Goizueta Announces Fall Plan: Early Start, Remote Finals

Emory University’s Goizueta Business School will take a mixed approach to MBA instruction in the fall, according to a new message from the school leadership. Emory photo

Autumn is increasingly coming into focus at the top U.S. business schools. Emory University’s Goizueta Business School is the latest to announce its plans, including its intention to start MBA classes early and finish before Thanksgiving, according to a June 11 email from school leadership to the B-school community.

The email, which was shared on Reddit and signed by Melissa Rapp, associate dean of MBA admissions, said that in keeping with instructions from the larger university, Goizueta School faculty will deliver a mix of in-person, hybrid, and remote classes beginning August 19 and wrapping up on November 24. Because of the condensed schedule, classes will be held on Labor Day, Rapp writes, and there will be no fall break. Finals will be held remotely in December.

“We are being very deliberate in our approach,” Rapp writes, “following CDC guidelines for safety, to ensure we create the world-class educational experience you deserve in a safe environment that we all expect. … We are fully committed to delivering the Goizueta experience.”

CREATING THE ‘SIGNATURE ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE FOR WHICH GOIZUETA IS KNOWN’

Melissa Rapp, associate dean of graduate admissions at Emory Goizueta. Emory photo

Emory Goizueta, ranked No. 22 in the U.S. by both Poets&Quants and U.S. News, has an MBA enrollment of 325. It is overwhelmingly a consulting school, with 45% of the Class of 2019 going into the industry. More than 86% of grads had jobs at graduation last spring, and 94.7% were working three months afterward; starting salary plus bonus averaged $149,575, and tuition is listed as $65,400 per year. Employment data is not yet available for 2020, but given the coronavirus pandemic, those numbers are likely to dip. What is unlikely to change: most Emory MBAs by far stay in the South for work — 50% according to the most recent employment report. Goizueta MBA students were 26.5% minority and 31.4% international last year, as well as 30.5% women — third-worst in the top 25.

Like Emory, several other top-25 B-schools have announced their intentions for the fall. Both the UC-Berkeley Haas School of Business and UCLA Anderson School of Management plan to use a hybrid approach this fall, and Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business has said it will welcome students to its Hanover, New Hampshire campus in the fall. In Europe, Spain’s IESE Business School has said it plans to gradually resume in-person classes at its Madrid and Barcelona campuses this month; in New York, IESE is expected to offer normal classroom instruction beginning in September. After some confusion, Cambridge Judge Business School has clarified that it will be open in the fall; London Business School plans to start MBA classes September 7. INSEAD of France, meanwhile, has pushed the start date for its 10-month MBA back to October.

At Emory, class delivery this fall “will vary by class and decisions regarding class delivery model will be made based on faculty and student safety, class enrollment sizes, and programmatic and pedagogical needs,” writes Rapp, former director of admissions to the full-time MBA at Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management. “To provide an option for continuation of learning, all in-person classes will accommodate students who — due to exposure to Covid-19, illness of themselves or a loved one, or other factors — are unable to attend in-person classes through the duration of the semester.” Faculty, she adds, have “participated in extensive training” to prepare for the online class experience — an experience that will have more intentional design than what she terms the “emergency remote instruction” that occurred as a result of the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March.

P&Q recently reported on the first classes at IMD in Switzerland, where such pandemic precautions as daily temperature checks, masks, and plexiglass partitions are being employed as safety measures. What will MBA instruction look like at Emory in August?

“Although we will be returning to campus in the fall, we must acknowledge that it will be different than previous years,” Rapp writes. “But together, as a community, we will create the kind of signature academic experience for which Goizueta is known.”

MELISSA RAPP’S MESSAGE TO THE EMORY GOIZUETA COMMUNITY

Earlier today, Emory President Claire Sterk and President-elect Greg Fenves outlined Emory’s plan to return to campus this fall. We are being very deliberate in our approach, following CDC guidelines for safety, to ensure we create the world-class educational experience you deserve in a safe environment that we all expect. 

As such, the academic calendar will be shifted to start earlier with classes ending on November 24 before Thanksgiving. The final exam period will be remote in December. This condensed schedule means that classes will be held on Labor Day and there will be no fall break.

Academic Experience

We are fully committed to delivering the Goizueta experience. This means best-in-class course content from our world-renowned faculty supplemented with co-curricular and extra-curricular activities that are hallmarks of the Goizueta experience and create the vibrant Goizueta community. 

We will be delivering in-person, hybrid, and online classes. This will vary by class and decisions regarding class delivery model will be made based on faculty and student safety, class enrollment sizes, and programmatic and pedagogical needs. 

To provide an option for continuation of learning, all in-person classes will accommodate students who — due to exposure to Covid-19, illness of themselves or a loved one, or other factors — are unable to attend in-person classes through the duration of the semester. Faculty have participated in extensive training to enhance the online class experience. Fall online courses will have more intentionally designed and developed online learning experiences than the “emergency remote instruction” students experienced in the spring due to the global pandemic. 

Although we will be returning to campus in the fall, we must acknowledge that it will be different than previous years. But together, as a community, we will create the kind of signature academic experience for which Goizueta is known. 

Sincerely, 

Melissa Rapp

DON’T MISS MBA CLASSES THIS FALL: DAILY TEMPERATURE CHECKS, MASKS, PLEXIGLASS & SMALLER CLASSES and ERIKA JAMES, NEW DEAN OF WHARTON, REFLECTS ON HER JOURNEY

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