declines among the Top 50 are

1.  University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business  saw a 15-point decline to 607 last year from 622 in 2013 (five-year numbers were not available for analysis). 

2. Temple University’s Fox School of Business in Philadelphia saw a 14-point drop over the same period to 632 from 646. 

3. Penn State University’s Smeal College of Business lost 14 points off its average GMAT scores in the past five years, falling to a 636 average for the full-time MBA entering class last fall from 650 in 2011 (see below).

4. Wisconsin Business School in Madison showed an 11-point fall to 669 from 680 in the past five years

5.  Notre Dame University’s Mendoza School and Ohio State University’s Fisher School each had 10-point declines, to 682 and 664, respectively

In all, 21 of the Top 50 schools reported GMAT declines, though 14 of them were at MBA programs ranked 26th through 50th. 

For more information, please see Poets&Quants

Top 50 With Biggest Five-Year Increases In GMAT Scores

Top 50 With Biggest Five-Year Increases In GMAT Scores

School	Five-Year Change	Average 2015 GMAT	Average 2011 GMAT
Michigan State (Broad)	+26	664	638
Pennsylvania (Wharton)	+14	732	718
Southern Methodist (Cox)	+14	656	641
Northwestern (Kellogg)	+12	724	712
North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)	+12	701	689
UCLA (Anderson)	+9	713	704
Washington (Foster)	+8	688	675

Among the Top 50 U.S. MBA programs, only half show increases in their average GMAT scores for their entering classes in the past five years. 

 - 17 of the top 25 ranked schools have been able to improve their average GMATs, largely by taking a higher percentage of those students from lesser-ranked institutions.

The Top 50 school with the single biggest increase in GMAT scores was Michigan State University’s Broad School where the average soared by 26 points to 664 from 638.

The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, saw a 14-point rise to an average GMAT score for last fall’s entering class of 732, up from 718 in 2011. 

Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management GMAT rose 12 points to 724 last year from 712 five years earlier

The University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business school saw its average class GMAT also rise 12 points to 701.

Wharton closed a 21-point gap with Stanford. 

A 700 GMAT score puts a test taker in the 89th percentile of those who have taken the exam. That means only 11% of those who sit for the GMAT have a score of 700 or above. 

The average is about 547. Stanford’s leading average GMAT of 733 comfortably puts the incoming class among the top four percent of all test takers, though the latest entering MBA students have GMATs that range from a low of 570 to a perfect score of 800. Last fall, Harvard accepted a 510 GMAT scorer, while Wharton’s lowest score last fall was 110 points higher at 620.

Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business which has long boasted the highest average GMAT scores of any elite MBA program. Stanford’s average has fallen six points to 733, just a point above Wharton’s record 732 last fall. 

Just five years ago, Stanford was ahead of Wharton with a 21-point gap, with Stanford then at 739 and Wharton at 718. Harvard Business School, by contrast, reported a class average of 725 for the Class of 2017, up just a single digit from five years ago and down two points from 2013.

Source: Poets & Quants 

NYU Stern Launches a New Advanced Professional Certificate in Digital Business

Working professionals take 5 MBA-level courses in a specific knowledge area and earn credits that may be applied toward a part-time MBA degree

Most of the top digital economy companies have a home base in New York City, many in Silicon Alley just a few blocks from Stern.

Digital technology is redefining business models and transforming industries from finance to fashion at an unprecedented pace.  In response, NYU Stern School of Business is introducing a new Advanced Professional Certificate (APC) in Digital Business.  At companies leading this transformation, technical professionals find they need to understand the business implications of technology as they progress to product planning and managerial roles, and non-technical professionals need to understand the fundamentals of digital technology to advance within their organizations.  Stern’s new certificate will address these unmet needs.

Working professionals with or without an MBA may apply to the APC program to take five courses alongside Stern MBA students in the School’s Langone Part-time MBA program.  APC students can earn their certificate in digital business in as few as two semesters and will have up to two years to complete it.   

“Most of the top digital economy companies have a home base in New York City, many in Silicon Alley just a few blocks from Stern,” said Yannis Bakos, Associate Professor of Information Systems and Faculty Director of the APC in Digital Business.  “Employees in these companies can take top-tier MBA courses during evenings or weekends, and deepen their understanding of digital technology and digital business in a short amount of time. They can better assess whether a full MBA program might be the next step for them, or they can update a degree they earned before digital business was part of the MBA curriculum.”

APC students without an MBA may choose to apply to Stern’s Langone Part-time MBA program while pursuing their certificate. If admitted, these students can apply their APC credits towards the Langone Part-time MBA as long as they do so prior to receiving their APC certificate.

APC in Digital Business course offerings include classes on digital strategy; data mining; business analytics; digital marketing; digital media; and statistics and data analysis.  As part of the admissions process, candidates must have a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent, two years of work experience and submit either a GMAT or GRE score, or proof of an MBA degree.  Candidates may apply to start courses in the Fall or Spring semester.

NYU Stern also offers APCs in Finance, Marketing and General Business. Visit NYU Stern’s website to learn more.

About New York University Stern School of Business

New York University Stern School of Business, located in the heart of Greenwich Village, is one of the nation’s premier management education schools and research centers. NYU Stern, whose faculty includes three Nobel Laureates in Economics, offers a broad portfolio of programs at the graduate and undergraduate levels, all of them enriched by the dynamism, energy and deep resources of one of the world’s business capitals. Visit www.stern.nyu.edu and follow NYU Stern on Twitter: @NYUStern. 

For more information go to NYU Stern

How I Got Into Columbia With A 640 GMAT

Columbia Business School successful candidates have an average accepted GMAT score of 717, length of work experience north of 12 years, and a 6:1 applicant-to-acceptance ratio.

The candidate had a 3.6 GPA with a double major in political science and journalism. Top tips are

1. Demonstrate Humility

Include some example of a time you’ve grown from a mistake, admit flaws, show that mistakes are opportunities to genuinely grow and mature. They want to see in you what all other CEOs have had to experience at one point or another in their careers – the strength to admit that you can be wrong.

2. Showcase Your Hard Work

Pick a time and an example when you’ve taken an idea from the ground up, and when you, yourself, built something meaningful. Make sure it is somewhat recent, and that it took both innovation and research to get it done. Include details of having gone above and beyond to get your idea heard, ideally one that few others thought could actually be successful. 

2. Tell Them Your Plan

Tell them who you really want to be one day. If you are in the healthcare field, tell them about your plan to reduce spiraling medical costs. If it’s real estate, tell them about the industry’s biggest problems and your perspective on how the MBA helps you to solve them. They want to go to bed at night knowing that they could have found the nation’s next tycoon, industry change-agent, scientist or inventor.  Give them what they are looking for and speak your GD mind!

For more information see Poets&Quants

Business Schools With The Best MBA Teaching Faculty

In 2016, The Economist conducted its annual survey of MBA students. Grading their programs on a five-point scale, Booth notched a 4.86 average, tops among the top 25 American and international MBA programs. In contrast, Tepper scored a 4.79, just a shade below teaching powerhouses Harvard Business School (4.81) and UVA’s Darden School of Business (4.80) — while edging out top teaching faculties at such luminaries as Haas and Tuck. In addition, both schools made stunning progress over the previous year, with Tepper’s score rising by .20, while Booth leapfrogged Darden and Fuqua for the top spot.

For more information, please see Poets&Quants

The 11 Best Business Schools for Entrepreneurs

Since 2013, graduate business education resource Poets&Quants has ranked the start-ups to come out of business schools by the amount of venture capital-backed funding. The annual list of top MBA start-ups includes 100 companies founded between Jan. 1, 2012, and Dec. 31, 2016, that have at least one founder who graduated with an MBA in that same time frame.

Two schools dominate: Harvard Business School and Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Each has alumni running 24 venture-funded start-ups. 

And while Harvard and Stanford boast alumni at nearly half the start-ups on the list, in 2015, the two heavyweights dominated the list even more conclusively, with 71 start-ups between them.

According to Poets&Quants data, here are 2017's top business schools for aspiring entrepreneurs:

1.   Harvard Business School: 24 companies

2.   Stanford Graduate School of Business: 24 companies

3.   The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School: 12 companies

4.   Columbia Business School: 11 companies

5.   Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management: 8 companies

6.   MIT Sloan School of Management: 6 companies

7.   NYU Stern School of Business: 5 companies

8.   UC Berkeley Haas School of Business: 4 companies

9.   UCLA Anderson School of Management: 3 companies

10. University of Texas Austin McCombs: 2 companies

11. The University of Virginia Darden School of Business: 2 companies

For more see CNBC

Trump Presidency May Drive MBA Students to Europe

Business schools in the UK and Canada have begun targeting potential students who may find the U.S. less attractive following Donald Trump’s election victory.

Many top-ranking business schools in the US charge more than $120,000 for a full-time MBA, making cost already an impediment to less wealthy EU students. UK schools have traditionally been popular with international students, and some say the election result offers British institutions the chance to attract more of those students.

Professor Nelson Phillips, acting dean of Imperial College Business School, says Mr Trump’s victory presents a “huge opportunity” for UK business schools to recruit more students from Saudi Arabia and neighboring states.

In Canada, some business schools believe the new political climate will convince some US citizens pursuing MBAs to study outside of their homeland.

“The Trump election is going to create more opportunities,” says Dezsö Horváth, dean of Toronto’s Schulich School of Business, part of the city’s York University. “We need to see how that translates but we have plans now to recruit more extensively in the US. I think other schools and universities in Canada will do the same. They will see this as an opportunity to capitalise on the US market.”

But David Schmittlein, dean of MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is confident that it will continue to be able to attract the best students. The US institution would “expend energy” to make sure that it was seen as an attractive place to study, Mr Schmittlein says.

“Other schools of management around the world are always trying to put their best foot forward and you know, God bless them.”

For more information, please see the FT