10 Business Schools to Watch in 2023

.

Poets & QuantsThe ’10 Business Schools to Watch’ honors MBA programs that are not just adapting to the market, but disrupting it. These schools have closely monitored trends, recognized ripples, and adjusted their programs to make employers more competitive and graduates more agile. Along the way, they have served as both inspiration and roadmap.

Now in its eighth year, the feature showcases a school that works like a real business. Remarkable business schools that understand that complacency is the biggest threat are always doing more and aiming for more. They embrace their abilities, leverage their assets, and invest to maximize their impact. Take the Wharton School. This year, the program brings the Ivy League Executive MBA online to the masses. This is his first M7 program to attempt this feat. Similarly, Georgetown University’s McDonough School has developed an ambitious five-year plan for him predicated on sustainability, global business, and mentorship with Jesuit DNA. In addition, Northeastern University’s Damore McKim School of Business has pioneered employer partnerships that enable students to gain outstanding work experience.

What do the 10 Business Schools to Watch in 2023 have in common? They never allow their work to be overwhelmed by bureaucracy or diluted with compromise. They have delved into what is important to students to tap into the spirit of our times. Above all, they have carved an advantage, established an identity, and paved the way for them to stand out. In the process, they gained the attention of their peers and became a show that everyone watched.

10 business schools to watch are setting the pace of business education

Which business schools are setting the standard for 2023? From IIM Ahmedabad to the University of Washington’s Olin School, here are the MBA programs ready to set the pace next year.

Huntsman Hall at Wharton School.Photo provided

Is the online experience as good as the in-person classroom? Will the market pay a premium price to get a degree from an iconic brand?

Be immersed: Watch case studies unfold in real time – straight from the Wharton School.

Come May, the Wharton School will be online with the Global Executive MBA. Technically, Wharton has been online for over ten years of his life. After all, the school literally wrote a book to create his MOOC using her MBA-level programming taught by top faculty. However, Wharton is the first of the “Big 5” business schools (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago and Northwestern) to create an online hybrid MBA program. The program will last him 22 months and initially she will enroll 60-70 students, increasing her EMBA population at Wharton to a total of 300.

One difference: Three-fourths of the teaching takes place in live online sessions, typically held early in the morning and late at night. His remaining five weeks will be held on Wharton’s campus where he will be held for five weeks. In other words, Global EMBA students can get to know their classmates and professors directly while taking most courses virtually.

In a 2022 interview with Poets&Quants, Wharton University Senior Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning Brian Bushee explained: Here 100% of his class time is with one of his professors and some is face-to-face. ”

That caution might be prudent on Bushy’s part. Wharton is charging his $214,800 for the program. This is the same price as his full face-to-face EMBA programs in Philadelphia and San Francisco. In a way, you have to admire Wharton’s confidence. Let’s face it: Schools are simply applying the same faculty, programming and support to their online audience, some of whom are expected to be expatriate executives. Now students need less food and housing. However, her EMBA onsite tells me that this advantage is offset by the cost of returning to campus every two weeks.

Call it an alternative designed for executives who can’t give up two weekends a month for the Wharton MBA. For that flexibility, Wharton plans to add his $15 million to the coffers from the first Global EMBA class. This program also represents some dangers to the Wharton brand. Unsurprisingly, P&Q’s grizzled editor-in-chief, John Byrne, happily played the devil’s advocate.

For one thing, he poses a question that Wharton seems to avoid. He cites his Kelley Direct Online MBA from Indiana University, the #1 online MBA program in the world. That’s almost a third of his Wharton’s cost of $82,158. At Boston University and the University of Illinois, an online student can earn his MBA for about $25,000, Byrne adds. When it comes to prestige, Harvard Business School Online offers some viable options, if not full degree programs.

“Looking at it another way, executives can take all of the online courses available at Harvard Business School for a total of $33,250. and accounting, strategy, business and society, HBS teaches online students how to include certificates and credentials from their school on LinkedIn and on their old-fashioned résumé. You can take all of these courses for $33,250, or just 15% of the cost of Wharton’s new online EMBA.”

Additionally, the online EMBA could compete with Wharton’s own onsite EMBA option, as well as online players such as Michigan Ross, Carnegie Mellon Tepper and UC Berkley Haas, Byrne observes. “The school is betting that the online format will not substantially cannibalize the face-to-face programs in Philly/SF. But comparable pricing makes this a difficult proposition. If recognized as such, must obtain an affidavit from the employer to elect 50 mandatory trips to Philadelphia/SF on Fridays/Saturdays during the same 22-month period and to be off work on Fridays every other week. Why are you spending hours commuting when you can limit your home components to weeks of modularity?

Wharton College students walk the Locust Walk at the University of Pennsylvania.Photo provided

As for the MBA population itself, Byrne wonders if the EMBA will ever switch between onsite and online formats. And it doesn’t take into account how his full-time MBA, which has nearly 1,800 students, will react to the addition of online programs.

“Adding one or two students to an already huge student population would require more faculty resources,” Byrne writes. “Full-time students are likely to react against both the declining recognition of the Wharton MBA and the distraction of faculty from teaching her full-time MBA roster.”

These are big risks for Wharton. This past year, the school has been the number one full-time MBA program for her. financial times, US News & World Reportt, and poetry and quantity (Does not count #1 undergraduate programs). Still, the launch of the online program has revealed something profound about the Wharton School. While many business schools are piling up their donations, the Wharton School continues to invest in maximizing the student experience. This includes Tangen Hall, an entrepreneurship hub. The seven-story high Tangen Hall will bring together Penn’s startup and innovation community, providing space to design, test and scale their young ventures.

“The new 70,000-square-foot state-of-the-art building will house a food innovation lab, street-level point-of-sale pop-up retail space for student retail ventures, a virtual reality environment, a digital media lab, maker studios, and many open work spaces. said Blair Mannix, P&Q’s 2022 Admissions Director of the Year. “Tangen Hall introduces a new partnership by the Wharton School, Penn Engineering, and the Stuart Weitzman School of Design to unite Penn’s startup his ecosystem.”

This year, the Wharton School also has a renewed focus on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Schools do not only teach these areas. For the second year in a row, women make up the majority of classes and they are increasingly run by them. Still, size and scope are the Wharton School’s greatest strengths. The school boasts her 100,000 alumni network in 153 countries, covering every industry, company and role. Wharton alumni also enjoy the greatest ROI throughout their MBA career.

Blair Mannix explains: “We emphasize ‘learning by doing’, providing students with a tactile education to prepare them for the biggest business challenges of the future. Our programs are versatile and innovative, helping students acquire business knowledge and professional skills to expand their career options and join one of the world’s largest and most prestigious alumni networks. Helpful. ”

And what can MBAs expect from the Wharton School in the future? Ironically, the future, like Continuing Education, is exactly where schools train sites next. In his 2022 interview with P&Q, his deputy dean, Nicolaj Siggelkow, explained: “Obviously, we try our best to teach you a lot in the two years you are here. I don’t know what’s going to happen in 10 years, and when it comes to customized, personalized travel, it shouldn’t stop two years from now.”

Following page: Cornell University Johnson School of Management