$25 Million To Accelerate Johns Hopkins’ MBA Makeover

Johns Hopkins Carey Business School’s campus in Baltimore, Maryland. The school also will soon have a campus in the former Newseum building in Washington, D.C. Carey photo

AN ASSURANCE OF CONTINUED GROWTH

W. P. Carey Foundation founder William Polk Carey contributed $50 million to Johns Hopkins University in 2006, which served as the catalyst for the founding of Carey Business School. The Carey MBA was launched in 2010. The school was named in honor of James Carey, a 19th-century merchant and great-great-great-grandfather of the school’s benefactor, who died in 2012.

Now the foundation that bears his name is leading a major new investment in the school that bears his family’s name, and a portion of the new gift will be used to establish four James Carey Distinguished Professorships. The endowed faculty positions “will enhance the school’s ability to attract outstanding researchers and academic leaders with records of significant scholarship.” The foundation’s $25 million will also “enhance the overall student experience with additional career development services and resources,” and “greater access to internships, immersive career opportunities, and professional networking.”

“This is a very meaningful gift for Carey Business School, as the school enters the next phase of its development,” says Sunil Kumar, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs for Johns Hopkins, in a news release. “The renewed commitment of the W. P. Carey Foundation ensures that Carey Business School will continue to grow, to produce innovative scholarly research, and to provide an outstanding education for our students.”

‘A GOOD INVESTMENT PROPOSITION’

Carey’s first decade was a period of “tremendous” growth, Triantis says. The school’s leaders are determined to maintain the momentum, which means finding the funds to match the W.P. Carey Foundation’s immense gift.

“We’re always in fundraising mode,” Triantis says. “We’re really confident that we’re going to be able to raise the other funds. At the end of the day with the alumni, it really comes down to having a good business case, a good investment proposition. I think that’s what the W.P. Carey Foundation saw in us. I think we’re finding the same kind of reactions with our other donors as well.”

But how are students responding? What are the application numbers looking like, with one final round deadline looming on April 15? Since a Jan. 22 article on the school’s MBA makeover in the Wall Street Journal, there has been a surge of interest, Triantis says.

“We re-launched — some say re-envisioned — our MBA program just recently, and now it’s got two pathways: an Analytics, Leadership, and Innovation pathway, and then a Health, Technology, and Innovation pathway,” he says. “We really got the word out a little bit later in the cycle, I’d say, in the early fall, so we are seeing a lot of interest but to answer your question, I’d say we’re probably pretty on par with last year. We’re seeing a lot of interest, really a surge, over the last month or two in particular, after that Wall Street Journal article. People are learning more about us, so I think that’s going to, longer-term, have a really positive impact for us.

“The changes we have made followed a couple of years of deep discussion and research with employers and potential students on what they’re looking for. I think we do a great job of pushing analytics out, including things such as artificial intelligence, which is a required course for the new curriculum, but combining it together with the really important behavioral science skills — so leading change and negotiation and communication of those critical issues that employers are looking for in MBA students. The students that we’re talking to about it, I think they see the fact that it’s really forward-thinking and will help them to succeed in a world where innovation is so important. They need to have all these skills combined.”

The Round 3 deadline for application the Carey MBA is April 15, with a decision promised by May 6.

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