Meet The Minnesota Carlson MBA Class Of 2027

A Q&A WITH PHIL MILLER, ASSISTANT DEAN OF THE MBA AT MINNESOTA CARLSON 

Poets&Quants: 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?

Miller: One of the most significant developments this year has been the continued transformation of the Carlson School of Management’s physical spaces and the intentional work to keep students connected throughout the remodeling process. As spaces shift and construction progresses, we’ve strengthened communication and created new touchpoints to ensure students feel informed, supported, and grounded in the MBA community. This spring semester, a new experiential learning suite opened for students, creating a new home base for the school’s Consulting, Ventures, Brand, and Funds Enterprises. The building project is on track for completion by the start of the fall semester.

This effort also includes curricular adjustments to our cohort model, such as new dedicated second‑year cohort course sections that foster deeper relationships, more consistent opportunities for direct peer interaction, and a stronger sense of belonging. By taking feedback directly from MBA students to shape these changes, we’re building continuity and strengthening ties within each tight‑knit cohort to ensure these relationships extend well beyond their time in Minnesota.

We also expanded our commitment to student wellbeing over the past year. New initiatives such as “Dinner on the Go,” which saw more than 80 healthy meal kits for student teams claimed within two hours, and the “Global Bites” event, which drew hundreds of students and required a second room due to demand, created opportunities for students to share meals, cultures, and conversations. “Feel Good Fest” and other wellness‑focused events further reinforced the importance of nourishment—physical, emotional, and social—during an intense academic experience.

Poets&Quants: What do you see as the main differentiator that distinguishes your MBA program from other schools? How does it enhance the student experience and make them more attractive to employers?

Miller: Minnesota Carlson is located in an ideal business ecosystem fueled by 17 Fortune 500 companies across diverse industries, a strong entrepreneurial community, nonprofits, and more. This environment allows for unique crosspollination between business professionals and leading academics.

Through hands-on learning projects, such as our signature “Enterprise” experiential learning program, students tap into this powerful business network and work with potential future employers as real-world partners while receiving professional mentoring and feedback. Minnesota is also home to “Medical Alley,” a hotspot for the medical device industry with more than 600 medical device giants and startups. MBA students can specialize in healthcare and receive hands-on experience through Carlson’s Medical Industry Leadership Institute and Medical Valuation Lab.

Building relationships with key business partners elevates our students’ learning experience, equipping them with real-world experience in addition to academic knowledge that makes them stand out in the job search.

Poets&Quants: What types of services do you provide to first-year MBAs to ease their transition into business school?

Miller: After admission, first-year students are welcomed into a community that’s ready to support them. Current MBA student ambassadors and student‑led “ask me anything” panels offer candid insights and direct guidance, helping new students successfully navigate the journey ahead.

Our annual admitted student “Up Close” event, held in the spring, creates an opportunity to formally connect with new first-year peers, current students, and staff, reinforcing a sense of belonging at Minnesota Carlson and understanding the expectations of the MBA program.

Throughout the summer, new students participate in a Summer Launch curriculum designed to ensure both academic and professional success. The Carlson Business Career Center (CBCC) plays a central role in this programming, providing structured career preparation through 1:1 coaching, workshops, and the development of a strategic plan for the internship and career search.

Most importantly, all students are supported as individuals at Minnesota Carlson. First-year students can find assistance with their transition by connecting with their academic advisor, a career coach, or the embedded mental health counselor on staff who is exclusively available to Minnesota Carlson graduate students. This team of support staff can also help students connect with a number of campus resources, such as Boynton Health Services, Disability Resource Center, and University Veteran Services, to name a few.

Poets&Quants: What types of support do you provide to international students before and during business school to enable them to better acclimate to your country?

Miller: Carlson staff help prospective students navigate the details of application materials, as well as the visa application process once they’ve been admitted. Our staff members work closely with the University of Minnesota International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) to provide updated information amid changing policies. ISSS provides a hub of resources to assist international students on their academic journey, including information regarding housing, transportation, legal advice, and more.

The CBCC staff also tailor their career coaching services to the needs of international students. Our coaches understand the challenges of being an international professional seeking employment and will help MBA students develop a strategy to land an internship or job either in the US or abroad.

In addition to being studious, our MBA cohorts are tight-knit, often holding regular events to build community among their peers. These include Thursdays After Professional Studies, called “TAPS,” in which students gather outside of class for game-themed nights and more, and graduate organizations, like Carlson 4 Community, where students work with a local organization and host a fundraiser. The MBA student government also includes two international representatives, one from each cohort, to be an advocate to program administration and a leader for international students and their interests.

Poets&Quants: How does your program integrate other disciplines, such as the liberal arts and STEM, across your curriculum to provide students with a more interdisciplinary experience in business school?

Miller: Interdisciplinary learning is woven into the Minnesota Carlson experience because today’s business leaders must be fluent across sectors and skill sets.

Our MBA students can take advantage of courses like New Product Development, which brings together graduate students from business and engineering to collaborate with industry on the creation of a new product or service. This nine‑month experience culminates in the commercialization or “launch” of the final product and highlights both the rigor of bringing a novel idea to market and the multi‑disciplinary teamwork required to make it successful.

Minnesota Carlson students also benefit from the courses and events offered through the Center for Integrative Leadership, a cross‑campus initiative that unites faculty, students, and community partners to address complex societal challenges that demand collaboration across disciplines and private/public sectors.

In addition to the broad range of electives within the MBA curriculum, students may petition to take up to eight credits of coursework from more than 130 University of Minnesota Twin Cities graduate programs.

For those individuals seeking an advanced level of cross-disciplinary expertise, Minnesota Carlson also offers seven different dual degree MBA programs in partnership with the Medical School (MD/MBA), the Law School (JD/MBA), and the School of Public Health (MHA/MBA), among others.

Poets&Quants: What are two ways that your program is incorporating Artificial Intelligence into your programming? How do they better prepare students for the future world of work?

Miller: Employers expect graduates to be familiar with AI and know how to use it wisely. That’s where the power of an MBA comes in: to build AI fluency and offer advanced exploration.

Our MBA program provides the foundational, ethical business knowledge and competencies for students to develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills needed to effectively wield powerful AI tools. While AI usage varies depending on the course, AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM are available to all University of Minnesota students. Understanding how to use such tools in an academic setting translates to expectations in the job market.

New electives and technical analytics courses with an emphasis on analytics and artificial intelligence provide opportunities for students to delve deeper. Our award-winning Information & Decision Sciences faculty provide world-class education and insights, befitting of the school known as the birthplace of Management Information Systems (MIS) as a discipline. Through this programming, students gain the familiarity and knowledge needed to be agile, future-ready business leaders.

Poets&Quants: What types of educational and career support do you provide to alumni after graduation? How does it make them more valuable to employers during their careers?

Miller: Minnesota Carlson provides lifelong career support for alumni, which entails a comprehensive suite of career and educational resources that ensure their skills remain sharp and relevant. Key among these are 1:1 sessions with dedicated alumni coaches and specialized “contract coaches”—industry experts who provide tailored insights for nuanced career moves. The Carlson Business Career Center serves an average of 90 alumni per month through one-on-one coaching and hosts multiple alumni job search groups with roughly 40 alumni participants each.

This professional support is mirrored by a commitment to lifelong learning. Minnesota Carlson hosts industry conferences and events, such as the Women’s Leadership Conference and the 1st Tuesday Speaker Series, and offers professional development and executive education opportunities. These initiatives, alongside regional and international events, connect our graduates to a robust global network of more than 62,000 alumni.

This ecosystem of support creates significant value for employers; it ensures Carlson graduates are backed by a deep bench of industry expertise and a culture of continuous improvement. Employers gain leaders who remain informed on emerging trends and bring a global, research-backed perspective to their organizations.

Next page: The profiles of 1o Minnesota Carlson MBA students. 

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