U.S. News and World Report ranked the Sloan Master's Program as the #1 MBA program in the nation in its 1995 annual survey of graduate business schools. Our greater external recognition in the survey was due to many factors which include student selectivity (GMAT score, undergraduate GPA, percentage of applicants accepted), career placement success, and program evaluation by business executives and academics.
In 1995, graduating students in the Master's Program received an average of 3.6 job offers and average total compensation of $75,000 and $89,000 including bonuses. 98% of the class received a job offer by graduation. Competition for admission was intense. Over 2300 applications were received for an incoming class of 300 in the Master's Program and 45 in the Leaders for Manufacturing Program. The Admissions Office increased its efforts to effectively recruit and enroll qualified women and minorities through targeted recruiting events and activities.
To meet the sustained demand from prospective students and from industry, total enrollment in the Master's Program will increase to 645 in the fall of 1995 and 690 in 1996. Completion of Sloan's new building, the Tang Center for Management Education featuring a new auditorium, classrooms, space for student clubs and interview rooms, will accomodate the increase.
New students begin the two-year program with a week of orientation activities, organized by second-year students. During the fall of their first year, students complete six required core subjects. Students then complete the program in one of two ways. Those who follow a self-managed path, take 4 of 6 fundamental courses and a wide array of electives. Alternatively, students join one of five career management tracks which include Financial Engineering, Financial Management, Product and Venture Development, Strategic Information Technology and Strategic Management and Consulting. Those interested in Operations Management are part of the Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM) Program. Career management tracks are a new concept in management education based upon faculty coalitions from both disciplinary and functional areas and are designed to prepare students for specific career opportunities.
During 1995, the Master's Program sponsored a Faculty and Student Appreciation Day to recognize professors for their innovative approaches to management education and commitment to quality teaching. Ten graduating students received merit scholarships in recognition of their outstanding leadership and contributions to the Sloan community. Corporate and industry leaders were invited to the Sloan School to work with students through career management activities and through interaction with many of the Sloan student organizations such as the Finance Club, Sloan Leaders Club, Marketing Club and New Ventures Association. Project Team, a student organization focusing on team-building skills, organized several seminars, including a trip to NTU in Singapore.
Overall satisfaction with the Master's Program remained high. Efforts of the faculty and Master's Program Committee to create a more cohesive core, to build teamwork skills, to provide greater integration of international issues and to improve the relevance and innovativeness of the curriculum were effective. Satisfaction with both overall teaching quality and faculty expertise in course material increased this year. 95.4% of the students indicated they would recommend the Sloan Master's Program to potential candidates. 94.1% rated their experience as a 7 or higher in satisfaction on a 10 scale.
Profile of Master's Program Incoming Class of 1995 Projected
Number of Applications: 2337
Number Admitted: 455
Number of Matriculated Candidates: 350 (45 students in Leaders for
Manufacturing)
Yield: 77%
Percentage International: 37%
Percentage Women: 28%
Percentage Minority: 16%
Median GMAT score: 650
Undergraduate Grade-Point average (GPA out of 5.0): 4.5
Average Age at Admission: 28.5
Finance and Accounting 4 (1 US male, 3 foreign males)
Management Science 4 (2 US males, 1 foreign male and 1 US female)
Behavioral Policy Sciences 9 (1 US female, 6 foreign males, 1 foreign female,
1 US male)
The
overall percentage of US applicants was 36% and the majority of foreign
applications are coming from China and India, as well as Korea, Taiwan and
several other countries within Asia. We continue to cooperate with the efforts
of the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) to recruit
more qualified under-represented minority applicants, and work on our own
strategies for identifying prospects and sources. The bulk of the program's
graduates pursue academic careers.The Doctoral Program Committee, headed by Professor Birger Wernerfelt and coordinated by Sharon Cayley, has seen some success in dealing with the diverse problems of a very individualized program, including addressing time taken to complete the program (5 years) through early research ties to faculty, and financial aid awards that are competitive with our principal rivals.
Just prior to their graduation, the Sloan Fellows completed a three-week International Management Field Trip to China, Singapore, and India. The demand for the Program continues to be strong, and the quality of the nominations is extremely high. On June 17, 1995, the Class of 1995-96 arrived; there are 55 participants in the 1995-96 program.
The Director of the Sloan Fellows Program is Susan Lowance. Professor Robert McKersie served as Chair of the Faculty Program Committee.
The decision was difficult for the School, but was in response to what customers have been saying - that it is increasingly difficult for top executives to leave work for eight weeks, however outstanding the program. At the same time, the Sloan School has received increasing requests for shorter, more focused programs tailored to specific needs, to complement the degree programs. The Sloan School is also being asked to join in partnerships with corporations to address critical issues involving larger numbers of their executives.
These are challenging times for executive education, but are also times of exciting opportunities. The School has every intention to continue providing high quality programs which address the critical education needs of senior executives.
In addition to the one week open enrollment programs, we continue to offer custom designed programs for corporations seeking education in areas of Sloan faculty expertise. We held a CEO Roundtable with Price Waterhouse. Eight CEOs from multinationals attended a roundtable with three Sloan faculty. We also conducted a one week program on the Management of Change for 40 senior consultants from Price Waterhouse. We are holding a series of one week programs for Johnson & Johnson Corporation on information technology.
Initiated under the auspices of the Sloan School of Management and the School of Engineering, this twelve-month Program offers the special MIT degree S.M. in the Management of Technology. The Program operates within the Sloan School, as a key offering in the School's portfolio of executive education programs.
Strategy
Human and Organizational Factors
Decision Making
Leading Product/Process Development
Applied Research (the thesis)
Courses begin in June of each year, providing summer, fall and spring terms of study. The Management Field Trip, a required part of the curriculum, occurred in January. We traveled to Brussels to meet with representatives of the European Union, and then on to Paris and London, to meet with businesses operating within the EU. Meetings were held with eight European companies, including Cable & Wireless and Bull.
Dave Hardt accepted the Dean of Engineering's appointment as official LFM Co-director, Engineering (effective July 1, 1995).
Nils Muench stepped down from the directorship of the LFM Research Program.
Hilary Sheldon, Manager of Partner Relations, succeeded Rosalie Allen.
Mathilde Wood assumed responsibilities as Assistant to the Co-director (Engineering), succeeding Hilary Sheldon.
Nancy Upper succeeded Katherine Miller as Communications Assistant.
Government funding through the Technology Reinvestment Program (TRP) enables LFM to place two or three interns per year for three years in small and medium-sized enterprises. LFM students are now interning at Bay Networks, Inc.; Instron Corporation; MPM Corporation; PictureTel; Quantum Corporation; Reading Tube Corporation; and Teradyne, Inc.
A progress report for the year on the eight LFM "products" follows. The program this year focused on partner outreach and sustainability as LFM enters "Phase III."
The LFM Governing Board format as revised last year has been very well received, so continues to emphasize ample opportunity for the governors to provide program direction, interact with one another, and exchange ideas on major manufacturing issues. Meetings are being hosted by LFM governors themselves in a "round robin" of select partner facilities.
This past June, 40 LFM fellows graduated. Of 39 fellows who had confirmed their plans in early June, 95 percent assumed positions in US manufacturing companies, choosing from an average of 2.5 job offers each. Most-cited reasons for job decisions had to do with growth potential, respect and recognition of recruits as individuals, and "good people fit."
Leaders graduates (now 221, including those research assistants who conducted internships) organized and hosted in Albuquerque this spring workshops for LFM alumni/ae, including an LFM Program update, on-line and other LFM networking, career management and development, personality testing, and product development; attendees numbered 50. In addition, a series of workshops attended by LFM students as well as partner companies developed from a Boeing-led study of how better to utilize LFM-calibre graduates.
From 310 applications received this past spring, 52 were accepted into the LFM Fellows Program; 45 students (all with work experience) enrolled. The new fellows average 27 years in age with 4.8 years of work experience. Included are 15 women, one member of a minority group underrepresented within MIT, and 13 partner-sponsored students. Women in the program thus increased sharply this year, and four African Americans are currently offered deferred admission. The program's recruiting strategy is being further developed to better reach these individuals nationwide. The LFM Program this year instituted a Diversity Committee with a mission to raise within the LFM Program diversity awareness relevant to business/management issues. The scope of the work is initially within the program at MIT, with plans to possibly expand later into Sloan and other MIT departments as well. During IAP, the Diversity Committee hosted a well-attended workshop for LFM faculty, students, and staff; Pope & Associates of Cincinnati, OH, who have worked with three LFM partners, facilitated. A committee-sponsored Proseminar in May `95, "Diversity in the Workplace," included discussion of a student-written case study on the topic of sexual orientation in the workplace, facilitated by Professor Thomas Kochan, and brought Digital Equipment Corporation vice presidents Herb Shumway and Hope Greenfield to share experiences about workplace diversity issues. The committee continues to explore avenues for incorporating diversity issues into the LFM leadership curriculum and providing interactive learning experiences for all LFM stakeholders.
Faculty this year participated in an industry-led Extended Education Committee, from which stemmed a pilot minicourse compressing highlights of the two-year LFM Fellows Program into one week. The course will be offered in November 1995 to LFM partner company executives who report to vice presidents of manufacturing, head manufacturing education, or otherwise lead manufacturing-related efforts.
The Leaders Program supported 36 research projects this year, and its Working Papers exceed 450 titles.
The program also updated its compendia of LFM Research Program Contacts and Manufacturing Science and Technology Research, to facilitate networking.
The Leaders Program is also working with Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) under a TRP grant to impact undergraduate education with LFM learnings.
The School is in the process of finalizing the details of a program for continued cooperation. The areas of emphasis in the new project - MIT-NTU Phase II - will be the further development of Nanyang Business School's doctoral program, the use of new learning technologies for distance learning, and the development of executive education. In addition, MIT and NTU may work together on institution-building assignments in other parts of Asia.
MIT Reports to the President 1994-95