Meet Cambridge’s MBA Class Of 2018

NEW CONCENTRATIONS AND A NEW BUILDING

The value will only increase as Judge continues to invest heavily in its MBA program. Notably, the school has added two new courses covering digital business and entrepreneurship to the core curriculum, an important touch for a program where up to 15% of students start companies right after graduation. In addition, Chua notes that the program has added additional concentrations to better address student and market needs.

“Due to strong demand from employers for MBAs to have an understanding of the impact that technology has on business, we have introduced the Digital Transformation concentration,” Chua explains. “In addition to this, due to strong interest from students, we have also split our Strategy and Marketing concentrations, which will allow students to gain a deeper understanding of these popular and exciting areas.”

This month, the school opened the doors to its Simon Sainsbury Centre, which enables the school to get all of its graduate business education activities under roof. The $32 million dollars project features new lecture theatres, faculty offices, and breakout rooms – not to mention new dining facilities.  “It will give our students an exciting new space for instruction, increasing the school’s capacity, and allowing greater interaction between students on different programmes,” Chua adds.

CUSTOM COACHING AND HANDS-ON LEARNING ARE PROGRAM’S HALLMARKS

What sets Judge apart from other MBA programs? For starters, it is a one-year program, which offers a faster return for students like Goddard, who admits that she “could only afford to be out of work for a year.” During that year, MBAs also receive intensive one-on-one coaching from coaches and industry practitioners through a career development program. Customized to individual interests and needs, the program is structured to hold students accountable for truly reflecting on what they want, addressing skill gaps, and approaching the upcoming job hunt strategically.

During that year, students aren’t just soaking up lectures and deconstructing cases, either. They are also beefing up their resumes and building their networks with required hands-on projects. The most popular are the Cambridge Venture Project (CVP) and the Global Consulting Project (GCP). The CVP begins when students enter the program. Working in 4-5 member teams, students partner with small firms to conduct field research to identify opportunities and develop strategy. In turn, students are able to immediately apply the lessons from core courses like Quantitative Methods and the Economics of Firms and Markets. With GCP, a stand-alone four week course, student teams fan out to countries like China to Sierra Leone to complete consulting projects for companies like L’Oreal and Google.

Judge may be global in nature, but it is entrepreneurial in spirit. Where that spirit starts is the proverbial chicken-or-the-egg argument. Cambridge has long supplied the expertise and support that has turned the surrounding area into “Silicon Fen.” Europe’s largest technology cluster, the Cambridge area is the bustling home to a profusion of research parks, incubators and small businesses – all within an hour of London.

Overall, Silicon Fen features 1,600 firms that employs 57,000 people and produce over $13 billion in revenue annually – much of which can be traced back to university patents and initiatives like the Cambridge Science Park. Drawing from some of the best minds in a melting pot of academic disciplines, the area has emerged as a technology and biosciences hub. It was the birthplace of iconic British firms like Arm Holdings and Acorn Computers – not to mention emerging startups like Focal Point Positioning and Repositive. Such creative energy has also drawn leading players like Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Qualcom to the region. As a result, the area offers a wealth of opportunities for students to learn, partner, and eventually work after graduation.

MBAs CAN PARTICIPATE IN SAME ACTIVITIES AS EVERYONE ELSE

However, the 2018 Class also came to Cambridge to savor the moment – and the sense of identity and history that makes the school so special. Home to nearly 20,000 students, Cambridge is broken into 31 colleges, replete with their own housing and dining. As Judge students, MBs are assigned to a college, along with being eligible for sports clubs and societies. That means students can row and fence, not to mention play in jazz band or write for one of the student papers.

This college system outside the MBA program appealed greatly to the 2018 Class. “Attending CJBS gave me the chance to move to the UK, join the community of Oxbridge students, participate in the oldest debating society in the world (the Cambridge Union), and dine with fellows of Sidney Sussex College,” Dussman points out. “It’s all a cumulative experience, the MBA is just your degree but the communities will exponentially outweigh the value you graduate with.”

Drissen echoes his classmate’s love for the large community. “Being part of a college that includes people from a variety of faculties provides a great opportunity to broaden your horizon. At every college event, you meet people not only from business school, but from several other disciplines – this means an abundance of interesting conversations and friends.”

“A TEAM EFFORT”

Indeed, Judge has it all: rich tradition, small classes, diverse classmates, experiential learning, and a thriving metro – all wrapped together in a once-in-a-lifetime experience. “When I visited Cambridge, I was completely enchanted by the ancient architecture and sense of academia and history,” writes Kristina Chiappetta, a 2017 grad and member of P&Q’s MBAs to Watch. “I knew immediately that this was too special a business school experience – with all the traditions of the university – to pass up.”

What is the class looking forward to with seven months left? Goddard defines success as leaving nothing undone, using all the opportunities available to me to learn new things, develop new contacts and friendships, and be on track to an interesting and professionally challenging career.”

For Drissen, that means giving back, knowing his contributions made the experience better for everyone. “I would like to look back at my year in business school and feel that I have had a positive impact on my fellow students,” he says. “After all, the Cambridge MBA is very much a team effort and if I have managed to contribute to that team, I will count it as success.”

To read profiles of incoming Cambridge Judge students — along with their advice on tackling the GMAT, applications, and interviews — click on the links below.

DON’T MISS: MEET CAMBRIDGE JUDGE’S MBA CLASS OF 2017 OR THE PIONEERING MBAs OF THE CLASS OF 2019

 

Name	Hometown	Alma Mater	Employer
Vaidehi Bhatia	Delhi, India	St. Stephen’s College	Unilever
Philipp David Drissen	Krefeld, Germany	University of Maastricht	Fackelmann
Clare Bridget Dussman	Arlington Heights, IL	University of Missouri	The Marketing Arm
Khushboo Gandhi	New Delhi, India	University of Delhi	Edelman
Carolyn Goddard	Manchester, UK	University of Manchester	Nucleus Services
Jeremy Peters	Ann Arbor, MI	University of Michigan	Ghostly International