Cornell’s $95K One-Year MBA In New York

Doug Stayman

Doug Stayman

‘THIS IS A DIFFERENT MBA’

The research informed the admissions strategy and the resulting curriculum. As part of its admissions process, the school is asking applicants to provide an example of their “creativity, style, or technical aptitude by sending a link to your work, uploading a video, or providing a written sample that demonstrates these attributes.”

“This is a different MBA,” insists Stayman. “This is not just an MBA in New York. This is not just a tech MBA. The focus of the program is how technology is changing business. So we’ll start with the foundations of business, move to an understanding of how technology is transforming business, and then the third part will be how to apply it: how to lead technology teams, do projects and implement change within companies. Our goal in the summer (in Ithaca) is to have the students ready to hit the ground running in projects when they get to New York City in August.”

MBA students in the new program also will engage with other Cornell Tech students in shared courses and projects. They will be expected to solve issues or capitalize on innovation opportunities for startups and larger organizations in up to three different business projects—even though the program is only 12 months long. An overseas tech study trip also will be a part of the program.

NEW PROGRAM DIFFERS FROM CORNELL’S EXISTING ONE-YEAR PROGRAM IN ITHACA

Stayman said the new offering is substantially different from an existing one-year MBA program Cornell offers on its Ithaca campus. The existing program, he said, makes all the electives at the business school available to students who have technology backgrounds or degrees but often want to leverage their experience in other ways. The existing accelerated MBA program is also for applicants who have already earned a master’s or doctoral degree, have a certification such as a Chartered Financial Analyst or Certified Public Accountant, or are dually applying to it and another professional or graduate degree program at Cornell.

“The New York MBA is very focused on people whose backgrounds and passions make them keenly interested in how technology is changing business. Cornell tech is focused on technology commercialization.” The courses in New York reflect the difference. They include Big Data/Data Analytics, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Digital Marketing/Social Media, Project Management, Product Management, Tech Strategy, Design Thinking and Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Finance.

The pricing for the program at “$95,000 or higher,” he said, is similar to Cornell’s accelerated program which currently costs $86,336. It is also about $15,000 more than Kellogg’s accelerated one-year option for business undergrads which currently costs $80,400. Yet, Kellogg is ranked fifth in the U.S. and considered solidly among the top seven business schools, while Cornell is ranked 11th and rarely among the top ten. The additional costs of putting the program in New York City and the fact that Cornell is still working out the final details of the curriculum has led to the higher price of the NYC program.

Stayman said the school is in the process of hiring three Johnson professors who will reside in New York City: experts in marketing, finance, and management and organizations. He did the interview with Poets&Quants from Grand Central Station because Stayman said he had just finished an interview with a job candidate. Those three professors will be augmented by faculty who will come to New York from the main campus and by adjunct faculty. “Ultimately, we are looking at hiring 30 to 40 new faculty,” he said. “The goal is a large campus and the business school is a substantial part of that.” Plans also call for significant executive education programming as well as an Executive MBA program once Cornell Tech moves to its Roosevelt Island home.

“Technology is changing the way business is done and we are trying to live that in the curriculum,” he added. “Nobody has an office. It’s all cubicles. It’s all inter-disciplinary, with computer science students working with business students. This isn’t a business school. It’s a tech campus,” explained Stayman, a former Johnson marketing professor who now spends a couple of days a week in New York City.  “I feel like I have been given a gift of a totally new Greenfield opportunity.”

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