Full-Time MBA Class of 2025: Emory Impresses

Emory Goizueta’s Full-time MBA programs may be small by design but they are big on talent. The Class of 2025 brings an impressive mix of professional experiences and diverse, global backgrounds.

For the second year in a row, Goizueta saw an increase in applications and an increase in talent among the applicant pool. The incoming class features a healthy mix of activists and advocates, consultants and marketers, healthcare professionals and military veterans with an average work experience of six years, an average GPA of 3.47 (up from 3.38), and a median GMAT score of 720 (up from 710).

While many bring business experience with them coming from roles in consulting, brand management, and analytics or have already launched their own companies, others are looking to leverage their Emory MBA for a major career switch. There is a senior marketing manager who managed OREO and Cadbury accounts and led Oreo crossover marketing with the KPop band Blackpink; a program manager who lead 30 new product innovation programs including Sharpie, Papermate, EXPO, and Elmer’s delivering $1.8B in projected revenue by 2025; the co-founder of Living Lagos, a luxury hospitality company offering high-end apartment, beach house, and boat rentals; and the lead of strategy and innovation for People Like Us, a 5013c non-profit that partners with schools and community theaters to provides individuals with developmental disabilities a fun and effective social, emotional, and workforce skills learning environment using the performing arts.

Then, there is the accomplished helicopter air ambulance pilot who was the first-ever female pilot for Children’s healthcare of Atlanta; a transportation engineer who designed 3 award-winning roundabouts; a ballerina who performed at the White House, the Kennedy Center, the Warner Theater, and the National Gallery of Art; a metallurgical engineer who was part of a project to extract rare earth elements from discarded CFLs for economic value and preventing Mercury from impacting the environment; and a senior user experience researcher at Vietnam’s first gaming unicorn who helped design KIKI, the first voice assistant in Vietnamese.

These students are also bringing a wealth of lived experiences. There are Varsity Football players from Harvard and Princeton, an All-Conference Rugby player, captains of swim teams and tennis teams, hikers, poker players, a J24 racer, triathletes, marathoners, bodybuilders, and golfers. More than a few dog lovers, wine and whiskey enthusiasts, podcasters, readers, published authors, and one self-described avid lawncare enthusiast also are joining Goizueta. Collectively, they speak more than two dozen languages and have received too many academic, philanthropic, and leadership awards to mention individually.

Other equally impressive students in this cohort include:

• Founder and CEO of InteroMate, a startup that has created data-driven AI for police investigation
• An LG engineer who helped perfect the company’s first outdoor product, lawn mower robot “L9”
• A Department of State Meritorious Honor Award recipient who was a first responder and lead Russian interpreter for the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv following a military aircraft crash
• A lawyer turned investment banker who executed three commercial paper transactions valued at $24M in six months
• Owner of War Games Paintball, the first professional paintball center in Ghana

While this group brings a wide range of experiences, they have many things in common. They have ambitious career goals. They want to be part of a tight-knit community that will actively support them over the next two years. They want the cultural vibrancy and deep industry connections that come with living in a major, U.S. city. They found all of this and more at Goizueta.

Goizueta is the only top-20 MBA with small by-design classes delivered in a major, U.S. city. It also consistently delivers top-5 career outcomes. Explore both of Emory’s Full-time MBA programs—a Two-Year MBA and an accelerated One-Year MBA. Applications for the next admissions cycle opened August 1.

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Melissa Rapp is the Associate Dean of Graduate Admissions at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. In this role, she leads the team responsible for the recruitment, evaluation, and matriculation of students across Goizueta’s portfolio of MBA and specialized masters programs. Melissa has worked at both small and large institutions helping to form and implement admissions strategies. Prior to joining Goizueta, she was Director of Admissions for Full-Time MBA and MSMS programs at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.