Show Summary
Mohammad Salhia, Managing Director of Recruitment, Admissions, and Business Development at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, discusses the distinctive features of the Rotman MBA program. Mohammad highlights the various MBA program options at Rotman, including full-time, morning/evening, and executive MBA programs. He emphasizes the comprehensive nature of the full-time MBA program, which includes academic study, elective courses, and a four-month internship. He also discusses the unique features of the program, such as the Self-Development Lab and the Leadership Development Lab, which focus on fostering communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills. Additionally, he shares his tips for how to determine and present a “spike factor.”
Show Notes
Welcome to the 581st episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me. You’re invited to take the free six-question quiz, Map Your MBA Application, at accepted.com/mapmba and see how prepared you actually are to apply. You’ll also gain access to relevant other resources, both free and paid, that can help you develop your application strategy for acceptance.
It gives me great pleasure to have, for the first time on Admissions Straight Talk, Mohammad Salhia, Managing Director, Recruitment, Admissions, and Business Development at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Mohammad earned his bachelor’s at the University of Toronto and his master’s in Adult Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto and is working on his Ph.D. at the same institution. While he seems to live and breathe University of Toronto, he also has extensive experience working in healthcare administration and at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School, which he joined in 2022.
Mohammad, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. [1:20]
Thank you for having me, Linda.
Let’s start with my usual first question: can you give us an overview of the Rotman MBA program, focusing on its more distinctive features? [1:57]
Sure. So I’ll start by saying that there’s an ecosystem of MBA programs here at the Rotman School. So we’ve got a total of nine graduate programs, eight of which are master’s degrees, five of which are iterations of the MBA program. So we’ve got our full-time MBA program, our morning evening MBA program, both of which are actually the same program, but the latter is extended over a longer period. And then our suite of executive MBA programs, one of which is more of a local program here in Toronto. And then two global executive MBAs, one of which is focused on healthcare and life sciences. So there’s a lot of program options here at the Rotman School.
The full-time MBA program, which we’re talking about today, is a 20-month program and is broken up into two components. There’s the 16 months of academic study focusing on your usual MBA course. So looking at teams, diversity, people, decision-making, leading people, financial accounting. So a lot of those MBA foundations that are happening in the first year. And then we have a suite of over 100 elective courses that students can choose from and really start to diversify, and to customize and focus on areas that are most prudent to them or in which they have a lot of interest in from a career perspective, and then a suite of emphases that help to focus that learning.
So in things like marketing strategy, accounting, finance, innovation, entrepreneurship, and business design. So there’s a lot of really exciting program options in the full-time MBA at Rotman.
And then that is also part and parcel of a four-month internship that happens. And that’s really where students get to apply the skills that they’ve learned through their coursework in industry, working in real jobs and applying all that great learning in real time, and then learning on the job as well, and integrating not just the great theory that they’ve learned and the things about business practice that they’ve learned, but also thinking about their own professional presence, and their leadership, and how their self-development impacts that leadership. And really it’s that opportunity to bring all of those different moving parts together.
So the full-time MBA is I would say probably among the most comprehensive MBA programs around certainly in the Canadian ecosystem. And fitting that it’s at the University of Toronto, which of course is the country’s leading research university.
In terms of some of the additional features of the program, I talked about leadership development, I talked about self-development. We have our Self-Development Lab, which is unique here at the Rotman School. And that really focuses on nurturing communication skills, collaboration skills, interpersonal skills through a series of different workshops, and really geared at helping people understand their own motivations and also the motivations of people around them.
So it is really, I like to kind of talk about it as building almost that sixth sense. And as we think about the 21st century workplace, what are employers looking for? They’re looking for communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. And so the Self-Development Lab plays a critical part in helping to foster that kind of capacity.
And then the Leadership Development Lab is another special feature here at the Rotman School, and that’s curricular in nature and part of the actual curricular program in the full-time MBA as well as the morning evening MBA, and really helps people to take that deep dive into self, and again, understand their own leadership, how they show up, and what that means for their work and the people around them.
So we have a curriculum that’s jam-packed with the latest and greatest in terms of what’s happening in business and management education. We have a world-leading research faculty made up of researchers, practitioners, incredible instructors that bring that knowledge to the classroom, and then help students transform that knowledge from the classroom to an understanding of their own selves, and then to an understanding of how that impacts the way they engage in career and with the people around them that they’ll be coming into contact with throughout their career.
And so the value add of our MBA really hits at multiple points. It’s multiple layers of capacity and understanding about yourself, about a body of knowledge, and about industry or sector, that I think really help our students and our graduates stand out differently from perhaps what other schools are graduating.
It’s interesting that the Self-Development Lab, when you were describing it, is the self in relationship to the people around, and the Leadership Lab is also to a certain extent, though that’s broader. But what you described was entirely how the individual relates to those people around them: communications, presence, collaboration. It’s not just you yourself; it’s you in relationship to others. [6:43]
Yes, exactly. And we have wonderful faculty here at the Rotman School to get at exactly that point. One that springs to mind immediately is Maja Djikic. She just launched a really fabulous book that’s right behind me, The Possible Self.
And so that’s the other really exciting thing that comes out of the Rotman School is it’s not just the learning that happens in the classroom and it’s not research that’s just contained within our four walls. It’s research that’s making impact on society. It is practice and best practice that has an impact on the way businesses run, the way people run their businesses, manage people around them, innovate, create. And so we’ve got a lot of that thought leadership coming out of the school. And that sort of creates learning within our graduate program ecosystem, but also just for the business community at large. And that’s one of the things that we pride ourselves here at the Rotman School, is creating value for business and for society in doing that work.
What’s new at Rotman? [8:17]
There’s a lot that’s constantly coming out of here. Again, through research, through innovation. From a curricular perspective, for example, I talked a little bit about our emphases. We have two new emphases in health sector management and real estate, which is really, really exciting. And so for those that want to take a deeper dive into some of those, the functional areas or bodies of knowledge have an opportunity to do that more formally.
And again, I go back to the great research and innovation that comes out of here at the Rotman School. And not only within our MBA program or our suite of graduate programs, but lots of great ways that we engage community around us as well, and therefore our alumni.
So things like our book launches, things like our insights hub, and that’s sort of opportunity to lean into the work that our faculty are doing. And again, how that’s being brought to life in different ways.
So our ecosystem is a lot more than just our graduate programs. It’s our alumni, it’s our business partners, or industry partners rather, and all the great things that they’re doing. And in turn, adding value for business and society as well. So as a research faculty at a research institution, there’s constant innovation that’s coming out of the school.
One of the biggest new things I think that society is dealing with is machine learning, artificial intelligence. How is Rotman incorporating AI into its curriculum? It’s definitely going to be impacting business going forward. [9:40]
Yeah, it absolutely is. And I think that in this day and age, with the speed that AI, generative AI in particular, is changing, I think is constantly a moving target. It’s hard to be ahead of that curve, I think.
But the faculty here do a really good job at finding ways of integrating that into learning or thinking about how we talk about the use of data that informs some of these artificially intelligent technologies, the way that we contemplate teaching and learning. And that’s a constant churn and it’s a moving target.
So I think every faculty has the unique opportunity to look at marketing, to look at strategy or operations and to integrate AI and to talk about AI in a way that is niche, in a way that is perhaps core specific, or perhaps sort of topical in nature. I think about our healthcare folks, for example, our folks in our operations and strategy area, accounting. I think all of these different specializations, if I can call them that, will tackle this problem a little bit differently.
And so that’s really exciting about the MBA program is that we’re looking to graduate folks that are contemporary leaders and that are keeping on pulse with some of these changes in AI, and machine learning, and all the other things that sort of come part and parcel of that. And so that will too change as the technology changes and our courses evolve in response to that. So it’s emergent in many ways.
It’s still emerging. It’s not yet there, really. You still see errors when you do something with AI or just nonsense. “Hallucinations” I think, is the technical term. [11:44]
It’s still learning. And again, we’ve got great thought leadership in this area. And so the opportunity to engage in a program like the full-time MBA or some of the other programs in our ecosystem really allow our students to look at these problems in a contemporary way. AI is one of those things that is changing so rapidly. A lot of what you’re consuming about it is relatively new or very new.
And so building on that, and trying to keep ahead of that, and seeing how research translates into our classrooms, and transforms the way business leaders are going out into the world I think is a super exciting time for a place like Rotman.
Let’s turn to the application. The website says that Rotman is looking for four qualities: intellectual horsepower, experience and impact, communications and presence, and the “spike factor”. What is the spike factor? How would you describe it? [12:45]
What is the spike factor? We like to joke, it’s spiky.
Maybe I’ll take a step back and just address all the different components of the application and then kind focus in on the spike factor. The idea behind all of those different elements is really for us to make the most holistic assessment of any one candidate that is applying. And so we welcome all applications. We welcome all walks of life and all different kinds of experiences, and that really helps us in terms of the diversity of our class, the kind of thought diversity, experiential diversity, regional diversity that comes into our classrooms. There’s a lot of learning from each other, and with each other, and about each other, which I think is hugely important and something we value here at the Rotman School very much.
And so the spike factor in turn is that opportunity for us to look at some of the parts of someone’s professional or extracurricular profile that might not necessarily overtly come out in other parts of the application. So we really are keen to know about people’s extracurricular profiles, the way that their different capacities and capabilities have been developed over time.
So for example, if you were a professional athlete, and maybe you weren’t necessarily in industry in a conventional corporate job, but you’ve still developed very strong leadership capacity and very strong international perspective, because perhaps you’ve traveled, and great communication skills.
Those are things that we value in the review of that person and help us to get a better gauge on things like communication, presence, which we can differentiate a little bit later, to round out the professional profile or the candidate profile.
So again, it’s another factor that we consider that helps us get a little bit of a pulse on the different kind of perspectives, professional, extracurricular lived experience, that may prime someone for a really strong candidacy for the program that we may not otherwise get in other parts of the application.
So the spike factor would be a strongly distinguishing element in somebody’s profile, whether it’s background or professional, or extracurricular or whatever? [15:24]
Potentially. And I think that’s what’s exciting. Every application is different. And you’ve been in this business for a long time, and you know. So asking for the sum total of that experience is hugely important to us.
And so of course it’s important for us to look at academic performance. It’s important for us to look at things like career progression, industry interests, etc. And then very, very important for us to look at all the other parts that make us people and that make us strong candidates. And again, that really helps us with the kind of diversity of thought and experience that we bring into our classrooms.
What is the difference between communications and presence? [16:18]
They’re very much interconnected. They’re not together by accident. They’re sort of part and parcel of the same thing. Communication is very much about how someone is relaying their ideas, either in a written format or in a verbal format, and how they’re able to piece their different ideas together into something cogent. And so it gives us a good assessment of the way folks will interact with each other, or communicate with each other, and with internships and that kind of thing.
And then presence is very much, it’s that professional presence that we look for. The way people conduct themselves in an interview, perhaps with each other, the way that one is engaging in an interview situation. For example, are you making good eye contact? Are you looking away? Are you making notes? Are you not, are you keeping track of the conversation?
So those are all the kinds of things that we’re assessing, because of course coming into a program like the MBA at Rotman, teamwork is hugely important. The teams that people get put into in various junctures, not just in a curricular environment, but in extracurricular environments like one of our 30 plus clubs, and student government and all those kinds of things. So we really are trying to assess through that the ways in which people will optimally team, and where there’s opportunity for us in our program to help them refine some of those skills as well. So it’s a good opportunity for us to gauge a baseline, and then again, how the program and the person are a good compliment for each other.
It seems to me from your description that there’s tremendous emphasis on the interpersonal skills of an applicant at Rotman. [18:09]
I think it’s hugely important. And certainly, when our recruiters are out on the circuit, when our admissions staff are doing those reviews, it is important. It’s not the most important thing. I would say we look at all of these things very, very critically and importantly, and yet it’s an important ingredient in the assessment that we’re making. It’s that well-roundedness in many ways.
And again, people come to graduate school because they’re looking to build capacity and they’re looking to improve in a certain area of competence or professional capability. And so we balance that readiness and ability to engage in the program with what the program will be able to offer people in return for the investment in themselves that they’re making.
Makes sense. I was just thinking as you were talking in terms of my question, what’s the difference between communication and presence? The classic image of the lonely writer in an attic or garret writing away, but there was nothing interpersonal about his communication skill. They could have been a fantastic writer, but it was done solely. And yet what you were talking about in terms of presence is all interpersonal communications, both body language and eye contact as you mentioned, collaboration and all that. Thank you for clarifying. [19:09]
No worries. And again, I want to emphasize this is a place of learning, and so we welcome all applications. And I think we will talk a little bit later about a key message that I want to share with people. If you’re ready to invest in yourself, put yourself out there. We want to talk to you here at the Rotman School. We want to learn more about you. And we want to have an opportunity to discuss candidacy and what that could look like for you.
So we put these things in place not to dissuade people from applying, but because we want to welcome that again, breadth of skill and experience. And not everyone is going to come with being 100% strong in all those different areas, which is why we have that mix of different things that we’re looking for.
It’s also why they want to go to school. [20:41]
Exactly. So it’s that holistic assessment that we’re really, really looking to do here.
What changes are you anticipating to the 2024/2025 application? [20:45]
I would say not much. I think in terms of what people can expect from an application perspective, no major changes. What I will say though is that we’re really keen to meet people, so we will be on the road per usual. And definitely across Canada, meeting more applicants, more prospects, hopefully more events that we can meet you at, sample classes and the like. And then also thinking about our international travel and where we can meet other international prospects, the world over, again, to bring in that richness of perspective, into really what is a global classroom with folks that have different perspectives from a Canadian vantage point and also from vantage points born in other parts of the world.
Your international applicants, be they from the United States, or Europe, or Asia, do they tend to stay in Canada, or do they tend to return to their home countries? [21:44]
There’s certainly a lot of interest in people coming to school here, and the benefit of doing a degree that is as long as ours is the three-year postgraduate work permits. So there’s definitely a lot of folks that take advantage of that and join the Canadian workforce, and so it’s a great way for people to explore that as well.
Let’s get back to the application. You say it’s going to be pretty similar. So my questions are going to be based on last year’s application. Rotman’s application included, and correct me if it’s changing, a resume, a traditional essay, a required video interview with two questions, before in-person interview by invitation only. What do you learn from these different elements? [22:23]
I think it’s not dissimilar from what I was talking about before. It sort of gives us a different way to assess someone’s candidacy and their overall profile. So certainly, I would say common across many of those things is how do you think, how do you put your ideas together, how do you convey those ideas? And also, there’s an opportunity for people to perhaps articulate what’s important to them and why they see themselves as being a good fit. So getting that lens is important for us.
The written communication skills, obviously hugely important. We want strong writers, and we want people that are able to communicate in business and management settings, in leadership settings certainly. And then the video interviews, again, they help us to assess that verbal communication and that presence as well. And so those are some of the reasons why we diversify the ways in which people communicate.
And to my commentary, not all folks are strong in all areas. So giving that diversity of format also allows us to get the most out of any one candidate in the application phase, so that we can have the best insight possible to make a decision on the other end.
Rotman’s essay question is, “What are the things that you’ve done in your life that demonstrate passion, grit, resilience, innovation, drive, ambition and more? Do you have any tips for this essay question?” [24:06]
I would say share an experience that you are comfortable sharing, that you think is going to be of value to our assessment. And for some people, it might be traveling the world over. For other people, it might be a very substantial life event. It could be death, it could be illness, it could be a great many deal of things.
I would say this is where you bring in your person, and you bring in what’s important to you, and what you value, and gives us a little bit of that insight into you as an applicant. And so I would say be as honest as you feel is appropriate to give us that sort of window into yourself.
And I think sometimes, people can forget that when they’re applying to grad school. It’s easy to get the feeling that, “I’m a number, I’m another applicant.” At Rotman, like I said a few times over, we want to meet you. We want to get to know you, because we want to invest in your future and make sure that we give you the best education possible to do the things that you want to do.
And so in order for us to do that, the first step is to get to know you. And in doing so, that helps us determine program fit and helps us to help you. So be honest, be candid. Without sounding cheeky, don’t use ChatGPT to write this, right? You’re going to make the investment in time to go through an MBA. Make the investment in putting in an application that is reflective of you and what you want us to know about you, to help us make again, the best decision possible.
There’s also an optional question, which frankly I was a little surprised is optional, but it’s: “Please upload one to three of your spikiest pictures, and use the essay to tell us why you have chosen those particular images or these particular images to illustrate your spike factor. Use up to 1,000 words.” [26:05]
What is the saying, a picture is worth 1,000 words? So apropos, I guess they have up to 1,000 words to define. And maybe on that theme, I would say some images capture something special for people. And so again, this is just another opportunity for folks to be able to say, “Here’s a photo of me teaching in an international jurisdiction,” that’s perhaps under resourced, I’m making this scenario up. And I don’t know, “I was serving dinner at a shelter,” or something like this. And that insight into the way that experience perhaps impacted you, impacted the choices you’ve made in your career. That choice may be to go back to graduate school to focus on let’s say sustainability for example, which is one of our emphases or pathways here at the Rotman School. It is valuable information for us to have. And again, it is that additional window and another way for one to be able to articulate why they think they’re a good fit for graduate management education at Rotman.
Thank you very much. That was a great answer. Let’s also ask about the video interview. That’s a mandatory part of the application. What is the purpose of the video interview? What can somebody anticipate? [27:43]
I will say that it is a timed video, so it’s a 90-second timed video with a limited time to hear the prompt. And there’s a variety of prompts that are available, that are randomized as part of that.
This is a way for us to assess how concise you can relay a really strong message. And it could be something very random like… This is not one of the prompts, but it could be, “Tell me why you think the sky is blue or why you like the fact that the sky is blue.” And it really is just an opportunity for one to share their thoughts.
And so it’s articulation, it’s conciseness, it’s the strength of a message in a short period of time. And it’s not really dissimilar from thinking about what’s your pitch kind of deal, elevator pitch. And it’s analogous to that. We always talk about wanting something really crisp and really tight for those that teach that or talk about that. And this is a similar exercise. Give us something that’s pithy, that’s tight, that is concise, and that conveys your thought of whatever’s being asked of you in the best possible way.
I guess it relates to communications and presence, which are some of the factors that you’re looking for. [29:19]
There’s a theme here.
What distinguishes applicants who get interview invitations from those who don’t, other than stats? [29:28]
I’ll just emphasize again that we are looking at this holistically. And again, very important that we are thinking about some of the academic thresholds set by the university for all graduate studies. And again, this is an academic program at the end of the day as all MBAs are. And I balance that with, because we’re doing a holistic assessment, we do our very best to interview as many candidates as we think makes sense throughout this season.
And so if there’s any opportunity for us to want to learn more about you, to unpack something more about your professional or extracurricular profile, your spike factor, there’s any conversations there that we’re interested in, or maybe to understand your academic background a little bit more. The interview is an important component of that.
So it’s sort of hard for me to draw a line in the sand to say, “If this, then the interview.” Because the assessment is so holistic, can we really leave it up to our admissions staff to look at any given profile and say, “All right, you know what, Mohammad is strong in these areas and we really want to know more about this, and so let’s invite for an interview and let’s have a conversation.” Then we take it from there.
What advice do you have for wait-listed applicants or re-applicants to Rotman? [31:00]
Yeah, it’s a great question. I mean, the closer we get to the start of programming, there’s wait-list waiting of course. And of course, we want to be mindful of giving people enough trajectory, and time to prepare themselves, and to get to the point of programming. And certainly if one is in an international jurisdiction, there’s study permit wait times and processing times to be mindful of as we think about that.
What advice would I give for re-applications? I think if one didn’t get into a program of choice, whether that’s Rotman or anywhere really, there’s an opportunity to kind of reflect and to go back and to think about what could I have done differently or how could I have strengthened my profile. Whether that’s academics, or that is a spike factor, or whatever the things are, to go back and to invest some time in beefing those things up. It could be as simple as work experience, for example, needing more time in industry before transitioning to a full-time MBA program like ours at Rotman. So reflecting I think is really important. I think that’s hard for people to do in this day and age when things are moving so quickly.
And so take that feedback. And if one doesn’t get into programming, there’s always an opportunity for a conversation about what can be done differently in future if there’s continued interest. And we of course would hope for that.
And then same for wait-listed candidates. We want to keep lines of communication open. So don’t assume that because you’re on a wait-list, that it’s a completely done deal. It’s very circumstantial, depends again on study permits versus not. So there’s a lot of things to consider in that vein, and keep the line of communication open with your admissions contact or your recruitment contact. And if not this year or any given year in which you’re applying, same advice as with those that are reapplying, to go back to the drawing board and think about “what can I do differently to improve my chances of being in MBA program/” We are glad to advise and to support on what that trajectory and what that development could look like.
I think your point about reflection, it’s not something that’s commonly done. We’re all too plugged in most of the time to reflect, but that’s what you have to do, right? Figure out how to improve. [33:24]
Sometimes it’s as simple as needing a little bit more time to build on some of those communication skills, for example. Or we talk about a minimum of two years of work experience, for example. If you’re right out of undergrad, we will not consider the application. But also if you don’t get in, then that’s something to go back to and to think about. What kind of work experience do I need to have for the next two to three years to ready myself for a program where I am going to be working with folks that have come away from industry to invest in an MBA program, and they’re coming with that perspective, and with that lived experience in the workforce? And so just really thinking about how you situate yourself in the application process and how you can put your best foot forward, considering all the different dimensions that we talked about today.
We have a lot of applicants who are sitting down and are either starting to write or are planning to apply from the 2024/2025 application cycle. How would you recommend that they approach the process? [34:36]
I would say reach out to us at the Rotman School. Start with our website rotman.utoronto.ca and that takes you to a home page, but also gives you a good sense of all the many things that we have to offer here. And you’ll see a listing of all the different programs that we have available.
And check out our admissions criteria. Get a sense of what work you might have to do throughout the admission cycle. If you got to write a GMAT or a GRE, think about that. If you have any questions, if you want to make a connection with someone to do that, and/or try to get out to an event. If we’re traveling and we’re at a fair, or we’ve set up a sample class either virtually or in person, try to get out to that. You’re meeting like-minded individuals, other prospects that are interested, that might have similar experiences to you, that are going through the same thing as you are, as you contemplate an MBA program.
And then an opportunity to talk to people in real time and to get those responses in real time versus through email, which is great. We encourage emails and we want you to reach out to us. But there are many, many different options that are available to you. And so I encourage you to try out any number of those things.
Coffee chats, we welcome those, either in person or virtual. And so we try to make ourselves as available through these different forums as we can. One, to build that connection. Two, to give you a sense that you’re coming here for an event, for example, what it’s like to be at the Rotman School. It’s in downtown Toronto, in the heart of the University of Toronto. Again, that energy and that vibe of what it’s like to be around other like-minded individuals. And oftentimes, a lot of our larger events will also include people that have been through the application process. We have multiple deadlines of course throughout the year. So sometimes, people will have already accepted an offer and they might be at an open house, or it’s someone that’s right at the beginning of their journey, and they get to talk to each other and experience that.
So it’s sort of bringing different people at different points in the process together as well, which is really, really exciting. And if you’re just starting, it gives you an opportunity to kind of talk to people that have been through the process with relative recency, or maybe even a student ambassador that’s going through the program as well.
So we try to diversify. I keep on using that word, but it’s the best one that comes to mind, the ways in which we can touch point with you so that we can tell you about all the wonderful things that we have to offer here at Rotman in our full-time MBA and in other programs if you are interested.
Let’s say you have somebody like the recent college grad or somebody who has a great opportunity this year and is planning to apply in 2025-2026 or later, so they’re really planning ahead. What advice would you give somebody like that? [37:46]
Amazing. I think that’s great. Graduate school is a big step.
It’s the same response actually. It’s good that you’re starting early. You really need that time to think about what it is that you need to do, and why you’re interested, and to get a sense and a flavor of what we have to offer. That’s a lot of time to engage with us in all the different ways that I’ve talked about. And we welcome that.
And in fact, when you go onto our website and you ask for an employment report, or you ask for a brochure or view book, or an otherwise coffee chat, we will ask for what your program start interest or term interest is. And there are multiple options, including for later or subsequent years. And that gives us a good sense of where you’re at when we engage with you and talk to you about what the program has to offer.
This has been absolutely wonderful. What would you have liked me to ask you? What did I miss? [39:16]
Oh my goodness. I don’t know. I feel like I said a lot.
I’m not sure if there is anything else, really other than to say please reach out. If you are interested, if you want to learn more about the Rotman School, about what we have to offer, full-time MBA or otherwise, we would love to have a conversation with you. And really, our tagline is here’s where it changes. And oftentimes, things change with a conversation.
And so if you’re unsure or if you have questions, please reach out. There’s a world of opportunity in terms of our programming for all the reasons that I talked about. It is a hugely comprehensive program. Yes, indeed. It’s 20 months, including our internship of course. And with that comes an opportunity to really get depth and breadth of learning, and of opportunity, and exposure to different ideas, to hopefully get one to the point in their career or the entry into their next step career-wise that they’re hoping to make. And that is something we take very, very deep right here at the Rotman School.
Yeah. I have said for decades at this point, the MBA is a means to an end. You have to know what the end is that you want. [40:39]
You have to know what you want. And we’ve got great resources here that help you to do that. And as I’m talking out loud now, what I like to talk about, also say we’ve got great career outcomes here at the Rotman School. And a means to an end, oftentimes that’s a conversation that people are having or it’s information they want to know.
And so we’ve got an exceptional career services team here at the Rotman School, access to one-on-one career coaching and mentorship, lots of career workshops, on-campus recruitment, a huge network of employers that we work with, an incredible number of job opportunities that come our way for our students every year. And so lots of great opportunity for people to not just learn from each other, with each, other about each other, and very importantly about themselves, but to also be able to have that pathway and those opportunities presented to them into the next phases of their career, which is ultimately why people want to come and do a professional program like an MBA.
I’m very proud to say working at the Rotman School now for a couple of years, we have an incredible team that helps to facilitate that career discovery and making those industry connections with top-notch employers across the country.
Great. Well, thank you for adding that. I guess the question would’ve been, “What are the career opportunities at Rotman?” And you just answered that. [42:17]
I would be remiss not to have talked about it. If my boss is listening to this, he’d say I’m channeling my inner vice dean there for you.
Where can listeners and potential applicants learn more about the University of Toronto Rotman’s MBA program? [42:47]
Absolutely, it’s rotman.utoronto.ca. We’ve got individual program URLs, but if you go to that home page, you’ll see a l full comprehensive listing of all of our programs, our graduate programs, including our fabulous executive programs as well if you are so interested and opportunities for you to connect with us, either by way of events or by coffee chats with our recruitment admissions personnel.
Relevant Links:
Relevant shows:
- Former Wharton/Lauder Admissions Director Joins Accepted: Welcome Kara Keenan Sweeney, podcast Episode 570
- How to Get Into HEC Paris MBA with Sara Vanos, podcast Episode 565
- Advice for Applicants: Moving from 2023 to 2024, podcast Episode 557
- How to Get into the UC Berkeley Haas MBA Program?, podcast Episode 557
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