Top B-schools in the United States, faced with the COVID-19 outbreak, are shutting their doors to classes in the campus, canceling scheduled events and tours and rescheduled for canceled in-person admission interviews.

The move by the schools over the last week comes in the wake of the more than 300,000 Coronavirus reported, with more than 13,000 deaths worldwide. The US has a total of 34,755 cases with 452 deaths reported so far.

COVID-19 Effect: B-Schools in the US Close Doors

Yale SOM Cancels Classes, Campus Visits, Postpone Reunion Weekend

Yale School of Management remains open but has moved all classes for the entire spring semester. All the staff not required for core, in-person functions have been asked to work from remote locations.

Visits to Edward P. Evans Hall, the main building that houses classrooms, faculty offices, academic centres and meeting spaces around an enclosed courtyard, remain suspended until further notice, the school said in a statement.

Yale SOM Reunion Weekend 2020, originally scheduled to take place on May 1–3, has been postponed. All scheduled events in Evans Hall through the end of the exam period have been canceled or have migrated to an online format.

All outbound school-sponsored travel during the spring break in March has been canceled. These include the faculty-led International Experience courses, student consulting engagements that are part of the Global Social Entrepreneurship course and Global Network Week, a series of modules on the campuses of schools in the Global Network for Advanced Management.

Berkeley Haas Moves Classes, Events Online, Cancels Admission Events

Meanwhile, UC Berkeley has moved all instruction and other functions to remote operations in keeping with the health and safety recommendations designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) and to protect the health and well-being of students, faculty, staff and guests.

All admissions events, class visits, and in-person new admit events remain canceled. The school will work over the coming days to convert as many in-person events as possible into online events.

Employees in the admissions offices for all MBA programs are now working remotely. They will continue to be available virtually for any questions.

For the full-time MBA, the Application review continues for fall 2020, and the school is on schedule to receive Round 3 applications. Admissions interviews have been transitioned to virtual formats.

Berkeley Haas will be hosting live online admissions Question and Answer sessions twice a day for the next few weeks. Sign up facility is available on the website.

Accelerated Access, a new Berkeley Haas program, will give undergraduates the option of applying early for a coveted spot in the full-time MBA program and deferring for two to five years to gain the required professional experience.

The program is initially open only to UC Berkeley undergraduate and graduate students in their final year of study, with a plan to expand to students throughout the University of California system and then more broadly in the future. Deadlines remain unchanged and are April 2 for Round 1 and June 11 for Round 2.

The school said because of the closure of many of the standardized test centres, candidates planning to apply in the first round and have completed all other application elements,  may still submit by April 2 and complete the exam at the earliest possible date in the future, but no later than May 21.

On the application, add a “0” as the score received. It will alert the admission committee to watch for your test scores to arrive. Also, email your unofficial scores once you have completed the test. The unofficial score will be added to your application pending arrival of your official score.

The second round timeline remains unchanged and the standardized test must be completed on or before June 11.

Letters of Recommendation (LORs) should be submitted as close to the April 2 or June 11 deadline as possible. While your application will be accepted without the recommendations, a review of your candidacy will be delayed until both LORs have been received.

Tuck Forms Task Force to Meet Virus Threat

Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth has formed a high-level task force to plan for and manage possible disruptions related to the COVID-19 outbreak. The task force is holding daily meetings to update the latest information, consultations with experts, evaluate the risk factors and prepare for various scenarios.

All MBA courses have been moved to remote-only learning for the entire spring term, with no option for students to attend class in person. To the extent possible, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities will also be delivered remotely during this time.

All those returning from or transiting through a country that is rated as a CDC Level 2 or 3 will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days before coming to campus. Those returning from a CDC Level 1 country will be required to self-observe for 14 days before coming to campus.

The list of level 3, 2, and 1 countries is available on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website. Self-quarantine should take place off-campus. However, self-observation can occur on the campus.

All events involving the gathering of 10 or more people until May 9 should either be canceled, postponed, streamed/made virtual, or modified to lesser numbers. This applies to all gatherings organized by Dartmouth or Tuck hosted on Dartmouth property. The Admitted Students Weekend, scheduled for April 3-4, has been canceled.

On March 16, three members of the Dartmouth community living in off-campus housing were tested for COVID-19. One of these individuals, a graduate student, tested presumptive positive later that day. A second person, also a graduate student, tested negative.

The third student, an undergraduate, has been confirmed to be presumptive positive. This third student had voluntarily self-isolated while awaiting testing results and remains so. Students who had close contact with this person are self-quarantining off-campus.

Kellogg Postpones Reunion, Moves Classes Online

Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University said members of the community who have tested positive for coronavirus were currently in self-isolation off-campus.

“Kellogg and the University remain open and the core operations will continue, albeit in a new, more virtual environment. However, as we continue to closely adhere to CDC guidance only individuals who are essential to Kellogg’s ongoing operations can remain physically on-site as of 5 p.m. Friday, March 20 through April 3, 2020,” the School said in a statement.

“For those of you who are both essential to operations and experiencing symptoms, we ask that you please remain off of the campus at this time. As Kellogg prepares to deliver remote coursework that is in line with our exceptional academic curricula, the next two weeks may require certain faculty and staff to be regularly or sporadically onsite,” it added.

The Kellogg Reunion has been postponed until fall 2020. The new dates will be shared via email and on the Reunion website as soon as the plans are confirmed.

For prospective students, we will not be able to hold in-person meetings for the time being. Therefore, all events and interviews will have virtual elements and options.

The School said it was abiding by guidelines from the CDC and Northwestern University by canceling, postponing or moving to virtual all events scheduled through April 15.

“We are assessing events after April 15 based on the State of Illinois mandate from March 16 that all events or gatherings of 50 or more people be canceled or postponed for the next 8 weeks. Event owners are reaching out to speakers and attendees with more information,” it said.

Kenan-Flagler Suspends On-campus Admission Activities

UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School said its admissions team was ready to help prospective MBA students and will work with all applicants impacted by COVID-19. There will be no change in the Round 4 application deadline of April 6 and the decision release on May 18.

“For the health and safety of our community, we’ve suspended all on-campus admissions activities and moved many to a virtual platform. We will continue to offer admissions webinars on a variety of topics, including leadership development, application tips and financial aid,” the School said.

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A five-member team of MBA students from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth has won an entertainment case competition overcoming competition from media-specialty schools such as UCLA, USC, Columbia, and NYU.

The team received $4,000 in prize money and since the competition is mainly for students in the first year of the two-year full-time MBA program, a summer internship with the Paramount Studios.

Tuck MBA Team Wins Case Competition on Media & Entertainment

The Case Competition

The 2020 UCLA Anderson Center for MEMES MBA Entertainment Case Competition brings together teams of MBA students from top universities around the United States to analyze and present a solution to a real-world entertainment business problem.

According to the organisers, this competitive learning experience is intended to help participants gain exposure to real-life challenges in the media and entertainment space.

The competition on February 27, 2020, was part of the 11th annual UCLA Anderson Pulse Entertainment, Sports & Technology Conference. The conference took place the next day at the Luskin Conference Center.

Held in two rounds, the top teams from the first round moved on to compete in a final-round presentation. The winning team was selected by a blue-ribbon panel of media and entertainment senior executives.

Under the competition rules, each team could have three to five students. Only the first 20 teams to register and pay the registration fee were allotted a slot. No school was allowed to field more than two teams.

The participants were drawn from the full-time MBA programs. Those in the school’s fully employed programs were considered on a case-by-case basis.

The Tuck Team Spirit

The Tuck team comprised Keri Yildirim, Krishna Desai, Andrew Ho, Kwabena Nimo and Kyle Trehub. On arrival at the competition venue, they found the schools with media specializations in MBA such as UCLA Anderson, USC Marshall, Columbia, and NYU Stern—each had sent two teams. Harvard Business School also fielded two teams.

The team attributed their victory to their experience in the media industry and their shared passion for the topic. Keri has nine years of industry experience in entertainment, in the US and Turkey. Kyle, with a professional background in consulting, had worked in consumer goods and retail.

Krishna had worked with Snapchat and was Turner Sports Alum. Andrew Ho had worked with the 82^nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army, was Afghan National Police Advisor (Consultant) among other posts. Kwabena, an InSITE Fellow, has work experience as Water resources Engineer, Senior Associate, Business Intelligence in his work profile.

Case Study Question: Where’s the Entertainment Industry Headed?

A week before the competition, each team received a two-part prompt to answer through a PowerPoint presentation. There was also a Q&A session on the day of the competition.

The teams were asked where they believe the entertainment industry is heading in the next five years and what Paramount should do now to prepare for it. They were given three options to choose from: 5G connectivity, interactive entertainment, or theatrical innovation.

Place Your Bet on Interactive Entertainment

Tuck team members placed their bet on interactive entertainment. They based their choice on the surging popularity of video games, which earn more annual revenue than traditional home entertainment. It has been growing by a larger margin for the past three years.

“We felt that audiences wanted some level of personalization and interactivity, which is something video games offer,” says Yildirim, who spent eight years at the Fox Networks Group (recently acquired by The Walt Disney Company) in Turkey. “It’s also something we’re seeing online.”

Each team had 10 minutes to argue their case, followed by a 10-minute question-and-answer session with the judges, who are executives at Paramount (up to the CFO level, and across functions from HR to casting).

Strategy and Teamwork Won the Day

After the Tuck team made it through the first round, the difficulty of the questions increased considerably. While most of the teams were relying on one team member to answer questions, the Tuck team differentiated itself by having all of its members offer different points and perspectives, says Yildrim.

“If Kyle gave an answer, I offered some of the background I knew,” she says, “or if Krishna had an answer, KB threw in a different perspective.”

That sort of collaboration was facilitated, Yildirim believes, by the unique Tuck core curriculum and its emphasis on teamwork. Before this competition, the five Tuck team members had never worked with each other, but they gelled quickly.

“Just being able to work really hard on a team with new people—the Tuck study group culture helped us push hard toward a goal,” she says.

In the end, the judges’ decision was nearly unanimous—something that has not happened before in the competition’s seven-year history.

“The win itself was a surprise since there were a few teams that we were all impressed by,” says Krishna. “When we heard the preamble to the announcement, we looked around, laughed and said ‘at least it was a fun trip to LA!’ But when they called our names, we all kind of looked at each other, super surprised, and made our way to the stage.”

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A three-member MBA students’ team from the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business has won the first place and $10,000 in the final round of the Katz Invitational Case Competition.

The competition was held at the University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business on February 7–8, 2020. The invitational case competition was, according to the organisers, designed to test the teams’ ability to collaborate on different business disciplines.

The case study would provide them with an opportunity to evaluate a tough business situation in multiple perspectives in a very short period of time. They will then present their recommendations to senior executives. The ultimate goal was to allow students to apply their business education to deliver unique and creative recommendations.

UF Warrington Emerges the Winner at Katz Invitation Case Competition 2020

Preparations for the Competition

Writing about her experience as part of the winning team, Kristyn Cadwell says she and her MBA’21 colleague Chelsea Creech were asked by Ali Kassam and Nick Carpenter (both MBA’20) to join the team.

While it was the second time Ali and Nick were participating in the competition, the two junior students had practically no idea about the competition.

The topic given to the team was to analyze the future of electrification in aerospace and to identify ways to enter the electrification market.

Kristyn says having spent countless hours in preparation, they managed to gather a huge amount of information about Crane Co. an American industrial products company based in Stamford, Connecticut.

They also managed to learn about the aerospace market and electric batteries. Crane Co. has an aerospace & electronics subsidiary, Crane Aerospace & Electronics. For the next two weeks, the team spent every evening and weekend locked in a Hough Hall breakout room together arguing solutions, drawing and re-drawing ideas on the whiteboard and trying to anticipate every question anyone could have about the presentation.

Kristyn says the team ran through the presentation so many times that she could not only recite her slides from memory, but everyone else’s too.

“We knew that our objective was not just to win; it was to become better presenters, researchers and problem-solvers…” she says.

Nervous Moments at the Competition

On arrival at the University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business, they met the other teams. They held did two practice run-throughs on the eve of the competition at the venue itself.

The appearance of a few problems including a lagging clicker and the animations not appearing at the right time dampened their spirits somewhat. It also made them realize that after weeks of hard work in creating this project, they may still end up not winning the competition.

On the day of the competition, the team sat in the practice room doing a few final run-throughs and watching clips of The Office to calm the nerves. About the first-round presentation, Kristyn says that both Ali and she managed to make their best presentations. Likewise, Nick and Chelsea did the best run-throughs of their slides.

“Ali concluded our recommendation and it was time for Q&A. The judges asked every question we wanted them to, and I was so pleased with our answers. Then someone called time. Thirty of the most stressful minutes of my life were over and we walked solemnly back to our practice room. As soon as the door was closed, we started hugging each other, overwhelmed by how well we had done. Some of us had tears in our eyes,” she says.

They anxiously waited for lunch as that was the time for the announcement of the teams for the final round.  The team was called and presented the second time. When the winners were announced the team found itself in the first place.

“First place, University of Florida!” It was us. We had done it. Weeks of hard work, frustrations, and hope and here we were the first-place winners. The night ended in a flurry of pictures and congratulations and finally, we were alone again as a team, reminding each other every few minutes “Guys, we won,” Kristyn says.

A Multi-dimensional Competition

The case for the Katz Invitational Case Competition is multi-dimensional, designed to test the teams’ ability to collaborate on different business disciplines. It provides the participating teams to will give students the opportunity to evaluate a tough business situation in multiple perspectives in a very short period of time and to present their recommendations to senior executives.

The competition offers three prizes. The first place has a monetary component of $10,000, the 2nd place, $5,000 and the 3rd place $3,000.

In the preliminary round on February 8, all the teams competed in four different bracket groups.  Each team was given 20 minutes to present their case analysis and recommendations. It also had a 10-minute question & answer period during which the judges put questions to the presenting team. Only the presenting team, judges, timekeeper, and Case Competition staff were permitted in the room.

All four team members were required to have a speaking role during the presentation. Each team member was to actively participate in the team’s presentation.

The teams were asked to be prepared to present their analysis using an LCD projector and a computer, operating it via a keyboard or a remote mouse provided by the organizers. Teams were barred from using personal laptops.  In case of technical difficulties, teams were told to be ready to present using hard copies of their presentation.

In the final round, the presentation order was chosen randomly. Finalist teams were not allowed to alter their PowerPoint presentations. Similar to the first round, teams were told to keep the presentation strictly within the 20-minutes guideline and were provided 15 minutes for Q&A with the judges. The final presentations were open to public viewing.

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If you are interested in working for social good along with achieving success in business, this MBA in social enterprise and entrepreneurship at the St. John, Canada-based Memorial University of Newfoundland may provide the answer.

The University says its MBA-SEE, a one-year full-time MBA program run by the AACSB-accredited Faculty of Business, aims at helping students to become business leaders based on the three pillars of sustainability: people, planet and profits.

One Year MBA in Social Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at Memorial University

Focus on Sustainability and Social Enterprise

The program, with a focus on sustainable and social business practices, includes a four-month internship to develop the necessary skills. As a participant, you will be able to acquire core business knowledge by learning about the social, environmental and economic challenges in a rapidly changing business environment.

Besides delving deep into various aspects of the policy for social and sustainable enterprises, you will learn how to identify and develop opportunities to create social, environmental and economic value.

You will receive the training necessary to become an ethical and responsible decision-maker. As part of the cohort, you will apply appropriate analytic frameworks to solve problems in businesses and other organizations.

The students will also receive guidance in using appropriate technologies to gather and analyze data relevant to managerial decision-making. You are expected to develop written and oral communication skills to present the information for managerial decision-making.

You will learn how to thoroughly analyze business situations and make integrated business decisions. The program also stresses developing teamwork skills to enhance team performance and later, motivate others to achieve organizational goals.

All students must complete the one-week orientation, two academic semesters on the campus and a four-month internship. At the end of the internship, you will reconnect with the cohort to summarize the learning outcomes of the respective internships and present reflections papers.

Eligibility Criteria

You should have the equivalent of a four-year Canadian undergraduate degree with a minimum B average, or second class standing, from a recognized university. For universities that use the 4-point grade point average, this is a minimum requirement of 2.75.

For applicants with a three-year bachelor’s degree, it depends on the courses you have taken and your level of academic achievement. Your credentials will be formally assessed after you have submitted your application and supporting documents.

An acceptable and balanced GMAT score (normally a minimum of 550) or an acceptable and balanced GRE General Test score (normally 302) is required for all applicants.

You should have at least two years of full-time work experience, or equivalent work and volunteer experience deemed acceptable to the Faculty of Business Administration.

Documents to be submitted with the Application

Two letters of reference are required. At least one reference should have had close professional contact with the applicant within the last two years and at least one must be capable of appraising the applicant’s academic potential as a graduate student. A mix of professional and academic referees is preferred.

All applicants must complete a short questionnaire to measure their knowledge of, interest in and projected career paths in social innovation.

Applicants whose prior university instruction was not in English should present the scores of Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or International English Language Testing System (IELTS) tests.

Minimum TOEFL scores are 580 for the paper-based test; 237 on the computer-based test; or 92 on the Internet-based test. The minimum IELTS score is an overall band score of 7.0.

Applicants for the MBA-SEE program should submit their applications to the School of Graduate Studies by February 1 for the Fall semester. Applications and all supporting admission documents must be received by the application deadline. Late Canadian applications may be accepted and processed as time and resources permit.

Fees & Other Expenses

The fee for Newfoundland and Labrador students amounts to $11,856.00 per semester and $25,558.63 for the entire program. For Canadian students, it is $12,250.58 per semester and $26,740.63 for the entire program. The fee for international students is $15,261.96 per semester and $33,273.63 for the entire program.

Source 1

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