Duke Adds A 4th MBA Admission Round

Duke Adds A 4th MBA Admission Round

Duke Fuqua School of Business is the latest to adjust its admissions calendar in response to mass layoffs in the tech industry and other Assistant Dean of Admissions Allison Jamison notes have been significant recent challenges. Duke photo

The tech industry continues to implode. Covid is surging again. And the war in Ukraine rages on.

These are just some of the challenges faced by candidates for graduate business education worldwide, sparking changes in admissions calendars at many elite MBA programs (see here and here, and the links at the bottom of this story). The latest top U.S. B-school to adjust to the radically shifting workplace realities is Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, which has announced an extension to its MBA application round 3 and the creation of a fourth round.

“The past three years have been some of the most unusual in my 17 years at Fuqua,” writes Allison Jamison, assistant dean of admissions at the Fuqua School, in a recent blog. “The impact of COVID on our lives was significant. In addition to the pandemic, we face new challenges: geopolitical struggles, rising inflation, large scale layoffs, supply chain disruptions, and more. There’s a lot going on in the world, and a lot of what is happening can feel overwhelming.”

TECH EMPLOYMENT & WEST COAST RELOCATION DOWN AT DUKE IN 2022

Duke Adds A 4th MBA Admission Round

Allison Jamison, Duke Fuqua assistant dean of admissions: “In addition to the pandemic, we face new challenges: geopolitical struggles, rising inflation, large scale layoffs, supply chain disruptions, and more”

The layoffs have become big news. On January 5, Amazon announced its latest cuts, reducing its workforce by 18,000 “roles,” an extension of a previously announced round of layoffs that was to affect 10,000 workers. According to Tech Crunch, the cuts “represent just 1.2% of Amazon’s 1.5 million global headcount.” Amazon’s moves came one day after Salesforce announced it would be cutting 7,000 jobs, or about 10% of its workforce.

According to True Up, a website that tracks layoffs across big tech, tech unicorns, and top startups, there have been 45 layoffs at tech companies through the first week of 2023 alone, affecting nearly 20,000 people. The site tracked 1,517 layoffs at tech companies last year impacting 237,874. Another website, Layoffs.fyi, numbers the 2023 firings at more than 18,000 at 36 tech companies.

In its latest employment report, released in November, Duke Fuqua reports that 23% of its MBA Class of 2022 went into the tech industry, second-most of any sector after consulting. However, that is down from 27% in 2021 and 2020 and a high of 28% in 2018; West Coast relocation also took a hit, down to 25% from 28% the previous year. Interestingly, 18 Duke MBAs were hired at Amazon — down from 33 in 2021, though hiring of Fuqua grads was up at other tech employers Microsoft, Google, and Dell.

ROUND 3 APPLICANTS MUST PROVIDE GMAT OR OTHER TEST SCORE

Responding to the shifting landscape, Duke has extended its Round 3 application deadline to February 13, and added a Round 4 deadline of March 28. The application itself will be available by January 13.

To give applicants maximum prep time, “we’ll also allow students to apply by February 13 as long as they have a standardized test (GMAT, GRE, or Executive Assessment) scheduled to be taken by February 28,” Jamison writes. “Self-reported scores can be given to Fuqua after the student takes the test and before admissions decisions are made.”

She adds that the Fuqua School’s admissions team has created a series of virtual sessions covering each component of the application, as well as “a special session on the Executive Assessment exam and who should consider it, in-person fair events and essay workshops, and more.” The school also has created a series of short videos with application tips.

NOT ABOUT BOOSTING APPS

Fuqua’s move is not about boosting applications overall, which were up in Round 2 compared to last year, Jamison writes.

“We know that many of the challenges applicants are facing are new, maybe only occurring within the last couple of weeks,” she writes. “And so rather than changing our admissions requirements in the middle of our application year, we made the decision to change the timing and number of our remaining application rounds.

“In this way, we can meet these candidates where they are in this process, which may be in the very early stages.”

To learn more about application instructions, deadlines, and decision releases at Duke Fuqua, click here.

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