Revising The MBA Playbook At Emory Goizueta, One Pressure Point At A Time

ADMISSIONS HEADWINDS … BUT DOMESTIC DEMAND HOLDS

If Brian Mitchell is focused on what happens once students arrive, Libby Livingston is watching the pipeline that gets them there. Livingston, senior director of graduate admissions at Emory Goizueta, has been at the school for more than a quarter century; she says the current admissions cycle is unfolding largely as expected – with one notable shift.

“Our applications are slightly down overall, but really up in domestic and down in international, which may not be surprising,” Livingston tells P&Q.

VISA BOTTLENECKS SHAPE INTERNATIONAL ENROLLMENT

Visa challenges played a major role in last year’s international enrollment. Some admitted students simply could not secure appointments in time to enter the U.S., Livingston says – particularly candidates from Africa and India.

“In India, once they stopped the appointments when they decided they needed to do a social media review of candidates, it just didn’t really come back with availability,” she says. “People at our round three couldn’t get an appointment.”

New uncertainty around the H-1B visa also caused hesitation among prospective students, though Livingston expects recent clarifications to help restore confidence.

“I do think that we might see a little bit of a jump in internationals in the next round because of that news,” she says. “I think some may have been holding back, playing in other countries – but now they may be interested again.”

SHARED CONCERNS ACROSS MBA ADMISSIONS

Those challenges are hardly unique to Emory. Livingston says conversations with peers at other top programs sound strikingly similar.

“It’s a lot of these unknowns,” she says.

Even so, Goizueta is taking steps to give applicants clearer signals. The school plans to release its two-year MBA employment report ahead of Round 1 decision notifications, a move designed to help candidates assess risk and return more fully.

“We feel like they need that information to be able to make their decision,” Livingston says.

GENDER BALANCE AND COMPETING PRIORITIES

Gender representation remains another area of focus – and competition.

Goizueta enrolled one of its highest-ever percentages of women in the most recent two-year MBA class, about 38%, Livingston says. But she notes that gains at the very top of the rankings can create downstream pressure.

“If the top five or top 10 schools are taking more women, then there’s less for us to take – and they’re giving competitive scholarships similar to what we would give,” she says.

The school also balances other enrollment priorities, including military veterans and sponsored students from countries such as Korea and Japan – applicant pools that skew male.

STAYING THE COURSE ON DIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS

Even as diversity policies evolve nationally, Livingston says Goizueta plans to remain engaged with key pipeline organizations, including The Consortium, Forté, MLT, and ROMBA.

“As of right now,” she says, “it all is good at the moment.”

For prospective students wondering how to stand out, Livingston’s advice is simple and consistent with Goizueta’s broader ethos.

“We want you to be yourself. We don’t want you to be somebody you think we want you to be,” she says. “I want to hear your story – where you’ve been, your experiences professionally but also personally – and how that’s led you to wanting to get this MBA at this point in your career.”

AI IN THE CORE, NOT ON THE MARGINS

If there is a signature academic move in Goizueta’s revision, it is the decision to place AI squarely in the core curriculum.

Mitchell chairs the Graduate Business Curriculum Roundtable and says the conversations across schools are strikingly consistent. “Everyone is very, very much thinking about AI,” he says. Many programs have added AI content. Far fewer have made it unavoidable.

Goizueta did.

The required course, Technology Tools and Transformations – known internally as T3 – was deliberately named to remain flexible. Mitchell avoided labeling it “AI” or “machine learning” precisely because those labels may not age well.

“This is our AI course today,” he says. “And it’s in the core.”

For Sarchit Abrol, a second-year who previously worked in consulting, the focus is well timed. “AI was getting a lot of traction when I decided to come back to school,” he says. “Even in consulting, we were hearing that it could replace jobs, so I thought this was the right time to really reskill.”

He is particularly taken with how the course is taught. Rather than treating generative AI as a novelty, the faculty approach begins with history – how AI evolved, what it was intended to do, and what its capabilities actually are today.

Mitchell says he initially worried that history might bore students. Instead, he came away convinced it was essential. Understanding how the technology developed, he says, helps students judge its limits and apply it more critically.

“It can help you save a lot of time,” Mitchell says. “But it can’t do the work for you.”

He illustrates the risk with a personal example. When he once asked ChatGPT to generate discussion questions for Clayton Christensen’s How Will You Measure Your Life?, the tool produced polished material – for the wrong book.

“It looks helpful,” Mitchell says. “But if you don’t already know the content, you wouldn’t catch it.”

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