Meet Emory Goizueta’s MBA Class Of 2020

That isn’t the only new initiative that Goizueta is prepping in its pipeline. According to Mitchell, the school is also finalizing a Certificate of Advanced Leadership, which takes a “rigorous examination” of leadership from “academic, experiential, and reflection” vantage points.

“Students consistently rate leadership development as one of their main reasons for pursuing an MBA,” Mitchell shares. “For those who choose to go the extra mile in their leadership journey, Goizueta will offer this new certificate as a vehicle for getting there. It will require a heavy emphasis on coaching, mentorship and the formal study of leadership principles such as ethics and emotional intelligence.  Our long-standing Goizueta Advanced Leadership Academy (GALA), which culminates with a sailing challenge in the British Virgin Islands, will also be an option for students pursuing the Certificate of Advanced Leadership – so future students will benefit greatly if leadership development is a high priority.”

A DARLING OF RECRUITERS

Such programming is one reason why Emory Goizueta scores highly across a number of measures. In the Bloomberg Businessweek alumni survey, for example, the program earned the 5th-highest satisfaction rating of any American MBA program. By the same token, this year’s Financial Times survey found that 88% of Goizueta respondents answered that they had achieved their aims at the school – just two points behind the leading school in this category.

Increasingly, employers are showing their opinion of Goizueta grads through placement and pay. In the 2017 Class, 92.7% of grads landed jobs within three months of graduation. When combining base pay, bonus, and other compensation (i.e. stock options, etc.), these grads earned $164,223 in their first year – higher starting pay than grads from Duke Fuqua, UCLA Anderson, Texas McCombs, Cornell Johnson, and North Carolina Kenan-Flagler. Within 10-15 years of graduation, according to PayScale data, Emory MBAs are out-earning their peers at Virginia Darden, Yale SOM, Michigan Ross, and Carnegie Mellon Tepper too.

These employment results may not surprise many. However, Mitchell notes that one area that gets overlooked is what he calls a “diversity of career opportunities” at Goizueta “Today’s high-achieving millennial MBAs come to us with a wide range of interests, many of which are outside of the traditional “Big 3” areas of consulting, finance and marketing,” he adds. “For example, we help many students pursue career opportunities in start-up companies in a wide range of industry sectors. Another example is that the resources that we allocate to entrepreneurship have increased to match the constant appetite of MBA students in this exciting area. As proud as we are of our overall employment success, I wish prospective students knew more about the wide range of non-traditional inputs that make up the overall result.”

A HANDS-ON, LEADERSHIP DRIVEN CURRICULUM

Mitchell’s list, however, doesn’t include healthcare, one of the program’s calling cards. Taylor Richardson, for one, lauds the “state-of-the-art resources” devoted to the healthcare business. Even more, she is looking forward to pairing her healthcare experience with the large business concepts taught in the core curriculum.

“Goizueta encourages you to blaze your own path and gives you the flexibility to dive deep into a subject area you are passionate about. With the Emory Hospital, Rollins School of Public Health, and incredibly invested professors, Goizueta expects me to take the reins and shape my experience into what I want it to be. I appreciated the structure of this program because it fosters creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit by allowing students to apply learnings from the core subjects of an MBA program.”

That includes leadership, an area that receives exhaustive attention at Goizueta. Exhibit A: the Goizueta Leadership Development Program, where select students enjoy workshops, executive coaching, and unforgettable experiences, such as practicing leadership at the U.S. Army’s Fort Benning Leader’s Reaction Course. In addition, MBA candidates must complete an Impact 360 course during their first year. Here, student teams sharpen their problem-solving skills by partnering with firms like General Electric or The Home Depot on real world projects. These hands-on learning opportunities, which range from international consulting projects to non-profit partnerships, offer another benefit as well, says Andrew Schirmer.

“As a career changer, I view the Impact project as both an opportunity to practice the new skills I learn in the core curriculum and an opportunity to translate my existing abilities to new environments – all before beginning my summer internship.”

ATLANTA MAINTAINS EXPLOSIVE GROWTH

For Schirmer, Impact 360 is just the start. He is also looking forward to the program’s mid-semester travel modules. “Every year during Spring break, Goizueta sends teams of students to various countries to study the intersection of business and culture. Students have traveled to China, Brazil, South Africa, Thailand, and many other countries. During the trips, the students meet with various corporate and public leaders within that country, many of whom are Goizueta alumni, and learn about the opportunities and challenges that the market faces. I’m confident that the travel module will be a great bonding experience with my classmates and a unique opportunity to learn about business in an international context.”

…and a big business context too. The Atlanta metro is home to 26 Fortune 1000 firms, third only to New York City and Houston. Even more, these firms – headlined by The Home Depot, Coca-Cola, UPS, and Delta Airlines – account for nearly $360 million in annual revenue according to the Metro Atlanta Chamber. How appealing is Hotlanta to MBAs? In 2018, Atlanta was also ranked #1 by WalletHub as the most affordable big city and the best city for internships. According to 2017 report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Atlanta region ranked second in economic growth, with GDP rising by $11 billion in one year alone. That doesn’t factor in Hartsfield-Jackson’s standing as America’s busiest airport – one where MBAs can go anywhere, anytime…with a minimum of fuss.

That’s not to say that Goizueta is a feeder to Atlanta business royalty. In fact, just 56% of 2017 grads decided to work there. “The biggest myth I hear from prospective students during their application to Goizueta is they think they will be limited to Atlanta or the Southeast after graduation, explains Mike Galanis, a 2018 grad who started at Bain & Company after graduation. “I have classmates going across the country and around the globe to a myriad of jobs and functions. It’s incredible how broad the opportunities are.”

The Class of 2020 hopes to capitalize on every single one of these opportunities! What happens after the Emory experience? Taylor Richardson plans to return to Bain & Company to build her mastery of managing teams. Marnie Harris, who helped launch a certificate at Georgia Tech for students with intellectual challenges, is eying ways to “create workforces inclusive of people with disabilities.” At the same time, David Hinshillwood is already plotting out his startup along the lines of AirBnb, Uber, and Lyft.

“It synthesizes a lot of my interests: strong company culture and brand identity, hospitality services, and a people-helping-people approach where folks are sharing a part of themselves (whether it be their car’s backseat or their spare bedroom) to form transient but still impactful connections.”

In the meantime, Hinshillwood can experience this magnanimous mindset with the Class of 2020, a special group that Taylor Richardson confers the ultimate MBA compliment: Team players.

“My classmates at Goizueta are eager to learn together. There is healthy competition here that encourages students to work together. The diversity of opinions and experiences makes it an incredibly rich learning environment.”

What led these professionals to enter business schools? Which programs did they also consider? What strategies did they use to choose their MBA program? What was the major event that defined them? Find the answers to these questions and many more in the in-depth profiles of these incoming MBA candidates. 

DON’T MISS: MEET EMORY GOIZUETA’s MBA CLASS OF 2019  or MEET THE MBA CLASS OF 2020: PROFILES IN COURAGE

Student	Hometown	Alma Mater	Employer
Alexa Ceballos	Caracas, Venezuela	University of Miami	Janssen Pharmaceuticals
Nidah Goheer	Snellville, GA	Georgia Tech University	Triage Consulting Group
Marnie Harris	Roswell, GA	Georgia Tech University	Excel at Georgia Tech
David R. Hinshillwood	Cherry Hill, NJ	Harvard University	PrepScholar, Inc
Brendan Marschner	Decatur, AL	Birmingham-Southern College	GLG (Gerson Lehrman Group)
Oscar Mendez, Jr.	Mandeville, LA	Tulane University	Ariel Investments
Maggie Niehaus	Atlanta, GA	Wake Forest University	Edelman
Taylor Richardson	Tampa, FL	University of Virginia	Peachtree Orthopedics
Tyrone Sampson	Atlanta, GA	University of North Carolina	East Point Investments
Andrew Schirmer	Columbia, SC	Liberty University	Service Source International
Nakaiya Turk	Knoxville, TN	Spelman College	Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Jason Waidzulis	Forest Lake, MN	University of Minnesota	U.S. Army