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Business School Starts Early For Many

In business, it’s always best to be first. And that mantra is increasingly trickling down to business schools – just in an unexpected way.

This summer, first-years from Kenan-Flagler, Wharton, and Stern are heading to campus early and hitting the books to prepare for business school life. And it’s not just the poets looking to get the jump on quant-heavy core courses.

According to The Wall Street Journal, 180 of Kenan-Flagler’s 275 first-years came for the school’s three-week summer program. Costing $3,000 to $5,000 per head, the program doesn’t just cover finance fundamentals, but also career-related topics like developing resumes and conducting presentations.

Many people think of summer school as punishment. Not MBAs. These sessions offer far more than academic preparation. Aside from getting students accustomed to the academic grind, they also give them a platform to build relationships with their peers long before orientation. Michael Stepanek, Kenan-Flagler’s MBA director, tells the Wall Street Journal that his program helps students break the ice with their peers long before the pressures of studying and job hunting weigh them down.

And Kenan-Flagler students aren’t alone. At Wharton, 300 of their 850 first-years are also participating in the school’s summer program. Students who perform well have an option to clep out of required courses, The Wall Street Journal reports. This frees Wharton students to focus more time on electives or extracurriculars.

New York University offers a similar summer program to those at Kenan-Flagler and Wharton, which is only open to 60 to 65 students and costs roughly $2,500. There is a strategy behind the program’s exclusivity, says Isser Gallogly, assistant dean of MBA admissions. He notes that these students are peppered across all six of the program’s cohorts in the fall, with summer students acting as “connectors” who can introduce their peers to other summer alumni.

At Harvard Business School, first-years don’t even have to come to class early. Instead they can complete courses that are part of the HBX CORe, which includes features that enable students to connect and only costs $1,050. However, HBX isn’t exclusive to the business school, making finding your future peers a little more difficult.

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Source: Wall Street Journal