Black MBA - Summer 2008 - (Page 45)

students are driving the trend there. “As our applications from international students have risen in recent years, we have seen an increase in applicants who already have a master’s degree – usually a master’s in engineering from a university in the applicant’s home country,” she says. Anthony “David” Scott, a manager at Deloitte Consulting in McLean, Va., earned a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Georgia Tech in 2001 before heading to Columbia Business School for his MBA. “Certain industry clients really want their consultants to have certain credentials – sometimes it’s an MBA or a certification or a license in addition to experience,” he says. “It means a lot when you are making decisions that could significantly impact their organization.” Choices also abound for those who wish to pursue multiple degrees at the same time. JD/MBA programs continue to be the most popular dual degree combination among 15 business schools contacted for this story. But each year, new programs are created to leverage institutions’ unique strengths and meet student demand. At the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, students can combine an MBA with a master’s degree in information and library science. Musicians can hone their business skills in the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business’s dual MBA/Master of Music program. And the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania just began offering an MBA/Master of Environmental Science combo. Many schools also are increasingly open to letting students tailor their educations by simultaneously pursuing an MBA and another degree, whether a formal dual program exists or not. At Ross, students can apply to a second degree program within their first year of the MBA to fashion a Student Initiated Dual Degree, or SIDD, if none of the school’s 20 established dual degree programs suits their needs. Even schools like MIT that take a less accommodating stance toward is very popular. “As a large sector of dual degrees have observed heightthe U.S. economy, that is a sector that ened student interest in the option. needs to be anchored in the issues in “We have relatively inflexible degree health care but also the imrequirements that make it difportance of good business ficult to pursue dual degrees,” practices,” he says. Webster says Catherine Gamon, the digrants more MBAs to Black rector of MBA Student Affairs students than to white stuat the MIT Sloan School of dents in the United States, acManagement. “In essence, cording to the latest rankings we do not make any adjustfrom Diverse magazine. ments to our degree requireSanjo Adeoye, an orthopements for candidates who dic surgery resident at Yaleare also pursuing degrees in Benjamin Akande New Haven Hospital, went to other programs [or] at other Wharton for two years after completschools.” ing his third year of medical school Jason Green struck the right balat the University of California, San ance at the University of Pennsylvania, Francisco. The MBA gave him insight where he combines an MBA with a into the business side of health care Master of Science in Education. He says that medical school doesn’t provide. As the distinct but complementary coursea result, he has been tapped as a junior work and cultures of the two schools resident to serve on committees, give is stimulating and equips him well for presentations and negotiate with medientrepreneurial ventures aimed at imcal device companies. Looking ahead, proving educational quality. the two degrees will position him well “Don’t follow the crowd in whatfor a range of roles within health care, ever you are doing, especially in an from administration to academia. MBA program,” he says. “It is easy to Still, he has encountered some resisget sucked into investment banking tance to the MD/MBA at work. “One and consulting; a whole lot of people thing I did not anticipate is how some end up going by default into a certain people within the surgical field would career. Pursuing the education degree look upon an applicant coming in with opened up my world of possibilities.” an MBA,” he says. “Your intentions are Healthcare-related pairings are questioned, [such as] ‘Are you focused on the rise. A concurrent degree proon money?’ ‘Are you too focused on the gram at the UCLA Anderson School business aspect?’ ‘Are you even going of Management strives to prepare stuto stay through the surgical residency?’ dents for dentistry’s metamorphosis There are a lot of questions from some from a “cottage” industry to a corpoof the older surgeons that I was grilled rate one by combining an MBA with about.” a Doctor of Dental Surgery. Anderson also has a new MBA/Master of Science MONEY MATTERS in Nursing track for students who want Across the board, admissions officers general management skills and nursing administration expertise. The Darden say that the key to gaining admittance School of Business at the University to dual degree programs and getting of Virginia launched joint degree prothe most out of them is beginning with grams with the University of Virginia the end in mind. Gabriela Snyder, the Medical School and the School of associate director of MBA admissions at Public Health this year to offer both Wharton, says it’s critical to understand MD/MBAs and MBA/MPHs. how the degrees fit within the context Benjamin Ola. Akande, Webster of one’s goals and interests for the next University’s dean of the School of several years. “If we see that someone’s Business and Technology, says the checked a box for the MD/MBA and school’s master’s degree in business adwe aren’t quite sure why they are doing ministration and health administration both, that doesn’t bode well,” she says. BlackMBA • Summer 2008 45

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Black MBA - Summer 2008

Black MBA- Summer 2008 Contents Mailbag Up Front From the President & CEO Politics of Change Catalyst for Change: Results of our 2008 Political Poll Know Whose Shoulders You Stand On: The Legacy of H. Naylor Fitzhugh Howard University: Changing With the Times Straight Talk: CEO to CEO Creating Your Own Sandbox Dual Threats Avoiding the Faux Pa Invest in Your MBA Everything You Need to Know About...Estate Planning On Campus Plan Ahead The Big Show What's in a Name? On the Move Market Forecast Jeff Friday Keith Wyche Life Lessons On the Ground Real Biz A Golden Opportunity Entrepreneurial Institute Tech Tools Read for Success Stacey Tisdale Advertiser Index

Black MBA - Summer 2008

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