Johns Hopkins Aims For B-School Relevance

Johns Hopkins’ Carey Business School is launching a new fellowship that offers eight students full tuition and $18,000

The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School announced a new program Dec. 20 to provide full tuition and a stipend for its most accomplished MBA students. It’s a program the school hopes marks the first step on the road to a higher profile in a crowded B-school landscape.

The Carey Business Fellows initiative will be available for eight students admitted to the fall 2017 class of the school’s signature full-time Global MBA program. Carey Business Fellows will receive full tuition and an $18,000 stipend for one academic year — and possibly two if they remain in good standing.

“Nearly every industry today faces challenges in attracting the best talent. The same is true for business education,” Bernie Ferrari, dean of the Carey Business School, said in a news release announcing the initiative. “The Carey Business School Global MBA is an innovative program, and we believe the Carey Business Fellows initiative will make our program even more inviting for the best students.”

GLOBAL PROGRAM INCLUDES INTERNATIONAL PRACTICUM 

Bernie Ferrari, dean of Johns Hopkins’ Carey Business School

Since its founding in 2007, the Carey School, not to be confused with the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, has never been ranked among the top 50 U.S. schools by the major publications. Various minor and online rankings have placed Carey’s slate of master’s programs among the top 25 or top 50, especially its Global MBA program, the school’s flagship program that was launched in 2010.

Carey’s Global MBA currently has 143 enrolled students; its part-time MBA program, dual-degree programs, and MS degree programs boast another 829 enrollees. But in hopes of “attracting the best talent,” Tim Parsons, director of communications, tells Poets&Quants, Carey is rolling the dice that the new initiative will draw more students to the full-time MBA.

“We reviewed the credentials of top students at Carey and identified some of the key characteristics that most impress potential employers, such as academic ability and leadership potential,” Parsons says. “We’ve allocated finances to attract more of these students to our full-time MBA.”

A PAIR OF PROGRAM PILLARS

The Carey Business Fellows initiative is only available for the full-time MBA program, Parsons says. That program is a two-year, 54-credit degree program with two pillar courses: Innovation for Humanity, which includes a three-week international, on-site practicum comprised of real-world challenges involving public health, deteriorating infrastructure, and social welfare; and Discovery to Market, in which students “work alongside inventors, scientists, and entrepreneurs to transform an emerging technology from brand-new to new brand,” according to the school’s website. The latter course also includes collaboration with other schools within Johns Hopkins “to assess the societal value of new discoveries and innovative technologies.”

Johns Hopkins, located in Baltimore, Maryland, is best known for its medical school. The Carey School also has a campus in Washington, D.C.

WORK EXPERIENCE, GOOD GRADES REWARDED

Among the Global MBA’s other required courses are Ethical Leadership, Strategic Communication, and Governance and Accountability. The school offers concentrations in Entrepreneurship, Enterprise Risk Management, Financial Businesses, Health Care Management, Marketing, and Real Estate and Infrastructure.

To be considered for the Carey Fellows, Global MBA candidates must have attained at least two to four years of full-time work experience; achieved an overall GMAT or GRE score at or above the 80th percentile (680 or higher); and earned a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.3 or higher from an accredited college or university. Candidates will be selected during the admissions review process.

An online information session about the Carey Global MBA is scheduled for Jan. 17.

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