An Argument to Keep GMAT in EMBA Admissions

I just returned from the annual meeting of the EMBA Council, this year in Vancouver, where my peers and I share information among some 300 EMBA programs all over the world. Our combined interest is to provide access and information that ultimately lead more people to an MBA education via executive format programs. Three of my peers from other schools asked me how I still use the GMAT as a diagnostic, saying that they’d like to but felt pressure to stop requiring it. Their concern? Schools in their market had dropped GMAT, so it was difficult to require it of candidates to their programs and still make their enrollment numbers. How, they asked, have I convinced prospective students to take it?

Why drop a tried and true predictor of academic performance because of pressure to beat competitors? How about using the GMAT to win customers? At Vanderbilt, our GMAT requirement in the EMBA Program helps with the following:
1. Assurance of a solid academic experience and speed of classroom since all classmates are of comparable academic acumen—like a sports team with players at the same level, despite their different backgrounds and strengths. Top prospective students love that. By insisting on the GMAT, we differentiate on a “quality of peers” basis. 100% of our students are vetted academically on CURRENT academic skills—students who might become YOUR study group members and impact YOUR grades if you choose to get an MBA here. Given the high percentage of group grading assignments, don’t you want to know your peers are your intellectual equals?
2. College GPA, for executive age students out of school 15-25 years, is not a current indicator of ability. And, it is not an apples-to-apples comparison. Is it fair to consider a nuclear engineering major from one university and a general studies major from a different school as the same, if their GPA is the same? Probably not. Either one may be the better prospective student academically. The GMAT will be a more accurate way to compare those two. In fact...
3. It is well documented that the R squared for GMAT is a stronger predictor than GPA and even more pronounced in EMBA students than for weekday MBA students. Ironically given the strongest R squared for GMAT as a predictor of core MBA performance in executive programs, the GMAT is now used more in the weekday MBA admissions at a number of schools that have dropped it over the past decade in EMBA admissions. This same time frame has seen the disturbing reference to “MBA Lite” in the press where some executive programs are not perceived as rigorous academically compared to their weekday MBA. No wonder.
4. GMAT preparation—relearning critical reasoning, algebra, etc—and spending 20 hours a week over 6 weeks to do it, is:
a. a way to be prepared for the MBA program, relearning skills long forgotten,
b. A way to determine if you need other pre-work on math and statistics to maximize your success in the MBA program,
c. a way to test your stamina for juggling the demands of work and school over a longer (two year) period of time.

To the argument that some people don’t have much standardized testing experience, I say two things:
a. The right prep is the equalizer. We advise students on how to do their personal best on the GMAT—100 hours of study the right way. Those students who take our advice on HOW to study and invest the 100 hours to do it will do their personal best on this test. And, it will be an amazingly valid predictor of their core MBA class performance.
b. We don’t expect everyone to have the same GMAT score, but we have a broad range of acceptable scores that have proven to lead to academic success in our program. MBA Program directors should know how to look at the MINIMUM score needed for success at their school, given their particular courses, difficulty levels, and the peer competition in their classroom that determines grading curves. That is, we have the history of past students and scores as a predictor of success in core courses in our MBA programs.

As I review at our stance on requiring the GMAT, I have found we have lost very few applicants, even though the competitors in my geography do not require it. Quite the opposite: students who want intellectual challenge are heartened by the fact that everyone here was vetted academically, and it appeals to a higher quality student.

Rankings and the Executive MBA Decision

Schools don’t change dramatically one year to the next, but rankings methodologies do. So rankings change and—sometimes, accordingly—student sentiments do, too. Today’s Wall Street Journal ranking (second time, the first was in 2008) placed Vanderbilt #25 in its Best Executive MBA Programs poll. We were #19 in 2008. Wharton got the top spot, deserved in my opinion because they, like Vanderbilt, still hold academic ability high in their admissions standards. Like us, they use the GMAT to ensure that seemingly successful prospective executive students have as much intellectual muscle as they do skills in persuasion and people management. That special combination of brains and boardroom charisma, with new training at mid career, is appreciable for MBA graduates from strong executive programs.

The real learning experience doesn’t change as wildly as the ranking might indicate, so I am always surprised by the changes in sentiment of students and employers. Maybe I shouldn’t be. It is no surprise that career-related concerns topped the list of influencers, since the 2010 graduates entered school in a boom economy and then hit the recession. Only 36% of executive students these days are completely sponsored, less than that—from 34% down to 13% this year—at Vanderbilt.

The Top 25 EMBA programs were determined based on this year’s weighted combination of corporate score, alumni score, and management skills score. Vanderbilt earned an 18 alumni rank and 17 management skills rank. Our corporate rank of 31 probably held us back given this year’s rankings methodology. Why? We are in a mid-sized city that is not a major headquarters location for a deep list of sponsoring corporations, and we only have 50 students to try to make an impact on that recruiter poll.

I am most proud of the international respect a Vanderbilt MBA holds, and the close relationships our students have here with faculty, the staff, the executive coach, and—the secret sauce—their peer executives. As one comment in the WSJ related article notes: “Some [recruiters] criticize EMBA programs for not focusing enough on hard core business disciplines.” Like Wharton, Vanderbilt has never lost sight of academic rigor. In the long run, as employers point out, that will matter.

And what matters the most, rankings aside? You can’t have a great B-school without successful alumni, so how alumni feel several years out, and how alumni have gone and done great things with the education, are the true reflections of the merits of an MBA.

To see the complete article and which schools comprise the TOP 25 EMBA Programs go to:
http://online.wsj.com/public/page/business-schools.html

Gearing Up and Embarking on the EMBA Journey: Meet EMBA 2012

What would you be doing if you had started the EMBA program this fall? If you’d attended EMBA Math Camp four Saturdays in July, you’d now be an expert in everything from basic order of operations to solving lineals and quadratics, definition of derivatives, marginal analysis, and probability theory – all in prep for the first day of EMBA classes. Math Camp is required of some admitted EMBA students but open to all, complimentary. The goal of Math Camp is to calibrate the quantitative skills of candidates from vastly different career backgrounds so we can move at the speed of Vanderbilt’s typical class. Some students, despite studying hard for the GMAT and doing well, aren’t sure if they should attend camp…

Suppose I asked you to solve this simple equation, using basic order of operations:

(12)(2) ÷ (2)(3)

If you answered 4, you are rusty and would have needed Math Camp!
If you answered 36, you are correct and perhaps would be ready without it.

(Statistics Professor Bruce Cooil, watching over my shoulder as I wrote this, said, “Oh, no! I think I’d need math camp too.”)

Once past the cobwebs of math forgotten long ago, your official launch of the EMBA Program would be Week in Residence. For EMBA 2012, that began Sunday evening August 8, 2010 in New Harmony, Indiana near Evansville. Students who attended Math Camp arrived –often carpooling—anxious to get started and to meet members of their class who did not attend Camp.

What and why New Harmony, IN for a residency week? New Harmony is a Utopian society in southern Indiana that was founded in 1825. Scientists, philosophers, artists, educators and geologists arrived in this wilderness town which was founded on the belief that education for all was the key to a better way of life. Vanderbilt believes this is the perfect place to start the Executive MBA Program each year. We believe that education for working executives continues to be a key to a better way of life benefitting them, their families, and their organizations. Classes take place in a remodeled 1814 Granary that retains its original charm but underwent a transformation to serve as an ideal, modern meeting space. Vanderbilt EMBA classes have begun their journey here for several decades.

Two days into the EMBA experience and the Executive Leadership course, the students anxiously awaited their C-Team assignments. The C-Team is the group comprised of 4 or 5 executive students who will lean on, learn from and laugh with one another as they navigate their way to an MBA. Their candid interactions and willingness to share knowledge will have huge impact on overall learning. The collective wisdom of executive student experiences, put to work frequently on group assignments within C-Teams, enables EMBA students to teach one another in and outside the classroom. Bonds of shared purpose, leadership, and mentorship have already started here at the Residency Week for the 48 members of EMBA 2012.

I hope you enjoy some pictures from WIR 2010. Congratulations EMBA Class of 2012, and welcome to Vanderbilt.

Graduating EMBA 2010 Class Votes with Their Dollars

Every graduating class is special, but I owe special gratitude to EMBA 2010 for being the FIRST CLASS AT VANDERBILT WITH 100% PARTICIPATION IN THEIR CLASS GIFT. The EMBA 2007 Class made it to 98% giving--a previous Vanderbilt record. Leave it to EMBA 2010--always ready for any competition--to beat that record. Even more telling: 36 of 46 graduating with the MBA from our Executive Program contributed significantly at the Owen Circle level of giving. What motivated them to this generosity?


In short, they are big believers in the quality of our strategy curriculum. The class gift will fund an endowment for our Strategy area. The students felt this was such an important part of the curriculum--in many cases the emphasis on quantitative courses leading to intense strategy assignments and the strategy client project were the reasons they chose Vanderbilt. The strategy program is a year-long sequence of courses (15% of the total program coursework) beginning with Business Strategy, followed by a Strategy Project for a real client company. As one member of the class put it when asked the single greatest strength of the program: "The focus on strategy--how everything aligns to strategy--is the differentiator." We didn't disappoint: Business Strategy Professor Brian McCann won the teaching award at graduation, and 88% of the class was extremely satisfied with the program's impact on their ability to think strategically.

What are other favorite things indicated in anonymous satisfaction surveys as EMBA 2010 completed the program?

90% of the class was extremely satisfied with their Negotiation course

85% -- extremely satisfied with accessibility of the faculty

78% -- extremely satisfied with their Transforming the Organization course

78% -- extremely satisfied with the degree to which the program enhanced their understanding of the global marketplace

76% -- extremely satisfied with the logical sequencing of EMBA courses

75% -- extremely satisfied with Vanderbilt's standards of performance

73% -- extremely satisfied with the applicability of the courses to real business situations they are facing
71% -- extremely satisfied with the Strategic Alignment of Human Capital course

71% -- extremely satisfied with the amount of team work

71% extremely satisfied with their study group (C team).

This generosity of giving and of satisfaction with the Vanderbilt EMBA experience is underscored by the fact that they paid their own way (only 20% of those surveyed had 100% company sponsorship).

In a way, they voted with their dollars twice--with the decision to enroll and with the decision to become alumni donors. They continue to be the best ambassadors for the EMBA experience by recommending their friends to the program. I am left asking, "What else can I do to help you now?" I thank you, EMBA 2010, for your thoughtful responses to our survey, and for your leadership and friendship moving forward. Here's to you with a few of my favorite photos from graduation...we miss you already, so visit often!

Revisiting the Notion of a Certified MBA

• One of my current students ran across an article from 2008 in USA Today Online and asked my thoughts on the CMBA (a Certified MBA Exam). I thought I’d elaborate on my response to him.
  
  There have been several attempts by outside organizations starting about a decade ago to create a certification exam to prove learning post-MBA. With so many variations on the MBA now in existence, we were bound to question whether an MBA from one school is comparable to an MBA from another. While students may be willing to shell out several hundred dollars for a test to demonstrate that they learned a lot, I am not sure employers are demanding it.
  
  Here are challenges to the concept of a CMBA:
  
  1) Variation in MBA Core, Concentrations/Focus: I think of MBA “core”—the business fundamentals that the CMBA tests—as the alphabet for a new language. The rest of that educational experience or language--not the alphabet--is what differentiates great MBA programs and learning outcomes for graduates. That is, the salaries and successes of MBAs reflect a lot more than MBA core knowledge. Some schools only teach core with 32 credits of study, while others like ours are 60 credits, well beyond these core skill-building blocks. General business boasts about 30 distinct fields MBAs might pursue with an MBA, and students choose schools based on which schools specialize in those areas relative to career aspirations. Concentrations of study are inherently problematic for any standardized exam to cover, and the CMBA does not even attempt to cover them.
  
  2) Timing: If core happens early in an MBA curriculum, when is the CMBA test in demand or best to take? When most MBAs are done with core, employers are not looking to hire them yet, except perhaps at the internship stage or immediately upon graduation.
  
  3) GMAT Purpose: The CMBA concept is very different than the baseline aptitudes measured pre-MBA by the GMAT. The GMAT determines likelihood of mastering coursework in core MBA topics, and GMAT-using schools like ours know how score range correlates to performance at our schools. Employers sometimes incorrectly use GMAT scores in their hiring decisions as a sort of IQ indicator, although that is not the intent of the GMAT. What the GMAT does for GMAT-using schools is ensure the intellectual capital of the incoming class—so the faculty at that school can move at the speed and depth they expect—and grades in these core classes are predicted well by GMAT scores.
  
  4) No Silver Bullet: There are competent MBAs and incompetent ones. The degree is only as good as a school’s recruiting and academic process, and an MBA employee is only a reflection of that, vetted by a thorough hiring process. If a CMBA gives some assurance in a hiring decision, then bring it on. But, it will take several years to know if it measured outcomes successfully.
  
  5) Employer Behavior: A standardized exam can’t cover all of the variations in skills required for a specific hiring opportunity in the way that good, old-fashioned interviewing and business discussions can. For the approximately 30 different MBA fields of possibility, employers hire for specific experience sets including unique combinations of academic and work experience. So what employer is interested in this test and for what level employee?
  
  o At the MBA entry level, perhaps a CMBA could demonstrate, “You are smart. You learned a lot in core.” I don’t think it provides more insight than the combination of GPA and admission standards set by a school where an employer has a hiring and retention track record to predict future success. Maybe it will help at entry level when employers lack a track record at a particular school.
  
  o At experienced levels—including MBA alumni and EMBA candidates—differentiated knowledge and experience is that much more pronounced; core knowledge (that is tested by a CMBA) is a given. Employers aren’t hiring just for core skills but for proven performance outcomes at work. The MBA for these candidates is a means to that end: performance (aided by an MBA) is what gets them hired or promoted to the top ranks, as is most often the case with EMBA students.
  
  o Employers already know which schools turn out solid performers and recognize different learning outcomes from different places. I disagree with the notion that top-tier schools are threatened by certification. Many great schools, with solid GMAT, GPA, experience and interview requirements, are the insurance policy for employers who recruit their graduates. These schools won’t have to worry. It will be interesting to see if employers perceive that an additional test provides any new insight.
  
  o But the CMBA may spell trouble for exactly the population it is advertised to help: the individual student paying out of pocket for the test to prove to a would-be employer that their degree from a lesser known school is as good as a premium brand. For certain schools’ graduates, a solid certification outcome may be the best way to give credibility to their degree. The opposite is also possible. It could certainly put some diploma mills out of business and might prove the point: buyer beware.
  
  Employers—speaking from my experience in corporate recruiting-- will always hire from institutions where they trust both the admission standards and the faculty/academic rigor. History of hires and their performance specifically on the job, in addition to retention rates, are paramount. Another test doesn’t change that history or its predictive power.
  
  Here is the article referenced. http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2002-08-26-cmba_x.htm

What’s in a C-Team?

Whether you are aspiring to the C-Suite or are already there, we can help. Your transformation to executive decision-making through Vanderbilt’s EMBA program is aided by the way we recruit systematically a group of 50 EMBA classmates who will form ten C- Teams.

What is a C-Team? It is your assigned study group of, typically, five EMBA students for the two-year duration of the Executive MBA experience. All EMBA students are cast in a C-Team. Most of the EMBA courses involve team assignments and grades. The carefully selected peers in your C-Team (representing 4-5 industries and functions) mirror the skill sets of a balanced, corporate executive team. This maximizes learning and diversity of perspectives as you master the skills to earn an MBA.

Our admissions criteria stress the combination of academic and experiential contributions that you and each prospective student might make to the overall learning experience—to your collective learning experience as a class. How do we do it?

• We recruit the class carefully. First, we ensure everyone is academically compatible so that anyone potentially on your team is someone you could depend on and learn from. Second, we find the right balance or combinations from among our candidate pool. As we recruit each of the 50 students in the EMBA class, we are forming 10 balanced C-Teams. Each team should have an experienced professional in finance or accounting (CFO or CAO), operations (the COO), technology and productivity (CIO), marketing or sales (CMO) and one other. The other might be a former junior military officer, doctor, staffing director, corporate attorney, or other professional to serve as Subject Matter Expert, Chief People Officer, GM, or CEO. The other already may be in the C-Suite or own a business.
• The C-Teams are balanced across industries too. This further broadens your frame of reference and potential sources of “best practices” to solve problems in your industry that are common to other industries.
• We are thinking about C-Teams when we meet you. In your interview, we will talk about what you bring to challenge the perspectives of your classmates, and what you need most to learn from them. We will use this information later to determine the best fit among potential C-Teams based on your goals and the goals of your classmates to build the balanced class and specific teams. For example, if your company is undergoing an acquisition, the candidate who has already managed through an acquisition catches our attention. We would not want 50 MBA candidates who have roughly the same experience; in a way, you and your classmates are depending on one another’s diverse backgrounds even before you meet; once you do meet, you will form friendships and professional advocates for life.
• You will learn to leverage and trust others—leadership in practice. Your C-Team will develop more thorough analyses, even if getting the collective wisdom of your group isn’t always the fastest way to complete work. You will learn patience, and you will practice delegating and giving feedback. As one student put it, “In a room of strong personalities, I learned to become a stronger advocate for a well formed idea, whether mine or someone else’s.”
• Your frame of reference—the lens through which you view a problem and potential solutions—will transform subtly with the aid of your C-Team and your faculty. By the time you graduate, you will not only survive by getting work done well through group effort, you will be able to understand and present business opportunities from the perspective of the person you most need to influence—your CEO, CFO, CIO, COO, Board, or customer.

Your ability to understand and influence across these sometimes competing perspectives will go a long way to clearing a path to the C-Suite for you, if you aren’t already there.