B-school trends come and go, but one that seems to have legs is the creation of specialized MBA programs, particularly by second-tier schools. The schools find them useful for attracting students and cementing their brand identities at a time when competition among schools for the best students is intense. In recent years, they’ve becoming increasingly common (BusinessWeek.com, 7/19/07) even at high-profile schools. Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, and the Wharton School now offer specialized MBAs, majors, or dual degree programs in areas like real estate, sports management, biosciences, electronic commerce, and health care.

But is a specialized program always a good choice for an MBA student?

Not necessarily. While established programs have placement records on par with those of their general MBAs, many newer programs have not yet established the kind of recruiting relationships that guarantee students high-paying jobs at graduation. And graduates always run the risk of getting hamstrung by their specialties later in their careers, when an industry downturn forces them to look outside their specialties for opportunities.
Chart Your Own Path

Some who have gone through the specialized programs say they are best for those with a firm idea of their future goals, and who are keen to chart their own path. “I knew what I wanted to do,” said Carrie Stern Rathod, who received her MBA from Wisconsin’s Brand ‐ Product Management Center in 2005 and now works for Procter & Gamble (PG), which recruits regularly from the program. “There’s a range of people for whom this program is ideal. If you have an entrepreneurial bent but are not sure you’re ready to take the leap yet, the program might be right.” But, she added, “I think it would be tough if you wanted to go into consulting or something like that.”

For students who aren’t comfortable breaking away from the pack or seeking out professional contacts in unconventional ways, a specialized MBA might not be the best choice. This is especially true at less well-known schools, where big companies often don’t recruit. Students in these programs agree that making industry connections can require a lot of initiative from the student. “If you have a very specific company in mind, you might need to be a trailblazer in making relationships with those companies,” says Rathod.

More : businessweek.com

Prospective and current graduate business students who used a Web site to cheat on entrance examinations over the last five years could have their scores thrown out.

The exam’s publisher, the Graduate Management Admission Council, is tracking down users of Scoretop.com after winning a lawsuit to shut down the site and seize a computer hard drive containing payment information and user identifications.

Scoretop sold VIP access for $30 a month, giving users previews to current questions on the latest Graduate Management Admission Test. Some were posted by users after taking the exam.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema also ordered site operator Lei Shi to pay $2.35 million plus legal costs in a June 20 ruling in the copyright infringement lawsuit.

In court documents, GMAC cited a posting by a user who said the information offered on the site was “inestimable,” saying that he saw 10 to 12 “word by word” items and “many of the other questions felt very familiar.”

About 6,000 GMAT scores from when the Web site started in 2003 to the present are in question, GMAC spokeswoman Judy Phair said Wednesday. It’s unclear how many test-takers are involved, because they can take the test several times a year.

“We have an ethical responsibility to schools and students to say this is a secure and fair test,” Phair said. “Obviously, you’re not being fair if you have an unfair advantage.”

The council plans to match data with test-takers and cancel the scores of anyone it determines knowingly used Scoretop to cheat on the GMAT. It will also notify the schools receiving scores, and perhaps prevent them from retaking the test. Phair said she can’t offer a timetable on the process.

Shi wasn’t represented by an attorney, according to court documents. McLean, Va.-based GMAC said Shi has returned to his native China and couldn’t be reached.

More : ap.google.com

While American business school students worry about job offers being yanked and salaries and starting bonuses shrinking, their counterparts at top Indian business schools are having what looks to be their best recruiting year ever, according to a report.

The job placement figures this year at 20 of India’s top management schools - including six Indian Institute of Management campuses - “paints a rosy picture of job prospects for top management graduates,” according to the 2008 MBA Placement Report released Apr. 7 by MBA Universe, an India-based Web site about business schools.

A Kumar, the site’s editor, says the concerns over slowing MBA hiring in the US aren’t being felt in India. “There are absolutely no concerns over recession or slowdown,” he said in an e-mail. “In fact, as our report says, even the international recruiters have been positive in their hiring.”

Indian B-School graduates are commanding record salaries, up 20 to 22 per cent from last year, and are being heavily recruited by major corporations, the report said. For example, at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, the average domestic salary is up 30 per cent this year, with the higher offers ranging from the equivalent of $125,000 to $175,000.

In a few instances, offers as high as $280,000 to $360,000 were made to a select few. These offers included pay packages, signing bonuses, international relocation assistance, and vacation packages. “Clearly, the going was good for the privileged few who made it to the top B-schools,” the report said.

The recruiters are responding to an increasing need for high-quality managers to run the nation’s growing businesses. India’s burgeoning economy, fueled by a growing middle class, has made the MBA a more valuable commodity than ever before. The rise of top-tier management schools such as the IIMs is making it more appealing than ever for Indians to go to business school in their home country rather than pay for a brand-name American degree.

The part-time MBA program at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business was ranked No. 13 among the top MBA part-time programs in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report magazine’s annual “America’s Best Graduate Schools” rankings.

Other part time MBA programs in California ranked by U.S. News in the top 15 are: The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley (6), the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California (6), and the Anderson School of Business at the University of California, Los Angeles (4).

The part-time MBA program at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business has steadily moved up the rankings over the past three years, from #15 in 2006, to #14 in 2007.

Santa Clara University has been listed in the top 20 MBA programs every year since the part-time rankings began in 1995. The magazine also ranked SCU’s executive MBA program, launched in 1999, as #19 in the nation.

“Both the Evening MBA and Executive MBA programs develop men and women who provide leadership in global organizations,” said Barry Z. Posner, dean of the School of Business and professor of leadership. “These rankings are more evidence that our reputation is growing outside our region as well.”

The Evening MBA program was begun in 1959 and was in the first group of MBA programs to be accredited by the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB-International).The graduate business program has expanded to include the Executive MBA program, launched in 1999. In addition, the Leavey School of Business now offers a M.S. in Information Systems, and launched its Weekend Accelerated MBA program last fall.

More : businesswire.com

For the second time in the event’s 25-year history, UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business is hosting the Graduate Business Conference.

The conference, which runs from April 3 to April 5 and was organized by the Graduate Student Forum, brings together student leaders from 40 of the world’s top MBA programs. It features networking events, panel discussions on a wide array of academic and business topics, and speeches by leadership experts.

The Graduate Student Forum is an international association of MBA students.

“Haas, as a top school, should be offering its thoughts on leadership,” Clifford Dank, MBA 2008, president of the Haas School MBA Association and chairman of the Graduate Business Forum, said in a statement. “This is a great chance for us to serve as an aggregator of great ideas and to showcase our own school, students and ideas.”

As Graduate Business Forum chairman for the 2007-2008 academic year, Dank was responsible for coordinating the organization’s conference at Haas.

This year’s keynote speakers are Chip Conley, president and CEO of the boutique hotelier Joie de Vivre Hospitality; author and management coach Marshall Goldsmith; and Richard Lyons, chief learning officer for Goldman Sachs, former acting dean of the Haas School, and former Sylvan Coleman Professor of Finance at the school.

The event was first staged at Columbia University in New York in 1983. Haas first hosted the event in 1996.

More : bizjournals.com

The global career and education network Quacquarelli Symonds and GreenTown Consulting Group will hold an MBA Forum in St. Petersburg next week. This is the first time that the event is being held in the city, providing an opportunity for MBA candidates to meet the admissions officers of international business schools.

“On Tuesday, 8 April, admissions directors from INSEAD (France), Duke Fuqua (U.S.), IE Business School & ESADE (Spain), Cass & Manchester Business School (U.K.), Vlerick (Belgium) and RSM (Netherlands), will be presenting their full-time and executive MBA programs to St. Petersburg professionals,” said Zoya Zaitseva, senior operations manager at QS World MBA Tour.

During the forum, a select group of potential MBA students will get the opportunity to have pre-admissions interviews with the admissions officers of the world’s most prominent business schools. Applicants will be able to talk to representatives of the schools at their respective stands, participate in the presentations and network after the event.

The forum will begin with a panel discussion on MBA admissions tips, during which MBA recruiters and alumni will discuss and compare full-time and executive MBA programs.

The forum will be followed by a seminar on preparing to pass the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) — the standardized test for measuring students’ aptitude for courses. Several presentations will be made, including those by IE Business School, Manchester, ESADE, RSM, Cass, INSEAD, Duke Fuqua, Vlerick and Copenhagen Business School.

Besides face-to-face meetings and networking sessions, sample MBA master-classes will be held.

“For us, QS GreenTown is a totally new type of exhibition. We hope to conduct a series of interviews with potential MBA students. We also expect that the informal atmosphere will help candidates to get information about the school and its programs, and formulate their goals and expectations. During formal testing or in a motivational essay, this can be difficult,” said Anastasia Korshunova, development director at Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School’s St. Petersburg Campus.

This opportunity of having face-to-face meetings is one of the advantages of exhibitions rather than advertising, Korshunova said. Schools can find out which factors are important for potential students, she added.

At the forum next week, the school will be represented by Korshunova and Peter Rafferty, partner and director of International Business at Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School and International full-time MBA director.

“As well as the exhibition, the forum will include business school seminars and presentations. 30-minute master-classes should demonstrate the quality of teaching and lecture format, and give potential students an idea of the school’s atmosphere,” Korshunova said.

The University of South Florida Lakeland will offer a master of business administration program in the Polk County area.

USF Lakeland will begin a two-year MBA cohort program in the fall. A cohort is a group of students who complete a degree program together, supporting each other and enhancing the growth of each individual through shared experiences.

Courses will be offered Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings.

The MBA is a professional degree designed to prepare graduates for managerial roles in business and not-for-profit organizations.

USF Lakeland is partnering with USF’s College of Business in Tampa for the MBA program.

According to Business Week, MBA students earn 84 percent more than people with only an undergraduate education.

Maher Bird Associates has been appointed to handle the AA’s £25m integrated advertising account. The agency beat incumbents Delaney Lund Knox Warren and Rapier to win the business.

The AA kicked off a “root and branch” review of its agency roster last year, as exclusively revealed by Marketing Week (September 27, 2007). The move followed the completion of the company’s merger with Saga and the appointment of Michael Cutbill as marketing director.

DLKW was previously responsible for the roadside assistance business, while Rapier handled personal loans and motor insurance products. But MBA has secured the entire consolidated account following the pitch, which is likely to lead to a greater emphasis on direct response in the brand’s communications.

Saga and the AA are still looking to consolidate their media planning and buying into one agency. Incumbents Carat and Phd are thought to be competing against several non-roster agencies for the account.

In a press conference this morning, Robert Dolan, Dean of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business announced the sale of the internationally ranked MBA program for an undisclosed amount to the University of Phoenix (UOP) Online. “Given the recent slip in rankings and the particularly disappointing class of 2008, we decided to cut our losses and start anew. Furthermore, the recent construction workers strike and Stephen Ross’ new initiative to relocate the Miami Dolphins facilities to our school are expected to hamper our abilities to provide the quality education you would expect from Michigan,” said the Dean.

Dr. William Pepicello, Vice President and Executive Dean of the School of Advanced Studies at UOP was also in attendance at the press conference. “We are very excited to welcome the Ross School of Business into our family,” said Pepicello, “and we see great things happening for our institution as a result. In fact, this may be just the boost we needed to finally receive national accreditation and recognition from the US Department of Education.”

The deal, effective immediately, transitions all day and evening MBA classes into the University of Phoenix Online MBA platform. MBA classes will be podcast on the UOP Online MBA website and taught by existing UOP non-PhD faculty. Current Ross professors will go on hiatus and reconvene in the fall with a superior student body under a new yet to be determined school name. The incoming class of 2010 will be cherry-picked, weeding out the duds, and sent directly into the UOP Ross program in August. Furthermore, all MBA student diplomas handed out next month will be printed with the new name: “University of Phoenix Online, Ross School of Business”.

In a non-surprising move, the BBA, MAcc, and dual degree Erb MBA/MS programs will remain under the University of Michigan. “It is painfully obvious that these three programs contain the smartest and most promising students. They are our best bet for increasing the Michigan brand name into the future,” explained Dean Dolan.

UOP also believes the deal will increase its global reputation. A 2003 survey of HR professionals indicated that the majority would select a job candidate with an online degree from a traditional school such as USC or University of Michigan over a job candidate with a degree from an organization such as the of University of Phoenix. Dr. Pepicello said this survey was the impetus for his interest in the Ross purchase. “Obviously we are changing things by actually buying a piece of the University of Michigan,” he laughed.

The University of Phoenix is a for-profit educational institution owned by Apollo Group, Inc. that specializes in adult education. The institution was founded in 1976 by a man who believed there is no difference between in-classroom and distant learning. The university has a prominent alumni base that includes basketball great Shaquille O’Neal. Although UOP’s graduation rate is only 16%, well below the national average, Dr. Pepicello believes adding Ross to the mix should up that number to at least 19% and perhaps even 20%.

“This is certainly one acquisition that creates significant value on both ends,” stated a current Ross Strategy Professor famous for his critiques on growth strategies for businesses. “I look forward to teaching the best students at the new Michigan MBA program and getting paid a ridiculous six figure fee to consult for UOP Online MBA,” he added.

For more information on the University of Phoenix Online MBA program please visit www.uopxonline.com or call 1-800-MY-SUCCESS.

More : media.www.themsj.com

U.S. News & World Report listed the Professional MBA program at the Cox School of Business as No. 9 in its recent graduate program rankings. The Executive MBA program ranked No. 15. The full-time MBA program ranked No. 44.

The No. 9 spot makes the PMBA program the highest ranked program in Texas. The No. 44 spot ties the full-time MBA program with Vanderbilt University.

“While these rankings support the overall quality of our programs for full-time students and working professionals, we continue to remain focused on academic excellence,” Albert W. Niemi, Jr., dean of the Cox School of Business said. “Year after year the bar continues to rise in terms of the quality of a Cox education, and we will stay true to the school’s mission by continuing our emphasis on the overall excellence of the program and providing an outstanding experience for our students.”

The Cox School of Business offers several programs in business including a BBA, full-time MBA, PMBA, EMBA, Master of Science in Management, Executive Education and Master of Science in Entrepreneurship.

The school also includes the Business Leadership Center, Caruth Institue for Entrepreneurship, Maguire Energy Institute and the American Airlines Global Leadership Program

More : media.www.smudailycampus.com