Lynette Kelleher has been with Bentley since June 2011. Prior to that, she worked in higher education just outside Boston. Lynette grew up in the Boston area and pursued her bachelor’s degree at Franklin Pierce University. She completed her MEd at Northeastern University. Lynette works with students who are interested in the Emerging Leaders MBA and MS in Marketing Analytics.
Ann Marie returned to Bentley’s Graduate School in June 2011, after 17 seasons as Head Coach of women’s volleyball at Dartmouth College. Prior to her time at Dartmouth, she completed her MBA at Bentley in 1994 while serving as assistant volleyball coach for two seasons. Originally from Meriden, CT, Ann Marie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She primarily recruits students for our suite of MBA programs both internationally and domestically.
Corrie Lefebvre joined the Graduate Admission team in 2010. Her experience includes higher education posts around Boston and Burlington, Vermont. Corrie is from upstate New York and earned her bachelor’s degree at St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont. She moved to Boston in 2007 to pursue her MEd at Northeastern University. She works with students interested in the Professional MBA, MS in Taxation and the MS in Financial Planning.
Mary Thompson has served in her current position at Bentley University since 2003. She has worked in higher education in the Boston area for more than 15 years. Mary is originally from Vermont and has a bachelor’s degree from Fairfield University and a master’s degree in higher education administration from Boston College. Mary has worked with most of Bentley’s graduate programs over the years. Currently, she works with students interested in the MS in Human Factors in Information Design and the MS in Information Technology.
Is there a “right time” for you to pursue your MBA on a full-time basis?
The answer for many college seniors or recent college graduates students is unquestionably “Yes, and the right time is now,” especially if you haven’t majored in business.
That’s not to say that corporate recruiters don’t appreciate the value of a quality education in the liberal arts. But the fact is that most organizations are looking for employees who can hit the ground running and make an immediate contribution. This fact has been documented by a variety of preparedness surveys as of late. Even if you do have an undergraduate business degree, an MBA will give you greater knowledge and expertise in areas involving leadership and problem solving. Some MBA programs also allow students with undergraduate business degrees to “waive out” of core courses and substitute more advanced electives to enhance their specialization.
There are a variety of reasons to get your MBA early in your career.
There are many good reasons for recent college graduates to pursue an MBA. But obviously it’s not a decision to be taken lightly. Even with loans and grants, and that fast ROI, there are income and opportunity costs that you’ll need to accommodate. You need to make sure that you’re ready to make the commitment, as the best MBA programs are extremely rigorous. You’ll have to sacrifice social life to get the most out of your degree program, especially with the ever-present shift of education to a team-based model, reflecting today’s workforce. However, sacrificing a bit of your personal life now and gaining a degree before you have a family or other obligations makes a lot of sense. It will be much harder to step away from bigger responsibilities a few years from now.
Benefits of an Early MBA
Many millennials want to know what they will get out of an MBA. How exactly would it change them? Two Stanford professors, Charles O’Reilly and Beth Benjamin, researched that topic and found that three things stood out. First, MBAs do successfully prepare millennials to become a first-time manager. Second, the degree sparked their initiative to undertake everything from starting a new project to managing growth. Third, it gave them interpersonal understanding necessary for managing strategic differences with a boss, or blending work, life and family.
What about work experience?
Some argue that an MBA is not the only way to acquire a foundation for career success — it is best to first spend time in a job gaining real-world experience. But the fact is that the average age of Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) test takers worldwide is dropping (as measured from 2008 to 2012).
Finally, recent surveys (including Bentley University’s recent research on millennials) confirm the widely held belief that lifelong learning will be necessary for career success. The MBA provides an important foundation, one that can and must be built upon throughout your career. The knowledge capacity, salary and rank you want to have over your lifetime depend on your pace and when you’re willing to get started.
In these increasingly competitive economic times, it’s easy to think that the MBA — or a master’s degree in general — is the new bachelor’s degree, and that you have to go back to school if you want to advance your career. Relax. Some of the best minds in business believe that, even in the age of “credential inflation,” it’s more about what you know and how you’ve been trained over which degrees are on your résumé.
We do live in unprecedented educational times in American history, where more than 33.5 percent of people over age 25 now hold at least a bachelor’s degree, up from 26 percent in 2006. Additionally, 11 percent now hold a graduate degree, up from 9 percent just 10 years ago, according to the New York Times and USA Today. The increase in the number of MBA degrees in particular is astonishing: only 11.2 percent of master’s degrees were in business in 1971, but in 2012, they were a whopping 25.4 percent, according to American Interest.
In terms of future earnings, however, education level matters less these days than in previous generations and field of study matters more, according to the Washington Post. Research shows that those students with STEM majors (science, technology, engineering or math) earn up to 50 percent more over their lifetimes than humanities majors, even with lesser degrees. Sixty-five percent of STEM workers with bachelor’s degrees earn more than non-STEM workers with master’s degrees, and 47 percent of STEM workers with bachelor’s degrees earn more than non-STEM workers with doctorates.
If you’re reading this, it’s probably too late to change your undergraduate degree to a STEM focus and make top dollar. However, the statistics above paint a picture of the job market today, with a clear message especially for non-STEM workers: Graduate degrees can provide a boost in earning power that might otherwise be unavailable.
Dissatisfaction with their undergraduate college experience also motivates some students to look seriously at an MBA. According to Forbes, only 62 percent of millennials agree that their undergraduate college experience “has paid off,” compared with 84 percent of Gen Xers and 89 percent of baby boomers. Conversely, the percentage who say that college was not beneficial is growing.
One study found that 40 percent of college seniors fail to graduate with the complex reasoning skills needed in today’s workplace. Given to freshmen and seniors, the test measures the gains made during college in critical thinking, writing and communication, and analytical reasoning, according to the Washington Post.
There may never be a better time than now to pursue an MBA. Research indicates that many employers still are not willing to invest in training millennial employees and want employees who can hit the ground running. A host of additional challenges continues to face today’s millennial college graduates. They include a perception by employers that recent graduates are unwilling to pay their dues, have difficulty communicating with managers, and pose a real problem because of their lack of preparation. Even recent college graduates themselves express concern over how well prepared they are.
Today’s MBA allows recent college graduates to answer those concerns. Providing a broad-based understanding of business fundamentals, the MBA also lets students specialize via concentrations in both disciplines and industries. Further, the degree provides a firm understanding of the culture, language and issues that define the practice of business today. Finally, an MBA signals to employers that the degree holder has the ambition and determination to succeed in business by virtue of the commitment made to earn the degree.
Set foot on any university campus today and one thing is clear. Students from all over the world make up a significant portion of the student body. And that’s especially true at graduate schools of business.
According to the Institute of International Education, during the last academic year there were almost 900,000 international undergraduate and graduate students studying at American colleges and universities, an increase of eight percent. In Massachusetts alone, there were more than 50,000 international students, up more than 10 percent from the year before, according to Wendy D’Ambrose, Director of MBA and MS Employer Outreach at Bentley University's Graduate School of Business.
Why do students come? There are a number of reasons, beginning with the global reputation of American business schools and the fact that the American economy, while still not spectacular, is doing far better than any other country’s or region’s. That might seem to translate into opportunity for many international students. But there are obstacles as well.
The website workpermit.com notes there are just 85,000 H1B visas (allowing foreign citizens to work in the U.S. for up to six years) available on an annual basis and, of these, just 20,000 go to graduate students. The demand far outstrips the supply and last year officials, in response, went quickly to a lottery system to award the visas, D’Ambrose points out.
For some business students, the OPT (Optional Practical Training) visa provides a potential option. The OPT is limited to just 12 months but can be extended for an additional 17 months for programs deemed to have relevance to STEM (Science, Technology, Math, and Engineering). It also is limited to 29 months, D’Ambrose points out. The 17 month extension was specifically designed to allow American corporations to recruit highly sought students in STEM disciplines. The OPT visa is still classified as a student F1 visa and for the OPT student to remain in the US, the employer must file an application for an H1B visa.
Still, the rewards can be significant for those who persevere, she adds. Among the reasons: the salaries in America are typically higher than those from students’ home countries; there is prestige associated with securing a job and a coveted US visa; and the experience and perspective gained by international students who study in the US is highly valuable in a global market.
There are no guarantees, of course, and many students who study in the U.S. are unable to secure the necessary visas. Still, for those students, and especially for students who are fortunate enough to actually secure a visa because the benefits are extended and enhanced, there are a variety of advantages beyond the professional education itself. They include:
To reap the rewards of studying at graduate school of business in the United States, business students should pay attention to three important considerations, according to U.S. News & World Report. They are academic credentials, English language proficiency, and finances. Even if there are concerns about one or more of these three important areas, there may also be ways to address them.
It’s harder than ever before to get into business school, and the competition is getting younger. Universities are now conferring 74 percent more MBA degrees than in 2000, and more millennials are opting for graduate school in the hopes of gaining a competitive edge in a tough job market. So, if you’re applying to an MBA program, how do you make your application stand out? According to admissions deans, by being your best self.
“It sounds obvious, but many applicants get tripped up trying to get inside our heads,” says Bruce DelMonico, assistant dean and director of admissions at Yale School of Management. “Don’t out-think yourself. Tell us about what you care about, not what you think we want to hear.”
Here are seven specific things business school deans say they do want to see from MBA candidates:
Sincerity and preparation
Many business school deans cite a lack of attention to detail as the reason an application gets tossed in the “no” pile. Donald C. Martin, author of the book Roadmap for Graduate Study and former dean of admissions at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, says that on many occasions he would read an essay that was prepared for, say, Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, but was mistakenly sent to him at Booth.
“The applicant would stress that ‘Tuck’ was his or her ‘first choice,’” Martin says. “Sometimes my outwardly vocal response was a good laugh. However, my regular unspoken response was: ‘I hope you get into that program, because you won’t get into mine.’”
Motivation and passion
It’s quickly evident to deans of admissions which students have done their homework on a program, are taking the interview seriously, and know the expectations schools set with their students about where that particular MBA program can take them as an individual, and which components of that particular program interest to them.
“It’s gratifying to meet with someone who’s sincerely passionate about our institution and our programs,” says Sharon Hill, assistant dean and director of graduate admissions at Bentley University. “Students clearly apply to more than one institution but the ones who impress me are the candidates who are truly taking the time to see whether our program is right them and us.”
Self-awareness and humility
Along with a decreasing median age among MBA applicants, many MBA deans of admission are also noticing a decreasing lack of respect for the process. Infusing the MBA application process with braggadocio rather than using it as an opportunity to professionally display your accomplishments or business acumen will often backfire on candidates, as well.
“It’s amazing to me how many candidates, once they get accepted into a program, will continuously try to re-negotiate the terms of their admission offer,” says Bentley’s Hill. “Candidates don’t realize that can be a negative reflection of the candidate. It’s not showing how aggressive you can be in business or what a good negotiator you are; it can actually appear arrogant and makes us question whether the student really wants to be part of our community or is just looking for a better deal regardless of the school.”
Candidates, even those with perfect test scores or successful business backgrounds, would be well served to display some humility when applying to MBA programs.
“There’s no such thing as a perfect applicant,” says Bruce DelMonico at Yale. “Everyone has weaknesses. We’ll see them, so you’re better off acknowledging them and incorporating them into your application than hoping we’ll miss them.”
Diversity
Executive boardrooms have long been scrutinized for their lack of women, minorities, and socioeconomic representation. Today, it’s the mission of many deans to not only be the bridge to that change, but to make sure their classrooms optimize learning potential for their students by bringing together a brightly varied mix of perspectives.
“There’s no cookie-cutter profile that makes a perfect candidate for our program — in fact, the more diverse a person, the better,” says Hill. “Candidates should take the time to look at what the current profile of a particular school’s MBA student looks like and ask themselves, ‘How do I set myself apart?’ Traditional diversity, geographic diversity, cultural diversity, diversity of educational backgrounds are all important, and are sought after by admissions deans because they can make the classroom experience much richer for all of the MBA students in their program.”
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The MBA was once known as a “one size fits all” graduate degree for mid-career professionals with dreams of the corner office. As the demographic skewed younger — thanks to a tight job market — some are passing on the MBA for more tailored options: MS degrees in specialized concentrations. But is one better than the other?
The mere fact that you’re thinking about an advanced degree is good. Pew Research found that median monthly earnings of 25-to-34-year-olds with master’s degrees rose 23 percent from 1984 to 2009. Solving the degree dilemma, however, takes a little homework, says Sharon Hill, assistant dean and director of Graduate Admission at Bentley University.
“The MS is by definition master of a particular topic, diving into your chosen discipline,” Hill explains, “whereas the MBA is much broader because management can apply to any industry and any discipline.”
Her advice? Compare and contrast each degree, and do some soul searching as to what you really want and need.
What are your short- and long-term goals? Consider why you’re even thinking about going for a graduate degree. Do your own self-analysis: What job do you want to be doing, and what do you need to get there? Look at your strengths and determine what you need to be successful and happy. If you’re not sold on a particular industry or discipline, the MBA is going to give you broad knowledge and may be the key to getting you that promotion (and you can always add a concentration). On the flip side, if you’re very passionate about a particular field like finance, taxation or IT, an MS could give you a level of expertise that others won’t have.
Who is being hired in which industries? There’s often a yin and yang in enrollment between MBA programs and MS programs. That is, especially when the economy is slow, companies tend to scale back on MBAs, but in vertical markets or specialized career areas, the overall economy may be less of an influence. With the economy picking up steam, the MBA may be of greater interest to those who favored an MS more for its practicality than for its innate interest.
What level of professional experience do you bring to the table? Find a master’s program that aligns with your professional background. MBA programs used to require candidates to have a certain amount of work experience but shifting demographics have changed that. For example, the part-time MBA at Bentley is designed for mid-career professionals looking to advance their career, whereas the Emerging Leaders MBA is built for recent graduates and young professionals. MS programs often accept students immediately after college, but this can also vary. An MS in Accounting, for example is appropriate for students coming out of an undergraduate program because in most states, including Massachusetts, the CPA exam requires 30 additional credit hours. Other MS programs — Bentley’s Human Factors in Information Design, for example — require work experience.
What is the course structure? Be sure to dig down into program structure, availability of courses, and curricular options. An MS program is typically a lesser courseload than an MBA — 10 courses versus 18 for some programs — but MS programs may be smaller and offer fewer course or scheduling options as a result. MBA course requirements may be determined by your undergraduate degree. For example, if you came out of liberal arts program, you may have to infuse foundation courses such as finance, marketing and accounting — on top of MBA courses — to help you level playing field in the classroom. If you majored in business, you could bypass that.
How will your studies fit into your life? When it comes to juggling a master’s program with work and family, it’s not only the degree that has an impact, but the structure of the program. Today’s MBA programs are more flexible, with full- and part-time options. If you’re enrolling in a full-time day program, for example, you’ll likely be taking a step out of the workforce. Figure out whether that investment in time is worthwhile. A part-time program will take you out of the house a couple nights a week and on weekends. Another consideration: Many universities offer hybrid classes; at Bentley all foundation and core classes in the professional MBA, as well as electives in tax, financial planning, management and information design, are available online.
No matter what your ultimate choice is, look at where you are in your life and consult with people around you. If you’re in a relationship, everybody has to shake hands with what this is going to mean to your life, particularly when it comes to time and money. If you travel for your job, is there a way you can work with your manager to make this happen?
Clearly there are no hard-and-fast rules about master’s program; many decisions will be based on the school you choose. While many MS programs are outgrowths of an MBA, some universities offer programs specializing in industries like real estate, sports management, or health care, according to a report from Bloomberg Businessweek.
In the end, Hill advises, “Take a deep breath. Find out what fits into your life and your professional goals, and you’ll find a degree that will help you get where you want to be.”
