谁适合申请PennState Smeal MBA?

liwei_sa

Prospective of Corporate Finance and IMPA
     General Perception of Smeal MBA Program
         MY Feeling and Experience 1st Semester

    
    I am Diallo, a first year MBA in the Smeal program.  My intended portfolios are the Investment Management and Portfolio Analysis portfolio and the Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning Portfolio.  As you may have guessed I am enamored with the field of finance and thus took note when Smeal ranked 2nd best ROI in the Financial Times.  Another reason why the Smeal program appealed to me is that the MBA program is small compared to its peers.  This allows for an intimacy of experience, I believe the others to be lacking. Though the MBA program itself is small, Penn State is major university and thus as a Smeal MBA I receive the best of both worlds. There is a close atmosphere within the school, but the program has all of the resources of a major university.   Though I could have gotten into schools that ranked higher and did apply to some, Smeal was my first choice.  To me the most important criteria in selecting a school was selecting one which was a good match for me, and one in which I believe I could maximize my potential.  In Smeal I believe I have achieved both of these objectives.  

    My impressions of the school have been on the by and large extremely positive.   I am impressed both with the faculty and my classmates.  The diversity of experiences and backgrounds is something I find to be invaluable to the program.  There is a considerable amount of interaction between professors and the students in the classroom, this allows for a variety of different view points to be expressed and evaluated.  I find myself continually being impressed by the the caliber of both the professors and my classmates.  

funnytiger

以下是引用luckyforever在2004-1-15 23:02:00的发言：

I am also puzzled that why the trouble aroused of the contract between the govenment and profesior not the contract between the school and the professor?

luckforever,

it is a dispute between Penn government and professors. This is a sad story about attending public schools in US. not just penn state, even UC system has big problems.

But in particular case, it has gone out of control, the union of professors pressed government to increase salaries, but with budget crisis going on in almost every state, it is almost impossible, it is not an easy one to solve.

usually when you see good B school actively recruiting new students, two things may have just happened.

1. some negative news broke out. e.g. Tuck B-school after Business week report, smeal B-school after this labor problems

2. the school has just expanded its student body. like Haas last year.

liwei_sa

The reason why Smeal MBA is actively recruiting new students iis partly a result of Smeal's long term development plan.
Smeal MBA program, like many other MBA programs, is always trying the best to recruit best students.
An active recruiting poicy does not mean that the requirement is lowered, instead, the active recruitment always results in better student body.

I never heard of any negative new about union issues at PennState. And the active recruiting plan is made far earlier than now.
Smeal MBA believe that there are many qualified applicants who suit Smeal MBA program very well.  So, basically our mission is to deliver information to more potential applicants.

I really did not heard of the labor issue between government and professors. However, I am not going to argue that it is not possible.
As I know, Penn State is not run by government although govenrment is one of big sponsors of PennState.

Chinese students account only a small portion of all Smeal students body.  And admission office is not going to change the percent of international students.

The ultimate reaon why this message is posted here may be that Smeal MBA want to offer more opportunity to excellent applicants.
I personally think there are many qualified students who may be interested in Smeal MBA but have no infomation about it.  That is my personal reason to post this message.

By the way,  can you please reference your source for the "negative new" upon PennState? Is the source credible?

Thank you very much, to make an MBA decision is important for anybody, extra investigation is always good thing.

funnytiger

以下是引用liwei_sa在2004-1-24 3:19:00的发言：
By the way,  can you please reference your source for the "negative new" upon PennState? Is the source credible?

Thank you very much, to make an MBA decision is important for anybody, extra investigation is always good thing.

First, I have to say that I do not live in Penn, so the news on west coast maybe a little bit off. as I said, penn is a good school, actually I recommended several people going to that school last year.

second, I first heard it from CNN, I got the following link from google http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2004/01/19/story6.html

siebel

Thanks a lot, Funnytiger! This is really important, especially for me...

Actually, York University faculty took a strike several years ago. The negative influence to the school and even the society cannot be faded away until now...

Tuck B-school after Business week report

a little more detail, please? I'm just preparing to submit the application to Tuck now...

以下是引用funnytiger在2004-1-26 12:20:00的发言：

First, I have to say that I do not live in Penn, so the news on west coast maybe a little bit off. as I said, penn is a good school, actually I recommended several people going to that school last year.

second, I first heard it from CNN, I got the following link from google http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2004/01/19/story6.html

[此贴子已经被作者于2004-1-26 12:42:46编辑过]

liwei_sa

Hi, funnytiger, thank you very much for your work.

However, I have to point out that the last line of the artical funnytiger cited is "The SSHE does not include Penn State University and its regional campuses."

As you know SSHE is the main role of that labor dispute, at the end of the article, the article itself clearly stated that Penn State University is not part of SSHE. Pennsylvania State Unviersity is a totally different concept from "Pennsylvania State College System".

By the way, I found some figure for you from Penn State Web Site.
http://www.budget.psu.edu/BoTJuly/AllBoTSlides.asp#Slide1

Within Big Ten, PSU's Average Faculty Salaries ranked 2nd from 95-96 and 5th in 2000-01

That is really a decent status!


Thank you!

liwei_sa

Financial Times Again Ranks Smeal MBA Program Among Top 50

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (January 26, 2004) – For the third-consecutive year, the Penn State Smeal College of Business MBA Program has improved its overall ranking in the Financial Times’ annual assessment of the top 100 MBA programs in the world, advancing to No. 44 overall and No. 28 in the United States.

Among only 35 percent of U.S. programs to improve in the 2004 rankings, Smeal continued to rank among the best in the U.S. in the category of value for money (No. 8). In a tough economic environment, the college also ranks 15th in the U.S. and 19th globally for the percentage increase to the salaries of its alumni.

Overall, the Smeal MBA Program ranks 5th in the Big Ten and 10th among U.S. public institutions. Smeal’s global ranking has steadily improved from No. 55 two years ago and No. 48 last year.

“The Smeal MBA is a global program,” said Judy Olian, dean of the Smeal College. “The Financial Times’ ranking places heavy emphasis on the progress made by our graduates once they enter the workplace. Our continuing progress provides yet another indication that the program continues to be valued in the global marketplace.”

Financial Times bases its rankings on responses from two questionnaires – one to alumni who graduated three years ago (2000) and the other from business schools reflecting objective indicators of performance, as well as an independent assessment of research in key academic and business journals. According to Financial Times, its goal is to measure the relative strengths in three key areas: purchasing power in the marketplace, diversity of experience, and research quality.

The Smeal MBA Program includes an innovative curriculum that allows students to combine a strong foundation in business fundamentals with boundary-spanning thinking, as well as the skills to lead organizations. Opportunities such as the new Smeal Global Immersion enhance MBA’s exposure to the business and cultures of some of the world’s most important business centers. This year, students are traveling to Budapest/Prague, Lyon, or Singapore.

“Each Global Immersion trip offers its own set of opportunities,” said Robert Wheeler, director of the Smeal MBA Program. “Our initiative is among the few U.S. MBA programs where all students are exposed globally, helping them become globally minded business leaders.”

Future Smeal MBA students will also benefit from a new $68 million, 210,000-square-foot facility, which will be the largest academic building at Penn State when it is completed in the summer of 2005. For MBAs, the building will offer a host of advantages including MBA-focused classrooms, study rooms, technologically sophisticated business applications, recruiter interview rooms, a café, an auditorium, and much more, creating a rich business learning center for the 21st century.

- SMEAL -

luckyforever

Thanks Funnytiger and Liwei for the endless efforts to gather so much  information for us to make the right decision.

liwei_sa

luckyforever
谢谢

liwei_sa

今年的申请眼看就要告一段落了！
祝大家好运！