Carey B-School Gets A Curriculum Refresh

The MBA curriculum at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School is getting a revamp.

The Wall Street Journal reports that starting this fall, the B-school’s MBA will have an increased focus on health and quantitative skills, such as coding and data analysis.

DECLINING APPLICATIONS

The decision to revamp the programming is in response to a wider problem many b-schools are facing: declining application numbers.

Our study last year of preliminary Class of 2021 profile data found that even the highest-ranked b-schools are seeing significant declines in full-time MBA applications. Last year, the top 10 business schools combined saw a drop of about 3,400 MBA applicants. This was a 5.9% falloff to 53,907 candidates for the 2017-2018 admissions cycle versus 57,311 a year earlier.

For a B-school like Carey, it was critical to rethink its offering.

“There was a recognition that employer taste or needs for M.B.A.s may be changing over time and that prospective students may be sort of re-evaluating, based on the cost, based on opportunity cost,” Alexander Triantis, dean of the Carey Business School, tells The Wall Street Journal.

DEMAND OF DATA SKILLS

To better understand what exactly it needed to change in its offering, the Carey Business School had Prophet, a consulting firm, help highlight areas where the B-school was lacking.

Additionally, Bernard Ferrari, a former McKinsey & Co. consultant and the former dean of the business school during its revamp process, reached out to companies to pinpoint the skills they were looking for in MBA grads.

The answer? Employers wanted MBAs who had experience and knowledge with data science and data-analytic skills.

In fact, according to GMAC’s 2018 recruiter survey, 71% of employers say they plan to place recent B-school graduates into data analytics roles in 2018. This puts data analytics among the top job functions employers will place new grads into this year, alongside business development (74%), marketing (70%), and finance (69%).

THE NEW CAREY MBA

Starting in Fall 2020, students will be able to take part in an optional specialized track called Health, Technology, and Innovation.

New program features, according to a press release by Carey Business School, will include the Big Data Consulting Project, where students partner with leading companies to “gain practical experience in analyzing a data set related to a business challenge.”

Through the Innovation Field Project, students will work on-site with partner organizations across a variety of industries and sectors.

The new program will also feature a variety of co-curricular activities such as clubs, case competitions, and community consulting

“This program is designed to amplify a student’s professional growth trajectory with market-ready skills, networking experiences, and career training that will prepare graduates for what’s next,” Alexander Triantis, dean of the Carey Business School, adds.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, Poets & Quants, Poets & Quants, Carey Business School