Consortium Sets Early Deadline Of Oct. 20th

The Consortium is the United States’ largest diversity network.

The Consortium has set an early application deadline this year of Oct. 15, with a final dedline of Jan. 5, 2019, to apply to 20 of the most highly selective business schools in the U.S.

An application with The Consortium enables candidates to apply to up to six of the member schools. The nonprofit organization, which helps to prep and guide minority students for admission into top ranked MBA programs, will notify applicants of their fellowships in March of next year. All Consortium members will be considered for two-year, merit-based fellowships (Emory offers one-year programs), which cover full tuition and required fees. The group also holds a highly popular annual conference, called the Orientation Program & Career Forum for new MBA students and Consortium constituents in June of each year. Corporate partners — which include companies such as Google, General Mills, 3M, Johnson & Johnson and dozens more — gain early access to top-flight, diverse talent at the conference.

The Consortium annually offers hundreds of merit-based, full-tuition fellowships to applicants, as well as membership in a global network of more than 9,000 diversity-minded alumni, member school representatives and corporate partners. This year, the nonprofit said it expects to welcome more than 500 students into its program, joining an equally large class of second-year MBA students.

Applications are open to U.S. citizens or permanent residents of any race or ethnicity, but candidates must demonstrate a commitment to The Consortium’s mission of helping to reduce the serious underrepresentation of African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans. Applicants also must have a four-year bachelor’s degree from an accredited university.

THE 20 MEMBER SCHOOLS OF THE CONSORTIUM

With the University of Washington’s Foster School joined as the newest member in July of 2018, the current roster of member schools now numbers 20:

• UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business (Member 1993-2003; 2010-current)
• Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business (Member since 2001)
• Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business (Member since 1999)
• Georgetown University McDonough School of Business (Member since 2013)
• University of Michigan Ross School of Business (Member since 1983)
• University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School (Member since 1973)
• University of Rochester Simon Business School (Member since 1968)
• University of Texas-Austin McCombs School of Business (Member since 1984)
• University of Washington Foster School of Business (Member since 2018)
• University of Wisconsin-Madison Wisconsin School of Business (Member since 1966)
• UCLA Anderson School of Management (Member since 2010)
• Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management (Member since 2009)
• Emory University Goizueta Business School (Member since 2001)
• Indiana University Kelley School of Business (Member since 1966)
• New York University Stern School of Business (Member since 1984)
• Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business (Member since 2017)
• University of Southern California Marshall School of Business (Member since 1968)
• University of Virginia Darden School of Business (Member since 1992)
• Washington University Olin Business School (Member since 1996)
• Yale University School of Management (Member since 2008)

Consortium membership is treated separately from school admittance. Once a candidate is accepted to a school, his or her commitment to The Consortium’s mission will be evaluated. However, if admitted and granted membership, students must enroll in a member school program to enjoy the benefits. Membership is not transferrable to non-Consortium schools.

Applicants are asked to rank the six member schools in order of preference. The rankings assigned to each school determines the order in which schools may consider an applicant for a Consortium Fellowship. If a first-ranked school does not reward an applicant the Fellowship, the option passes to the next-ranked, admitted school, and so on. Rankings assigned to each school will only be released to schools once they have provided their admissions decisions to The Consortium.

The organization says that fellowships are awarded through an overall review of the overall merit of a student’s application. They are made by the admissions and scholarship committees at each member schools – not by The Consortium. Decisions regarding fellowships are typically made in mid-March and will come from the school. Students must accept or decline Consortium offers by April 15. Although some schools may offer deferred admission, the Fellowship may not be deferred. If an applicant decides to defer admission, he or she must reapply for a Fellowship.

FROM AN ORIGINAL CLASS OF 21 TO MORE THAN 500 THIS YEAR

The Consortium is the brain child of Sterling Schoen, an organizational behavior professor at Washington University’s business school in St. Louis whose research in 1963 found that not a single African American was employed in management at the Fortune 500 corporations. Three years after his groundbreaking study, the Consortium would open its doors with a $300,000 grant from the Ford Foundation in 1966. While the organization would not be a tonic for the turmoil of the times,  it would be in the vanguard of long-term change.

The original three member schools were  the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Washington University in St. Louis, and Indiana University-Bloomington. In the original class, there were only 21 students. Thirteen members of that first class graduated with their MBA. This year, The Consortium’s class is expected to be more than 500 strong.

DON’T MISS:  THE CONSORTIUM, BORN IN A TURBULENT TIME, MARKS 50 YEARS