Backstage With Auburn, Washington Foster, SMU Cox & Minnesota Carlson’s Online MBA

Allen: Thank you. Okay, one of the things that I think maybe a lot of people think about when deciding on an online MBA and MBA in general, advanced degree, in general, is how to balance work life, especially with the online MBA space. It’s a little bit more progressed in careers. There might be a little bit more responsibility, but also you’ve got families generally. Can you tell me a little bit about how you all advise your students, potential students, applicants on work-life balance, and if this is the time to pursue the online MBA in terms of stage of life? And I’ll go back up and start with Jillian. We’ll start with you.

Melton: Sure, thank you. I think that is a common conversation that we have with actually all of our students, not just in the online MBA program, but across all of our programs. Because it is a big commitment in terms of investing in yourself. A huge time commitment and it truly is a life-changing opportunity. A couple of the things specifically on the online MBA program that we’re talking about with students is one, do you have the support of your family and your friends? Do you have a good support system and also what are those plans for, if you do find yourself getting stretched too thin. Or if you do have a work deadline that’s coming up, for example, the same day as one of your finals, what is your plan gonna be? And then working through them with some other options. I would say at SMU Cox, our faculty members are really committed to helping our students and really understanding their needs and their challenges. We are constantly reminding students to make sure that they’re being really transparent with their faculty members and that oftentimes our faculty members are able to work out some really unique solutions for how to balance that work and in-class load. I also think just inherently, the online MBA program is, is extremely flexible, right? You don’t have to come to campus. You can take classes virtually at SMU, even though we do have the live class sessions, all of them are also recorded so that students can not only go back and access that if they wanted to re-watch something. But then also if they are finding themselves in a difficult spot and aren’t able to attend the live class, they have access to that as well. And then I think a huge part of the program is also relying on your teammates and working with your team. Again, at SMU with our small class sizes of 15 students. You do get to work really closely with other individuals. And that’s where I think being able to collaborate with other classmates, working together on different group projects, studying together, and really facilitating and forming those strong bonds. One, not only help our students get through the curriculum and complete all of the tasks and assignments but then also too, it really creates that community, that support system. So that if you are finding yourselves really stressed out or having challenges you have people that you can go to. I would say really one of the things that we focus a lot on is building that community so that students know that they have resources, that there is other individuals going through exactly what they’re going through, and that we’re always here to help them out.

Allen: Great. Thank you. Natalie, how about at Minnesota Carlson, how do you all approach this conversation of work-life, school balance?

Dillon: I always talk with candidates, especially on the front end of the admissions and recruiting process about, your life doesn’t stop when you start an MBA if anything, it probably continues to go faster and we see more opportunities and more personal life things happen to our students as they enroll into a program. And that’s where I really lean in on the front end of being prepared, having your network, but also know your options within the program that you’re within. I was just working with two of our current students, actually. I’m talking to them about major life changes that they had in the middle of COVID-19. One adding another family member with a young one to the family and someone moving locations in the middle of the pandemic. And one thing that they were talking to me about was, of course, know your classmates, know your faculty members, but also they leaned into the structure of our program. Our program is set in a way that students can actually take courses. They’re in an 11 week and then a four-week structure. You can actually register for an 11-week class, take that from the beginning to about 3/4 through the semester and then you end that class and actually start a full different class for the last four weeks of the semester. The one student I was talking with that added a new family member to their family this year, because of the due date they decided, I am only going to take a four-week class this semester. And next semester I’ll go back to my regular schedule and I’ll take an 11 week and a four week. I had another student that said, I really wanted to front-load my semester this year. I took two 11 week classes, overlapping each other, and I didn’t do the four-week. I think that’s the other part is really looking at what’s the structure of the program you’re looking at, What’s the flexibility look like? I’m sure as many of my colleagues have different options, as well. We also talk with students, it’s okay to take a semester off or take a break. If you need to do a full standardized leave of absence, that’s an option at most schools. For us, you can take a semester off and then just come back in the next term. And that’s the great part I think is really looking at understanding what are the flexible options that are out there. And what’s the duration too, of the program, whether it’s cohorted, non-cohorted, all of those kind of larger key factors to the structure, as well.

Allen: Great. Thank you. All right, Jim, how about at Auburn?

Parrish: Oh, I would say that again, to echo what Natalie and Jillian have said there, we’ve had some conversations with our incoming students and letting them know as they begin this journey is that there’s a great amount of trust that they’re putting in us to help them get through this. And we want to tell them that we honor that trust and I think helping them navigate the best path forward is one way of earning that trust. We have a great support network within our staff, our student support services team are there to help you navigate the different things. Our faculty, since we’ve been in this space for so long, this is not the first time they’ve taught working adults that are family first, job second, and maybe school somewhere 2.5 there. But they understand the needs of working professionals that are also juggling families because, in that six and a half year working experience window, there’s a lot of life events going on at that time. It’s not just work, it’s not just school, but everything else that they have to juggle. One of the things that we advise our students is the most difficult part of an online MBA is choosing to start. Once you make that decision to start, it just becomes an extension of who you are. There’s some things that you have to reprioritize or juggle a little bit, but again, like Natalie was saying, we do have a six-year window for you to complete your degree from the time that you start. Again, front-loading taking, a semester off, adding some more courses, that’s really up to you, but just know that our team is there to help you reengage when you’re ready. And also I think it’s important that you have conversations within your family. We have the Auburn family that we talk about here. And once you’re a part of the Auburn family, our staff, our students, our alumni, they’re gonna help you, but your personal family needs to be aware and everybody’s on board. Because I promise you, it’s not just you, who’s getting this degree. It’ll be spouse. It’ll be siblings. It’ll be children. That’ll help you get through this. Have those conversations, making sure that everyone’s on the same page and understanding that there will be some things that have to be readjusted, reprioritized based on your investment of time and resources to get this degree. But I think ultimately that investment is gonna pay off. You just have to figure out what the right timing is for you and how you can work at different places. We talked to our students and a similar question came up in our new student panel. And someone said you can’t be missed while the others in your house may be sleeping. So for him, they got up in the morning early, while his children and spouse were still sleeping. And that was the time they committed to doing their schoolwork. That worked for him. You may have to think about, what’s the best time for me? Is that early morning? Is it that evening? That’s gonna have to be established by each person to find that right fit. But I think it’s important to start thinking about those things now because as soon as you get to your curriculum and your course work, you’re gonna need to find those times because we all have those 24 hours and how you prioritize those will help you and show your success for the program.

Allen: Great. Thanks, Jim. Jodey work, life, school balance. What are your thoughts?

Farwell: This is my favorite question, funny enough. When I get asked this question. And I’m very passionate about it. My first day here at Foster, I ran into an alum and sat down with him and said, “Can you tell me, what was your greatest stress point in the program?” And thinking I’m going to hear about the rigorous curriculum or the tough faculty, or that our program is designed a little bit differently than Natalie’s and Jim, I’ll get into that in a second, but, and he said, “It was the pressure that it put on my personal life, that was honestly the hardest part about it.” And it kind of just took me back for a second. And I thought, okay, well, I want to make sure that our program doesn’t add unnecessary stress to the students’ lives, because it is. And now you add COVID on top of that. And this is just an unprecedented time for dealing with stress and you add that graduate students is the most stressful student population on top of that. We do things that are built inside our program, such things, we provide our textbooks to them. They don’t need to worry about that. We register them for their classes. We pair them with a team mentor. We specifically put them in deliberate teams together. They’ll tell you over and over again, that it’s that team model that gets them through the program. Now, our program is different in terms of Natalie and Jim’s. And I think it’s important to notice this is that we are not as flexible if you want to use that word, as others. And for the student, some students, this is a good thing, right? This is the program that, this is how it differentiates us from you guys is that we are a lock-step two-year program. Once you’re in the program, you are going to graduate in two years, the end, period. Some students really like knowing that. They know I’m gonna be in this with my team. I know what classes I’m taking every quarter. I know I can plan for immersions. I know the dates for the beginning of every quarter. The only thing they have to choose at the end is their last five elective courses. But other than that, it’s all laid out for them. There’s not a lot of unknowns in terms of the program. What happens when they have a baby coming or they change jobs or they have to move? The great thing about it is that because of that team support and the support they get from us on staff, they can say, “Hey,” to a teammate, “I may be only giving 90% this quarter, and next quarter I give 120.” And you can just see the teams, they pulled each other together to help each other. ‘Cause they’re in the same boat too. They know that shoot, I got a baby coming next quarter. I’m so glad that you’re, I’m willing to, I’m willing to take the extra load for you this quarter, cause I’m gonna need you next quarter. And then we also have career management. If we have students that are stressed with work or they’ve been furloughed, especially now because of COVID. My crew management team jumps in and helps them with whatever they need, job searching, beef up their LinkedIn, offer negotiation skills, all these kinds of things. Throughout the entire process, where they might find a stress point, we want to make sure that they’re aware that we’re here for them. This is the other reason why we created our hybrid MBA, mental health support group because we want awareness that it’s okay to be stressed. It’s okay to talk about it. And it’s okay to share it. And there are resources within our program, as well as the University of Washington to help with that, no matter what it is. And then I usually, well, I always, at the beginning of every fall quarter, I meet with, via Zoom, all the significant others of my students. Wives, kids, dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, grandmas, you name it, friends. If they’re there on Zoom and just say, “Hey, this is me and this is my staff. And we’re so glad that your loved one is coming, has joined our program in our family. And you’ve joined it too. And that, I understand that I’m taking them away for the next six quarters, but I will give them back. I promise. If you just be patient and understanding and let me know if there’s anything that I can do to help support our students.” I want them to know my door’s always open as well. I’m so passionate about this because I do think that there’s so much that we can do in terms of providing this wonderful opportunity, life-changing opportunity, I think as Natalie said, but do it in a way that doesn’t add unnecessary stress to their lives.

Allen: Great. Thank you very much. We are getting to time right now and I want to make sure everyone has opportunity in the breakout rooms to meet. This is gonna be the final question. Natalie, it’s gonna go to you first just to give you a heads up. One of the big draws about the full-time MBA program is the network. Is meeting your classmates, alumni, and building up that network. I want to know how you all have built opportunities to meet with not only your current classmates but alumni and how that structurally is built into your program, building out that network. Natalie, we’ll start with you, try to keep it around a minute or so.

Dillon: Sure. Well, I think there’s a couple of different ways you can opt into this. One of them being all of our faculty usually try to bring back an alumni to be at least one week of a speaker or so. And just to get someone that’s gone through the program and see what their outcomes are. That’s pretty common trend in all of our online classes. The other big part that I will say that a lot of our students and it’s especially gotten easier actually with COVID-19, is as an online MBA student, you’re actually a member of every single one of the student organizations at the Carlson School. And we have 22 recognized MBA clubs. They’re all meeting virtually now. And before they used to have a lot more in-person meetings and then have people join online. They’re now doing virtual yoga, they’re watching movies together. They just did something with Hamilton when that hit Disney Plus a couple of weeks ago. We’re just seeing even a cool part is our online students are getting to meet full-time, part-time, and executive students through these clubs. You’re already expanding your network there as well. I think the final key feature that we’re especially seeing students for connection, especially if you’re talking about alums is our career center services. Anytime you talked to any of our students, they get assigned a one-on-one career coach to sit down, have those conversation. Am I a career changer? Am I an accelerator? What industries do I need to research and explore more? And then they set you up with 12 coffee chat dates, whether it’s via Zoom or at a coffee shop to chat with people that have gone through this. Maybe if share some similar background and tendencies. And that’s just a really cool experience that you’re not just learning in the classroom from your classmates and from your faculty, but then you’re also having these really eyeopening coffee conversations as well, which I think is a really unique part especially of our career services too. That’s a great way to maximize your full network and that full experience too.

Allen: Great. Thank you very much. Jim, how about at Auburn?

Parrish: With the online program and obviously the network is very important, but I would say that you’re gonna get out of this program as much as you put into it. There are opportunities that are elective options to engage with global immersions, with on-campus orientations, with coming to campus to attend classes, meet professors and attend different events. It’s really gonna be up to you as the online student. The flexibility is great, but it’s going to be, if you want to be more engaged with the full-time experience, you can do that. We’ve invested in a new resource called the War Eagle Way, which is part of our new online orientation course that all our new online students have come into. And that really has helped us make those connections out of the gate. Everyone is connecting virtually right now over the last five months. The playing field has been a little bit equalized with the full-time and online program due to having some events that just have to take place virtually. We’re seeing students connect and seeing folks from different parts of the country that are wanting to engage in more of a group set up or social hour or coffee talk, those types of things, and that’s happening because of our internal course. We’ve also invested in resources in our career services team to help students because I think more and more employers are gonna see the online MBA as a real strong option for their employees. And also, I think you’re gonna see some more pivoting in your career than we have in the past. In the past, an online MBA may have been moving up in one organization, but I think the new students are looking at pivoting to new places. That network connecting to our career services and then those coaches that help you connect to our alumni is one of the major reasons to choose Auburn. We’re excited about where this program is going and we’ve made the investments to make sure the online students had that similar experience by connecting to our network.

Allen: Okay, next, we will go with Jodey from Washington Foster. How about networking there?

Farwell: Same kinds of things that you guys have already mentioned. We have structured regional tracks where we go into company visits in key metropolitan areas and our alumni are invited to that. We have an alumni mentorship where alum mentors our team. We also have an alumni ambassador program. So absolutely the same idea as you guys is once you become a member of the family, we try to engage you as much. And they spent time on Slack, too, trying to get together to do socials when we were allowed to do socials. Hopefully, that day will come back again. But absolutely, it’s that networking and we also try to have that in the fall, when we are able to see each other again, we host an MBA mixer with all the MBA programs at Foster. And that’s just another way, we invite alumni to that as well. And that’s just another way to build a network. And like I think you’ve all said, that’s such a key part of the MBA process is having that networking so that they can, like you said, not just move up within their company, but transition into other industries, into other locations within the country, as well.

Allen: Great. Thank you very much. And Jillian, how about at Southern Methodist?

Melton: What a great question to end on because SMU Cox is recognized consistently as one of the strongest alumni networks of any business school in the world. This is something that we talk all day about, we focus a lot on. And when we talked about the importance of this community aspects earlier on in the panel, I mean, that’s something that we’re really looking for students that want to be active members in that community, engage with our alumni. And then as they become alumni, of course are giving back to the community. So of course, activities like clubs or speaker series. We also have a mentorship program that’s open to all of our students, including our online MBA students. It really is something that’s a really key feature of the program for our students, as well as the rest of your life. Because you will always be an alum of one, I shouldn’t say one of these programs of whichever program you choose. It is a really important part. It’s something I think that every MBA perspective candidate should really be looking a lot at. Thanks for that question.

Allen: Yeah. Thank you. And thank all of you for taking the time and being with us. This was really great. I learned some stuff as well today and I’m sure the participants did as well. We’re grateful for your time and grateful for you all virtually being here with us. Now I’m gonna stop just a few minutes early so people have time to join the breakout rooms with you all. But again, we really appreciate your time and stay safe and be healthy and all that stuff. Thank you very much. Have a good day.