Meet Indiana Kelley’s MBA Class Of 2027

A CLASS PROFILE

By the numbers, the Class of 2027 consists of students from 23 countries, with international students accounting for 42% of the class. Women and underrepresented minorities make up 28% and 17% shares of the class. The class arrived in Bloomington with a 607 GMAT Average (GMAT Focus Edition) and a 322 GRE Average (with 22% of the class submitting scores for the latter).

As undergraduates, the class averaged a 3.48 GPA. 41% of the class hold undergraduate degrees in Business. Engineering-related majors constitute a 23% share of the class, followed by Sciences (12%), Social Sciences (9%), Economics (5%), Fine Arts (5%), Education (3%), and Humanities (2%).

In a 2025 alumni and student survey conducted by The Princeton Review, the Kelley School posted the 3rd-highest score for the family-friendliness of its campus. It also placed 5th for Faculty Quality. Even more, the University of Texas at Dallas ranked Kelley 10th worldwide for the scale and quality of its business research. This combination of teaching prowess and cutting-edge technical knowledge further eases the transition for career changers returning to the classroom.

Aakriti Goyal, a ’25 alum, points to Greg Fisher as a faculty member who personifies the best of the Kelley classroom experience. “He taught strategy during Core (our first integrated semester) and had a unique way of pushing us to think critically, challenge assumptions, and engage in meaningful debates. His direct, actionable feedback has shaped how I approach problem-solving throughout my MBA. What truly set his class apart was the opportunity to hear directly from the company executives and senior leaders after analyzing real business cases. That experience brought strategy to life, offering a holistic view that went beyond theory and into real-world impact.”

MORE THAN A MARKETING SCHOOL

Princeton Review survey respondents also ranked the Kelley School 3rd for Marketing and 10th for Consulting programming (with a 2026 U.S. News survey of business deans and MBA directors ranking Kelley 8th for Information Systems and 9th for International Business). Indeed, Kelley carries the reputation of being a “marketing school.” However, Goyal counters that it is so much more.

“The reality is that Kelleys succeed across industries and across the country. In my opinion, Kelley’s consulting program – including the Consulting Academy and hands-on engagements like GLOBASE and One Kelley – equip students with the skills to thrive in consulting. Our external case competition teams also make a mark, securing recognitions and accolades. I have observed my classmates land their dream jobs, whether in consulting, investment banking, or marketing, and across cities from New York to Los Angeles. Kelleys may move to Bloomington for two years, but we don’t stay here – we make an impact everywhere.”

That’s not to say Bloomington isn’t a great spot to spend those years. Career-wise, it is just a morning drive from commercial hotspots like Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Louisville, home to firms like Eli Lilly, Procter & Gamble, Yum! Brands, and Humana. At the same time, Bloomington could be described as a quintessential Midwest college town, slower paced and peaceful, punctuated by colorful springs and falls.

“There’s quite a bit of great outdoor activities,” writes ’25 alum Nick Hagen. “Whether it’s running the trails throughout the Brown County State Park, or enjoying the views at Monroe Lake, or even just running up & down the B-line that cuts right through Bloomington, there’s always a reason to get out of the house and classroom to get some fresh air!”

And plenty of culture and entertainment too, adds classmate Anna Capone. “I love exploring the Bloomington Antique Mall, where you can always find unique vintage treasures, and Bloomington’s diverse food scene was a surprise highlight. The international food scene is truly impressive for a town of this size. The town also boasts a thriving arts and culture scene, with Broadway-caliber performances at IU Auditorium and world-class music from the Jacobs School of Music. Sports are another major part of the experience—IU Women’s Basketball has been one of the highlights of my time in Bloomington, and watching high-level competition in volleyball, soccer, and football (a welcome surprise this season) has made game days exciting.”

AN INTERVIEW WITH FACULTY DIRECTOR JOHN HILL

2025-2026 turned out to be a wild ride for the class, with the Hoosier football team going unbeaten and winning a National Championship. Fernando Mendoza, the star quarterback, even claimed the Heisman Trophy when he wasn’t busy taking MBA classes at the Kelley School. Over the same period, the school increasingly invested in AI, publishing an AI playbook and even developing an AI co-teacher. That is just the beginning says Dean Patrick Hopkins in a 2025 interview with P&Q.

“If you don’t employ students coming out of business school, you’re dead in the water,” Hopkins says. “That’s got to be front and center for us — what do jobs look like, not just now, but when these students graduate. Which means I need to have the right inputs in place today.”

Last fall, P&Q reached out to John Hill, faculty director of the Full Time +Flex MBA at the Kelley School. Here are his thoughts on topics ranging from career services to supporting international students.

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?

Hill: “The most significant development in our MBA program in the last year has been the launch of the +Flex option that gives students the flexibility to finish their second year on-campus or online by taking classes from the #1-ranked Kelley Direct Online MBA Program. This means that students spend 10 impactful months at Kelley and benefit from our immersive career-focused Academies, in-person learning in the integrated Core, and being a part of our tight-knit community. Then, they can choose to stay in Bloomington or finish online, enabling them to accept a job offer, return to their employer or family, travel or live anywhere that life takes them.

Secondly, we have re-focused our HiTech Academy on artificial intelligence. Over the course of a semester, students learn to critically evaluate AI to enable organizational leverage for tactical and strategic success. The first part (AI Practice & Models) teaches students to use and push generative and agentic AI tools to their limits to understand their effectiveness and challenges. Part 2 (AI Principles & Policy) adds that exploration with industrial insights and perspectives from speakers across industries.”

P&Q:  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?

Hill: “Each student is assigned a designated career coach, aligned with their industry, to provide personalized support in networking and interviewing for their internship and full-time roles. They work one-on-one with our students to perfect their personal story and connect their past experiences to future goals in a way that resonates with employers. This translates into the Kelley +Flex MBA consistently placing over 90% of students within 90 days after graduation.”

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

Hill: “Our program office and career coaches begin working with students in May, providing them information about the move to Bloomington, classes and updating their resume so they are fully prepared to hit the ground running when they arrive in August for our signature Me, Inc. program. While this three-week experience centers around developing their personal brand and Individualized Career Plan, it includes team-building and social activities that allow students to get to know their classmates and get comfortable at Kelley before classes begin. For students who need to refresh their quantitative skills, we provide online modules to them once they are admitted.”

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

Hill: “We welcome our international students with a special orientation that includes an introduction to US culture, especially in the classroom and business world. The Graduate Career Services also provide additional workshops throughout the program that focus on networking and the unique challenges of the job search for students who need visa sponsorship. Our students have free access to the IU Immigration Bridge program, which is a partnership between career services, the Office of International Services, and a top immigration law firm that helps streamline the visa process for potential employers.”

P&Q: 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?

Hill: “The Integrated Core includes courses on critical thinking, business law and ethics and communications, each of which integrate liberal arts into the curriculum. The core also includes coursework in quantitative methods, accounting, finance and operations, which are STEM focused. The unique advantage of the core is that these courses are taught side by side and often integrated. This means that not only do we incorporate liberal arts and STEM in the curriculum, but we do it in a way that allows these different disciplines to be applied to the same business cases.”

P&Q: 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?

Hill: “Our MBA faculty have been specifically charged by the school to integrate AI tools and topics into the classroom. This includes exposure to function-specific AI tools, as well as general LLM applications.  Additionally, we have used special topics courses to continually update AI-related content year-after-year. We have also created an experiential learning course in our Academy structure specifically around engaging with industry leaders in the AI space.”

P&Q: 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?

Hill: “Our alumni have access throughout their lives to valuable career resources and professional development, including a dedicated career coach, webinars and the Kelley Alumni Network platform. The webinars give our alums the chance to add value to their employers and themselves by continuing to develop their skills in areas such as leadership, communication, and process improvement. This year, IU launched an eight-module GenAI 101 course that is available for free online to alumni who want to gain the practical generative AI skills that are essential for today’s workplace.”

Click on the links below for 12 in-depth profiles of the MBA Class of 2027.

MBA Student	Hometown	Undergraduate Alma Mater	Last Employer
Barbra Chirenje	Harare, Zimbabwe	University of Zimbabwe	Fivet Animal Health
Alberto Drucker del Valle	Monterrey,  México	Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey	Wild
Katelyn Kirby	Santa Cruz, CA	University of California, Davis	Claret Bioscience
Neleena Paul	Missouri, City, TX	University of Texas at Arlington	HelloFresh
Jordan Randle	Alexandria, VA	Morehouse College	LinkedIn
Rosa Rizo-Mulcahy	Houston, TX	Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga (Colombia)	Itaú Bank
Adam Saxe	Dayton, OH	Miami University (OH)	Wynn Las Vegas
Matthew Schild	Monroeville, OH	United States Naval Academy	United States Navy
Charles Mitchell Shofner, MD	Lebanon, KY	University of Louisville	Indiana University School of Medicine
Monica Lauren Siegel	Newton, MA	Franklin & Marshall College	BBC Studios
Tommy Sommer	Carmel, IN	Indiana University	Chicago White Sox
Soundarya V Yadav	Karnataka, India	Visvesvaraya Technological University (JSSATEB)	Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India

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