Why Notre Dame Is Shrinking Its MBA — And Betting On A More Personal Experience

The University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business has made a deliberate decision about its full-time MBA.

It is getting smaller.

Over the past several admissions cycles, Mendoza has reduced the size of its MBA program while increasing the resources dedicated to each student — particularly in career services and employer engagement. Dean Martijn Cremers describes the move plainly.

“As we recently clarified the direction of the Notre Dame MBA program, we spent time asking hard questions about who we are and who we want to serve,” says Cremers. “That reflection led to a deliberate decision: to temporarily reduce the size of the program in the near term so we can substantially strengthen the program and its long-term trajectory.”

‘THE STRONGEST ALUMNI NETWORK IN HGHER ED’

The shift has been paired with an expansion of career support. Mendoza has grown its MBA career staff while shrinking class size, aiming to provide more personalized coaching and closer connections to employers and alumni.

“Our career team opens doors to alumni and executives across investment banking, corporate finance, consulting, technology and marketing,” says Cremers. “And from day one, our MBA students connect with the Notre Dame alumni network — which is the strongest alumni network in higher education.”

In a challenging job market, Notre Dame’s alumni community is one of the program’s greatest advantages, he adds. It is an advantage that lives on long after students have graduated from the program. Expanding those relationships in consulting, finance, technology and other sectors improves outcomes for students over their entire careers, and keeps the program closely connected to employer expectations.

The school is also working to deepen its global connections, linking students more intentionally to multinational firms and alumni communities abroad.

“Leadership increasingly requires operating across cultures and regulatory environments, and we want our graduates to be prepared for that reality,” says Cremers.

PRIORITIZING A HIGH-TOUCH MODEL

The decision to reduce the size of the program in the short term is closely tied to how Mendoza structures the MBA experience.

Much of the program centers on team-based, project-driven work with external organizations. Students are expected to diagnose problems, work directly with partners and deliver recommendations in environments where the stakes are real.

Those experiences require time, coordination and sustained faculty involvement. Rather than expand and risk diluting those elements, Mendoza has chosen to limit the size of the program and preserve the intensity of the experience.

For example, the Grow Irish program sends teams of students around the world to work directly with organizations on current challenges. In doing so, students apply what they have learned in the classroom and see firsthand how business decisions affect everyday lives.

“These transformative experiences in the Notre Dame MBA — working directly with real organizations, on consequential problems, with close faculty involvement throughout — require a commitment of time, coordination, and attention. That kind of learning cannot be replicated at scale, and we made a deliberate choice to build the program around it,” Cremer says.

SMALLER CLASS, MORE ACCESS

A smaller cohort also changes how students interact with faculty and with each other.

Because MBA classes are relatively small, Cremers says, students have meaningful access to professors and are able to build relationships that extend beyond the classroom.

“They are not learning from a distance,” he says. “They are joining a community and are building relationships — receiving direct feedback and engaging in candid discussions with top scholars who are thought leaders in their fields.”

That dynamic extends to the broader community.

“We are focused on building an MBA that fully reflects Notre Dame’s mission and standards,” Cremers says. “We are seeking students who show both strong potential for career success and who demonstrate a genuine alignment with our collaborative, mission-driven culture.”

Reducing class size comes with trade-offs. Fewer students mean less tuition revenue and a smaller overall footprint.

Cremers does not frame the decision in those terms. His focus remains on what the model allows the school to deliver — closer relationships, more direct support and a more cohesive student experience.

“Our MBA program offers the opportunity to become part of a strong community on campus and the larger Notre Dame alumni community,” he says. “By learning with and from one another and from our successful and generous alums, our MBA students grow as persons, deepen their capacity to collaborate effectively, and lead with purpose.”

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