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May 25, 2009
Interview with Stanford GSB Class of 2010 Student
Adam: So, what did you learn during your first year at GSB?
Yukihiro: I learned core courses in the first year. The core courses of Stanford GSB can be divided by two types: Management Perspectives and Management Foundations. In Management Foundations, most of which students learn in the first (autumn) quarter, the students learn qualitative and fundamental subjects such as strategy, leadership, global perspectives, analytical thinking, organizational behavior. Based on the perspectives they learned in the first quarter, they develop the quantitative skills such as accounting, finance, statistics, economics in the following quarter. Now I have finished most core courses, and I will take many electives in the second year (you can take electives also in the first year if you want).
Adam: What part of the program have you liked the most?
Yukihiro: Although students are required to take core courses, they can select course levels and contents that suit their skills and backgrounds. The core courses are well designed and linked to each other, which boosts the students’ understanding about the subjects. I believe this helps the students become well-balanced business person who can deal with any challenging business issues in the future. You may consider you want to focus on specific area (e.g. finance) from the beginning, but I believe core courses collaborate with each other, give you insights into the subject you want to learn and help you understand the area you focus on in the long term. The well-designed GSB curriculum makes you aware of the benefits.
Adam: How hard was the first year?
Yukihiro: The first year in GSB was very tough! Especially in the first quarter, students must prepare hard for each class and deal with tons of readings and assignments. Actually, if there is one thing I have to complain about the program, it is that there is a risk that the understanding about each subject might be become halfway due to the lack of time. Even American students said the first quarter was very tough. Also, there are a lot of parties, networking and recruiting events in MBA. The students must manage their time efficiently to tackle the academic requirements.
Adam: How would you describe the culture of GSB?
Yukihiro: I think the culture of GSB is represented by the atmosphere of Silicon Valley and Bay Area: Entrepreneurial, easygoing, free, etc.. Challenging something is praised. GSB students enjoy life, as well as study hard.
Adam: Are there any common characteristics you find amongst your classmates?
Yukihiro: There are many types of students in GSB and so it is difficult to stereotypically describe their characteristics. However, I dare to say many classmates have entrepreneurial spirits. It does not necessarily mean they are going to run their own business. Whatever they do, they take an initiative and motivate others. They are talented and well-balanced people, always seeking for innovative ways of doing things.
Adam: How has the financial crisis impacted students at GSB?
Yukihiro: The financial crisis has huge impact on the recruiting activities of GSB students. Even GSB students find it difficult to get job offers both in summer intern and full time. Investment banks and consulting firms, which are two major employers of MBA students, are narrowing their doors for the students. Startups in Bay Area have also faced financial difficulties. GSB students are concerned more about recruiting than in usual years.
Adam: Do you have any specific advice for those considering application to GSB?
Yukihiro: GSB is pursuing the candidates who match its policy, “Change Lives, Change Organizations, Change the World.” Show your visions, which cannot be achieved in other schools. GSB is unique, and you have to show your “fit” to GSB.
Adam: What are your favorite MBA related blogs?
Yukihiro: Here are the GSB students’ and alumni’s blogs: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/jacksonlibrary/info/news/gsbblogs.html. You can find your own favorite blogs there.
Adam: Anything else you would like to tell us?
Yukihiro: The environment of GSB (curriculum, students, resources, weather, etc.) is excellent. I hope you find your own top school and successfully get admitted to that school. It is great if your best choice is GSB. If so, I am looking forward to your joining our community!
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I want to thank Yukihiro for taking the time to answer my questions.
Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are looking for a highly experienced admissions consultant who is passionate about helping his clients succeed, please feel free to contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com to arrange an initial consultation. To learn more about my services, see here. Initial consultations are conducted by Skype or telephone. For clients in Tokyo, a free face-to-face consultation is possible after an initial Skype or telephone consultation. I only work with a limited number of clients per year and believe that an initial consultation is the best way to determine whether there is a good fit. Whether you use my service or another, I suggest making certain that the fit feels right to you.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
MBA留学 ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング スタンフォードGSB
May 24, 2009
Interview with Duke Class of 2010 MBA Student
Adam: What impact has the financial crisis had on life at Fuqua?
I want to thank Hazuki for taking the time to answer my questions. You can read my interview with a Class of 2009 student here.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
MBA留学 ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング デューク大学フュークアスクールオブビジネス
May 10, 2009
How to Beat “The Curse of the Class of 2009”
-Adam
How to Beat “The Curse of the Class of 2009”
Here’s some unsurprising news from the Wall Street Journal: “The bad news for this spring's college graduates is that they're entering the toughest labor market in at least 25 years.”
As writer Sarah Murray notes, however, that’s not the whole unpleasant story. “The worse news: Even those who land jobs will likely suffer lower wages for a decade or more compared to those lucky enough to graduate in better times, studies show.”
Murray cites research by Lisa Kahn, an economist at Yale School of Management, “for each percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate, those with the misfortune to graduate during the recession earned 7% to 8% less in their first year out than comparable workers who graduated in better times. The effect persisted over many years, with recession-era grads earning 4% to 5% less by their 12th year out of college, and 2% less by their 18th year out.”
So, this spring’s graduates are cursed not only with reduced job prospects now but also lower wages for the next decade or more.
How can you increase your odds to beat this curse? Earn a graduate degree. According to Professor Kahn, college grads who went to graduate school instead of the job market during the early '80s recession didn't suffer the same wage losses.
Conclusion: If you have been thinking about earning a graduate degree, then now may be the best time for both immediate and long-term reasons. Of course, it is a bad idea to enter graduate school merely to escape the economy or only to increase your chances of a better salary without thinking about what kind of work fires your passions.
As in any year, and for anyone thinking about going to grad school, before you apply:
Have a clear idea of what you want to study
Envision your post-graduation career path and make sure the grad degree really is the best vehicle for that path
Be honest about whether or not you are willing to take on student loans and/or spend your savings on grad school
Start to prepare your application now (See my previous post on getting an early start to the process.)
- H. Steven Green
For questions regarding this post, please contact me at h.steven.green@gmail.com. To learn more about my graduate admissions consulting services, please click here.
- H. Steven ("Steve") Green, グリーン・ハロルド・スティーブン
April 27, 2009
The 41 "Top 20" MBA Programs Averaged Ranking
In what follows, I have built upon the data I collected on the 41 programs worldwide (See my previous post) that are generally identified by major ranking lists as "Top 20." While it seemed quite useful to simply collect all the data together so that I could see which programs were considered "Top 20" by the most well known ranking lists, I wanted to see what would happen if I simply determined the average ranking for each of the41 schools and so that is what I did below.
"CALCULATION OF AVERAGE RANKINGS FOR "THE 41 TOP 20 MBA PROGRAMS WORLDWIDE"
METHOD: Actually I copied this method from one used by Real Clear Politics (RCP) for looking at Polling Data. The situation is similar because the RCP averages, just like mine, do not take account for differences in the methods by which the initial calculations were made. I will not enter into the debate about the various problems with all of these publications' rankings as they all have problems. As I am no statistician, I used the following rather simple method to make my calculation:
1. Schools that were not ranked in the Top 20 on a specific list that they qualified for were given the value of 21. By assigning the value of 21, I have not weighted the value of the individual rankings.
2. I calculated average value by taking scores for all six rankings and
dividing by4 for US programs and 3 for non-US Programs as
US News and World Report only ranks US.
3. The school with the lowest total has the top average rank.
4. Schools with the same average numerical value have the same rank.
Obvious unsolved problems with my methods that I am aware of :
-Some rankings do not actually rank 20 programs.
- While US News and W World Report, FT, and EIU's each have one comprehensive list, Businessweek break-up schools into two lists, which results in it having more impact on the averaged ranking.
-I could have used FT's regional lists, but choose to use the Worldwide list.
- All schools that were not in the Top 20 were given a 21 regardless of their "real rank" on a list.
OBVIOUS WARNING: THIS LIST IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE!
One thing I find highly problematic about "Top 20" rankings is that they are never comprehensive. This list of forty-one "Top 20"schools suffers from the same problem. Notable absences from this list include HEC Paris, USC, and SDA Bocconi. Rankings are merely "a map," but certainly not "the territory" (actual value of a degree to specific person, actual market value of the degree, actual brand value of the degree, actual measure of the educational value of the degree).
Here is the result (Click to enlarge it):

Averaged Rank for the 41 "Top 20" MBA Programs
1 Harvard Business School
1 Stanford University GSB
3 London Business School
3 University of Chicago: Booth
5 IE Business School
6 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
7 IMD
8 IESE Business School
9 INSEAD
10 Dartmouth College: Tuck
11 Columbia Business School
11 MIT: Sloan
13 New York University: Stern
14 Northwestern University: Kellogg
15 University of California at Berkeley: Haas
16 Queen's Univeristy School of Business
17 ESADE Business School
17 University of Cambridge: Judge
17 University of Michigan: Ross
20 University of Western Ontario: Ivey
21 Duke University: Fuqua
22 Hong Kong UST Business School
23 CEIBS
23 University of Toronto: Rotman
25 University of Oxford: Saïd
26 Cornell University: Johnson
26 UCLA: Anderson
28 Yale School of Management
29 University of Virginia: Darden
30 Cranfield School of Management
31 Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School
32 Carnegie Mellon: Tepper
32 Indian School of Business
32 York University: Schulich
35 Indiana University: Kelley
36 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
37 Southern Methodist University (Cox)
37 University of Texas at Austin: McCombs
39 Georgetown University: McDonough
40 Henley Business School
41 University of Notre Dame: Mendoza
Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are looking for a highly experienced admissions consultant who is passionate about helping his clients succeed, please feel free to contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com to arrange an initial consultation. To learn more about my services, see here. Initial consultations are conducted by Skype or telephone. For clients in Tokyo, a free face-to-face consultation is possible after an initial Skype or telephone consultation. I only work with a limited number of clients per year and believe that an initial consultation is the best way to determine whether there is a good fit. Whether you use my service or another, I suggest making certain that the fit feels right to you.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
MBA留学 ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA ランキング
April 24, 2009
Rankings For the 41 "Top 20" MBA Programs Worldwide
This is the second year in a row that I decided to do a comparison of the "Top 20" MBA Rankings from BusinessWeek, the Financial Times, US News and World Report, and The Economist Intelligence Unit. Last year, I included The Wall Street Journal, but since that their recruiter's poll has not been updated since 2007, I decided not to include this year. I also previously included Forbes, but since everyone ignores these rankings, I have as well. Since 2001, when I started working as an admissions consultant, I have yet to encounter anyone who takes Forbes into account. I am not actually convinced that most of my clients are even aware of the Forbes' rankings. Also see my fabulous ranking of MBA programs by post-MBA starting salary.
WHY RANKINGS MATTER
MBA Rankings are important because applicants, recruiters, students, and the schools themselves pay great attention to them. As to their basis in reality, I am not a statistician, so I can't judge their validity as measurements. I won't even try. For me the chief value in MBA rankings is that they provide lists of schools that are generally thought to be superior by enough people and institutions so that the authors of the rankings are taken somewhat seriously. Applicants take them seriously enough when selecting where to apply. B-Schools take them seriously enough to mention their rankings.
RANKINGS: Caveat Emptor!
Global and US national rankings inherently hide the local value of a particular school. It may very well be the case that a school ranks in the "Top 20," but has no name brand value in a particular market. As I have worked with an increasingly diverse client-base, I have come to realize that what may be an excellent choice for a banker in Japan, might make a lousy choice for entrepreneur in the UK. It may very well be the case that Notre Dame is a good choice for an American who wishes to work in Indiana, but what possible brand value can it provide to an Indian in Mumbai? For said hypothetical Indian, a local program in India, one without any international brand value, might be a much better choice. So while rankings are worth looking at, I do suggest that you really evaluate a school from the perspective of its value in terms of the job market(s) that you want to compete in.
If your intention is to be global and jump around the world than apply to MBA programs that have global brand value. You will likely find that a mixture of US and European programs best fit this description. In this sense, some rankings are particularly unhelpful. For instance, BusinessWeek ranks Queens University as the best non-US MBA program. I suppose if one is in Canada this is a quite a helpful thing, but I can say that the school has zero brand value here in Japan as well as in the US. Perhaps it has brand value somewhere aside from Canada, but except for Dubai, where it has a campus, I doubt it. Of course, the idea of separating the world into US and non-US programs is itself a clear sign that BW's perspective is inherently American. By contrast, what I appreciate about US News and World Report rankings is that they at least have the good sense to focus on what they can responsibility cover (US only). FT and The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) are the only MBA rankings that attempt to cover the world from a mostly global perspective (The placement of so many UK programs on the top of the EIU list is somewhat troubling). Covering the entire planet is not an easy thing to do and there are certainly times when I have looked at the EIU or FT rankings with great suspicion, but one must say their rankings are at least quite international. EIU's rankings always strike me as particularly odd because they seem to have little to do with the way my clients, regardless of nationality, rank these schools.
WHY TOP 20?
Initially, I started looking at "Top 20" lists because of a real issue that some of my Japanese clients have regularly faced. If you are told that your company will only sponsor you for a "Top 20" MBA program, then you will have to take these lists seriously. I always have had Japanese clients who have been under such constraints. I hope the following is somewhat helpful to them. Otherwise, I have focused on "Top 20" primarily because most of my MBA clients, regardless of their nationality, are only applying to and getting admitted to "Top 20" programs. Needless to say, the forty schools that are accounted for here are not necessarily the best forty-one business schools in the world. The inclusion or exclusion of a school from this list in no way should be assumed to be my view about which schools actually are "Top 20."
What I have done here is simply take all the major lists and look only at the rankings for top 20 programs as ranked by BusinessWeek, the Financial Times, US News and World Report, and The Economist Intelligence Unit.
Following this table, you see each ranking list. Note: If less than 20 programs are listed that is because less than 20 were ranked.
To best view the following table, click on it.

BusinessWeek
Rankings from November 2008. Next Rankings will be in October or November 2010.
Top 20 US
Top 30 U.S. Programs
1 University of Chicago (Booth)
2 Harvard University
3 Northwestern University (Kellogg)
4 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
5 University of Michigan (Ross)
6 Stanford University
7 Columbia University
8 Duke University (Fuqua)
9 MIT (Sloan)
10 UC Berkeley (Haas)
11 Cornell University (Johnson)
12 Dartmouth (Tuck)
13 NYU (Stern)
14 UCLA (Anderson)
15 Indiana University (Kelley)
16 University of Virginia (Darden)
17 UNC - Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)
18 Southern Methodist (Cox)
19 Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
20 University of Notre Dame (Mendoza)
Non-U.S. Top 10 MBA Programs
1 Queen's University
2 IE Business School
3 INSEAD
4 Western Ontario (Ivey)
5 London Business School
6 ESADE
7 IMD
8 Toronto (Rotman)
9 IESE
10 Oxford (Saîd)
US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT
April 2009
1. Harvard University
2. Stanford University
3. Northwestern University (Kellogg)
3. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
5. University of Chicago (Booth)
7. University of California–Berkeley (Haas)
8. Dartmouth College (Tuck)
9. Columbia University
10. Yale University
11. New York University (Stern)
12. Duke University (Fuqua)
13. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor (Ross)
14. University of California–Los Angeles (Anderson)
15. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)
15. University of Virginia (Darden)
17. Cornell University (Johnson)
18. University of Texas–Austin (McCombs)
19. Georgetown University (McDonough)
20. Univ. of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)
FINANCIAL TIMES
Top Twenty Worldwide
2009
1 University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
1 London Business School
3 Harvard Business School
4 Columbia Business School
5 INSEAD
6 Stanford University GSB
6 IE Business School
8 CEIBS
9 MIT: Sloan
10 New York University: Stern
11 University of Chicago: Booth
12 IESE Business School
13 Dartmouth College: Tuck
14 IMD
15 Indian School of Business (ISB)
16 Hong Kong UST Business School
17 University of Cambridge: Judge
18 ESADE Business School
19 Yale School of Management
20 University of Oxford: Saïd
ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT
2008 Ranking
1. IMD - International Institute for Management Development
2. IESE Business School - University of Navarra
3. Chicago, University of - Booth School of Business
4. Stanford Graduate School of Business
5. Dartmouth College--Tuck School of Business
6. California at Berkeley, University of--Haas School of Business
7. Cambridge, University of - Judge Business School
8. New York University - Leonard N Stern School of Business
9. London Business School
10. IE Business School
11. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology -- School of Business and Management
12. Harvard Business School
13. Cranfield School of Management
14. Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School
15. York University - Schulich School of Business
16. Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
17. Pennsylvania, University of - Wharton School
18. Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT Sloan School of Management
19. INSEAD
20. Henley Business School at the University of Reading
This is the first of two posts on "Top 20" MBA Programs. The second post can be found here.
Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com. Please see my FAQ regarding the types of questions I will respond to. If you are looking for a highly experienced admissions consultant who is passionate about helping his clients succeed, please feel free to contact me at adammarkus@gmail.com to arrange an initial consultation. To learn more about my services, see here. Initial consultations are conducted by Skype or telephone. For clients in Tokyo, a free face-to-face consultation is possible after an initial Skype or telephone consultation. I only work with a limited number of clients per year and believe that an initial consultation is the best way to determine whether there is a good fit. Whether you use my service or another, I suggest making certain that the fit feels right to you.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
MBA留学 ビジネススクール カウンセリング コンサルティング MBA ランキング
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