TPG private equity partner William McGlashan Jr. (MBA 1990 Stanford), Douglas M. Hodge, a Harvard MBA and former chief executive of PIMCO, John B Wilson, President and CEO, Hyannis Port Capital, Inc., have been charged with helping prospective students cheat on college admission tests and bribe coaches to inflate their athletic credentials.

• At least three MBA graduates from Harvard and one from Stanford, are among the 50 accused in a $25 million bribery scandal on college admissions.
• TPG private equity partner William McGlashan Jr. (MBA 1990 Stanford) and Douglas M. Hodge, a Harvard MBA and former chief executive of PIMCO, have been charged with helping prospective students cheat on college admission tests and bribe coaches to inflate their athletic credentials.
• William Singer, the alleged mastermind, was stated to have used his Edge College & Career Network and an affiliated non-profit to help 33 wealthy parents secure admission for their children.
• The indictment also names two actresses, Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin and the latter’s fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli.
• The scandal has not only tarnished the image of the schools but also exposed the weak spots in the admission process.

Meanwhile, Stanford has placed McGlashan on leave from the school’s Advisory Council pending the outcome of the charges. “The alleged behaviour falls far short of the ethical conduct we expect of any member of the GSB community, and especially one serving the school in an important capacity,” GSB Dean Jon Levin said he in an email on March 13 to the school’s community.

William Singer, the alleged mastermind, was stated to have used his Edge College & Career Network and an affiliated non-profit to help 33 wealthy parents secure admission for their children. He has pleaded guilty in federal court to a cheating scheme that included bribing SAT test proctors and college coaches, says John A. Byrne in an article on Poets & Quants website.

The indictment also names two actresses, Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin and the latter’s fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli.

Singer is reported to have used several methods, including using a stand-in to appear for an exam for one candidate, pasting the applicant student’s head on the body of an athlete, bribing sports coaches and paying up to $75,000 for falsified exam results, for admission to Yale, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California.

The scandal has not only tarnished the image of the schools but also exposed the weak spots in the admission process.

Authorities said they found instances of college entrance exam administrators being bribed to alter scores or grant students extra time on tests. The bribes were allegedly paid through Edge College & Career Network and an affiliated nonprofit, the Key Worldwide Foundation.

Routing the money through the nonprofit also provided the accused an opportunity of getting tax-deductible payments. Between 2011 and 2018, the parents had paid the firm about $25 million to bribe coaches and university administrators.

The criminal complaint names Harvard Business School MBAs Hodge, private equity player John B. Wilson and outsourcing executive Stephen Semprevivo, along with Stanford’s McGlashan and Robert Zangrillo.

The accused also includes Northwestern Kellogg MBA Augustin F. Huneeus, a Napa Valley vintner and co-founder of the Quintessa vineyard estate and University of Michigan MBA Todd Blake.

ALSO READ: Degrees For IIM’s One Year Management Programme May Soon Be Reality

Wilson, according to his LinkedIn profile, is the CEO of the consulting and private equity firm of Hyannis Port Capital. He graduated from Harvard in 1983 at the age of 23, the youngest in a class of 800.

He is accused of conspiring to not only bribe the USC water polo coach to get his son into that school but to also later use bribes to get his two daughters into Stanford and Harvard as recruited athletes. Wilson allegedly paid a total of $220,000 for the USC admission.

Zangrillo, who got his MBA in 1994, is the founder and CEO of a Miami-based firm that focuses on venture capital and real estate investments. He allegedly conspired with Singer to bribe athletics officials at USC to fraudulently designate his daughter as an athletic recruit. He also paid an employee of Singer to take classes on his daughter’s behalf. These bogus grades were submitted as part of her college application.

The scandal has not only tarnished the image of the schools but also exposed the weak spots in the admission process. Most of these schools are highly selective. The University of Texas at Austin grants admission to only four in 10 applicants and Yale just 7% in comparison to the average U.S. college that accepts two out of three applicants.

In some cases, payments that were effectively bribes to university officials were funnelled through charitable foundations to the universities, enabling the bribe givers to claim tax exemptions.

While the selective institutions justify selective admission claiming that they go by merit, Universities are tax-exempt and taxpayer-supported through federal aid. In the case of public institutions, they receive state funding.(Image Source:google.com)

The first indicator, as seen in the GMAC 2016 Application Trends Survey Report, is a fall in the application numbers for full-time, two-year MBA programs in the US at 53% of business schools surveyed. Globally, 48% of two-year programs reported a drop in applications compared to 2015, while 9% said there was no change in numbers.

Interestingly, the GMAC survey found that 55% of one-year MBA programs reported an increase in domestic applicants. Among the b-schools offering the 1-year full-time MBA is the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Vishal Gaur, Associate dean for MBA at Johnson, in an interaction with BusinessBecause, expressed optimism for the growth of the 1-year format. He felt that a gradual shift may be happening. An indicator is a steady increase seen in the number of applications for the 1-year MBA that has led to the intake being increased from 40 to more than 70 within a few years. During the same period, the number of applicants for the school’s 2-year program has remained stable.

Johnson’s 1-year MBA also has 53% international students compared to 33% in the 2-year program, an indicator of the international acceptance of the shorter format.

“The two-year investment in the US can cost upwards of $300-to-400,000 dollars including opportunity cost. And people are more sensitive to the MBA’s return on investment now than they may have been a few years ago,”

However, one of the factors holding back the growth of the 1-year MBA is the absence of the summer internship. Prof Shashi Matta, MBA program director at The Ohio State University’s Max M Fisher College of Business, told the London-based publication that around 60% of the students managed to secure jobs following their internship. He says the college has looked into the possibility of a 1-year MBA program, spoken to some of the peer schools but remains unconvinced about the demand for the format in the U.S.

However, Matt Merrick, associate dean of degree operations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, is confident about the one-year MBA’s growth prospects in the US. He says Kellogg’s one-year MBA is not an accelerated program. It carries all the benefits of our traditional two-year MBA. From June to June, students have the access to the same on-campus recruiting, the same global and travel opportunities and the same selection of electives.

“Students can skip core courses that feel redundant with their pre-existing skill set, and choose electives that align with their personal career goals,” he adds

In Europe, 74% of full-time one-year MBA programs reported growth in application volumes in 2016, GMAC said. Interestingly, EDHEC Business School in France has seen a sharp increase in MBA applicants from the US in particular, says the school’s MBA program director Michelle Sisto.

She attributes it to the lower opportunity cost. “The two-year investment in the US can cost upwards of $300-to-400,000 dollars including opportunity cost. And people are more sensitive to the MBA’s return on investment now than they may have been a few years ago,” she adds.

Among the business schools in the US offering 1-year MBA programs is University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business. It was the first US business school to offer a one-year MBA program way back in 1963. It takes in students with a GMAT score of at least 600 and at least two years of work experience. The classes start in the month of May.

Kellogg School of Management launched its 1-year program in 1965. The program starts in June, with three to five courses during the summer session. They then join up with the second year of the traditional two-year MBA program and finish in the following June.

The USC Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles, California, runs the IBEAR MBA since 1978. Among the unique features of the program is an opportunity for the students to pursue a 4-month long consulting experience with a real client company. The applicants need to have at least six years of work experience. The program, with a July intake, is designed for mid-career professionals training for global leadership positions.

Emory University’s Goizueta Business School has a 1-year program, launched in 1983, that starts in May with a “summer experience.” It includes a boot camp-like foray into core business topics like accounting, economics, statistics, and even an Excel review. In the fall and spring semesters, students delve into specific topics through elective courses.

Candidates should either have an undergraduate degree in a quantitative field like engineering or be able to otherwise demonstrate strong quantitative skills.

University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business starts its MBA program with an intensive summer session, before merging with the second year of the traditional MBA program. Concentrations are offered in Business Analytics, Business Leadership, Consulting, Corporate Finance, Entrepreneurship, Investments, and Marketing. The program also offers optional international immersion sessions in Brazil, Chile, or China.

University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business Administration/Hough Graduate School of Business

offers two options in its Accelerated MBA program: a 12-month option, designed for students without a business background in business, which starts in April; and a 10-month option starting in June for those who do have an undergraduate degree in business.

Southern Methodist University (SMU)’s Cox School of Business has the newest program, launched in 2015. It offers a range of concentrations, in Accounting, Finance, Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Marketing, and more.

Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management in Los Angeles has a 12-month program designed for students with an undergraduate degree in business or a 15-month one for those without. In the 15-month version, students can take a whole trimester to study abroad, and pursue an increased range of specialisation options.

The F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College, Massachusetts was launched in 1991. The program offers a range of concentration, in topics from Entrepreneurship to Life Sciences & Healthcare.

The San Mateo, California based software and recruiting corporation, operates globally with the provision of Software as a Service (SaaS) social recruiting platform, enabling companies to advertise jobs and manage the recruitment process. Its web-based service enables its clientele to create job invitations, known as “jobvites”.

The online survey was conducted in July 2016 by 1,600 recruiting and human resources professionals spanning several industries. Survey participants comprised of both Jobvite customers and non-customers.

Hiring to Go Up

About 35% of the respondents said that they expected to hire 100 or more people next year, up from 26% in 2016. Meanwhile, workers need to worry about increasing automation claiming their jobs with only 10%  of recruiters expected to automate jobs in the next two to three years, compared with 25% in last year’s survey.

The job scenario has been good in 2016 too with 69% of recruiters saying hiring has gone up. Healthcare saw an increase at 76% followed by retail 75% and finance 72%.  In fact, more than a third of businesses reported dramatic increase in recruiting over the course of the year.

Almost 86% of recruiters do not anticipate their companies making layoffs in the next 12 months. About 35% of recruiters anticipate filling more than 100 job openings this year, compared to 26% last year.

Salary Negotiations

Recruiters are also more willing than ever to negotiate salary with 68% of companies have increased the average salary offer for candidates in the last year.  Culture fit is rated as of highest importance by 60% of recruiters.

Regarding perks,78% of recruiters say medical/dental coverage is most effective at attracting new workers. Almost 65% report that 401(K), the retirement savings plan sponsored by the employer is another incentive.

It lets workers save and invest a piece of their paycheck before tax deduction. Taxes are not paid until the money is withdrawn from the account.

About 44% of the recruiters found flexible work hours and casual dress code helpful in attracting employees.

Job Seekers Need Soft Skills

However, the job seekers need to brush up their soft skills and social media appearances. Almost 78% of recruiters cite enthusiasm as most likely to influence a hiring decision after an initial in-person interview, followed by command of requirements (76%) and conversation skills (73%).

On social media accounts, 72% of recruiters view typos negatively, and a similarly high number (71%) say the same for marijuana use. Body odour turns off 56% of recruiters, while dressing “too casually” impacts hiring decisions for 62% of them.

Quality of B-Schools

The quality and reputation of business schools in Europe and elsewhere often match the top ranked ones in the US. In the FT Global MBA Rankings 2016, INSEAD with campuses in France and Singapore has relegated Harvard Business School (HBS) to the second spot with London Business School, UK coming third.

At the tenth spot is University of Cambridge Judge Business School, UK, IE Business School, Spain at 12^th rank, IMD, Switzerland 13^th , HKUST Business School 14^th,  HEC, Paris 15^th , IESE, Spain 16^th and CEIBS, China 17^th.

International Exposure

In a globalised world, international exposure is a much valued qualification. Those prepared to step out of the familiar environs and comforts of the home country reap rich rewards in the form of interacting and working with diverse groups, gaining a deeper understanding of the culture and values of the host country and developing valuable contacts. Your value as an employee goes up for these reasons and makes you stand out from the rest of the competition.

Career Opportunities

It is not necessary that you need to return home after completing MBA. With several of the economies in Asia and other regions opening up, the job market offers unique challenges and opportunities to prove your professional worth and help speed you along the growth path.

Lower Tuition Fees and Expenses

Tuition fees and other expenses could be significantly lower outside the US. An added advantage in applying to schools in Europe is that the program duration is mostly one year.

Effectively, it translates to less time spent out of the workforce unlike the 18-month full time MBA programs in the US.

Student’s Perspective

It could be easier for US applicants to get admission because most of the business schools value US students’ perspectives in global markets.

However, whether you are a US citizen or any other country planning to study abroad should consider a few of the issues carefully before taking a final decision.

There is the question of finances. Studying abroad means you have to search for accommodation and related expenses. Scholarships and other financial assistance avenues should be explored and tied up early. You should also be able to adjust to the variables in terms of culture, climate and political conditions in the country of your choice. (Image Courtesy: Flickr)