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

Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business

Allen: Yeah, yeah, I think with those that have been fortunate enough to keep their jobs and work remotely during this time, have been able to realize that you can maintain connections virtually a little bit easier. So that might be less of an issue moving forward after this. So a followup to that question then, except focusing on alumni and how you all introduce your students to the alumni, when do they first get access to the alumni network, what are some things, structurally, that you all have in place to foster connections for new students and to the alumni network? Scott, we’ll start with you, it’s your turn to go first.

MacDonald: Okay, so in all of our immersions, we generally have on one of the evenings, an event that we invite local alumni, so if they wanna come in. So that’s during the program, we’ve got a number of people in the program that are actually undergrad alumni. So you get a sense of those folks. We actually, it was around 17% of our students are UD alumni that are in the program. And then, certainly afterward, you have full access to the Flyers community, and it is a very active community all over the country. I always joke with people about, when you’re here for an immersion, pick up some Flyer gear, because when you’re walking through an airport wearing a UD shirt, somebody’s gonna say, “Go Flyers,ā€ you’re gonna get a comment. And it’s amazing, the affinity UD has with its alumni. And there’s well over 150,000 alumni around the country, and then we’ve got over 30,000 MBA alumni. So we’ve got a lot of folks around the country, and you’re part of that community.

Allen: Great. Keshia, how about at American?

Ridley: Yeah, so I think, well, one, we have a great Alumni Relations Office, and we have a Great Director of Alumni Relations. He’s done a great job really putting on new activities and events to where students can participate and attend, to just get that social networking with some of our alumni, to build that relationship. Aside from that, we do also have an alumni networking opportunity at our immersion experience where even, I mean, in 2018, we went to China, and we probably had, I would say, 40 alumni, show up. And so like the network is pretty vast across the country and across the world, and so bringing those students to actually engage with the current students through the immersion experience is also something that we’ve seen as beneficial because they really get to have those more direct one-on-one conversations. And then we also just allow our students to engage with that in the earlier part of the process as well. So we’re speaking with a prospective student, and maybe there’s an alumni that sticks out, particularly to us, we might say, hey, this sounds very familiar and connected to what you’re interested in. Like, let’s try to connect you to this alumni so that you can get a better understanding as far as what their experience was, either when they were in the program, or even post-program, to kinda connect what your concepts are, what your ideas are, as far as what you’re looking for, to what they actually experienced.

Allen: Great, thanks. And Amy, what about at Syracuse?

McHale: So in my welcome letter that they get from me, we actually suggest that they join the Whitman LinkedIn Group, which includes current students and alums. And then as I mentioned, we obviously try and bring alumni into the orientation part of our immersions, but we also, when we are not on campus, well, when we’re on campus, but also when we go to other cities, so typically our fall immersion is in another domestic city, and so we will also invite alums to join us for those receptions. The same thing when we’re international, we typically have an international immersion in January and in July, so we’re utilizing that then. As students graduate, they get another letter from me, as well as co-written by the Director of Alumni Engagement, to talk about how they can continue to stay connected to both the Whitman alums, but also the greater Syracuse community of alums. So we try and reinforce all the time, that they are part of this much bigger network, and to take full advantage of it.

Allen: Great. And Brandon, how about at Northeastern? You talked earlier about the really large alumni numbers, how do you introduce the students to all of them?

Bennings: Yeah, definitely. So again, as an online student, you get all the same resources, all the same access as someone who has completed their online, or MBA on campus, so, as soon as you graduate, you have extensive access to our alumni network, you’re also able to join multiple LinkedIn groups that we do have. And again, all of our career expos, our networking nights typically held once a month, you have access to all of those as well. And really just going back to it being 100% online, we do have the two optional residency programs, similar to some of my colleagues here, but we have alumni all over the world, and we have different campuses all over the world as well. So there’s nowhere that you’re gonna be, that we don’t have an alumni that you’re not gonna be able to connect with. Then LinkedIn groups, again, a great way to connect with your colleagues as well.

Allen: Great. Yeah, thanks. So next I wanna transition a little bit to careers and career services. The full-time MBA is, the traditional residential one is one that a lot of students use these days to make what they call the triple jump, changing functions, industries, companies. The online MBA has traditionally been more of a degree for students who are seeking to maybe move up in their organization or stay within the same company but take a different position within that company. But for students who are wanting to more make the switch to a different company, a different job function, and different industry, what are some resources you all have for those students? And Amy, we’ll start with you.

McHale: So we do have a very robust Career Services Program. As part of that, our students who have at least 10 years of work experience, which is most of our population, have access to an executive career coach to actually talk through what it is that they’re seeking to do and help them to pivot if that’d be the case or to continue to advance in their current industry and company. We, again, we’ll utilize the alumni network if we know kind of, as Keshia was saying, if we know of a particular student that works at a company that might be one that a student wants to move to or an industry they wanna move into, we try and make those connections. Our students have access to LinkedIn premium as a student, so that’s a way for them to really make a lot more advanced reach-out to people that they wanna learn from. And so I think we’ve seen a pretty good success rate, both in terms of students who do wanna pivot into something new, and also those people who are hoping that they get a raise or a promotion as a result of their program.

Allen: And I’m guessing that you don’t have these numbers directly in front of you, but generally speaking, how common or popular is it for people to use the MBA at Syracuse for a career change of some sort?

McHale: For a career change, I just was looking at some career services numbers, and I’d say roughly 1/3 of our students probably do engage with career services, but the percentage that actually look at it for a complete pivot, I don’t have that at my fingertips. I’m sorry.

Allen: That’s okay. It was kind of a curveball question there. So how about at Northeastern, Brandon? I know the Cooperative Education Program is huge within other degree programs. Does that play any role in the online MBA, and what are some other ways in which students can connect with Career Services there?

Bennings: Yeah, so definitely. So once you’re 50% of the way through the online MBA program, you do gain lifelong access to our Graduate Career Center, and we will match you up with the graduate career advisor based off of your specific industry and interests, whatever you’re really looking to either gain a foothold in or break into. Based off of our 2020 graduate survey, we found that actually 38% of students are looking for a complete career change or pivot. So with your dedicated graduate group advisor, they’re really there to help you with anything job-related, like I mentioned earlier, resume-building, mock interviews, cover letter feedback, they’re there with you all the way up into negotiations for compensation. And then once you placed, again, they’re there to help you maintain and leverage your network. You also gain access to exclusive MBA-level job postings through Global Talent System that will have a lot of different fee-based projects in there that would normally be fee-based. But because you’re part of Northeastern University, they’re not gonna be fee-based for you in that GTS system as well.

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

MacDonald: So students have access immediately to the Hire Flyer network and the Career Services through the university. When you’re an alumni, you have lifelong access to all the Hire Flyer services. And we also encourage folks to get active on LinkedIn. There’s plenty of alumni around the country that wanna help and wanna help the fellow Flyers. So we’ve got a very robust career services capability. And I would say as far as job changes and pivots, our curriculum’s the same for the on-ground, the online, so I think that myth of online MBAs are more for just advancement in what you’re doing, at least for us, it’s not true because it’s the exact same stuff our on-ground students are learning, and students can certainly get into other industries, and do the triple jump, or single jump, or double jump, or all the above.

Allen: All the jumps, long jumps, all of them. Keshia, how about in American?

Ridley: Yeah, so at American, as an online student, once you’re admitted into the program, you can then have access to our Career Advisor that’s specific for the online program. And we probably have, I would say, maybe around 1/3 of our students that are looking for that career change. I think that also plays into the background of our students again, to where we have very diverse student backgrounds, so not everybody is coming from the business field initially, but with utilizing their career advisor, we also have the Center for Career Engagement, which is a Kogod office, but they have the full resources there for the on-campus office. And as the other programs, once you’re an alumni, you do have lifetime access to those services as well. We also do offer the LinkedIn premium so students have that opportunity to engage. The one thing I would like to add, I guess, that’s a little bit different is, or the concept of thinking of, there’s also the component that the students have to put forth some effort when it comes to this. So the resources are there, so it’s just really making sure to utilize those resources, to get the best benefit for what you’re looking for. And we do have, again, the advisors, whether it be academic and student success advisors, or career advisors, to really help kinda lead you in the right direction to those resources, it’s just them actually utilizing them for your benefit.

Allen: And are you seeing any changes in terms of students who are pivoting or making those changes with the American online MBA?

Ridley: As far as students that are in the program, I would say maybe not yet. I will say within reading the essays and kinda looking at the applications, you do see a lot of people starting to comment as far as how the impact of COVID has now made them think a little bit deeper as far as what they wanna do, or how they wanna get to their ultimate professional goals. And so with that, you can see a little bit of a shift there as far as the mentality is changing, but we haven’t seen that actually play out to a real-time to see what that will look like in the actual program or post-enrollment.

Allen: Gotcha, and for this next question, Keshia will stay with you and then work our way backward to the order that we just did now. Speaking of COVID, online programs are obviously getting a lot more looks right now, people are considering them a lot more, especially since many other normally residential programs are going online and kind of transitioning at least to a little bit of a hybrid model, how do you all stay relevant and ahead of the competition, not just with the other online MBA programs on the market, but now with part-time programs and residential programs moving forward?

Ridley: Sure, I think that’s one place where we have the benefit, right, because we’ve been doing this for a little bit. So, we’ve kind of worked out some of the kinks as far as what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to presenting a program, especially a program of the magnitude of an MBA, and the rigor of the curriculum, and making those shifts and those pivots to where we’re providing great curriculum, great exposure, the faculty is engaged, and involved within the actual planning, but then also the actual production of what we offer. And so, with COVID I think, again, students are thinking a little bit more about it, and so the interest has definitely picked up based on COVID. With that, I think it’s our job, as far as on the admission side, to really make sure that they understand the importance and how this can be beneficial, as far as the longterm effects when it comes to their professional goals, but then also kinda how it can be utilized as a, it’s essentially an investment, so utilized as an investment to thus build upon if they were, or weren’t thinking about whatever those longterm goals might be. And now, you have the opportunity, so why not take advantage of that to really just set yourself up for better success?

Allen: Great. Thanks. And Scott, how about you all at Dayton, what are some things that you might say to students who maybe have never considered the online space, but now are looking at it seriously?

MacDonald: I think one of the great things about the online space and the way we’re structured, is you get the best of both worlds. UD is a top-tier research institution, our faculty are well-known for their research. As a business person to look at it and go, “So what, they’re academics.” Well, with the asynchronous and synchronous components, our faculty developed the asynchronous. And so you get the great researchers and academicians talking about here’s the theory, here’s the material that you need to know. The live sessions are taught by adjuncts, which are working professionals, they’re in the trenches every day, working with this material. They can talk about, “This is what happened today at the office.” The individuals we have leading our live sessions are executives from all over the country and are leaders in their field. So you’re getting marketing classes from chief marketing officers, you’re getting IT classes from chief information officers. And so they can talk about what’s happening today in the office and relate it to the theories in the academics that you learned in the asynchronous.

Allen: Great, thanks. And Brandon, at Northeastern, how are you all staying relevant ahead of the competition?

Bennings: Yeah, I think that’s a great question, especially now with so many programs being forced to go online. And just kinda carrying off of what Scott said, very, very similar, our program was designed by expert designers and instructors, who are always focusing with the learner in mind. With that being said, we’re always looking to refresh our content and our technology as well. We’re currently in the process of transitioning from Blackboard to Canvas, and with our AACSB accreditation, which is basically a five-year peer-to-peer review process, just basically ensures everything that you’re gonna learn within the program is the most up-to-date information in terms of business education. So it’s designed to make you successful, both while you’re in the program, and when you graduate as well.

Allen: Great. Amy, how about at Syracuse?

McHale: So, again, I think we have the experience, and our program was always designed to be online. So the faculty take about eight months to translate a course that they may have taught on campus to something online. And that includes, how do students best learn, how do they digest information? So you’ll find that our 90 minutes of asynchronous video is usually broken up into eight or 10 segments. So if I’m commuting, and I’d been commuting, from Long Island to New York City, I can just digest three or four sections and then come back later on and pick up where I left off. It’s not just something that had to go into a hybrid mode due to the circumstances. And I think from a, how do we stay current and stay ahead of things, one of the things that we are starting to experiment with is actually let’s try a class completely synchronously to see if it gains traction with students. So as an example, we are having a course come up this fall that is entirely live session only on Python for business because for students in the analytical space, that’s a key skill set to have. Perhaps if we get the demand that we think we’re gonna see, then we will go build that as a truly complete online course in our program.

Allen: Great, thanks so much. So we’ve got just a couple minutes left, so I’m going to lift something that I saw John Byrne, our Editor-in-Chief, do yesterday with a panel, and that’s a lightning round to end this. So Keshia, you’ll go first and then we’ll go, Scott, Brandon, and Amy. And so the prompt is in three words at most, you can do less than three words, one, two, or three words, describe the student experience at your school. So I’ll give you a few seconds to think about it and then we’ll go into it. All right, Keshia, three words.

Ridley: Oh, the pressure. I would say definitely engaging, students have that opportunity to really be involved. I would also say informative, the content is really heavy in where it needs to be, to really give the students a foundation that they’re looking for. And I’m struggling for a third word, but I would probably have to say just beneficial. There is still the end goal, which is, return of investment, so.

Allen: The first part is the toughest, and you pulled it out. Great. Scott.

MacDonald: I would probably say humanistic, problem-solving.

Allen: All right, we’ll leave it at that. Brandon?

Bennings: I’d have to say innovative, experiential, and global.

Allen: Great. Amy?

McHale: Rewarding, fulfilling, and transformative.

Allen: Oh, you guys all did a great job at that. Thank you so much, and thanks for your time. We’ll let you go now. In five minutes, participants can go into the breakout rooms with you all, but again, we’re really grateful for you all being here and sharing your insights and participating in this. It was very beneficial, and I’m sure everyone learned quite a bit. For everyone else watching, the breakout rooms will be available in about five minutes, and then at the top of the next hour, we’ll have our next panel, and then we’ll have one more panel today, so two more panels to go. Again, this is Poets&Quants, our live Online MBA Admissions Event. Thanks, everyone. Have a great day.

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