What Northwestern Kellogg Has To Offer 

Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management is well known for its marketing.

Yet, in the latest interview with Forbes, Kellogg’s director of admissions Melissa Rapp explains why the b-school has so much more to offer than just marketing.

The Global Hub

The newest symbol for a new era at Kellogg is its latest building—the Global Hub.

The flagship building took seven years of planning and $350 million to make a reality.

“It was clear from the very beginning that it was an inspiring, beautiful building and that it had been designed with spaces and places throughout the building that reflected Kellogg values, especially collaboration,” Rapp tells Forbes. “I don’t think we could have asked for anything more from a building to inspire students to choose to come here outside of class time, to choose to spend their social time here and to really take advantage of the inspiring skyline views, the abundant natural lighting and to have that calming effect of the water right outside the windows of the Hub.”

The Class of 2020

Kellogg’s class of 2020 boasts high numbers and achievements. It’s made up of 46% women and 54% men with an average GMAT score of 732. On average, students have 5.1 years of work experience under their belt and an average GPA of 3.6.

“It’s almost unfair to reduce the class to a few stats on a page,” Rapp says in a press release. “You see pretty colored graphs and numbers, but I see the woman who taught for TFA. I see the man who launched his own business and is coming to Kellogg to learn from the best how to scale it. I see the woman deeply committed to LGBTQ issues working at a CPG. And I see the financier from across the globe. The diversity of geography, gender, industry, function, background & aspiration that will walk the halls of Kellogg can’t be truly captured on one page, but the class profile does demonstrate the exceptionality and power of the class altogether.”

Perhaps what’s most striking about the class makeup is Kellogg’s focus on female representation.

The class of 2020 saw a 46% makeup of female students. In the Class of 2019, Kellogg admitted 42% women. And every class year since 2013 has had more than 40% female MBAs. Only Wharton and Harvard have kept pace within that five-year span.

“The diversity that we bring to Kellogg each and every year, in terms of gender but also across industries and backgrounds, I think it’s an important part of the culture, having that representation and diversity,” Rapp tells Poets & Quants. “I feel like we have developed a really good, holistic approach to bringing women to Kellogg and supporting them throughout their MBA journey, and then sending them out to the world to do great things. That’s definitely something that we are very proud of and continue to see as important.”

The Kellogg Experience

Kellogg has a big reputation for its marketing, but Rapp says she doesn’t want Kellogg to be put in a box.

She prefers to highlight other aspects of the Kellogg experience that are just as worthy.

“One of the beauties of Kellogg is the flexibility, to pursue your academic path and career the way that you want to,” Rapp tells Forbes. “We’ve introduced over 100 new courses since 2012 and continue to push to educate our students rounded in our core curriculum. I think that that is something that sometimes gets undersold as part of the Kellogg experience.”

Rapp believes that every student who graduates from Kellogg should have a broad base of knowledge that can be applied to any industry.

“A Kellogg graduate is able to hold their own in the discussion and then once you’ve rounded yourself in the core curriculum, you’re able to either select a major and go deep into one particular subject area,” Rapp tells Forbes. “The flexibility that comes from being able to chart your own course grounded in the confidence that comes from having that rounded education. I don’t know what you call that exactly, but I know it’s not marketing!”

Sources: Forbes, Kellogg School of Management, Poets & Quants