LeBow's Executive MBA ranks top 50 in the world
Sumeet Patel
Issue date: 11/12/04 Section: News
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The EMBA Program, which has been in existence for nearly three years, ranked 56 in 2003 and 47 in 2004 on par with many long established programs both in the United States and the rest of the world.
The Financial Times rankings were based on surveys completed by respective alumni in addition to intrinsic factors associated with the specific business school such as faculty holding doctorate degrees and gender distribution. According to Financial Times report, LeBow's EMBA alumni earned an average of $124,316 and enjoyed a 50 percent salary increase. The EMBA, a 20 month long program, is designed for executive professionals who wish to cultivate leadership and integrate knowledge and skill all within a flexible time period. While the program leads to the culmination of a MBA degree, the coursework and application slightly varies from a traditional two year MBA program. The EMBA Program is also the first in the world to implement a "strengths-based capstone experience" which allows executives to capitalize on their strengths rather than improving upon their weaknesses for more immediate and applicable results.
"Business schools have always emphasized the traditional well rounded applicant with a high GPA, good GMAT scores and so on," Senior Director of Executive Education and the EMBA Program David Welsh said. "When designing the curriculum [for the EMBA Program], we thought why waste time improving on something you'll never get good at when you instead capitalize on the strengths. Now a number of schools throughout the country are implementing our model."
In addition to flexible time schedules and application based learning, the EMBA Program also offers its students the opportunity to participate in foreign programs such as trips to Oxford University in the United Kingdom, The Gallop Organization's headquarters in the Netherlands and Peking University in Beijing. These programs are focused on exposing students variety of business environments designed to make students mentally and culturally prepared for real world scenarios.
"Business professionals today need more than just traditional theory based learning," Welsh told The Triangle. "They need to be mentally prepared and culturally aware of the world around them if they wish to succeed. The EMBA Program combines leadership learning with individual talent to produce business leaders for the world of tomorrow."
The Krall Center for Corporate and Executive Education, located in the Pearlstein Business Learning Center, houses the EMBA Program and serves as outreach arm of the CoB. The Krall Center establishes relations with major companies such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin to train middle and high management positions at the CoB. Furthermore, the Center serves as a technological and human resource for EMBA students.
"I personally don't care about the rankings," Welsh commented. "My concern everyday when I wake up in the morning and step foot into my office is the students. That's what this [EMBA] program is all about - the students and their talents."
While the rankings have undoubtedly brought fame and prestige to both the CoB and the University at large, CoB Dean George Tsetsekos affirms that the most important criteria for any business school is accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The EMBA Program has seen, however, a surge in applicants across the country. Both Welsh and Tsetsekos admits that the rankings hold a great deal of importance from a public relations standpoint.
"The CoB has undoubtedly come a long way in the last few years even before I was dean," Tsetsekos said. "The Financial Times rankings reflect both our alumni's impression of the school as well as the ability of our faculty and students. We will continue to implement new initiatives to further improve not only our EMBA but also our other MBA and undergraduate programs."
In addition to the Financial Times EMBA rankings, the LeBow College of Business ranked 23rd in the nation in Forbes.com and The Princeton Review's first annual 2004 Top 25 Entrepreneurial Campuses.
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