P&Q’s Must Reads: Top Business Schools Offer Help To Professionals In Uncertain Market

Hello everyone  –- Welcome back to Poets&Quants’ Must Reads, a quick, digestible recap of the top business school news, sponsored by Purdue University’s Online MBA program.

I’m your host, Kristy Bleizeffer, and I’ll be highlighting the most important P&Q stories you might have missed. So, let’s get to it.  

No. 1: Top Business Schools Offer Help To Professionals In Uncertain Market

Last month, we heard from several top business schools making overtures to thousands of laid-off tech workers. Northwestern Kellogg was the first to announce its plans to waive test requirements to laid off techies. Other schools followed suit – including MIT Sloan School of Management, Indiana’s Kelley School of Business, UC Berkeley Haas, Georgia Tech Scheller, and NYU Stern. Offers range from waiving application fees and test requirements to extending application deadlines.

This week, another business school, Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business announced plans to reach out to any business professional facing job uncertainty. The school will host two free virtual panels to give workers practical advice and resources, delivered by the schools career experts and alumni. You can register for either or both panels on our website.

No. 2: Average GMAT Scores At The Top U.S. MBA Programs

What does it take to get into a top MBA program? In terms of test scores, we’ve crunched the numbers. 

Many of the top MBA programs in the United States had great admissions cycles leading to the enrollment of the Class of 2024, especially in the area of test score averages. None had a better year than USC Marshall School of Business. The Marshall School enrolled an MBA class with a 732 average Graduate Management Admission Test score, up 16 points from the score reported for the Class of 2021. 

The massive jump put the Marshall School in the company of many of the biggest names in graduate business education — and ahead of several others. Its 732 average was the third-largest reported in 2022, behind only Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, and NYU Stern School of Business.

Get the latest GMAT data from all the top ranked schools in our trending tab. 

 No. 3: The Most Disruptive Business School Startups Of 2022

For our second edition of Poets&Quants’ “Most Disruptive Business School Startups,” we present 21 detailed profiles of undergraduate student ventures from top business schools, ranging from the Wharton School to Notre Dame to the University of California-Berkeley.

This year’s class isn’t just breaking new ground. They’re seeking to ‘democratize” the entire field through accessibility, reliability, convenience, and cost. They are seeking to change behavior around food waste or gain acceptance for traditional Muslim attire. They are building online platforms and mobile apps – even writing children’s books for a larger mission. Most times, they are harnessing talent from across their universities to bring their ideas to life.

Read about all the disruptive startups in our news tab. 

No. 4: Our Weekly Round Up of  News You Can Use

No matter where you are in your MBA journey, we bring several helpful stories for you this week.

First up: Don’t miss our second annual $50,000 pitch competition with Washington University’s Olin Business School. The BIG IdeaBounce® is a pitch contest open to all current business school students. Submit your idea in an easy-to-complete online form by January 15, 2023. Get full entry details, and more on that $50,000 prize, in our news tab.

Next: For the all the aspiring entrepreneurs looking for the right MBA program, we offer Pitchbook’s 2022 list of best university programs for startup founders. You can likely guess which school came out on top, no drum roll needed. Read the full list and analysis in our news tab. 

Finally: This week, we’ve added several helpful stories for those thinking about those daunting MBA applications. They include, “4 Steps To Securing A Deferred MBA At An M7,” “A Personal MBA Coach’s 7-Week Round 2 MBA Application Plan,” and “How To Optimize LinkedIn When Applying For The MBA.” Find them all, and much more, in our Admissions Hub.  

And, that’s it for this week’s Must Reads recap. 

I also want to alert all the school seekers out there to CentreCourt’s upcoming MBA Festival, where you’ll get front-row seats to leaders of some of the top MBA programs. Our next event is February 7-8, and is the must-attend event for any serious MBA candidate. Register now for free.

Again, I’m Kristy Bleizeffer, and you can join me next week, right here, for a recap of what’s important in the world of business education. Thanks for listening and, as always, stay informed!