Meet Washington Foster’s MBA Class Of 2025

CLASS PROFILE

The Class of 2025 features 111 full-time MBA students, up from 96 students last year. The class produced a 702 average GMAT, with scores ranging from 660-740 in the mid-80% range. Another 31.5% of the class took the GRE, where the score averaged 321.6. The class also brought a 3.34 average undergraduate GPA to Foster.

As a whole, women account for 47% of the class, with underrepresented minorities holding 24% of the class seats. The class is also slightly older this year, averaging 29 years of age. At 56% of the class, international students make up the majority of the class, with 17 countries represented in total.

Academically, the largest segment of the class – 34% –  hold undergraduate degrees in Engineering-related fields. Business and Economics majors constitute 22% and 11% class shares respectively, with Mathematics and Computer Sciences cracking double digits at 10%, The rest of the class includes majors from Art and Humanities (5%), Biological and Agricultural Sciences (5%), Social and Behavioral Sciences (5%), and Health (4%).

PRAISE FOR THOMAS GILBERT AND JENNIFER GRAVES

Aside from experiential learning, the Foster MBA also excels in Marketing, where students and alumni gave it the highest score for its Marketing programming in The Princeton Review MBA Ranking last week. In the same survey, Foster ranked #1 for its Resources for Women and Top 10 for its Campus Environment and Administration. In addition, Foster finished 14th in North America for the scope and quality of its research according to the annual UT Dallas Business Research ranking.

The program also maintains a reputation for teaching excellence. Among the standouts, you’ll find Professor Thomas Gilbert, who teaches the core Corporate Finance course. His efforts sparked Jeremy Teague’s interest in the field, which led him to sign up for a Finance elective this fall. Aysha Ayub Mushtaq was drawn to Gilbert’s “passion” for the field, just one of the qualities that made his class a “game-changer” for Harkarn Singh Bains.

“As a first-generation college and graduate student, I’ve faced my fair share of learning curves, especially in financial literacy. Entering the MBA program, I aimed for a career in Finance, but it was Professor Gilbert’s class that truly opened my eyes to how much I didn’t know about the fundamentals of finance and the workings of money. Despite being one of the toughest classes I’ve ever tackled, it turned out to be one of the most rewarding learning experiences of my academic journey.”

Jennifer Graves is popular among first-years and alumni alike. A teacher of Statistics and Project Management, Graves brings corporate experience from Bain & Company and Starbucks to the classroom. However, her differentiator, says Chinmayee Shenvi, is how she “breathes life into even the driest of topics” through her storytelling and anecdotes. Irfan Vengasseri, a ’24 graduate, was equally smitten with Graves’ teaching.

“Jenny stood out for her ability to simplify and connect theoretical content to practical application, stemming from her extensive industrial experience in consulting and strategy. She consistently highlighted the relevance of classroom teachings to our future careers post-MBA, ensuring that we understood the practical significance of our learning. Jenny was proactive in seeking and incorporating student feedback, and her passion for teaching was evident from the sheer energy and enthusiasm she brought to every class.”

THE EMERALD CITY

Better still, Foster is based in Seattle, a proverbial “Yes, and” city that melds an innovation mindset with corporate might that’s tempered by the majestic glory of the Pacific Northwest. Chinmayee Shenvi calls Seattle “a career springboard for MBAs” – while hyping the “hike trails and ski slopes” and “coveted islands and serene lakes.” In Seattle, there is the diversity of industries – technology, manufacturing, aerospace, retail, healthcare, and venture capital being among those cited by the Class o 2025. At the same time, it is just a short drive to bike the Cheshiahud Lake Loop or kayak in Lake Union. There is always Mount Rainier serving as a backdrop. That doesn’t count Seattle’s turbocharged startup ecosystem, which has attracted $23.5 billion dollars in VC funding over the past five years (and spun out 17 unicorns in the last three years).

“Seattle boasts of a vibrant ecosystem of corporate giants like Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon, and Starbucks, providing diverse experiential learning,” adds Rabeea Ayesha. “There are tons of fun networking opportunities, all the way from formal events to casual coffee shop meetups. Amidst the stunning Pacific Northwest, we find balance with outdoor adventures and cultural exploration. Seattle’s dynamic culture, from world-class museums to diverse, eclectic neighborhoods, fuels our creativity and ambition, making it the perfect backdrop for our MBA journey at Foster.”

Alas, Foster sometimes gets labeled a tech school thanks to its Seattle home. While 39% of the 2023 Class ultimately accepted offers in Technology, the program is highly respected in other fields too says Kristen Bales, a 2024 MBA grad.

“While it’s true that our proximity to tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon offers exciting opportunities, my experience from my fellow classmates paints a different picture. Upon graduation, many of my peers have secured positions at prestigious consulting firms such as Bain, McKinsey, Accenture, and Deloitte, as well as financial institutions like Wells Fargo and Meridian Capital, and renowned global companies like Starbucks. This diverse range of post-MBA roles illustrates the extensive career opportunities available to Foster graduates, debunking the myth that it’s solely a pipeline for tech. With its comprehensive curriculum, extensive network, experiential learning opportunities, and career development resources, Foster caters to a wide range of career aspirations beyond the tech sector.”

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ASSISTANT DEAN

This summer, P&Q reached out to Erin Town, assistant dean for the Full-time, Evening, and Global MBA programs. From new developments to students’ favorite hangouts, here are the program highlights – and some unexpected benefits you might not know that Foster offers.

P&Q: What have been the two most important developments in your MBA program over the past year? What type of impact will they have on current and future MBAs?

Town: “The Foster School has a rich tradition of courses built on providing future business leaders with applied machine learning and artificial intelligence tools that are an increasingly valued skill set in industry. Our Marketing Analytics specialization takes advantage of our location in Seattle, where we have direct access to major companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Expedia, and Starbucks that are using cutting edge practices in this arena. To enhance student learning in this crucial field, last year we introduced a “Data Management for Analytics” course into the core for both Full-Time and Evening MBAs. Information is power, and the course prepares all Foster MBAs to work with relational databases to retrieve and manipulate information about the activities of customers and organizations. Students and graduates can then pair these skills with statistical, ML, and AI tools elsewhere in the curriculum to turn data and information into insight useful for decision-making. We received very positive feedback about this innovation from employers and have seen a dramatic increase in our students’ ability to make data-informed decisions.

Another crucial development has been our ability to quickly pivot and adjust our recruitment methods to ensure our students are finding outstanding post-MBA opportunities in this ever-changing job market. Since COVID, many companies have moved to virtual recruiting, broadening the list of schools they work with. Location doesn’t always present the same advantages as it used to. To address this, our Career Management team shifted their focus from traditional recruiting activities to creating opportunities for students to interact with employers in meaningful ways. Often the focus of the event or activity isn’t recruiting; rather, we are presenting students with opportunities to engage deeply with companies and showcase their newly acquired MBA skills. This intentional engagement naturally leads to job opportunities.

A specific example of this happens during Launch, our orientation program for new students. During September, student teams are sent to 3-4 companies (Microsoft, Starbucks, Google, and PWC are recent examples), where they can engage with company representatives and learn about a particular challenge they are facing. They then brainstorm as a team and present to the company that same afternoon, offering ideas and key takeaways, followed by questions from the company’s representatives. The students then have a deeper, expanded version of this exercise later in the quarter. The teams are paired with a different company and are given more time to strategize and craft a longer, more structured presentation. By allowing students to engage in interesting conversations and dialogues on real-time challenges, we’re giving them a unique opportunity to demonstrate their skills and learn more about what companies need and value as students pursue their job searches. We rely a great deal on our exceptional alumni community and corporate partners for these types of exercises – their willingness to devote time to our students and their commitment to bringing more Foster MBAs into their companies is invaluable.”

P&Q: Give us your one-minute pitch for your business school. What makes you unique?

Town: “Here at Foster, we like to use the term “ROI + E”. The ROI for our graduates is outstanding when you weigh the cost of our program against career outcomes, but we also care a great deal about your experience here as a student. We want these two years to be transformational for you. How do we do this? Compared to our peer schools, our program is quite small. Why is this important? First, it is impossible to be anonymous here. Your professors know you by name. Your career coaches know your professional background and your post-MBA aspirations. Your classmates know you, your values, your interests, and what drives you. We have a “learn by doing” philosophy, allowing you to explore your interests and build your resume while you are in school. All of this equates to a highly personalized experience, big impact on your career trajectory, and deep, lifelong relationships. Finally, we are in Seattle, where you’ll find incredible companies, innovation happening at every turn, and a beautiful backdrop to your MBA experience and possibly your future career. A large majority of our graduates choose to stay in Seattle for the long-term and remain highly connected to Foster throughout their careers. Can you land a job outside of Seattle after graduation? Absolutely! Will you want to leave this gorgeous city? Probably not.”

© Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.