New Accelerated Part-Time MBA at Kellogg

Kellogg School of Management

The Kellogg School of Management

In addition to their traditional Part-Time MBA Program, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern is now offering an Accelerated Part-Time Option. This new option caters to those who have fulfilled certain requirements as undergrads or graduates and can jump straight to the more advanced courses needed for an MBA.

The Accelerated Option provides flexibility: Students can choose the Saturday or evening program, and can take up to three courses a quarter. Working at their own pace, they can complete the degree in anywhere from one-and-a-quarter to five years.

Regarding the requisite courses for the Accelerated Option, Accounting is required, in addition to at least five other courses in Economics, Statistics, Organizational Behavior, Operations, Finance, and Marketing. Students must have earned a B or better in these courses to be eligible. To check your eligibility, take a look at the core course summaries, or complete the course template and see if your courses qualify.

My Take:

Dean Blount of Kellogg had previously announced her intention to grow Kellogg’s 12-month, full-time MBA program after a strategic review revealed it is an “underappreciated asset” at the renowned school. This accelerated, part-time program has strong similarities to the full-time 12-month program, which also requires that participants have an academic foundation in business.

Furthermore, Dean Blount also acknowledged that “we are preparing for a world where the best students may not want [the two-year, full-time MBA] and they have options.”  The flexible Accelerated Option is just one more way in which Kellogg intends to compete in a world where students — including part-time students—have options. Kellogg clearly wants to offer programs that provide students with the options they seek.

Linda AbrahamBy Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com and co-author of the new, definitive book on MBA admissions, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools.




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Kellogg Brings Back Entrepreneurship Specialist

Kellogg School of Management

The Kellogg School of Management

Linda Darragh has been appointed executive director of the Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice and the Heizer Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Darragh had worked at Kellogg, as part of its entrepreneurship team, from 1999 to 2005. She then worked at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business as director of entrepreneurship programs, “where she has been instrumental in furthering the teaching and practice of entrepreneurship at Booth, in Chicago and beyond.”

As head of these initiatives, Darragh will also lead the Kellogg Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative (KIEI), “which will combine and deepen the strength of our centers of excellence related to innovation, growth and new business formation,” according to Dean Sally Blount.  The Darragh appointment and the establishment of KIEI represent the implementation of Kellogg’s previously announced intention to focus on four specific areas of management education:

  1. Markets, customers and growth, a historic strength at the school
  2. Innovation and entrepreneurship.
  3. Architectures of collaboration—AKA teamwork, another Kellogg strength.
  4. Private enterprise and public policy

Implications for applicants:

Applicants applying to Kellogg need to understand the dean’s intentions and how these changes and foci will help them achieve their educational and professional goals. If you are an applicant to Kellogg and interested in entrepreneurship, you should research the work of these two centers and see if they are relevant to your interests. If yes, then show how you can use the center’s work and Kellogg’s emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship to your advantage. How do you intend to contribute to innovation and entrepreneurship at Kellogg?

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US News 2013 MBA Rankings

And here are the top 10 per US News & World Report:

2013 Rank School 2012 Rank
1 Harvard 2
1 Stanford 1
3 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) 3
4 MIT (Sloan) 3
4 Northwestern (Kellogg) 5
4 Chicago Booth 5
7 UC Berkeley (Haas) 7
8 Columbia 9
9 Dartmouth (Tuck) 7
10 Yale 10

As you can see the changes are somewhere between slight and miniscule.  Larger jumps and changes occurred outside the top 10, but the statistical significance of these changes becomes questionable due to fewer responses farther down the list.

And how “reliable” are these rankings? Wait a bit. We’ll be writing more on that.

Linda AbrahamBy Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com and co-author of the new, definitive book on MBA admissions, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools.

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MBA Admissions News Roundup

  • Anderson Applicants Plagiarize- Poets and Quants reports that UCLA rejected 52 MBA applicants this year due to plagiarism. UCLA uses Turnitin.com, an anti-plagiarism software that discovers these copied essays. One student was naïve enough to copy a 2003 essay that had been published on BusinessWeek’s website. Anderson hopes that weeding out plagiarists from admissions will help ensure “future business leaders may include fewer unethical careerists.”
  • Essentials of an Awesome MBA Application: GMAT- Accepted’s CEO and Founder, Linda Abraham, writes in a new series for 2013 MBA applicants at Poets and Quants about how to jump your first “hurdle” in the MBA application process—the GMAT.  In this first segment, Linda writes about interpreting your GMAT score.
  • Business Schools Have A Lot To Learn From the Medical Profession- The Harvard Business Review writes about how b-school students miss out on the hands-on experience med school students get during rotations and residencies.  While med students get to work with real patients, MBA students are given case studies with no real world implications. Nitin Nohria, dean of Harvard Business School, explains that HBS is trying to remedy the problem as best it can with its new Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development program, which will allow students to take part in practice-oriented activities throughout the school year.
  • Hori Leaves Kellogg- Poets and Quants reports that the “most successful business school career management director of her generation,” Roxanne Hori, is stepping down from her position at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Hori will no longer be the career management director because she will be taking on the role of associate dean for corporate partnerships at Kellogg. Hori hopes to use her new position to “to strengthen and deepen the school’s current relationships with organizations across the school.”
  • Berlin Gets New Dean- The Financial Times announced that Stefan Reichelstein will be the new dean of the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT), the German business school created by many of Germany’s largest corporations.  Reichelstein will leave Stanford to begin his new position in June 2012.  ESMT began as a school focused on executive education, but it has since branched out and now offers MBA and EMBA degrees.

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MBA Admissions News Roundup

  • HBS Takes on the World- Poets and Quants reports that Harvard Business School is making a major change to its MBA curriculum—for the first time ever it has decided to send an entire class abroad.  Starting this month HBS will send 900 MBA students to 10 foreign countries as part of a new weeklong “global immersion experience.” In groups of six, students will work with 140 organizations, creating new products in developing markets. P&Q is calling it “arguably the boldest experiment ever carried out in graduate business education.”
  • The New Business School Dean- The Chronicle of Education looks at a report published by the Korn/Ferry Institute, “The Business School Dean Redefined,” which shows how the business school dean model has recently changed.  B-school deans are no longer individuals with one specific specialty in economics or finance; rather, they are better known for their management skills.  Sally Blount, Dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and Nitin Nohria, Dean of Harvard Business School, are two examples of deans that have “CEO-style breadth and organizational expertise over more-narrow academic mastery.”
  • EMBAs Are The Big New Year’s Resolution- Advisor One looks at how EMBAs have become a must among midcareer financial execs looking for new ways to manage their businesses. Linda Abraham, founder of Accepted.com and co-author of the new book, MBA Admission for Smarties, explains, “these programs are looking for progress at work, responsibility at work, leadership at work,” so “your resume has to resonate.” To learn more about how to get accepted to the right programs, check out MBA Admission for Smarties!
  • B-School Deans Focus on Creativity in the New Year- Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports that business school deans are dedicated to students thinking “deeply, creatively, and boldly” about global issues and the greater good in 2012. Every year Bloomberg BusinessWeek asks b-school deans what their New Year’s resolutions are; this year their goals are about creating “more thoughtful and present leaders” for the future.
  • Using International Admissions to Your Advantage- A new analysis by Poets and Quants shows which schools have more students from different geographic areas. These stats can help you understand how you might fit into a school’s student body. However, realize that if you don’t know the percentage of different international students in the applicant pool at any given school, you really don’t know which schools favor which geographic areas.

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Kellogg MBA Admissions Director Interview Available Online

Northwestern KelloggThank you Jennifer Hayes, Senior Associate Director of Admissions at Kellogg, and Erik Mazmanian, a second-year student at Kellogg, for an excellent Q&A about life and admissions at Northwestern Kellogg. Jennifer and Erik covered a wide range of topics, including the following advice on how to avoid some common Kellogg application mistakes:

Linda Abraham: What are the most common pitfalls of prospective students in the application process, and how would you advise candidates to best avoid them?

Jennifer Hayes: Very good question. I’ve been at Kellogg for eight years now, so I’ve seen a lot of applications, and I’ve seen a lot of things that aren’t in the best interest of the applicant. I do think that the biggest pitfall is that people do their research on Kellogg, they understand what’s important to us as an institution, and then they frame their experiences, their accomplishments, and the things that are important to them around that. Those are things that are important to us and those are things that you will experience if you’re here. However, you don’t necessarily have to frame your experience around that. We really want to understand what has motivated you, what’s been valuable to you, and what’s been most important to you in your life and in your career.

I would really encourage people to set aside that they’re applying to Kellogg and who we stand for as an institution, and really just think internally; really reflect on themselves when they’re starting to answer the application questions. You will look more genuine and more authentic. If you’re really talking about yourself, your values, and your motivations, you will look more diverse and unique as an applicant, instead of trying to do maybe what everyone else is doing by just reviewing the website and telling us those are important to you.

For the full Q&A, please view the Kellogg transcript or listen to the audio file. You can also read up on Kellogg news and advice at our Kellogg B-School Zone and the Northwestern Kellogg 2012 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips blog post.

NOTE: Kellogg’s next deadline is Tuesday, January 10th…so hurry!

To automatically receive notices about these MBA admissions chats and other MBA admissions events, please subscribe to our MBA event list. To listen to the Q&A recordings on-the-go, please subscribe to the Accepted Admissions Podcast.

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Accepted’s Most in 2011

Best of 2011 at Accepted.comWhat worked for you last year? At least what worked at Accepted.com for our readers? And that’s YOU!

Here are a few posts, articles, and resources that proved particularly popular:

Top Ten Most Visited Accepted Admissions Blog Posts of 2011

  1. Harvard Business School 2012 Essay Questions, Deadlines, Tips
  2. INSEAD 2012 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips
  3. London Business School 2012 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips
  4. 2011 Rankings: BW’s Best Undergraduate Business Schools
  5. NYU Stern 2012 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips
  6. Kellogg 2012 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips
  7. Columbia 2012 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips
  8. 2012 Common Application Essay Tips
  9. Stanford GSB 2012 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips
  10. Chicago Booth 2012 MBA Application Questions, Deadlines, Tips

5 Most Downloaded Special Reports of 2011

  1. 5 Fatal Flaws to Avoid
  2. From Example to Exemplary
  3. Best MBA Programs: A Guide to Selecting the Right One
  4. Leadership in Admissions
  5. MBA Rankings: What You Need to Know

5 Most Popular Articles

  1. Writing Your Grad School Personal Statement
  2. Go for the Goals in Your Statement of Purpose
  3. Tips for Writing Letters of Recommendation
  4. MBA Admissions: Low GMAT or GPA
  5. The Letters of Rec Too?!?

6 Most Viewed Webinars

  1. AMCAS Essays for Acceptance
  2. Law School Personal Statements with Pizzazz
  3. Highlighting Your Strengths in the Common Application
  4. MBA Reality Check: Evaluate Your Profile for Acceptance
  5. 4 Essentials in an Executive MBA Application
  6. The Art of a Gripping MBA Goals Essay

5 Most Visited Chats Pages:

  1. Duke NUS Medical School Admissions Q&A
  2. Consortium 2011 MBA Application Strategies (2012 version is here.)
  3. 2011 London Business School MBA/MiF Admissions Chat (2012 version is here)
  4. 2012 INSEAD MBA Admissions Q&A 
  5. 2011 Columbia MBA Admissions Q&A

With the year drawing to a close, I have a request. We moved to a new blogging platform in September, and since then, you folks have really stopped asking us questions. On the old blog, we frequently received profile evaluation requests and “what are my chances?” questions on school tip posts. We welcome them! And miss them in our new abode.  Don’t be shy. If you have a question or would like your profile evaluated, just ask.

And what’s the mostest of the mostest at Accepted? The absolute best? YOU! Our readers, followers, circlers, fans, friends, participants, and most of all, our clients. Thanks for a wonderful 2011.

Linda AbrahamBy Linda Abraham, founder and president of Accepted.com, co-author of MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools.

 

Applicants, learn the 5 fatal flaws to avoid in your application essay, statement of purpose, personal statement, or secondary essay with our FREE special report, 5 Fatal Flaws.

The GMAT is Slipping and So are Applications

Good news for b-school applicants: There has been a decline in business school applications. While that might not mean that getting into MBA programs has gotten easier, it does mean that the median GMAT score has been lowered.

Poets and Quants (“GMAT Scores Slip At Many Top Schools”) did an analysis of the median GMAT score at the top 25 US business schools and discovered that median scores are slowly dropping. MIT Sloan, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Carnegie-Mellon’s Tepper School, North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, and the University of Southern California’s Marshall School all reported a 10-point drop in their median GMAT scores.

Poets and Quants analysis also reveals that a larger percentage of students were accepted to some b-schools this year than in 2010. USC’s Marshall School accepted 38% of applicants, in comparison with 22% last year, Georgetown’s McDonough School accepted 49% of its applicants, up from 42% last year, and Michigan’s Ross School accepted 32% of its applicants, up from 25% last year.

Implications for MBA applicants:

This is an excellent year to apply to business school.

While you still can’t slap together a mediocre application and expect to get accepted to a top-tier MBA program, if you know why you want an MBA and where you would like to get it, now is the time to apply. If you are competitive at your target schools, invest the time in your MBA essays, work with your recommenders, and submit for the round 2 deadlines.

You may also want to apply to an additional “reach” school or two. However, don’t get too cocky. This data does not imply that all your target programs should be “reaches” or that the GMAT no longer matters.

There is just a little less competition to enter the MBA class of 2014, especially for those not coming from super-competitive cohorts in the applicant pool.

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Get Your MBA Admission Smarts ON!

Are you looking for ways to boost your MBA admissions IQ? Interested in acquiring wisdom that will send you to the head of the class? Want advice that covers every aspect of the MBA admissions process that’s all wrapped up nicely in a single, coherent, and succinct BOOK?

Look no further – the MBA book of all books is here, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top BusinessMBA Admission for Smarties Schools, written by Accepted.com founder, Linda Abraham, and editor Judy Gruen. And now, for a very limited time only (Monday, Dec. 5 – Tuesday, Dec. 6) you can purchase this must-have book for $10 OFF the cover price by using coupon code SMARTIES at checkout. That’s almost 2/3 off the list price!

In MBA Admission for Smarties you will learn how to:

  • Determine “fit” with a program.
  • Establish your post-MBA goals and present them in a compelling goals essay.
  • Write dazzling, memorable application essays.
  • Secure winning letters of recommendation.
  • Optimize your MBA application resume.

…and much, much more!

So what are you waiting for?

Be smart. Buy MBA Admission for Smarties now!

(Non-U.S. residents should buy MBA Admission for Smarties from Amazon.com where international shipping is available. Sorry – no coupon available to ship outside the U.S.)

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Curious about Kellogg? Northwestern MBA Admissions Q&A This Week!

Northwestern KelloggDo you have questions about Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management? Get all the answers you need during a Q&A session with Jennifer Hayes, Kellogg’s Senior Associate Director of Admissions on Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 9:30 AM PT / 12:30 PM ET / 5:30 PM GMT. You’ll learn vital information about Kellogg’s admissions practices and the program’s goal of educating, equipping, and inspiring leaders with grounded wisdom, a courageous and collaborative spirit, and a pioneering vision. If you are thinking about applying, then this would be a great opportunity for you to get your questions answered and to satisfy your curiosity about Kellogg.

Register now to reserve your spot for the Kellogg Admissions Q&A!

What time is that for me? Click on the link to find out the exact time for your location.

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