Emba

[Anita A]

I have a few questions about EMBA

1. Why is corporate sponsorship always a requirement and what does it intail?

2. What if the graduate from EMBA program wants to stay back and not go to his old company and look for opportunities with other companies

3. Can one get an I-20 and F1 visa as well as O.P.T for pursuing EMBA

Thank you so much

Anita

[GMATbong]

1. Why? It is because usually it means missing friday work day and your employer is ok with it. with or without paying for tuition.

2. This is possible but hard. Usually it means you are not valuable to your employer so you are looking for another job. For if you are valuable, your employer will make it worthwhile for you to stay after years of EMBA school. Recruitors know they are getting the bottom feeder of the EMBA pool so they like to hire fresh FT MBA grad instead and the cycle continues.

3. You are supposed to be full time employed during your EMBA program so I don't see how the I-20 and F1 comes in.

[Anita A]

Thanks GMATbong, I am trying to help some one with MBA admissions. He has 15 years of work experience, wants to quit is job and go for MBA and look for better opportunities. The only reason we were thinking about EMBA over FT MBA is because of GMAT. Most EMBA programs do not require GMAT. With full time work he is unable to study for the test and also he has been out since so many years. Last time he took the test he score only 410. Do you suggest any courses? He has already taken princeton review. What do you think about manhattan gmat or varitas. He is based in Kuwait

Do you think 15 years of quality experience can over shadow low GMAT, and to what extent?

[GMATbong]

For full time program in the top 15 schools, a score lower than 650 will be the minimal for normal folks. I will say do more classses like varitas and see how high a score he can get. Quality exp. is no substitube for GMAT as far as FT MBA top-25 schools are concerned.

Another point is this, those EMBA without any req. on GMAT are also the one that cannot help him change career.

[Anita A]

Thanks GMATbong,

What about those FT MBA that are ranked like 40th or 50th for instance wakeforest, babcock, rochester Do you think he stands a chance there with a lower score? Not as low as 410 i understand, but may be if he could score a 500 or 550?

Thanks man

[haddy74]

Originally Posted by GMATbong

Another point is this, those EMBA without any req. on GMAT are also the one that cannot help him change career.

one correction here...Chicago GSB has been a top 3 EMBA program for a long time and it DOES NOT require GMAT......

[GMATbong]

Yeap. You are right. Didn't know Uchi EMBA GMAT is optional and Kellogg doesn't need one either.

[Anita A]

Thanks GMATbong, I called these unis and they do not offer I-20 for students to get F1 visa. Also as you had mentioned EMBA is not an option for a career change. He wants to be able to get another job after graduation in US. What kind of impression do employers have of EMBAs looking for job after graduation?

Also what do you think about less ranked unis like babcock, rochester, babson?

Thanks a ton

[haddy74]

Well EMBA programs are going through a sort of transformational phase right now. In past, majority of the student body at EMBA was covered by their respective employers and students were supposed to keep working for their employers upon graduation for few years due to the contractual issues.

However, all notable EMBA programs (Chicago, Kellogg, Wharton, Duke, NYU, and Columbia) have observed a marked departure from the old trend in last few years. Almost all top EMBA programs are reporting that close to 40-50% of their student body is paying the tuition fee on its own. Theses schools are offering the exact same loan services to EMBA students which are being offered to their full time students. This new trend at EMBA programs would have some serious implications as discussed below.

When a student is willing to pay $120K (EMBA programs are more expensive than full time programs) on its own, it is pretty obvious that he is looking for a career change or to work for a different employer in the same industry upon graduation. For this, EMBA programs need to initiate career services that are specifically catered towards EMBA students who are more senior and experienced in comparison to their full time program counterparts. While no top EMBA program has started providing the “full” career services to EMBA students, all of them have recognized the need of such services.

As a result, you will now see some effort on behalf of top school to provide their EMBA students with career switch/job search services. As far as I know, CBS and Duke are most active on this front. CBS dean openly mentions to his full-time MBA recruiters to contact him directly if they are interested in hiring experienced candidates. Wharton is not far behind either. Actually, Wharton has lately announced that their self-sponsored EMBA students would have full access to full-time MBA career services after first year. See links below:

http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/emba/career_svc/index.html

http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/mbaexecutive/admissions/choosing/compare.cfm

http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/mba/executive/careers/

Having said that, the fact remains that switching a career through an EMBA program remains a vague option and it does not substitute a full time program by any means. But there is a hope! Top B-Schools are quickly recognizing that they cannot apply same rules to EMBA programs which they apply to part-time MBA. While 100% of part-time students reject full-time programs for variety of reasons and choose to join a part time program “BY CHOICE”, majority of EMBA students cannot join full time programs even if they are willing to due to age restrictions.

One more thing, just like full-time MBA program, try to aim high for EMBA too. There is no point of spending money on schools that are ranked below 10.