Duke / Fuqua MBA News

Published: April 6, 2017

MBA Applicant Spotlight: A Marathon 10 Applications Long

In our new series, "MBA Applicant Spotlight," we're bringing you the personal experiences and lessons of MBA applicants. The MBA application process may have the common thread of being challenging, but each person's journey is different. To kick off the series, we start with Yansong Pang, who applied to 10 MBA programs. He is currently the global president at Global China Connection, one of the largest NGOs connecting Chinese students with young professionals around the world. He graduated from Carleton College and has worked both in buy-side equity research and strategy consulting. Read on for his experience with MBA admissions: Where did you apply? What were the results? I applied to HBS, Stanford GSB, Wharton, LBS, Berkeley / Haas, Cornell / Johnson, MIT / Sloan, Yale SOM and Duke / Fuqua and the Jefferson scholarship at UVA / Darden. Read more

Published: March 20, 2017

Collaboration—and Improv—Help Fuqua Team Win Energy Case Contest

Collaboration, as many MBA students quickly learn, is key in a business environment. For four Duke University Fuqua School of Business students, that collaborative effort fostered an important victory on the road to a potentially fruitful career. Paige Swofford, Liz Arnason and Mike DeNoia, Masters of Environmental Management (MEM) and MBA dual majors, alongside Daytime MBA student Yochai Ben Haim—all first-years at Fuqua—nabbed first place at last month’s Challenges in Energy Case Competition held at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Teamwork was essential to their victory, but their collaborative bond had formed long Read more

Published: March 20, 2017

MBA DecisionWire Spotlight: Chicago Booth, Duke / Fuqua or Michigan / Ross for Social Impact

In this edition of MBA DecisionWire Spotlight, which highlights the admissions results of students and alumni posted to Clear Admit’s DecisionWire, we round up responses to a candidate with an interest in social impact. This week, a candidate with acceptances to U. Chicago Booth, Duke / Fuqua, and Michigan / Ross asked for advice on the programs’ relative strengths. Read more

Published: March 7, 2017

DecisionWire Data Suggests a Tiered Business School Ranking

As many of our readers know, U.S. News & World Report is scheduled to release its annual ranking of leading MBA programs next week. We wanted to use this time—ahead of the ranking’s release—to highlight some key insights from our MBA DecisionWire data, which we think will provide context for the upcoming rankings and perhaps even foretell some of the results. Our analysis of DecisionWire data yielded some fascinating findings that we believe support a tiered ranking system for schools, one in which the peer group a school finds itself in serves as a better indicator of Read more

Published: March 6, 2017

MBA DecisionWire Spotlight: Berkeley / Haas, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, NYU / Stern or Yale SOM for Finance

In this edition of MBA DecisionWire Spotlight, which highlights the admissions results of students and alumni posted to Clear Admit’s DecisionWire, we take a closer look at a candidate with a handful of options. This week, a candidate with acceptances to Berkeley / Haas, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, NYU / Stern, and Yale SOM asked for advice on where to head for investment banking, and potentially private equity.Before we get into the constructive feedback, let’s get what many people are likely thinking out of the way:Initial Read more

Published: January 10, 2017

Fuqua Professor Campbell Harvey on the “January Barometer” Myth

More than 40 years since its incarnation, the so-called “January Barometer”—a theory that the direction stocks take in January predicts how their entire year will play out—is still going strong in some camps. But it’s not without its vocal detractors. In a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled “Sorry, the ‘January Barometer’ Is a Market Myth,” Fuqua School of Business Finance Professor Cambell Harvey weighs in—in opposition. Citing the Stock Trader’s Almanac, the Journal article credits the January Barometer, also sometimes called the January Indicator, as being devised by market guru Yale Hirsch in 1972. And its proponents, including Hirsch’s son, Read more

Published: December 21, 2016

Parsing Round 1 MBA LiveWire Data Reveals Some Interesting Results

The last couple of weeks have been very busy indeed as the majority of schools we cover on Clear Admit released final decisions to their Round 1 applicants. MBA LiveWire saw record activity as the community chimed in to share their individual results with each other. We thought it would be interesting to do some data analysis on these results and are excited to share our findings. We should stress, though, that the data is very likely subject to response bias, by which we mean that candidates with positive results may be more inclined to share them, resulting Read more

Published: December 15, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: Five Tips to Make the Most of Your Campus Visit

Perhaps you’re in the extraordinarily fortunate position of needing to choose between multiple schools that have offered you admission in Round 1. Or maybe you are furiously working on your Round 2 applications. Wherever you are in your process, campus visits can play a vital role in choosing where you ultimately decide to enroll. Today’s Friday from the Frontline post—from Natalia Suarez, a second-year MBA student at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business—provides valuable tips for how to make the most of your campus visit. Suarez, who was born in Colombia but raised in New Jersey and Georgia, Read more

Published: December 6, 2016

Forté Foundation Launches New Men as Allies Initiative

Reaching gender equity on business school campuses is far from just a women’s issue, which is precisely why the Forté Foundation is calling on men to get involved. Drawing on successful programs already underway on campuses spanning from Harvard Business School (HBS) to Stanford Graduate School of Business, Forté today announced its new Men as Allies Initiative. It is designed to invite and encourage male students to get involved in a growing movement toward gender equity in business school classrooms and the broader business world. Read more

Published: November 15, 2016

Amid Roller Coaster Rides for Some, HBS Stays Put atop Bloomberg BusinessWeek Ranking

For the second consecutive year, Harvard Business School (HBS) tops the Bloomberg BusinessWeek annual ranking of MBA programs—released today—making it one of the few leading schools that didn’t experience shifts in a list that holds lots of changes this year over last. Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) shot up to second, from its seventh spot last year, and Duke’s Fuqua School followed right on its heels, moving from eighth last year to number three. Together, they knocked the University of Chicago Booth School of Business down from second to fourth. Read more

Published: October 24, 2016

Impending MBA Interview? Latest Clear Admit Interview Guides Have All You Need to Prepare

The MBA interview—the nail-biting, stomach-churning, sleep-robbing, suit-demanding component of the MBA application process that ties some applicants up in knots—is upon us. But there’s no reason to fret: not with Clear Admit’s in-depth Interview Guide Series as part of your arsenal. Providing expert advice and insider tips on what to expect and how to prepare, these guides are ready and waiting to help you conquer your jitters and ace your interview. Maybe you’re among the lucky ones who has already received an interview invite from your top choice business school (Harvard Business School and U. Chicago Booth to name a couple)? We’ve also heard—via the MBA LiveWire—that invites are rolling out from places like Columbia Business School (CBS), Cambridge’s Judge School, Duke’s Fuqua School and INSEAD. Of course, with more candidates set to receive Round 1 decisions in the coming weeks, the interview invitation madness has just begun. Read more

Published: September 15, 2016

Chicago’s McGowan Charitable Fund Announces 7th Class of Fellows

Since 2010, the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund has been naming 10 outstanding second-year MBA students as members of its annual class of McGowan Fellows. The fund was created and named in honor of William G. McGowan, an American business leader and founder of MCI Communications, following his passing in 1992. The selected fellows join a prestigious group of alumni from some of the best business schools around the United States. One fellow is chosen annually from each of 10 partner business schools. Each receives full tuition for the second year of his or her MBA studies. Read more

Published: June 6, 2016

Why McKinsey and Company Loves to Hire MBAs

When it comes to careers MBAs are likely to land, working for a management consulting firm like tops the list. McKinsey and Company is one such firm that conducts qualitative and quantitative analysis for companies around the world in order to evaluate management decisions across the public and private sectors. McKinsey is considered one of the most prestigious management consultancy firms globally and the firm’s clientele includes 80 percent of the world’s largest corporations, along with an extensive list of governments and non-profit organisations. More current and former Fortune 500 CEOs are actually alumni of McKinsey than of any Read more

Published: May 30, 2016

Clear Admit Launches New Strategic Partnership with MBA Mama

Clear Admit’s own roots stretch back to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School—where co-founders Graham Richmond and Eliot Ingram both received their MBAs and Richmond went on to work in the Wharton Admissions Office. Continuing to hone their expertise in the MBA admissions process at top-tier schools, the two Wharton MBAs would soon launch Clear Admit, the leading independent resource for top-tier MBA candidates. MBA Mama Co-Founder and CEO Divinity Matovu (Wharton MBA 2017) Meanwhile, another Wharton MBA student has been hard at work on her own business concept. Wharton rising second-year MBA student Divinity Matovu is co-founder and CEO of MBA Mama, an online platform providing ambitious women with tools and resources to leverage an MBA and strategically navigate family/career planning. Together with co-founder Nicole Pontón, an MBA student at Duke's Fuqua School of Business, the two have been making the MBA Mama name known far and wide. The things the duo had been working on caught our eye, and we reached out to Matovu last fall to ask if she would share some of her experiences as an MBA mom in our Fridays from the Frontline column. She graciously agreed. Read more

Published: May 30, 2016

MBA DecisionWire Data Analysis Examines Yields for HBS, Chicago Booth and Fuqua

Welcome back for the fifth in our series of posts offering analysis of the data we are receiving on MBA DecisionWire. MBA DecisionWire is a resource that allows candidates to share where they’ve decided to attend business school based on the offers they received. If you have made your final decision in terms of where you will attend, please share on MBA DecisionWire. You can also use the filter options to see how other candidates have made their choices. Read more

Published: March 30, 2016

MBA DecisionWire Reveals Candidates’ Gravitation Toward Certain Pairings of Schools

MBA DecisionWire, where candidates share where they’ve decided to attend business school based on the offers they received, has drawn hundreds of entries already in its inaugural season. This level of activity has prompted us to introduce a new bi-monthly column where we will share observations gleaned from the MBA DecisionWire data. Read on for our first set of insights, and stay tuned going forward for more of the same! Popular School Pairings Today we wanted to look at a few popular school pairings—that is, schools where candidates who apply to one program often also apply to the Read more

Published: March 6, 2016

The Growth of International Indian MBA Students

This post has been republished in its entirety from its original source, metromba.com. Increase in Indian MBA Students It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that top MBA programs are being flooded with applications from Indian candidates. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, the number of Indians taking the GMAT increased by nearly 20 percent from 2010 to 2012, and more than half of those GMAT scores were sent to American business schools. In fact, from 2012 to 2013 a total of 25,268 Indians took the GMAT, third in the world behind the United States (90,541) and China (53,005). Read more

Published: February 23, 2016

The Business of Healthcare: MBA Programs that Best Prepare Students to Tackle a Challenging Industry

Shaan Patel’s path to business school was a little different than most. With three years of medical school under his belt, the Las Vegas native traded the University of Southern California (USC) for Yale School of Management (SOM), where he’ll complete his MBA before returning to USC for his final year of med school. “As a medical student, I wanted to learn more about healthcare management,” he says. Yale SOM has been great, he continues, offering plenty of healthcare electives as well as opportunities to collaborate with the Yale School of Medicine. “One of the problems with medical school is that you become so focused on the pathophysiology of disease and clinical medicine that there’s not much exposure to the business side of medicine, healthcare administration, insurance,” he says. One Yale SOM class in particular—“Healthcare, Economics, Finance and Policy”—helped him learn about things like Medicare, Medicaid and the roles played by pharmaceutical and insurance companies. “Most medical students have to learn those things on the job after they are in practice,” Patel notes. Read more

Published: February 23, 2016

MBA Admissions Mashup: Diversity & Inclusion

Every Wednesday, we share a round-up of the latest news from admissions blogs at the top business schools. This week’s MBA Admissions Mashup takes a look at what business schools and MBAs are doing to promote diversity and inclusion on campus and we’ve sprinkled in several admissions tips...just in time for your MBA interview or a Round 3 target deadline. Read more

Published: February 11, 2016

Fridays from the Frontline: An MBALauncher Shares Her Round 2 Application Process

Today’s Friday from the Frontline features an interview with Lisa Atufunwa, a 29-year-old Denver native who submitted applications to five schools as part of Round 2. Business school has always been a part of her plan, and she’s hoping the MBA will help her pivot her career. Currently working in communications for a range of tech companies, startups and public holding companies, Atufunwa is targeting schools with strong programs in marketing. Her post-MBA goal is to become an assistant brand manager in the personal beauty sector, working for a company like L'Oréal, Sephora or Estée Lauder. “That’s always been a personal passion of mine,” she says. Read more

Published: February 10, 2016

Business School Deposit Deadlines: Decisions? Dilemmas? Do Tell!

The time has come for many Round 1 applicants to make a decision about where they will attend business school in the fall. Monday was the Round 1 deposit deadline at Harvard Business School (HBS), and tomorrow deposits are due at Chicago Booth, Duke’s Fuqua School, Northwestern’s Kellogg School, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Yale School of Management. For many, plunking down the cash to indicate to a school that you can’t wait to join their MBA class is as straightforward as it can be. No doubt there are quite a few triumphant applicants to HBS who sent in their $1,000 payments on Monday—or before—with glee. If you were gunning for HBS all along, getting the news you’d been accepted was possibly one of the happiest days of your life, and making your first payment felt like an unequivocal investment in your future. Read more

Published: January 17, 2016

Admissions Tip: 4-Part Comprehensive MBA Interview Series

Interview season for Round 2 candidates will soon be in full swing. In fact, some candidates have already interviewed with schools that offer ‘open’ interviews, such as Dartmouth / Tuck and Northwestern / Kellogg. Soon enough, schools that interview via invitation only (like Harvard Business School, U. Chicago Booth, UPenn / Wharton, and more) will begin doling out those coveted invites. While we know that many of you won’t give the interview a second thought until you have an invitation in hand (or start seeing invites crop up on MBA LiveWire), we think it’s Read more

Published: October 15, 2015

Fridays from the Frontline: Duke / Fuqua Alum on How Team Fuqua is Central to Duke Culture

Happy Friday! We’re back again this week with another edition of Fridays From the Frontlines. This week we bring you Steven Ma, Duke / Fuqua Alum (Class of 2015). Prior to Fuqua, Steven graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in Biology – not your traditional MBA applicant. When Steven made the leap into the MBA world, he found that the resources just weren’t there for him. His blog, From Bench to Board, aims to chronicle his experiences and learnings with the aim of helping those who are interested in earning an MBA without the Read more

Published: August 24, 2015

MBA Interview Jitters? Don’t Miss Clear Admit’s Latest Interview Guides

We know. The interview can be one of the most nerve-wracking components of the entire MBA application process. But it doesn’t have to be. Clear Admit’s in-depth Interview Guide Series provides expert advice and insider tips on what to expect and how to prepare—helping you quash the MBA interview jitters and ace the interview. A sample page from one of the guides. With interview invites already rolling out at schools like Columbia Business School and Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, now’s the time to check out these valuable guides. Five in the series have just been updated for the 2015-16 application season: CBS, Tuck, INSEAD, HBS and Fuqua. Read more

Published: July 9, 2015

Seven Schools Join Forces for Events Focused on Women in Business School

Starting next week, seven leading business schools will host a series of events around the country designed to showcase the value of the MBA for women and the experiences of women in business school. Participating schools include Michigan’s Ross School, the Haas School at UC Berkeley, Cornell Johnson, UVA’s Darden School, Duke’s Fuqua School, NYU Stern and the Yale School of Management. Admissions representatives and alumnae from all the schools will gather for each of five events, scheduled for Chicago, Washington, DC; New York City, Boston and San Francisco. The events will each feature a panel discussion in which female alums from each school will discuss the implications and value of an MBA degree for women in business today. Participants will also have an opportunity to meet fellow prospective applicants, network with alumnae, get tips on the application process and learn more about life on campus and recruiting. Read more