Applying as an Overrepresented Applicant? Here’s How to Stand Out

Over the years, diversity has increasingly become a priority at business schools — and for good reason. A diverse community of students—across different backgrounds, job functions, ethnicities, and perspectives—actually creates a better learning environment.

Stacy Blackman, founder of Stacy Blackman Consulting, recently discussed how MBA applicants—especially those from overrepresented demographics—can highlight what makes their story unique and worthy of admission.

LESS ON STATS, MORE ON PERSPECTIVE

Your stats, including GPA and test scores, only tell admissions officers so much about who you are as an applicant. In addition to numbers, top business schools seek out applicants who can demonstrate strong collaboration skills and leadership.

“While your stats tell the admissions committee whether you can likely handle the rigor of their program, they don’t reveal anything about how you work with others,” Blackman writes. “Nor do they convey what leadership roles you’ve taken, what motivates you, or what your future goals are. Unlike undergraduate colleges, MBA programs heavily rely on students teaching each other. Business schools expect high levels of spirited and interactive discussion in class, with students sharing their past experiences for the benefit of others.”

HIGHLIGHT UNIQUE EXPERIENCES

Regardless if you come from an overrepresented background or non-traditional industry, it’s important to highlight any unique experiences from your past that have shaped who you are today.

“You’re going to want to pull from your volunteer, extracurricular, and leadership experiences across all facets of your life,” Blackman writes. “Talk about the places you’ve traveled to and what you did or learned there. Maybe you have a defining moment to share that led to your future career goals. You will want to highlight anything you are involved with at work that might be related to recent news headlines, as admissions committees love it when students can share firsthand experience with buzzy topics.”

Sources: Stacy Blackman Consulting, The Century Foundation

Next Page: MBAs are moving away from capitalism.

How the MBA is Moving Away from Capitalism

In 1970, economist Milton Friedman introduced a theory arguing that companies only have one responsibility: its shareholders. The “shareholder theory,” also known as the Friedman Doctrine, would play an integral role in how businesses conducted themselves and their role in society. For the corporate world, the shareholder theory meant, in many ways, profit above all else—even if it came at the expense of society.

The shareholder theory and business education have a long history. Dr Molly Worthen, a historian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and contributor for The New York Times, recently dug into the complex relationship between the shareholder theory and business schools, and how today’s students are changing that relationship.

A CAPITALISTIC MINDSET

Business schools have long taught the practice of maximizing shareholder value. But that capitalistic mindset has also come at a cost, Worthen writes.

“This mind-set has pushed business schools to train managers to maximize shareholder value on quarterly returns, in the same way a NASCAR crew chief trains to manage a pit crew to get the car back on the track as quickly and efficiently as possible. This has left little room for that older ambition to cultivate character or wide-ranging intellectual curiosity — although business schools papered over the void by embracing the language of positive psychology and an amorphous idea of ‘leadership’.”

Critics say that business school education has become too narrowly focused, with a variety of niche specializations—from product management to healthcare management—and a lack of humanities and qualitative disciplines.

“At a time when society needs managers who can grapple with uncertainty and operate in a culture divided over basic questions of justice and human flourishing, most business schools still emphasize specialized skills and quantitative methods, the seductive simplicity of economic and social scientific models,” Worthen writes. “They often reduce the weirdness of human organizations to the tidy pedagogy of the case method, in which students discuss 15- to 20-page accounts of how an individual or a corporation handled some task or crisis.”

EVOLVING THE MINDSET

At Harvard Business School, where the case method was born, nearly 500 cases are read during the two-year MBA program. Many other business schools have adopted the case method to promote collaboration, critical thinking, and decision making in almost real-world settings. But some say that the method fails to get at the crux of more complex issues.

“It can be helpful to grapple with some of the dilemmas that business leaders have faced, but we’re usually doing it in a rapid-fire way that I don’t think promotes critical reflective thinking on deeper issues,” Kelsey Aijala, a student at Stanford, tells NY Times. “Because participation is something you’re evaluated on in class, it promotes saying something for the sake of saying something, and doesn’t create space for deeper questioning”.

While the MBA education is still very much focused on the mindset of maximizing profit, things are slowly but surely changing—from more diverse research topics to new ways of practicing the case study method.

“I’ve been buoyed by the diversity of what’s now considered economic research,” Ethan Rouen, a professor at Harvard Business School who teaches a course called “Reimagining Capitalism”, tells NY Times. “At HBS we have people doing research on gun control, on the Rohingya genocide. This is new, and every year it’s going more in that direction.”

“We do this nice thing where in each case, you map out all the stakeholders in the process,” Cynthia Madu, a student at the Dartmouth Tuck, tells NY Times. “It lets us identify all the people actually there, so we don’t think it’s the CEO doing everything. Also, if students know there’s not one single narrative, they’re more willing to debate in class whether it’s the correct narrative.”

Today, students are redefining what it means to receive an MBA education and championing a new mindset that looks beyond capitalism.

“When I was doing my MBA, a large number of students came into business school thinking it was a respite from whatever they were doing. They’d leave banking or consulting, do the MBA, then go back for a higher salary,” Dr Rouen tells NY Times. “Now so few students come in with that mind-set. Most come in thinking this is an opportunity to figure things out.”

Sources: The New York Times

Next Page: North Georgia launches an online MBA program.

Another Business School Launches An Online MBA

The University of North Georgia (UNG) is launching its own online MBA program. UNG’s Mike Cottrell College of Business will offer new students an online option for its MBA program starting this fall.

“The current face-to-face part-time program will only be available to students currently in the program and only for the next academic year,” Mary Gowan, dean of UNG’s Mike Cottrell College of Business, tells Fortune. “The fully online program will be offered starting in the fall semester and will be the only Cottrell MBA for new students going forward.”

NUMBER OF ONLINE MBA PROGRAMS UP 85%

UNG’s decision to move online follows the current trend and popularity of online programs. In the past five years, the number of online MBA programs in the US has increased 85%, according to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

It’s a decision that school officials say will help expand greater access to the program for prospective students outside the state.

“We have been closely watching what is happening with other MBA programs across the country and know that the only way to grow our program is to make the move to online,” Gowan says in a press release. “I’ve talked to a number of deans around the country who have had great success with such a move, so we are paying close attention to lessons we can learn from their journeys to make sure we have the resources lined up for success.”

Success can mean many things. For one, school’s decision to move online means more than just expanding access to its program.

“This also can build the diversity of our classes, helping students to learn in an environment that better reflects the environments in which most of us work every day,” Dr. Wendy Walker, MCCB associate dean for faculty and graduate programs, says.

UNG students will be able to start their online MBA this summer through completion of one of the business school’s graduate certificate programs. The program currently offers graduate certificates in cybersecurity, entrepreneurship and innovation, and technology leadership. According to Fortune, UNG plans to add a fourth graduate certificate, ethics and compliance, in summer 2023.

Sources: University of North Georgia, Fortune

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