The MBA Gatekeeper At Indiana Kelley

Photo by Kelley School of Business at Indiana University/Josh Anderson

Are you seeing any trends in what applicants are hoping to use a Kelley MBA for?

This is not a unique trend and a somewhat general response, but probably at least two-thirds or 70% of our students are using the MBA to change their careers, whether it be changing functions, changing industries, or big changes or little changes. And the rest are using the MBA to advance their careesr. They may be happy on the path they’re on but they want to build the leadership and management skills to continue to advance in their careers.

And so they are looking at the Kelley MBA as something that will help them build the skills that are needed to fill in the gaps. They use our curriculum, MBA academies and other parts of our program to differentiate themselves and get a strong skill set to choose whichever career path they go into. Again, that’s not new or different, but certainly the reality for most MBAs.

What advice do you give applicants interested in entrepreneurship?

You know, we have a strong entrepreneurship program at the Kelley School. We have an entrepreneurship major, we have an entrepreneurship academy within the Kelley school, and we have the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which is a significant research center and place with resources for students, faculty, and staff around entrepreneurship. We have students every year who are successful and a small number of MBAs who will pursue an entrepreneurial endeavor immediately.

It’s such a broad umbrella. It could be someone interested in starting their own business, somebody interested in getting involved in venture capital, working for the entrepreneurial arm of a larger corporation, but the reality is, for many with entrepreneurial interests, it’s something that they pursue a little bit later in their career.

And so we really encourage students to develop a functional expertise in addition to taking advantage of all the academic and professional resources and opportunities around entrepreneurship in the program. Because especially for those who want to start their own businesses, but want to start their career working for another company, while they’re raising capital, perfecting their business plan, whatever. If they’re going to be pursing a more traditional entry-level MBA position, they want to make sure their MBA and career is making them competitive for that.

If they focus all of their energy just on their own entrepreneurial interest, they may find it a little more challenging if they decide to pursue just a traditional entry-level MBA career afterwards, and delay the start of their entrepreneurial dreams.

Do you have any other advice for someone wanting to apply to Kelley’s MBA program?

My advice would be if they can visit campus, they should do so. I think that’s a game-changer for a lot of candidates. When they experience the culture, when they meet the students, when they meet the faculty, we usually win them. We’re in a college town—Bloomington, Indiana—less than an hour from Indianapolis, but because our students are coming from all over the country and all over the world, they’re typically coming from elsewhere to Bloomington. The community that develops amongst the students, faculty, and staff is incredibly strong.

And that community continues afterwards. Last year we crossed over the 100,000 living Kelley School of Business alumni mark, worldwide. So they are part of a pretty big Kelley alumni family. Between the community, the culture, the alumni network, the opportunities with a Kelley MBA are pretty endless.

Do you ever run into issues recruiting candidates to come to Bloomington, Indiana?

It’s funny because sometimes, for example, we enroll a lot of students from New York every year. And every once in a while, some of the New Yorkers during the recruiting process are the most skeptical of coming to a college town in southern Indiana. And I think sometimes, the New Yorkers are the ones who fall in love with Bloomington the hardest. Once they get there and they recognize we have a community that revolves around the university of 40,000 students, the opportunities for activities—cultural, social, recreational, athletic—there’s a lot to do.

But, bottom-line is, when you’re going through a challenging and rigorous academic program, being able to live some place where life is easy, the cost of living is low, there’s no traffic, where 98% of our faculty, staff, and students probably live within a three- or four-mile radius of campus, there’s a tremendous number of benefits to that. And when you look at where our students go after completing their MBA, when you look at the companies that hire our students for internships and full-time positions, the students quickly realize that their opportunities are significant and location—especially in these days with the ease of transportation and communication—doesn’t make a difference.

DON’T MISS: ONE-ON-ONE VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH RAY LUTHER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF MBA PROGRAMS AT KELLEY or HOW INDIANA’S KELLEY SCHOOL BECAME NO. 1 IN STUDENT SATISFACTION