Cornell To Offer One-Year MBA In NYC

Cornell will launch a one-year MBA program in Google's New York offices

Cornell will launch a one-year MBA program in Google’s New York offices

The Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University will soon offer a one-year MBA program based at Google’s New York City campus, sources told Poets&Quants.

The decision, to be announced shortly by the school, will significantly change the competitive dynamic in New York where Columbia Business School and New York University’s Stern School have long reigned as the major elite MBA players. The Cornell program would launch in May of 2014.

Cornell officials gave advance notice of the program to MBA admission consultants at their annual conference hosted by Wharton in June.

‘AN ATTRACTIVE NYC ALTERNATIVE TO COLUMBIA OR STERN’

Several consultants say the program would find a receptive audience. “An Ivy League MBA in New York without having to go to Columbia or Stern would be a pretty attractive alternative to many applicants,” says Dan Bauer, CEO and founder of The MBA Exchange, a major MBA admissions consulting firm. “Also the implied endorsement of Google makes it a pretty hot option for people. We will probably be seeing more one-year programs in the next five years.”

The highest ranked U.S. school with a one-year program is Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, which started its program in 1964. The school is now putting greater emphasis on that program which has been under the radar for quite a few years. Kellogg said it plans to substantially increase enrollment in its one-year program, which had been under the radar for some time.

ONE BIG QUESTION: WILL CORNELL ACCEPT A BROADER RANGE OF CANDIDATES?

Cornell, along with Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business, are the only other top 20 business schools in the U.S. with one-year programs. But the current Cornell accelerated option, with tuition of $86,336, enrolls fewer than 50 students a year and is somewhat atypical because the school requires applicants to have earned master’s or doctoral degrees in rigorous quantitative fields. It’s not yet clear if Cornell will accept a broader range of students for its New York City program.

Many one-year MBA programs in the U.S. tend to require an undergraduate degree in business or economics. The one-year timeline is much more common at European business schools, such as INSEAD in France or IE Business School in Madrid, Spain.

Cornell’s decision to offer an MBA in New York follows a game changing initiative for both the university and its business school. In late 2011, Cornell won a competition for $100 million in funds and $300 million worth of New York City real estate to create a new graduate school dubbed Cornell NYC Tech.

The school, meant to help commercialize science and technology to create businesses and employment in New York, gives the university and the business school a dynamic laboratory for innovation and entrepreneurship. Cornell NYC Tech, which opened its doors in January in 20,000 square feet of space at Google’s New York headquarters in Chelsea, will eventually boast a vast campus on Roosevelt Island in 2017.

DON’T MISS: THE BEST ONE-YEAR MBA PROGRAMS or CORNELL’S BIG BET ON NEW YORK CITY

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