image: SwanDiamondRose

Pellagia witnessed how business can positively impact individuals, families, and communities. The Thunderbird SHARE scholarship gave her the opportunity to immerse herself in the study of business and gain the necessary skills to fulfill her dreams, which as you’ll see in the video below, are big.    

Jay recommends speaking from the heart in your application. He wants to find people that are “passionate about making change in their home country” as well as people that are “driven to help their country globalize and help progress the people of their nation.”

I absolutely love it that business has the power to make that happen.

To learn more about Thunderbird, click here. To learn more about the SHARE scholarship, search for the Thunderbird Alumni Scholars; they’re in the process of updating their website.  

Many thanks to Jay Bryant for the interview!  

image @rild

Hispanic Business released its ranking for top MBA programs for Hispanic students in the September issue. The top 10 are:

1. University of Texas at San Antonio College of Business
2. University of Texas at El Paso College of Business Administration
3. University of Miami School of Business Administration
4. University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business
5. Stanford University Graduate School of Business
6. University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management
7. Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
8. Florida International University Chapman Graduate School of Business
9. University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business
10. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School

Click here for details in the original article.

Chicago Booth (image: reallyboring)

University of Chicago Booth School of Business Offers New MBA Classes

Released July 14, 2009

The Analytics of Financial Crises is one of the new courses to be offered to MBA students by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business during the 2009-10 academic year beginning September 24, the school announced today.

A second new course, The Firm and the Non-Market Environment, will examine business lobbying, regulation, environmental issues, corporate social responsibility and other topics.

Other new courses include Introductory Finance, a hybrid finance class covering both corporate finance and investments that will allow all the standard corporate finance and investment classes to be taken up a notch in difficulty, according to the school.

Also new this year are: Business, Politics, and Ethics; Advanced Microeconomic Theory; and Game Theory.

The class on financial crises is an advanced course that uses the tools of corporate finance to analyze financial crises. Much of the material will pertain to the most recent global crisis, but the class will also study past crises.

The class dealing with the non-market environment facing firms will help students develop the best strategies for dealing with the political, legal and civil contexts in which firms operate. The cases to be discussed are set in both international and U.S. environments.

The course on business, politics, and ethics pushes students to deal with business decisions and practices that raise ethical questions, subject companies to negative publicity or political pressure, or raise other issues related to corporate social responsibility. The goal is for students to get better at analyzing business situations that raise moral dilemmas or appear to call for unpopular actions.

In addition to the new courses, previously announced curriculum changes took effect at in summer quarter for all new students.

The curriculum changes at Chicago Booth add flexibility to an MBA program already known for allowing students wide latitude in course selection. Graduation requirements for students in the full-time MBA program remain unchanged and include nine required courses, 11 electives and a leadership course, however more approved substitute classes have been added to satisfy the nine required courses.

The changes now make it easier for students to navigate course work within their chosen careers, not just toward completing concentrations in areas of interest.

Chicago Booth also added a new academic concentration in analytical management and required all students in the evening MBA program and weekend MBA program to take a leadership development course similar to one required of full-time students.

About the University of Chicago Booth School of Business

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business is one of the leading business schools in the world. The school’s faculty includes many renowned scholars and its graduates include many business leaders across the U.S. and worldwide.

The Chicago Approach to Management Education is distinguished by how it leverages fundamental knowledge, its rigor, and its practical application to business challenges.

Chicago Booth offers a full-time MBA program, an evening MBA program, a weekend MBA program, and an executive MBA program in Chicago, London and Singapore. The school also offers a PhD program, open enrollment executive education, and custom corporate education.

Read the original press release here.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Allan Friedman, 773-702-9232
allan.friedman@ChicagoBooth.edu

Barbara Backe, 773-702-4282
barbara.backe@ChicagoBooth.edu

Stanford Graduate School of Business (image: Jeff Maurone)

Stanford Business School Secures New Source of Loans for International Graduate Students

STANFORD, Calif., June 9 (AScribe Newswire) — Stanford Graduate School of Business today announced the launch of a new private loan program through Star One Credit Union to provide financial assistance to students admitted to the School’s MBA, PhD, and Sloan Master’s programs. An especially welcome relief to international students, the custom loans, which cover tuition and living expenses, will be available to those without a U.S. co-signer.

“The crisis in the global financial sector had threatened our ability to provide equal access to needed assistance among all our students, who hold passports from more than 50 countries,” said Jack Edwards, director of Financial Aid at Stanford Business School. “By securing this loan program with Star One Credit Union, we are pleased to continue our commitment, unbroken since 1999, to offer loans to international students under similarly favorable terms and competitive rates as those available to domestic students.”

With a student population that is more than one-third international, the Stanford Graduate School of Business recognizes the importance of global relevance in both research and classroom engagement. The Global Management Program, developed in 1994 to foster students’ global mindset as they grapple with increasing complexities of managing in a global economy, is the student-facing arm of the School’s Center for Global Business and the Economy, dedicated to rigorous research and course development on global issues.

Students, both domestic and international, are eligible for the School’s Nonprofit/Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, introduced in 1988 to support MBA graduates entering nonprofit and public service organizations where salaries are typically lower. In order to encourage MBA graduates to make meaningful social impact and contribute to social issues, economic growth, and political stability, the loan forgiveness program reduces the financial impact of their educational debt. For more information, visit: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/finaid/forgiveness/nonprofit_publicservice.html .

Star One developed the custom loan program for Stanford Business School’s international graduate students in conjunction with Credit Union Student Choice, a credit-union-owned organization serving certified academic institutions, offering customized student lending solutions to client credit unions across the country. Key attractions of this loan program include a convenient and unique line-of-credit structure, competitive interest rates, and no origination fees.

“As a not-for-profit credit union, we have a unique business model that makes us perfectly suited to meet the private loan needs of international students at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business,” said Rick Heldebrant, Star One Credit Union President and CEO. “We are a local cooperative with a keen focus on the communities we serve. Accordingly, we are extremely excited about the value we can deliver to the Stanford community.”

About Stanford Graduate School of Business
The Stanford Graduate School of Business was founded in 1925 at the urging of Stanford alumnus Herbert Hoover, who later became President of the United States. Stanford has built an international reputation based on its faculty, students, research, and academic offerings. The Business School alone has produced three Nobel laureates since 1990; the faculty numbers approximately 140 men and women, including visiting professors. Each year, the School enrolls approximately 750 students annually in the full-time MBA Program, approximately 100 candidates in the PhD Program, and 54 mid-career executives in the one-year Stanford Sloan Master’s Program. In addition, Stanford’s Executive Education program offers approximately 25 open enrollment courses annually, designed to enhance executives’ professional capabilities. Stanford’s achievements are grounded in a balanced excellence between world-class research and the relevance of best practice. For more information about the Stanford Graduate School of Business, visit: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu .

About Star One Credit Union
Star One Credit Union was founded (chartered) in 1956 as a member-owned cooperative and has grown to become the largest credit union headquartered in the Santa Clara County and 13th largest in the nation. Star One Credit Union offers a wide range of financial services, including high-yield deposit accounts, low-rate consumer and real estate loans, electronic banking services, and free ATM access. Star One has branches in Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Palo Alto, and San Jose, California, and serves more than 80,000 members nationwide.

About Credit Union Student Choice
Credit Union Student Choice is a credit union service organization (CUSO) founded in 2008 by several of the nation’s leading credit unions and CUSOs. Credit Union Student Choice positions credit unions as leaders in education financing in the 21st century by redefining value for student borrowers and helping credit unions connect with new Gen Y members. The Credit Union Student Choice network enables credit unions of all asset sizes and fields of membership to make private student loans that may be held on their own balance sheet to recognize the long-term economic return of the loan relationship versus a one-time referral fee. The CUSO helps credit unions by managing many of the challenges and risks commonly associated with student lending. To learn more or find out how your credit union can participate, visit http://www.studentchoice.org or call 800-237-5678 and ask for a Credit Union Student Choice representative.

For more information about Star One Credit Union, contact Joe Fagenstrom, VP Marketing, Star One Credit Union, 408-543-5000, fax 408-543-5203.

Read the original post here.

The Stanford Graduate School of Business (image: naotakem)

by: Pete Carey

Mercury News

The new dean of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business is Garth Saloner, an economist, popular teacher and a leader in management education.

Saloner, 54, takes over as the school seeks to expand its reach into the global economy and launches construction of a new 360,000-square-foot campus slated for completion by 2011.

A Stanford faculty member since 1990, Saloner is known for forging contacts between the school and the business leaders of Silicon Valley, and has promoted collaboration between students in the business school and those in other departments.

“We’ve been working hard to eliminate boundaries between the schools and disciplines,” he said Tuesday. “We are really trying to promote the free flow of ideas, students and faculty across the schools.”

He takes over as dean Sept. 1 from Robert Joss, who is stepping down after 10 years. Saloner’s research is in entrepreneurship and network effects that underlie electronic commerce.

Saloner was a founder of the Stanford Computer Industry project, funded by the Sloan Foundation, and helped found the university’s Center for Electronic Business and Commerce.

In 2006, Saloner led a task force that completed a major revision of the school’s curriculum. In about three weeks, the school will graduate the first students to complete the curriculum.

“Our view of the MBA has evolved over time,” he said. “A significant fraction of our entering class comes to us today having already learned much of what we used to teach 10 or 20 years ago.”

The new curriculum begins by introducing students to “broad and difficult management issues,” he said, “to provide a perspective on what management education is about.”

The curriculum also recognizes that students come from different backgrounds and experiences, ranging from businesses to nonprofit organizations. More than a third of the graduate school’s students are foreign-born. “It’s an enormous diversity of experience,” he said.

Future MBAs “are going to have to go beyond mastery” of basic areas such as management and finance “to really think deeply” about the world, he said.

“He has a global mindset,” said John Roberts, a Stanford business school economist who co-chaired the search committee that made recommendations to Stanford President John Hennessy and Provost John Etchemendy.

The new curriculum Saloner helped forge is “truly reinventing the path to an MBA,” Etchemendy said in announcing Saloner’s appointment Tuesday.

A native of Johannesburg, South Africa, Saloner previously was on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and its Sloan School of Management. He received his first degrees in business — a bachelor’s and master’s — from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

He holds three degrees from Stanford — master’s in statistics and economics, and a doctorate in economics, business and public policy.

A little less well-known is the fact that Saloner and his three daughters will soon have seven Stanford degrees among them. Two of his daughters have undergraduate degrees and the third is in her freshman year. The eldest just enrolled in the business school’s MBA program.

“It’s quite a family affair,” he said.

Contact Pete Carey at pcarey@mercurynews.com and click here to read the original posting.

image: Niemster

U.S. News & World report released its 2009 MBA rankings based on a survey of 426 programs. Here are the top 20 MBA programs in the USA. Be sure to note the actual ranking to the left because there are several ties.

1. Harvard University
2. Stanford University
3. Northwestern University (Kellogg)
3. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
5. University of Chicago (Booth)
7. University of California – Berkley (Haas)
8. Dartmouth College (Tuck)
9. Columbia University
10. Yale University
11. New York University (Stern)
12. Duke University (Fuqua)
13. University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (Ross)
14. University of California – Los Angeles (Anderson)
15. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)
15. University of Virginia (Darden)
17. Cornell University (Johnson)
18. University of Texas – Austin (McCombs)
19. Georgetown University (McDonough)
20. University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)
20. University of Southern California (Marshall)

On the U.S. News & World Report website, you can filter results by multiple categories including: location, cost, size and employment. Click here to learn more.

Thinking about going to Business School? Click here to purchase the MBA in the USA™ complete interview guide “MBA Interviews: How to Shine in Every Interview Situation.”

Wharton Students (image: yan.da)

Wharton School Announces Launch of Custom Loan Program for International MBA Students

SOURCE: Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania announced the launch of a custom loan program with Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) that will provide needed assistance to international MBA students who do not have a U.S. co-signer. The program, which covers tuition and living expenses, is also available to current first-year international students for their second year of study. Highlights of the program include attractive loan terms, no origination fees and attentive customer service.

“The global economic crisis has had a negative impact on many financial institutions who have traditionally offered private student loans, which of course has direct ramifications for our students,” said Anjani Jain, vice dean of Wharton’s Graduate Division. “With students from more than 70 countries, Wharton offers a truly international environment and it was very important for us to find a lender that can meet the needs of these students.”

With a network of 84,000 alumni in 139 countries worldwide, the Wharton School has a long established commitment to global engagement. Today 40 percent of all Wharton MBAs are international students, providing valuable insights to both faculty and classmates. Under Dean Thomas Robertson, Wharton continues to grow internationally with the recent appointment of Professor Harbir Singh as the new Vice Dean for Global Initiatives; 25th anniversary celebrations for both the Lauder Program and Global Consulting Practicum; 17 semester-long international exchange program options at 14 partner schools; and the multi-campus reach of the Wharton-INSEAD Alliance.

DCU developed the custom loan program for Wharton’s international MBA students in conjunction with Credit Union Student Choice, a credit-union-owned organization that offers school-certified private student lending solutions to credit unions across the country.

“As a credit union, we have a unique business model that makes us perfectly suited to meet the private loan needs of international students at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania,” said James Regan, DCU President and CEO. “We are extremely excited about the value we can deliver to Wharton students.”

The custom loan program created by DCU features a unique line-of-credit structure, giving international students the ability to apply once and secure financing for their complete graduate degree. Besides providing tuition financing, other key attributes of the line include low interest rates, flexible repayment options, and zero origination or pre-payment fees.

About the Wharton School
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania — founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school — is recognized globally for intellectual leadership and ongoing innovation across every major discipline of business education. The most comprehensive source of business knowledge in the world, Wharton bridges research and practice through its broad engagement with the global business community. The School has more than 4,700 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students; more than 12,000 annual participants in executive education programs; and an alumni network of more than 84,000 graduates.

About DCU
DCU is a full-service, not for profit financial institution cooperatively owned by and operated for its members. Since being chartered in October 1979, DCU has been chosen as the credit union for employees and members of more than 800 companies and organizations along with their families. With assets in excess of $4 billion, DCU is the largest credit union in New England and among the top 15 nationwide, serving nearly 370,000 members worldwide. DCU has full-service branch offices in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Georgia, and Colorado.

About Credit Union Student Choice
Credit Union Student Choice is a credit union service organization (CUSO) founded in 2008 by several of the nation’s leading credit unions and CUSOs, Credit Union Student Choice positions credit unions as leaders in education financing in the 21st century by redefining value for student borrowers and helping credit unions connect with new Gen Y members. The Credit Union Student Choice network enables credit unions of all asset sizes and fields of membership to make private student loans that may be held on their own balance sheet to recognize the long-term economic return of the loan relationship versus a one-time referral fee. The CUSO helps credit unions by managing many of the challenges and risks commonly associated with student lending. To learn more or find out how your credit union can participate, visit www.studentchoice.org or call 800-237-5678 and ask for a Credit Union Student Choice representative.

Read the original MarketWatch post here.

image: Harvard Chalkboard (Patrick Haney)

Six months after the dissolution of the CitiAssist loan for International students, Harvard University signed a deal with JPMorgan Chase to offer no-cosigner loans to International students. Way to go!

The Harvard Gazette Online announced the agreement on February 27, 2009 with the article below.

New loan program helps international students

Harvard, JPMorgan Chase to offer private education loans

Harvard University has signed an agreement with JPMorgan Chase that will provide graduate and professional students from abroad with access to private education loans. International students are not eligible for federal student loans.

The agreement follows more than six months of work by University officials to secure support for international students in its graduate and professional programs after other major lenders withdrew from the market. International undergraduate students at Harvard College are separately covered under the College’s financial aid program.

“We have a significant international student population, and we pride ourselves on the contributions these students make to a diverse campus,” said Dan Shore, Harvard’s chief financial officer. “We are pleased to be able to say, once again, that a Harvard graduate education remains accessible to all talented students, regardless of where they live.”

Historically, only a handful of lenders were willing to provide loans to students from abroad in the absence of a U.S. resident to serve as a co-signer. When the financial markets began to tumble late last summer, many of these entities declined to continue such lending. This casts doubt on the plans of thousands of people hoping to study at universities across the country. Currently, there are approximately 3,300 international students in graduate and professional programs at Harvard.

Under the agreement, JPMorgan Chase will provide financing to graduate and professional students from abroad who register at Harvard. A customized underwriting process will make it as simple as possible for student loan applicants. Under this program, international students may qualify for loans up to the total cost of their attendance at the University, but the specific amount available to individual students will be determined, as part of an overall financial assessment, by the Harvard Schools or programs they will attend.

The market for student lending continues to evolve rapidly. While Harvard is pleased to announce this program with JPMorgan Chase, the University will continue to explore additional programs for all of its domestic and international students, so that they may have a range of choices to help finance their studies.

Read the original Harvard Gazette Online post here.

images: MIT Dome after a Snow (Neal G) & Moscow Red Square (Alex Minza)

An exciting new partnership between MIT Sloan in Cambridge, MA and the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO was announced today. The partnership will capitalize on MIT’s history of project-based learning combined with the SKOLKOVO knowledge of emerging markets and global business.

The full press release is below.

MIT Sloan to partner with Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO

Collaboration with Russia’s first full-time MBA program features project-based learning

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., MOSCOW, Russia, February 3, 2009 – In a partnership between one of the world’s most respected business schools and one of its newest, the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO are launching a series of joint programs aimed at strengthening the Russian school’s capacity in business education at the international level while exposing MIT Sloan faculty and students to a new range of global developments and challenges.

The institutional collaboration between MIT Sloan and SKOLKOVO, which will begin to offer Russia’s first full-time MBA program when its state-of-the-art campus opens outside of Moscow this fall, includes classes and other training for SKOLKOVO MBA students in Cambridge and lectures by MIT Sloan faculty at SKOLKOVO. The partnership emphasizes project-based education, which is one of the hallmarks of MIT Sloan and a foundation of the SKOLKOVO approach. The two schools will also collaborate on a “Doing Business in Russia” program.

“It is an honor to be considered a trusted partner by MIT, one of the premier academic institutions in the world,” said SKOLKOVO Dean Wilfried Vanhonacker. “There is a natural fit in MIT Sloan’s expertise in project-based learning as well as its ability to stimulate entrepreneurship with SKOLKOVO’s ambition to groom entrepreneurial leaders for fast-moving economies. SKOLKOVO brings a creative flair and ambition to a trusted academic institution, and both of us look forward to a mutually valuable partnership in research and in education.”

The SKOLKOVO effort, said MIT Sloan Dean David C. Schmittlein, “ties into MIT Sloan’s mission, which is to develop principled, innovative leaders who improve the world. Working with SKOLKOVO allows us to share and expand what we have learned about project-based learning and other approaches to management education. They will learn from us, and we will learn from them.”

MIT Sloan has a long history of international collaborations, noted MIT Sloan Senior Associate Dean Alan White. “Our involvement in Russia goes back to the early 1960s, when we were involved in management studies with the Institute of Systems Studies and worked closely with two distinguished leaders of early management education in Russia, Drs. Jermain Gvishiani and Boris Milner,” he said. “This collaboration with SKOLKOVO, which we expect to become a global leader in management education, represents a new era in our work in Russia.”

SKOLKOVO Dean Andrei Volkov also noted the MIT-Russia link. “MIT was one of the few educational centers to work with our country in the field of science and technology during the cold war period,” he said. “SKOLKOVO and MIT Sloan share a strong commitment to innovation and a focus on entrepreneurship. This partnership will help SKOLKOVO develop new kinds of programs using the latest solutions and teaching approaches.”

MIT Sloan Prof. Simon Johnson, who will play an active role in the joint effort, said current global conditions create a unique educational opportunity for students and faculty on both campuses. “As the world has become more unstable, it is a big shock to managers in many countries,” said Johnson. “But people working in emerging markets can take it more in stride since they have been dealing with instability for a long while.

The difference between emerging markets and developed countries is shrinking, and we all need to figure out the implications for management practice.  Russia, which is filled with innovators in this regard, is a great place to do this. That’s why MIT Sloan and SKOLKOVO both look forward to ongoing and close collaboration in teaching, research and other areas in the future.”

For further information, contact:

MIT Sloan School of Management
http://mitsloan.mit.edu

Paul Denning
+617-253-0576
denning@mit.edu

Patricia Favreau
+617-253-3492
pfavreau@mit.edu

Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO
http://www.skolkovo.ru/

Elena Morenko
+7 495 580 30 03
Elena_Morenko@skolkovo.ru

The 2009 Financial Times rankings are out, complete with interactive tools to help you analyze the data and compare schools. The Financial Times publishes global rankings, rankings by region and rankings by specialty. Below are the US top 20:

Financial Times Top 20 MBA programs in the USA

1. University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
2. Columbia Business School
3. Stanford University GSB
4. Harvard Business School
5. MIT: Sloan
6. University of Chicago GSB
7. New York University: Stern
8. Dartmouth College: Tuck
9. Yale School of Management
10. Northwestern University: Kellogg
11. UCLA: Anderson
12. Emory University: Goizueta
13. University of Michigan: Ross
14. Duke University: Fuqua
15. UC Berkeley: Haas
16. University of Virginia: Darden
17. Cornell University: Johnson
18. University of Maryland: Smith
19. Georgetown University: McDonough
20. University of North Carolina: Kenan-Flagler

Click here for the full global rankings.

Thinking about going to Business School? Click here to purchase the MBA in the USA™ complete interview guide “MBA Interviews: How to Shine in Every Interview Situation.”