Wharton MBA for Executives

School hasn’t started yet, decisions haven’t been mailed out, and there really isn’t anything to talk about yet in terms of the actual Wharton program. The Wharton website says that decisions will be announced around April 15th but some random blogs and such on the internet say that last year the phone calls (for acceptances) went out in late March so hopefully it will be around that time again this year. I guess until then, there really isn’t anything to do or talk about.

But of course I don’t want to leave this blog empty until then so I’ll think of more general topics to write about.

Today I go over my guide to selecting a business school. This isn’t any kind of official guide so I am probably putting too much emphasis on certain areas but oh well.

In my opinion, the full time MBA and executive MBA programs are different because the students are different. The curriculum may be the same but your peers are different and the goals of your peers are different so the guide to selecting the right program is different. I have read some guides for selecting a full time program but have not read much on executive programs so here’s my guide in order of importance.

#1 Curriculum and faculty . The first and foremost (the phrase “first and foremost” is actually a pet peeve of mine…if it’s first then it logically is foremost) aspect of an MBA program is the quality of what you will learn. This includes the curriculum as well as faculty. Although the top schools use slightly different methods of teaching (case method, etc.), I honestly believe that the fundamentals (core courses) at all of the top programs are very similar. The faculty is also similar at the top school. Sure, Wharton may be ranked #1 in finance but that doesn’t mean that the faculty at the University of Chicago GSB (for example) is really any worse. You’re basically splitting hairs at this point.

#2 Networking and Peers. For an executive MBA program, this is #2 on my list. Most executive MBA students are not in the program to drastically change jobs (switch from being a software developer/manager to an investment banker for example) but they are there to network with other students and alumni to further their reach in terms of career. Most of us have worked at a few companies and will likely make a few more company changes (hopefully moving up in the process) and at this point, networking is one of the ways that will take us there. The better the school, the higher quality networking that is available.

#3 Strength of the alumni network. Along with your peers is the alumni base as well as the strength of the alumni base. Is the alumni community close knit and always willing to help out? There are many schools (unfortunately, IMO many of the state schools) where the alumni network is there but is simply not as strong as private schools such as Wharton, Harvard, Stanfurd, etc. Of course I’m simplifying a bit but for many students, in the future finding a new job is as simple as sending out an email to their alumni group.

You will notice that I do not have “Job Placement” on this list. This is actually #2 on the list for full time MBA students but for the executive programs, I think this is just not that relevant. A job placement center in the MBA school is not likely to land you a VP job at a major firm or a C-level position at a large company. The job placement centers are for large companies to recruit mid-entry level positions. Goldman Sachs isn’t going to seek their next CFO by visiting MBA students but will fill that position via referral, executive head hunter, or will target some people at other firms and try to entice them to make the switch.

The Wharton West program fills these goals perfectly.

Rankings are almost useless. Every year they change and no matter what the rankings are, the only ranking that is important in my opinion, is the reputation of the program. In addition, although many publications now have executive MBA rankings, the full time rankings are what’s important (even for executive programs).  I’ll use BusinessWeek’s 2007 full time MBA rankings as an example.  These rankings are as follows:

• 1 University of Chicago
• 2 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
• 3 Northwestern University (Kellogg)
• 4 Harvard University
• 5 University of Michigan (Ross)
• 6 Stanford University
• 7 MIT (Sloan)
• 8 UC Berkeley (Haas)
• 9 Duke University (Fuqua)
• 10 Columbia University

I realize that individual situations do vary but does this mean that you should go to Chicago GSB over Harvard and Stanfurd? Of course not. Does this mean that you should go to Michigan instead of Stanfurd, MIT, Columbia, etc.? Of course not. Rankings will change slightly year after year but the ultra elites are still going to be Harvard/Stanfurd/Wharton and the M7 is going to be Harvard, Stanfurd, Wharton, Sloan, Chicago, Northwestern, and Columbia.

What does all this mean? It means you should try to get into the best school you can get into and go there…:).