We often get the question ‘does an MBA make sense for engineers?’ To answer the question, I’ve been working on an upcoming MBA Podcaster show. What are schools looking for from an engineer to be admitted and then succeed in business school? What should applicants with engineering backgrounds emphasize on their applications? How do schools look upon applicants with low verbal scores, but strong quant scores? What should the applicants do to improve that? Which are the graduate degree options for engineers? What’s the career track if you get an MBA versus just stay in engineering? I’ll be asking these questions of my guests and keeping you posted along the way with blog updates.
Today, I spoke to Beth Flye, Assistant Dean and Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, Kellogg School of Management about the programs Kellogg offers and what the school looks for on applications. Kellogg accepts engineers into the regular MBA program as well as their MMM program, which is a two year program in which students receive a Master of Business Administration and the Master of Engineering Management. Flye says that Kellogg asks a lot of questions about the quality of an applicant’s work experience.
“Quality meaning things such [as] ‘how has that person had impact at their organization.’ It could be P&L [profit and loss]. It could be from a management standpoint. Do they have evidence of progression? What skills have they developed? How does their particular professional experience tie to their post-MBA goals?”
And contrary to popular belief quality isn’t the only thing that counts – quantity, quantitative skills count a lot and engineers have those in spades.
“From that standpoint they’re set up very well to perform at an optimal level academically.”
Flye also says that they’re looking for more than someone who is good in math, though.
“We want to know all about you. Not just the fact that you have great grades and perhaps a strong GMAT score and strong quantitative skills…We want to know what your endeavors are. We want to experience through your essays and your interviews who you are. That is very, very core to how we evaluate applicants.”
Learn more of what Flye and the other guests have to say about MBA engineers in our upcoming show that will be in a couple of weeks. Other guests on the show include:
- Don Rosenfield, director of the dual-degree MIT Leaders for Global Operations program, who will and talk about the specialized nature of MIT’s program and what it takes to succeed;
- Betsy Massar, Founder and CEO of Master Admissions, who explains which schools like engineers and why;
- Margo Villadelgado, student, Kellogg School of Management, who will share her experiences as an engineering student crossing over to the business world;
- Iker Marcaide, student, MIT Leaders for Global Operations program, who will talk about why he chose to take the path he did and where he expects it to lead; and
- Karla Krause, student, MIT Leaders for Global Operations program, who talks about the benefits work experience brings to an MBA.
Read the full article: MBA’s for Engineers? Definitely says Kellogg’s Admissions Dean