Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business

The best business schools balance a certain yin-and-yang. There is the cool and dark yin – the quant management science mentality that uses data to reveal patterns and project trends. And then there is the light and warm yang – the small gestures and daily habits that make people feel heard and connected. And you’ll find both in equal measure at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School.

Tepper has long been associated with the yin. This school describes itself as the birthplace of management science – or evidence-based decision-making. Sure enough, data analysis has been the cornerstone of a Tepper MBA. With Carnegie Mellon University being a driving force behind Artificial Intelligence innovations, the Tepper School has naturally embraced AI as well.

In 2021, Tepper unfurled its new tagline: The Intelligent Future. More than a marketing prop, The Intelligent Future was a school-wide commitment to experiment and innovate – to think big, take risks, and apply a variety of disciplines – staying ahead of the pack using cutting-edge technology and imaginative models to define the world on their terms. That future correlates to the implementation of AI In practical and ethical ways.

“I think we’re a natural in the space, and that’s a huge advantage because what’s most difficult in any university is to change the culture,” explains Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou in a 2024 interview with P&Q.  “Two things are embedded in our DNA: the fact that we are leveraging technology and AI data; and the second thing is our interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving. These are things that are really difficult to build when you don’t have that already embedded in the culture of the place.”

Willem-Jan van Hoeve, the senior associate dean of education at Tepper, echoes his boss’s sentiments on AI in a separate 2024 interview with P&Q. He points to the school’s access to other schools across Carnegie Mellon, such as Computer Science and Engineering, that are revolutionizing the field. Such synergies have long been filtering into Tepper programming, van Hoeve adds.

“So many of these things like machine learning models or neural networks have been in our courses already for years. So this is not new for us. We are doing this by default almost. So it’s very natural for us to embrace these technologies.”

And van Hoeve is happy to reel off examples of some of the unique AI applications that Tepper MBAs are using in their classrooms.

“Concretely, we are using AI in say a marketing analytics course, in addition to having traditional models such as predictive analytics, or using standard statistical models. We would also use machine learning-based models for similar tasks in marketing, for example. We’ve been doing this for years. What is now new, of course, are large language models, which is a whole other level of interaction with AI systems. We can now simulate almost a human in a text-based environment. You can have a ChatGPT-like simulation where you can create anything you want. I’m going to do marketing research, not with humans, but with LLM-based (large language model) agents. So I can create a market segment using an LLM1, then another market segment, using LLM2. And I would be able to see how the decisions I make as a manager would influence these different market segments.”

One of Tepper’s advantages in the Carnegie Mellon ecosystem is its location. The Tepper Quad is literally in the center of the university. Five stories high covering 315,000 square feet, the Quad is the largest building on campus. Along with classrooms, it also houses robotics labs and even an ice cream shop. More than that, it includes 23,000 square feet devoted to the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. Here, you’ll find hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students from across campus working together. From researchers and technical experts to aspiring founders and supportive faculty, the Swartz Center brings Carnegie Mellon University together in one place to pursue one purpose: turning the theoretical into the commercial.

In many cases, Swartz students are also partnering with national and local firms to scale their ventures or enhance their capabilities. According to Jim Jen, the director of Tepper’s Corporate Startup Lab (CSL), these client firms are looking to Tepper for help in AI.

“AI is shaking things up, and companies are all rethinking their strategies, looking at what are new opportunities and what are threats,” Jen tells P&Q in a 2024 interview. “That’s top of mind for our corporate partners right now… At the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, students work with corporate partners to create solutions for real life problems they are facing. “Students get a firsthand experience working on innovation with corporate partners, and they really have to think outside of the box.”

And look outside the doors of the Tepper Quad too, adds C. Tad Brinkerhoff, senior executive director of graduate programs at Tepper. “In a short walk, students can encounter cutting edge brain science, innovative start-ups, driverless cars, big data, Nobel and Turing prizes, robots and the list goes on,” Brinkerhoff told P&Q in a 2023 interview. “For example, in the past 10 years, more than 400 startups linked to CMU have raised more than $7 billion in follow-on funding. Tepper students are encouraged to take classes outside of the business school as they learn how to succeed in The Intelligent Future that is being created at Carnegie Mellon University. Coming to Tepper means meeting at the intersection of business and technology.”

Of course, the Tepper language can be intimidating at first. Here, students will encounter terms like evidence-based, scientific approach, applied math, economics, and STEM. However, Tepper is also a haven for career changers, mirroring Carnegie Mellon’s welcoming attitude towards poets (It boasts one of the top theater departments in the world, with alumni ranging from Cheers’ Ted Danson to Star Trek’s Zachary Quinto). Even more, the Tepper program isn’t just associated with cutting-edge research, but also teaching excellence. By excellence, alumni mean that professors can boil the most complex concepts down to their basic form.

Chino Agulanna, a ’24 grad, was struck by how accessible the faculty is through office hours. Shravya Amarnath, a 2022 MBA grad, notes that the program teaches quant concepts “from the ground up.” Amarnath’s classmate, Hensley Sejour, also appreciated the support – along with the flexibility to take courses outside Tepper for credit.

“The professors start from a basic level, so everyone moves along at a common pace. If you do struggle there are plenty of opportunities with tutors, study groups, and office hours to help you along the way. Our class is full of non-engineers who performed extremely well in the program. That being said, I did lean into the strong design and computer science reputation of Carnegie Mellon as a whole. I took advantage of classes in CMU’s School of Design and Human & Computer Interaction department to prepare myself for my role in the technology industry.”

That support also includes intensive coaching, with the school estimating that students complete over 2,000 one-on-one professional coaching sessions annually. The Tepper School Masters Career Center (MCC) traditionally ranks among the world’s ten best according to Financial Times surveys of students and alumni. Like the best centers, the MCC takes a personal approach to each student’s interests and goals, says Rukayat Muse-Ariyoh, a ’23 alum and McKinsey hire. Her classmate, Eric Tinnell, also credits the MCC for helping him land an investment banking associate position at Morgan Stanley.

“The finance MCC advisors were instrumental in getting me prepared for investment banking interviews,” Tinnell tells P&Q in a 2024 interview. “Every interaction I had with them was value-adding, from the initial resume overhaul to mock interviews to practical insight about a career on Wall Street. Without their assistance, my path to an investment banking internship and full-time offer would have been exponentially more difficult.”

Still, Tepper can deliver on the yang – soft skills – that makes graduates so formidable in the marketplace. C. Tad Brinkerhoff describes Tepper as a place where students “learn about themselves, learn about others, and learn how to communicate and relate to others to build productive and positive environments and relationships.” Alongside the MCC, many of these skills are instilled through Tepper’s Accelerate Leadership Center (ALC).

“We help our students to learn about themselves, learn about others, and learn how to communicate and relate to others to build productive and positive environments and relationships,” Brinkerhoff adds. “We use self-assessments to provide insights to our students about their baseline leadership abilities. We conduct experiential workshops and programs to expand knowledge and we offer 1-on-1 coaching to dig deeper into strengths and remove obstacles. To build an inclusive leadership mindset, we focus, specifically, on building emotional intelligence, cultural humility, and constructive dialogue knowledge and skills. The powerful combination of these learnable capabilities will help our students be the most inspirational and impactful leaders of the next generation.”

This yin-and-yang one-two punch is catching on. Last year, Tepper cracked the Top Ten in the Bloomberg Businessweek MBA ranking, thanks to posting the 3rd-best index score for Entrepreneurship and the 5th-best scores in the Learning and Networking categories. With its identity clear and fundamentals in place, Tepper is increasingly a program that peer schools look to for what to do – and how to do it.

“In a world centered around data and AI, Tepper was one of the only programs that was moving hand-in-hand with the times, observes first-year Divyesha Malhotra, “seamlessly integrating the technical analytical skills into their entire curriculum, while also heavily focusing on the soft leadership, presentation and communication skills that any business leader today should come equipped with.”

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