The Business School Application Boom
Maria |
November 1, 2024

In this episode of Business Casual, the hosts discuss the latest GMAC report. The report shows a strong 12% increase in global applications to graduate business school programs from 2023 to 2024, reversing the declines seen in the previous two years after the pandemic surge. Significant increases include a 48% rise at NYU Stern and 36% at Dartmouth Tuck, with Washington University’s Olin School doubling its applications. They explore the ongoing appeal of U.S. programs despite potential political changes and examine the broader effects of these trends on the education environment of business schools.

This discussion also highlights the growing interest in online and hybrid program applications and considers the recurring shifts in MBA popularity related to economic changes.

Episode Transcript

[00:00:04.370] – John

Well, hello, everyone. This is John Byrne with Poets and Quants. Welcome to Business Casual, our weekly podcast with my co-host, Caroline Diarte Edwards and Maria Wich-Vila. Caroline, of course, is the former managing director of admissions at INSEAD and a co founder of Fortuna Admissions. Maria is the founder of Applicant Lab. Really, the big news comes out of the Graduate Management Admission Council. Every year, they do a report card on the health, at least in terms of applications of business school market. It’s generally very, very good news. They found that total applications to graduate B-School programs worldwide increased 12% from 2023 to 2024. That’s a pretty sharp reversal from two straight years of declines that followed the pandemic-fueled boom of 2020. We know because we’ve been reporting, and in fact, in this podcast, we’ve talked about some of the schools that have been up, and the big ones were up quite a bit. NYU Stern, 48% jump in apps last year. Dartmouth Tuck up 36 %. Yale up 22 %. Duke Fuqua was up nearly 16. But the more important thing is that that was an all time application record. Washington University’s Olen School actually doubled its applications to its two year MBA program.

[00:01:35.390] – John

At Michigan Ross, they’re up more than 35 %. What’s interesting about the GMAC report, however, is most of the schools that are reporting to GMAC tend to be the second and third tier schools, and they’re experiencing an increase as well. Really, so much for all the hand wringing and all the worry about the maturity of in-person MBA programs and including two-year programs. Both two-year and one-year MBA programs are up substantially, and this is really good news. Caroline, what’s your thought about this?

[00:02:10.490] – Caroline

Yeah, it is good news. And as you say, often there is talk about the demise of the MBA and concern about whether that is a sustainable model for business schools. And it’s always a cyclical market, right? We see an upturn now. There will be downturns in the future. And if you look back over history, it has always been cyclical and somewhat countercyclical to economic circumstances in the job market. So every time there’s a downturn, there’s a prophesies of doom, but it always turns around again, right? So So it’s good to see that the things have picked up, and it’s good to see that it’s picked up across the board, because I think that some of the schools that are not in the very top tier have struggled in the past few years, much more so than the top schools. So I think the top schools, even when they have seen some decline in application volume, they still have a very loyal pipeline of strong candidates coming through. And those ups and downs on the margins don’t make a big difference to them and don’t make a difference in the quality of the class. But that’s not the case for schools that are a bit further down the pecking order.

[00:03:22.730] – Caroline

And so it’s great to see that there is demand that’s up across the board, not just for the top schools, but also for a a wider range of programs.

[00:03:31.790] – John

Yeah, and this survey takes into account nearly 300 business schools across 40 countries around the world and encompasses over 1,000 graduate management programs. So it’s a pretty broad swath of the graduate management education market. The survey also found that programs with more flexibility are in high demand with 58% of online programs and 52% of hybrid programs reporting application growth. Roughly two-thirds of online and flexible MBA programs reported growth, too. Maria, does this mean that the competition to get into business school is, again, as fierce as ever?

[00:04:10.920] – Maria

I think, yeah. I think the competition will always be fierce, even in those down years. Because even in the years where the numbers do go down, the quality of candidates is usually pretty high. There are times when, and Caroline has actually pointed this out several times, I think she saw this often in Sayyad, sometimes when there would be increases in certain application volume. Sometimes those applicants were not always of the highest quality. You can’t necessarily tell a whole lot about just merely the total number of applicants, because some of them could be people who are desperate to get in and they’re just throwing in applications. Perhaps they’ve been hurt by the economy. They lost their job. Maybe they weren’t. Sometimes people lose their jobs through no fault of their own, but sometimes they lose it because they’re not strong performers, for example. Perhaps that are losing, perhaps they’re throwing in an application to business school without necessarily being the strongest candidate in the first place. I think it’s probably safe to say that no matter when you apply during a year where applications are up or applications are down, you should prepare to I faced stiff competition either way.

[00:05:17.870] – Maria

Although, statistically speaking, obviously, the more people you’re competing against, the harder it is to get in. But I would not let that dissuade you necessarily, simply based on that metric alone. Now, if the numbers of applicants go up, And also the average GMAT score for a given school also increases dramatically. Okay, now you can say to yourself, maybe my chances are not as good now as they were in a prior year. If there are other signs of the course or the program becoming more elite or stringent or difficult to get into in some other way. But the mere number of applicants alone is not necessarily an indicator of it’s harder to get in or it’s easier to get in.

[00:05:58.530] – John

True. And I suspect that Most of our listeners are aiming toward the top, let’s say, 50 programs in the world where the selectivity rates are so low that there are plenty of really well-qualified candidates who would make terrific students and who would have great business careers who can’t get into some of these schools because the acceptance rates are so low. That’s the other issue always. Whether or not apps go up or down, the best schools and the best programs draw an exceptional group of highly competitive people, smart, talented, ambitious. So on some level, the competition never really totally goes away. Some of the other interesting parts of this GMAC study showed that the US remains among the most desired study destinations, despite our looming presidential election, which is now only days away, and the prospect of a return to power of historically unpopular Donald Trump, who we know when he was President, international applicants began to abandon the US market. GMAC also found that domestic applications drove up demand for graduate business education in the US, Asia, and Europe, except for one place, the United Kingdom, which witnessed a 45% drop in domestic applications and a 12-point dip in international applications.

[00:07:29.590] – John

I I think a lot of that is due to the rhetoric that has been coming out of the United Kingdom over visa restrictions on graduate students and their inability, in some cases, to bring their families with them to United Kingdom when they are studying for a graduate degree. The other thing going on with the United Kingdom, of course, is I think some of this is the fall out of Brexit, which has affected the United Kingdom’s economy overall. Caroline, would you agree?

[00:07:59.570] – Caroline

Sadly, Yes, it’s been quite depressing to observe, although from afar. I think there is a possibility of change now that there is a new government in the UK. Those new visa restrictions were brought in by the conservative government, and now we have a labor administration. I’m sure the schools are lobbying hard for change on this front. It doesn’t make sense to make it harder for people to come to the UK to pursue graduate studies because they are typically very talented people who can then add a lot of value to the UK economy. So it was a very short-sighted measure. And I’m sure the schools are hoping that with a new government in place, perhaps things could be turned around because, yes, it’s very sad to see those statistics of the drop in people coming to the UK.

[00:08:50.620] – John

And especially when the quality of business education in the UK is among the best in the world. I mean, you have really incredible institutions doing doing a great job with fantastic faculty and a terrific global, diverse supply of students, regardless of the application decline. And it’s sad to see that happening because you can blame the government largely and how dumb it’s been for the decline in the higher education sector in the UK, which, incidentally, is really one of the bright parts of the United Kingdom economy, their higher education market, and the vast number of quality players in it. Now, we should also point out that this is a look at application flow in the past, next year, not the current year. As everyone would imagine, there’s always a lag in statistical reporting. And after all, we’re only in really the round one era for most applications We have no idea how they’re going. And, Caroline, I might actually ask you and Maria, what you’re seeing in terms of just the number of customers you have, how many people are seeking out your services to apply to business school in the first place? Because that, to me, is like the canary in the coal mine.

[00:10:20.130] – Caroline

Yeah, I think demand is strong for this year. So I think that schools may be reporting increases or at least not a decrease from last year. And last year, they saw very strong numbers. I think it’s a good market for business schools right now, and we’ll see how that evolves. Of course, it’s very early days. I do wonder to what extent these numbers also may reflect people applying to more schools than they may have in the past. Anecdotally, I feel that from our experience, people are applying to more schools than they may have two or three years ago. And so that would, of course, increase the number of applications without actually increase the number of people applying to business schools. So I don’t know if GMAC capture the test taker data, but beyond that, I don’t know if we have data on actually the number of people behind this increase in applications.

[00:11:13.200] – John

Right. Maria, your take?

[00:11:15.220] – Maria

Yeah, I think demand is strong. I do think there is some trepidation around the US election for people from other countries applying to US programs. I have anecdotally heard some people say, Well, I’m going to wait to see what happens in November. And then if things go in a way that I think will enable me to study in the US, then I will submit a round two application. So I definitely think that that is something that’s weighing on people’s minds. But some challenges in the economy are also driving up domestic interest. And it looks like that trend actually perhaps started a year ago. As you mentioned earlier, it looks like the US programs are seeing a bigger increase. And of the increase that has occurred, it seems to be a bigger increase amongst domestic applicants versus international. So I think they’re balancing out. I think some of the domestic applicants, there’s an increase given uncertainties in the economy. And I think we will see either an increase or a flat… The election, I think, will impact international applications around, too, if I had to guess.

[00:12:16.840] – John

So let me ask you this, what do you think the results of the election are going to be?

[00:12:22.540] – Maria

What do we think they’re going to be or what are we praying with every- We know what they need to be. Lighting every candle.

[00:12:32.190] – John

We need to know what they need to be. There’s no doubt about that. The whole world is very anxious about this election, not only Americans, because it will have significant consequence for everyone. It’s often said about the American economy, We catch a cold and the world catches pneumonia. There was a recent piece in The Economist that basically said, The United States is the envy of the world in terms of its economic growth and the strength of its economy. Just to give one stat in the article, the median income of a person in Mississippi exceeds the median income of a person in the United Kingdom today. The state of Texas alone has a GDP that is higher than all of Russia. You just go on and on and on. I mean, the growth in the economy is roughly three to four times what it is elsewhere in the world, which is why so many people want to come and study here. Now, if Trump gets elected, there’ll be a lot of rhetoric, anti-immigration rhetoric, and there’ll be some moves to restrict movement in and out of the country by people who are not citizens. But overall, I think that there are really severe limits to what, in fact, he is able to do or could do.

[00:13:54.640] – John

I think the long term bet is still the US, even if, in fact, he’s elected, which we all pray that he is not. I’m sure my co-host feel the same way as I do about these results. We’ve been through a number of these before, and we’re just shocked at how close this election appears to be by the poll. I use the word appears to be because I think polls, it’s been proven, are somewhat limiting. I mean, directionally, they’re correct or have been over time, but there are always surprises. And depending on how you read the tea leaves here, we know that it’s a close election in America because there are only a few swing states that will determine the election. And We could really have a winner who wins by less than 100,000 votes because of our system of having the Electoral College actually elect the President. We have our fingers crossed. We think regardless of what happens, you can’t bet against the United States. That’s how I feel. If Trump wins, it will be a very difficult, challenging time for the economy, for higher education over the next four years, but we’re resilient and we’ll survive it.

[00:15:19.650] – John

If Harris wins, I think we’re going to have a very strong outlook for near term and long term. It would be great to see a female President in the White House. Maria, I’m sure you agree with me.

[00:15:35.490] – Maria

Yeah, absolutely. From your mouth to God’s ears, as they say.

[00:15:41.220] – John

And Caroline, even though you live in the US, I’m thinking that you’re a citizen of the United Kingdom, are you not?

[00:15:51.170] – Caroline

Well, I am. I’m also now a citizen of the US.

[00:15:54.440] – John

Oh, thank God you can vote. Although you live in California, so your vote doesn’t matter, both of you.

[00:15:59.890] – Caroline

It It doesn’t make any difference, which is very frustrating.

[00:16:03.060] – John

But I do have a lot of- You don’t need to live in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin.

[00:16:06.850] – Maria

I know, right? Oh, gosh.

[00:16:09.350] – Caroline

I do have a lot of conversations with people who don’t understand the global context that you mentioned, John, of how strong the US is compared to other economies. Unfortunately, I think historically, the US tends to have quite a myopic perspective on the global stage. Absolutely. Yeah. And so despite the fact that the US is doing so well, people don’t acknowledge them.

[00:16:34.170] – John

Yeah, they focus on the things that you wish were better, as opposed to the things that are so good and that we should be grateful for and never assume, because the rest of the world isn’t like the United States. It just isn’t. It’s beautiful, it’s wonderful, culturally rich. The history is magnificent. People are great, but oftentimes, governments don’t match up, and their economies just don’t flourish the way the United States has flourished for so long. I’ll give my two cents. The one thing that makes America stronger, immigration. Immigrants who have come to this country for a better life and are willing to roll up their sleeves, work exceptionally hard, be ambitious, not merely for themselves, but for their children, have made America great and will remain the secret to America’s success. Any effort to stop immigration, to limit it, to diminish it, will literally be an attack on our future prosperity. For all of you international applicants out there, here’s the good news. The good news is you bet on the US, regardless of what happens in this election, because long term, that’s not necessarily a sure bet, but it’s a bet where the odds are with you.

[00:17:59.780] – John

Hey, John Byrne with Poets and Quants. Thanks for listening..

The Economist Dis on MBAs: Is the Degree Still Worth It?
Business School News | General | P&Q Podcast "Business Casual"
The Business School Application Boom
Maria |
November 1, 2024

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] John Byrne: Hello, everyone. This is John Byrne with Poets& Quants. We have a really cool story to relate to you today. Me and my co host, Maria Wich-Vila and Caroline Diarte Edwards, are going to talk about the most disruptive MBA startups of the year. Every year, Poets& Quants invites the top schools all over the world.

To submit nominations for ventures with what we call the greatest potential for lasting beyond business school. So what we want to do is acknowledge MBAs who have launched really cool companies that are paving the way for the future. And this year, we have 41 student startups that we have honored in what is the sixth annual list of the most disruptive MBA startups.

And they come from all over. We got nominations from Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, MIT, INSEAD, London Business School and others. And, uh, I think what the basic list shows is that entrepreneurship is alive and well in business schools are a lot of great ideas. A lot of them are powered by AI. No surprise there.

They involve every imaginable industry. There’s a good number of these in the business of health as well as in beverages, consumer products and things like that. And I wonder, Caroline, if you have a favorite among this group, and I bet you it’s going to be an INSEAD startup.

[00:01:30] Caroline Diarte Edwards: Yeah, I have a few favorites, and definitely INSEAD is on my list, although I’m going to start with a London Business School one.

Um, and there were a few international ones that I thought were really interesting. I like the story from kiro, which is a fintech startup, coming out of London Business School, founded by LBS student Alicia Chowdhury. she secured 200, 000 in funding, and it’s the first AI powered financial coach, which is designed to help,

Gen Zed, as I would say, or Gen Z, as you would say. and young adults, get personalized financial guidance. So that’s something that jumped out to me, given that I now have a young adult among my children and trying to teach her financial literacy is somewhat challenging, so I can definitely see the need for that. And she tells a really interesting story about how financial literacy was something that she had struggled with and realized that there was a gap in the market, right? There’s a lot of great financial information out there, but it’s not necessarily tailored and communicated well to young people. And she ended up working in finance before business school.

she doesn’t have a tech background, but she did. Teach herself the fundamentals of AI and machine learning, and she assembled a technical team to work with her. And I thought it was really interesting as well, how she leveraged the LBS resources. And I think a lot of the stories that you have in this article really tell a great deal about the power of business school experience in helping people launch a company. And of course, there’s often a lot of criticism about the value of going to business school. And if you want to be an entrepreneur, there’s no point going to business school. And I think that this article really debunks that. so for example, this is how she benefited from LBS.

She was a finalist in the LBS Launchpad. She completed the LBS Entrepreneurship Summer School. She joined the LBS Incubator. She led the LBS Entrepreneurship Club. And then, of course, she benefited greatly from a lot of the courses that she took at LBS. I got a lot of great advice from LBS faculty, as well as the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital.

I think a wonderful story about how a student had a vision of something that she wanted to do and saw a gap in the market and really went after it, leveraging that wonderful ecosystem that you get at business school and she’s got a VC group backing her. So that’s one of her investors and Aviva Group is a huge financial company.

I think it sounds very promising. So congratulations to Alicia.

[00:04:11] John Byrne: Yeah, you’re right. One of the things that comes through here is the support that students get from the schools. And their classmates and their professors, it’s a real terrific thing.

As you said before, a lot of people say, hey, if you want to start a company, instead of paying a school tuition, just use that as your seed capital and you’re going to be better off, but the truth is that a business school you’re surrounded by really smart colleagues and people who’ve been through this before and mentorship from professors and seed money from the many venture challenges that occur at different schools can make a very big difference and shift the odds in your favor of success. Maria, do you have a favorite?

[00:04:53] Maria Wich-Vila: Yeah, my favorite.

startup was Cell Mind, which is out of the Johns Hopkins business school. This one really hit home for me personally. What they are trying to do is they are trying to maximize access to a type of cancer therapy called “Car T”. And I have indirectly lived this. We have a good friend from business school who has been battling cancer for several years, and last year there was a complete rollercoaster around  this car T therapy. And I apologize to any doctors if I’m butchering this. But basically, my understanding is that if it works for you, it essentially can cure your cancer or cause it to go into remission. But, if for whatever reason, if your body is too weak at the time that you receive it, it can actually kill you. Unfortunately, it can cause something called a cytokine storm, I think.

And so, the decision of whether to go or no go is obviously one that is very fraught with a lot of, emotion and risk. And so, we actually had a friend who last year was approved for CAR T. But then in the weeks right before they were going to give it to her, they then disapproved her because she had gotten weaker … it was this whole roller coaster.

And so any sort of startup that is doing something to figure out, which patients actually are likely to do well with this therapy? Can we expand our doctors being perhaps understandably a little too cautious because they’re concerned about the negative side effects, perhaps being worse than the.than the cancer itself.

Anything that can help expand access to this is why they were number one in my book. And as you guys were just talking about. Because Johns Hopkins is one of the best, if not the best medical school in the world, this is a great example of a business school student or group of business school students leveraging the resources and the expertise at that overarching institution, trying to find ways to commercialize it, and just make the most of those resources.

I really loved that story.

[00:06:40] John Byrne: Yeah, and that’s what you increasingly find. it’s not a bunch of MBA students doing their thing. It’s reaching out and having these really entrepreneurial collisions with students from other departments, other schools where they have deep expertise in computer science or engineering or medicine or law or public policy or environmental sciences teaming up with MBAs to launch things. which really give them extra power.

One of my favorites comes out of, uh, Chicago Booth. And, it’s sort

a really interesting idea where, first off, it’s called Encore, and it’s a marketplace for high end collectibles. Now, you think, how could that really be a cool thing? What they’ve done is they’ve combined TikTok style videos. With the traditional eBay auction format, to create a really engaging experience for people who want to shop for these collectibles. But what’scool is the MBA who’s behind this. His name is Will Enema, at first thought he shouldn’t apply to Chicago Booth, new venture challenge, because he had already raised a pre seed round and thought that Encore might not be good for that traditional, giving money out kind of program. But, he entered it after he was urged to by a number of professors at Booth. The idea placed second in the competition. He won $350, 000 to help launch his company, but here’s the real kicker:

Within two weeks of that competition, a venture capitalist who participated in the judging agreed to lead their seed round. So it just shows you how, incredible things can happen, in the environment of a business school.

Now, Caroline, I’m sure you have others that you really thought were really cool. Name another one.

[00:08:29] Caroline Diarte Edwards: Yeah. So my second one is of course, an INSEAD startup and it’s called faceflow. ai. And I really liked this one because it’s an AI powered skincare platform. So again, relating it to my personal experience of having four daughters who are constantly clamoring for the. latest ridiculous beauty product that they’ve seen on Instagram.

I think this is a fantastic idea.

What it does is it actually gives you scientifically based product recommendations, right? So they have for the two founders, Daniel Patel and Simon Zhang, Patel had previously founded a marketplace for international skincare brands. So he knew the skin, the beauty industry, skincare products.

And then his partner, Simon, is an experienced AI engineer, and so they’ve combined their expertise to bring AI to skincare recommendations. And it’s underway. I checked out their website. I have signed up already. The product is not yet available, but I’m looking forward to when it comes through.

And they won the INSEAD French competition and, talk about how they’ve benefited from the very entrepreneurial environment at INSEAD,

I really enjoyed reading about their experience and I’m excited to learn more about their products.

[00:09:49] John Byrne: Yeah, absolutely. And now

Maria, I know there are 2 Harvard startups on the list from your alma mater. did you pick 1 of them as your 2nd choice?

[00:10:00] Maria Wich-Vila: It was not necessarily my 2nd choice, but there was 1 called Vulcan Investments. This is a little bit out of my, Wheelhouse. So I think we all tend to gravitate towards something we know or something we have experience with, but it’s trying to figure out how to solve the rare earth magnet problem. Right now. A lot of these rare earth materials that are powering modern technologies are coming from China, which poses several challenges, especially should relations with that country not go well in the future. So this is trying to solve for that issue. I think that was a really interesting one.

But actually, my second choice was one that again, I have indirect personal experience with, albeit in a different way. It was called Yogger. What they’re trying to do is, I believe it’s taking your phone to watch you as you perform exercise then give you feedback on, your gait, your form, et cetera.

And this was really interesting to me, not so much because of exercise, although I wish it were (ha ha) (though: side note, my dad was a track and cross country coach for decades and I totally forgot about that in the moment, but I should have mentioned that!!! D’oh!!!), but who knows, maybe this will motivate me to jog more (har har har).

In the interview with the entrepreneur. he talked about how you can do things like a gait analysis right now, in other words, tracking how your legs move when you are running or jogging, and then providing an analysis, but these sorts of things are very difficult to get to. It’s expensive. You need to be set up with, they put a whole bunch of sensors on all of your joints. and I have a friend who has a child with cerebral palsy and they’ve had to do these, go to actually Hopkins (this is not a Hopkins based startup, it’s from Tuck, Dartmouth Tuck), but they’ve (my friends, I mean) had to go to Hopkins and actually have these, it’s a day long thing to set up your child with the different sensors. And so the thought of using something as simple as an iPhone app, perhaps, machine learning, et cetera. all that good stuff to analyze your gait and make this accessible. It’s not only I think useful for casual exercise enthusiasts, but I think it could also have ramifications and uses even in other areas. For example, kids with special needs. So I was really excited about this one.

John Byrne:

MIT Sloan has three startups on our list this year.

That’s more than any other school. And one of the really cool ones is called Vertical Horizons. This is an incredibly ambitious startup. It’s all about commercializing high density, high efficiency power supplies for AI computing. Essentially, it’s a semiconductor company. and you might not think that an MBA would be involved in actually creating a semiconductor company.

But it’s founded by Cynthia Allen, an MBA in the class of 2024 at Sloan and one of her professors. So it’s a good example of where university develop some sort of new technology or new insights. And then needs to commercialize it. And in this case, you have an MBA coming along, who has a great interest in this, and is helping to commercialize it. The actual idea of it has 4 million in research grant funding to develop the technology. So there’s a good amount of money behind this very ambitious idea.

I think, stepping away from the individual startups, what I think this says about, the ability of people who want to go to business school and use that experience as an incubator to launch a startup, it’s alive and well, it’s a great way to launch a company because it does take a lot of risk off the table and these startups, these 41 startups that these different business schools really give you a great insight into what different people are doing.

Caroline, I’m sure, and Maria as well, you probably meet a number of people in your practices, that want to use an MBA to do a startup. Do you think they’re ready to take full advantage of these experiences?

Caroline Diarte Edwards:

Yeah, I certainly hear from a lot of candidates who are hoping to launch a venture. Some of them want to do it as soon as they graduate and for some of them it’s more of a longer term ambition because of course financing can be a challenge.

Especially if you’ve invested a lot in taking on a lot of debt with your MBA and a lot of the themes that I hear, candidates are interested in come through in your article as well. So it’s noticeable that there are quite a few startups in your list that address, healthcare issues as Maria highlighted, also education, environmental challenges. And I think those are three areas that I hear a lot about from candidates in terms of where they would really like to have an impact.

And I think, something else that is noticeable is that a lot of them are really trying to have a positive impact on the world as well. They’re really trying to address,  fundamental societal challenges, many of them, which I think is wonderful from health care, mental health issues, pollution. et cetera. There’s a lot of really interesting, and important issues that are being addressed by some of these startups. and, I think it’s wonderful that we have this young generation, going through business school who are ready tackle these challenges that that they have inherited from our generation.

John Byrne:

Yeah. And these ideas are going way beyond, some of the earlier ideas of five, 10 years ago, hookup apps and match.com, uh, wannabes and things like that. some of these ideas are remarkably sophisticated and elegant as well.

Maria, last words.

Maria Wich-Vila:

I think that this article not only is very optimistic in terms of these amazing ideas that are out there, but I also like that it shows that there are so many different paths to entrepreneurship through the MBA that first of all, number one, the NBA is valuable for entrepreneurship, which, as you noted a second ago, is often a stereotype that that exists that, oh, I don’t need this. but also there are so many different MBA programs out there. Look at the range of schools that are creating these amazing startups. Look at the fact, one of the, Stanford ones, the student was not an MBA student. They were an MSx student.

Sometimes I’ll meet people who are a little bit on the older side who are applying and they’re like, I have to do the two year program and I’m like, no, you can… you just need to get your foot in the door and even if it’s that MSxs program, it’s one year versus two years. For example, you can, you just need to get to a university that’s going to teach you the things you need and give you the resources and then you can take it from there.

So I, the other thing I really appreciate about this article is showing the breadth of programs and the breadth of students and the breadth of backgrounds of these students who are creating incredible new companies.

[00:16:37] John Byrne: Yeah, check it out. It’s called most disruptive MBA startups of 2025, and it’s on the Poets& Quants website.

If you are interested in doing a startup, I think you’ll learn a lot about how business school can help you make it a reality. This is John Byrne with Poets& Quants. You’ve been listening to Business Casual, our weekly podcast.

Maria

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