Backstage With Syracuse, Northeastern, Dayton & American Kogod’s Online MBA

Allen: Yeah. Great. And so next I wanna talk a little bit about fit, and Scott, heads up this question will come to you first this time. So in terms of going beyond the numbers, the undergraduate GPAs, the GMATs, all that stuff, what are you all looking for in terms of specific fit to your program? What type of student, what are some of the intangibles, some of the soft skills, as they say, that you all are looking for whenever you’re building a class?

MacDonald: Sure. Because I think that’s one of the most important aspects of picking an MBA program, is your fit, and making sure that you fit with the program, and that you’re comfortable with their teaching style. So, we look for two primary things with applicants. One, will you be successful in the program, that’s an academic view, and the other is, will you add to the program, so what do you bring to the program, so in the class discussions, as you’re working with others, what are you bringing? And what we want is people that have a servant heart. We’re a Catholic Marianist university, serving leadership is a major component of our MBA program and it sort of trickles through all classes that you take. You’ll hear that brought up multiple times. And so individuals that say, “You know what, I wanna learn business, but I wanna learn how to be part of the community good and do well for my community.” That’s a great fit for UD.

Allen: Great. Thank you, thanks for that. Keshia, we’ll come to you next on this question, how about in American, and what sort of fit and culture are you all trying to build through the incoming classes?

Ridley: Sure, so I think as with a lot of programs, within that component of being a fit, it’s also the aspect of what can that student bring back to the program and bring into the program while they’re there, how are they able to kinda enhance those conversations with their peers and faculty? But aside from that, American also really looks for students that are in line with the mission of our school, with Kogod, and that is a force for meaningful change. And so we’re looking for those students that have kinda that passion behind them for really utilizing their degree to make a difference within the world and within the Kogod community, as well as their respective communities as well.

Allen: Great, thanks. I’m sensing a trend now between Dayton and American in terms of the do-gooder mindset that you all are looking for. Is that something that, in the full-time programs, and I’ll direct these questions to both of you who just answered, but in the full-time programs, we hear a lot about the current cohort of MBAs, crop of MBAs, that are looking to kinda do business for good and kinda blend the social, environmental, with the business. Is that something you all see in the online space as well?

MacDonald: Absolutely, absolutely. Yes, yeah, and actually, as Keshia mentioned once before about immersions, we have a servant leadership immersion that students are required to come to campus, spend three days getting immersed in the UD culture, learn about how we’ve used servant leadership. One of the beautiful things we saw from that is the team created a hashtag of #TakeUDHome because they wanna make sure they took that ethos of what they learned here back to their communities because it was so important to them. And so, yeah, absolutely, we see that in our students, and we love it.

Allen: And how about at American, Keshia?

Ridley: Yeah, and if I could just jump in and say, with us similar to that, but also I think even though we’re not in a hybrid program or not a blend, I think American does a great job as far as allowing both the online student population and the residential student population to kinda come together through kinda acts of service and the opportunities that are provided outside of the classroom. So with the online students, having that full access to the resources that all of our students have, it really helps them to like be in line, in a sense, with that residential concept as well.

Allen: Great, thanks. And Amy, fit at Syracuse, and also, I wanna give you the opportunity to answer that question that I threw back there, halfway through this, so if you’re seeing anything, specific trends, in terms of what we just mentioned, feel free to add that in as well.

McHale: Sure, thanks. So yes, we look at our applicant pool holistically. We do wanna make sure that they have proven success in their academics as an undergraduate, we wanna see that they have made good career progression and have contributed at work, and in their communities, because we do wanna have engaged students, we also wanna have students who will engage as alums, and I think we’ve been very successful at that. In our last couple of years of alums, we’ve had them actually go out into the cities in which they live and become part of our alumni boards there, and take a real active part in being part of the broader Syracuse community. So those are some things that we really look at in terms of evaluating our students. And, again, I didn’t mention it earlier, but we obviously also have these immersive in-person experiences too. And we’re trying to use those to come, I guess, not to grips, that’s a little too strong a word, but to make sure that we’re meeting those nascent needs of the community in terms of new coursework. So making sure that we’re being very topical about things that we may only briefly touch on in our coursework. So doing things on sustainability, on blockchain, and the potential uses that blockchain has outside of the financial realm, how can it be used in social entrepreneurship settings and things like that? We’ve got actually a new course coming online in the fall, on sustainability. So that’s kind of how we try and stay in touch with the needs of the students.

Allen: Great. Thanks, Amy. And Brandon, how about you all at Northeastern in terms of what you’re looking for for fit and then anything else you kinda seeing new to the classes that are coming in?

Bennings: Yeah, definitely kind of echoing everyone else’s response here in terms of looking for both academic and professional success, obviously, five years of full-time work experience is an admissions requirement that we hold, and it brings an incredible experience to the cohort and the students, again, makes for great networking opportunities. Also really understanding what the motivation is. Is the person looking to make a career pivot, are they looking to kinda break through a ceiling and move upward, understanding why they’re looking to use the degree, obviously, we want you to be successful in the program, we want you to represent Northeastern as an alum successfully as well. Making sure that you have enough time for the program, so 15 to 20 hours a week, making sure you’re able to dedicate that and be successful in the program, but also just understanding what their ambitions are as well, their motivations and ambitions. Normally, successful students in the program are entrepreneurial, they’re ambitious, lifelong learners, they’re looking to use the MBA to achieve goals and we wanna help them through that process.

Allen: Great, thanks. And we’ll start this next one with Keshia, you’ll go first on this, but Brandon kinda hit on a point in terms of hours a week. I think one of the big, I don’t know, barriers, but at least questions, that people have before entering an online MBA, more so than maybe the full-time, is how do I balance the work, life, school, all that going on? This is a different age group generally, where they’ve got maybe young children, more family members, they’re just a little bit further along in life, and there might be a little bit more hesitancy to how do I juggle all this? So Keshia, what advice do you give to your potential applicants that are thinking about this question?

Ridley: Sure, so the good thing with our program is obviously the flexibility, but our program is truly flexible in the sense of our students are not within a particular cohort, and so with that, they kinda have the real opportunity to go at their own pace. So a lot of times we’ll have the students and we kinda have the conversation as far as, typical students will take about two classes per term, and that will allow them to finish around the 24-month timeframe. However, you don’t have to finish at that point, so we really make sure that they understand that they have the time to commit to the program because we do expect about 20 hours per week towards each course, but we also want them to understand that it is of their pacing. And so we will typically encourage like if for, let’s say your fall term, you’re unable to take two classes, you can take one class, let’s say your workload professionally is a little bit heavier in the winter, but a lot lighter in the summertime, then during your summer term, you can have the opportunity to really maybe take three classes, or expand that way. So that way you’re staying on a cadence that kinda works for you and your scheduling as well as still, again, making that commitment to the actual requirement within the program. And students tend to find that having that opportunity to kind of take a heavier load at a certain time and a lighter load at another time as a beneficial thing, as far as being able to maintain the expectations of the program, as well as their work-life balance.

Allen: Great, thanks. And Amy, how about at Syracuse? How are you all helping walk applicants and students through the balance of work, life, and school?

McHale: So very similar to Keshia, we have a lot of flexibility. We suggest if you are hesitant at all, start with one class, and then if you feel you were comfortable with two, go and add that on. But we realize that yes, accountants may not be able to take two classes in the spring if they’re heavily involved in tax season. So we do encourage flexibility, taking a leave of absence, if need be, but then we stay in touch with them to make sure they’re coming back after that time. We do also have a flexible endpoint within the university’s overall guidelines. The other thing relative to just the number of sections of classes that we offer, we have classes every day of the week, except for Fridays. And so, if a Saturday morning works better for you, or a Wednesday at 7:00 a.m., or a Wednesday at 9:00 p.m., there are all those options so that you can try out what works best. And I find that students often experiment with a couple of patterns like, “Oh, I’m gonna try two back to back this time. Oh, that did not work out well at all, I’m gonna split them, and do one on Tuesday and one on Thursday, so, people will come to figure out what works best with them and the amount of work they need to do outside of the class, the live class to be successful.

Allen: Great. Thanks. And Brandon, how about at Northeastern, how do you all advise students through this process?

Bennings: Yeah, so with the program being 100% online and asynchronous, making sure we have the time to allocate, the way that we design the program is it’s really targeted for full-time working professionals, so you’re only focusing on one course at a time for three to five weeks in length, and then you’re generally looking at about a one-week break after each course. Like I mentioned earlier, you can do it in as little as two years, but you’re also able to space it out up to five years. So there’s a ton of flexibility with the program. One of the advantages, as well as that, we have an incredible Student Support Services Department, and they’re really there to help you process and go through the game plan of whether you’re looking to do each course back to back, and kinda do a degree plan and see what’s gonna work best for you. If you have busy seasons at work, stuff like that, they’re there to help you throughout the entire process, and the entire course, or program as well, pardon me.

Allen: Great. And Scott, what about at Dayton?

MacDonald: Yeah, same, we’re designed for the working professional. So there is a path to a one-year MBA. It’s like skiing, there’s black diamonds, not for everybody. Then there’s the green circles, so you can take up to five years to complete our program. So, you’ve got that flexibility. Most students complete in about a year and a half for us, but you can take a heavier load, one term, a lighter load, you can take a term off, we even have parts of term. So our terms are 11 weeks, and there’s a gap week in the middle. So our 1.5-credit-hour classes, you could take a five-week class in the A and nothing in the B part, if you’ve got a vacation or something planned. So there’s quite a bit of flexibility. And our student advisors will also help in picking your classes, they’ll have a degree plan for you when you say, “I wanna finish in X amount of time.” But it’s also important to balance your classes. If you’re an individual that’s real quantitative and maybe not as strong qualitatively, or vice versa, you might not wanna take two qualitative classes if you’re weak qualitatively, or two quantitative classes. So we help students balance that, even, to make sure that you’re not overloading yourself in the types of classes you’re taking.