Meet Georgetown McDonough’s MBA Class Of 2022

Georgetown McDonough School of Business

COMING PREPARED

It hasn’t been an easy three months for the Class of 2022. In July, the school announced that classes would be held fully online this fall. Despite this, the Class of 2022 has been able to size each other up – and they love what they’ve seen so far.

“I have only been able to meet them on virtual spaces and conferences, but I could instantly identify two things: their great positive energy, and their authentic collaboration spirit” explains Sergio Antonio García Moreno. “In my experience, energy and collaboration are the two key ingredients for success. With them, all obstacles become easier to overcome. I can’t wait to meet my classmates in person.”

Mehmet Kaan Serdar feels the same way. He has been impressed by how cosmopolitan – i.e. well-traveled and polished – his classmates have been. “A lot of schools promote diversity, but few schools exercise integrating students from different cultures successfully. My MBA classmates and I never had a mismatch of frequency when it came to collaborating in pre-school activities so far.”

It is a supportive class says Maya McWhorter – one that is “100% rooting for each other, constantly sharing resources, [and] providing reminders.” You could also call the class well-prepared too. Ashna BIndra notes the classmates would meet on Sundays to prep for cases. She also touts the Career Center for pre-class preparation, something that Mehmet Kaan Serdar found equally valuable.

“I have been working with school advisors to refine my resume, research industries and functions, and improve my network,” Kaan Serdar notes. “Personally, I have increased the amount of reading tech and business news as mastering effective reading is going to benefit me not only in my academic career but also in my future endeavors.”

APPLICATIONS UP, ENROLLMENTS DOWN

By the numbers, Georgetown McDonough managed to weather a COVID-ridden application cycle. This year, the school received 1,482 applications, an uptick of 120 over the previous cycle. This also represents the highest number of applications in three years, when the school attracted 1,742 applications. However, the numbers don’t paint a perfectly healthy picture. After all, the number of students fell from 275 to 247 this year. The reason: 67 accepted applicants deferred business school for another year.

Students competing in the Executive Challenge

Indeed, the class profile reflects a one step forward and one step back dynamic. Average GMAT fell by three points to 691, while median GMAT climbed by 10 points to 700. That said, 54% of the class also took the GRE. Despite fewer students, the class is clearly more diverse. The percentage of women rose from 30% to 32%, a difference doubled by underrepresented minorities who went from 15% to 19% of the Class of 2022. Not surprisingly, international students compose a smaller percentage of the class than the year before, slipping from 30.5% to 28%. Ironically, the class includes students from more countries – 37 total, up five over the 2021 cohort.

Overall, the largest percentage of the incoming class – 26% — holds undergraduate degrees in Business. Math and Physical Science majors make up 16% of the class, with Economics and Engineering majors composing 13% each. Humanities (10%), Government and International Studies (9%), Computer Sciences (6%), and Social Science (2%) majors round out the rest of the class. In terms of industry experience, Financial Services (20.6%) holds the largest number of seats in the class. Other large segments include Technology and New Media (8.1%), Government (7.3%), Consulting (6.9%), and Non-Profits (5.3%).

ON PACE FOR A RECORD-SETTING YEAR

And the news is promising early on in the 2020-2021 application cycle. According to Shelly Heinrich, associate dean for MBA admissions as applications are up 40% over this time the previous year. “It’s not what we expected,” Heinrich tells Poets&Quants in October. “I anticipated we would be up maybe 10% or 15%, but not this much. I think it’s indicative of the economy — we’ve always said that when the economy goes down, applications go back up, and now we’re experiencing it.”

Luckily, the Class of 2022 will enjoy a sturdy safety net. Georgetown’s “Hoya Network” spans 189 countries and covers 200,000 alumni…including over 25,000 McDonough grads. Based on the school’s newly-released employment report, the Class of 2022 are likely to land bigger pay packages than their predecessors too. The 2020 Class watched base pay increase for the fourth consecutive year, topping out at a $128,162 average. At the same time, average bonus jumped by nearly $4,000 to $34,707. In addition, the percentage of MBAs entering Technology climbed five points to 19% — a number that buffeted a combined six-point drop from Financial Services and Consulting.

Certainly, the McDonough programming has added some unique wrinkles in recent years. The program now opens with an Immersion Week, where students grapple with broad issues like cross-cultural differences through role plays and team-building exercises. The school has also added an Executive Challenge. The benefits of this case competition are two-fold: It forces students to apply everything they learned during a semester while exposing them to over 100 alumni judges. The school has also developed Intensive Learning Experiences, week-long electives that take deep dives into specialized areas like lobbying, cybersecurity, water, national security, and work-life balance.

MBA students at Georgetown’s McDonough School

RECRUITERS LOVE STUDENTS’ PENCHANT FOR INNOVATION

McDonough’s prime DC location also enables the program attracts over 200 speakers per year. Many bring star power, with recent speakers including the former chairperson of Louis Vuitton and the co-founder of Home Depot. McDonough is also blessed with a prestige factor thanks to ranking among the best business schools in the United States for Global Business and Non-profit management according to deans and MBA directors surveyed by U.S. News. In a similar U.S. News survey of recruiters, Georgetown McDonough ranked as the top MBA program for Innovation and Creativity, while placing among the five-best for Diversity and Entrepreneurial Mindset.

The pandemic also hasn’t slowed the McDonough MBA in terms of new programming. In June, the school announced a new online MS in Business Analytics. Before that, in the spring, the school rolled out a new MBA certificate in Sustainable Business

“A heightened curricular focus on sustainable business supports Georgetown McDonough’s goal to educate students to be responsible business leaders,” explains Paul Almeida, dean and William R. Berkley chair, in a 2019 interview with P&Q. “The certificate reflects Georgetown McDonough’s focus on educating our students in ways that can help them enhance their own success, help businesses achieve their goals and at the same time make the world a better place.”

AN INTERVIEW WITH PRASHANT MALAVIYA

Looking ahead, the McDonough MBA will be implementing a hybrid learning model this spring. At the same time, it will be holding its required Global Business Experience, which pairs student teams with global companies and NGOs for an international consulting project. Unfortunately, the school’s international travel moratorium will remain in effect. That’s not the only news from the school. Recently, P&Q reached out to Prashant Malaviya, senior associate dean for MBA programs, to learn more about new developments at the school. In addition, Malaviya discussed the impact of the school’s Jesuit roots and why the program earns such high marks in areas like innovation. Here are his thoughts…

P&Q: What are the most exciting new developments at your program?

PM: “Last year, we modified our MBA leadership curriculum to include a week-long intensive course in the opening term called Leading Teams for Performance and Impact. This course covers topics including the dynamics of diversity and inclusion, implicit biases, conflict and civility, and giving and receiving feedback. We feel it’s important for students to begin their studies at Georgetown with this framework, which will serve them during their time with us and well after graduation.

Georgetown McDonough’s campus is less than five miles from Amazon’s new HQ in Northern Virginia. Georgetown photo

This fall, we will offer two new electives for our students — one on Innovation through Inclusion and another on Social Marketing for Social Good. The latter course is part of our new MBA Certificate in Sustainability, which we launched last winter.

Last spring, we also announced the addition of a STEM-designated management science major to our MBA program. This is a culmination of our work over the past five years to add more quantitative and management science content to our core and elective courses as we worked with employers to identify areas of need. This new major will better prepare our students for careers within the technology sector, as well as technology-focused jobs within all other industries and sectors. Technology is a growing industry of choice among our students, and our location in Washington, D.C., which is a growing technology hub (especially with the addition of Amazon’s HQ2 nearby). The designation also will offer eligible international students the opportunity to apply for a STEM OPT extension of their work authorization.”

P&Q: What are the two most unique or differentiating features of your full-time program? How do they enrich the MBA experience?

PM: “At Georgetown McDonough, our community is a defining feature. As a Jesuit school, we truly believe in cura personalis, or care of the whole person, and that shines through in how we strive to provide individual attention and care for our students’ academic and personal lives. We also have a collaborative culture, where students go out of their way to take care of one another. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this has manifested itself in numerous ways, from the program team staff organizing a virtual Oscars-like ceremony for our end-of-the-year awards to our students organizing McDonough Month, where they focused on a new theme each week — including wellness, creativity, and games. Perhaps the most telling is how this year’s second-year students created virtual social programming this summer and included the first-year students to welcome them to our community.

Prashant Malaviya

The other is our location in Washington, D.C. Even in a virtual environment, it helps us provide experiences, expertise, and connections not found elsewhere. As a global capital city, DC is home to embassies, multinationals, nonprofits, and the headquarters of numerous businesses — including Amazon’s new HQ2. It is where the worlds of business, policy, and international relations meet, and we believe that a well-rounded MBA graduate will have exposure to all three of these to be successful.”

P&Q: How has COVID-19 impacted your business school?

PM: “Like other schools, we have prioritized the health and safety of our community in all of our decisions regarding our operations during the pandemic. Fortunately, our MBA students had completed their global consulting projects before we fully transitioned to a virtual learning environment this spring.

Community is important at McDonough, and I’m proud of how our entire Hoya community came together in support of one another during this time. We have seen an increase in alumni interacting with our students — from hiring them as interns or into full-time jobs to speaking in classes. We also are launching a mentorship program where 200 alumni will work with our incoming students. Our faculty rose to the challenge of not simply teaching their same courses via Zoom, but instead re-imagining them and designing them in a way that maximizes learning and engagement for our students. Our staff continues to provide the same individualized care and attention to our students, whether on our admissions team welcoming new students, our program team advising our existing students, or our career team working with students on their job planning.

And, of course, our students have been amazing. This is not the way any of us envisioned 2020 to transpire, yet they have sought out the opportunities among the challenges and continue to find ways to stay engaged with the school and one another. From social gatherings to social justice work, they have been operating with the same intensity and passion as when we were in-person.”

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