Hello everyone — Welcome back to Poets&Quants’ Must Reads, a quick, digestible recap of the top business school news, sponsored by CentreCourt, P&Q’s virtual admission events.

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: The MBA Price Tag: 21 Of The Top 25 U.S. B-Schools Now Charge $100K A Year Or More

The MBA price tag keeps climbing, and for most top U.S. schools, six figures a year is now the baseline.

Twenty-one U.S. B-schools in the Poets&Quants top 25 charge admits to their full-time MBA programs at least $100K annually, a tally that includes tuition, living expenses, and fees. In 2023, that exclusive club comprised 19 schools, up from 15 in 2022; in 2018, there were only nine.

This story collects tuition costs at 29 leading U.S. programs, and you can find it on our homepage.

No. 2: MBAs To Watch: Class Of 2025

To compile our popular feature of the MBAs we think you should keep an eye on, we reached out to 82 top full-time MBA programs to nominate their top graduates. Ultimately, P&Q received 222 nominations, which were split between May’s Best & Brightest MBAs and August’s MBAs To Watch. This year’s batch hails from 76 graduate business programs.

What makes an MBA To Watch? In many cases, their classmates and faculty describe them as being the pillars of their classes, the role models who act as coaches and champions.

You can read about each one, now from our homepage.

No. 3: This Michigan Professor Wants To Blow Up The MBA As We Know It

Jeff DeGraff has been called the “Dean of Innovation” — a title he’s earned not only through 36 years of teaching at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, but by building one of the most influential, wide-reaching innovation ecosystems in the world.

With his wife and co-author Staney, DeGraff co-leads the Intellectual Edge Alliance, a global network of 14 innovation programs spanning 45 countries. In their new book The Art of Change: Transforming Paradoxes into Breakthroughs, the DeGraffs offer what amounts to a masterclass in sustainable transformation — combining strategies for challenging long-held assumptions, stories from decades of coaching top executives, and candid personal anecdotes that show how resilience in the face of failure can spark real growth.

Learn more about DeGraff from 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: How To Get A Killer MBA Letter Of Recommendation. In this story, Learn how to secure powerful MBA recommendations that highlight your strengths and give your application a winning edge. Find it on our homepage.

Next: Common MBA Essay Mistakes. This article, which you can find in our admission hub, tells you how to avoid the most common missteps in MBA essays.

Finally: Avoid The ChatGPT Slop. This article, also in our admission hub, shows you how to use AI to enhance your MBA essays, not flatten them.

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

I also want to alert school seekers to our events tab from our main menu. There, you’ll find all the upcoming admissions events for a range of degrees and programs including full-time and online MBAs, specialized masters, entrepreneurship and more. Registration is 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.

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