Our Most Popular Stories Of 2016

If you’re glad that 2016 is coming to a close, you’re not alone. The headlines were enough to scare many into a sad state. Globalization came under attack in the U.S. presidential election and in Britain. Some of the world’s most enduring personalities left our world. The immigration crisis and mounting casualties from the war in Syria have led to a major international catastrophe.

Again this backdrop, the world of business education was a tranquil haven. It’s not that the business of business education was without change. Online degree programs gained popularity, and more schools launched online options in their program portfolios. The use of both free MOOC courses and online degrees caused a continued slump in part-time MBA programs. And several schools added more specialty degrees, including EMBA specialities in such fields as healthcare and sustainability.

Some of the year’s most popular stories on Poets&QuantsforExecs reflect those trends. But as always the number one article is our ranking of the best EMBA programs. Afterall, for most applicants it’s the starting point to the search for the ideal educational experience for a professional who wants a solid grounding in all the disciplines of business. So here are our top ten stories of 2016:

1) 2016 Ranking Of The Best American EMBA Programs

 

When it comes to ranking the best Executive MBA programs, you can’t beat our composite system. It incorporates the EMBA rankings by U.S. News, the Financial Times, and The Economist. So on one list, you can see where every program ranks and then use our composite to get to the bottom of things. After all, every ranking is flawed and every list contains anomalies. By merging several of the most prominent rankings together, we believe you get closer to the truth.

This year’s overall winner? The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Finishing among the top three programs in each of the EMBA rankings by U.S. News, the Financial Times, and The Economist, the Booth boasted a near-perfect 98.9 score, edging out cross-town rival Northwestern by the closest of margins. In the process, Columbia Business School climbed two spots to third.

Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

2) How To Get Into An Elite EMBA Program

 

We love service journalism. Those are the kind of stories that help people make important decisions in their lives. How To Get Into An Elite EMBA Program dispenses the kind of solid advice that our core audience needs and wants. In this column, we take the best counsel offered by a premier admissions consultant, Paul Bodine, and boil it down by category for readers to distill.

Since 1997, Bodine has been helping MBA candidates earn acceptances to elite programs like Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg, Tuck, INSEAD, Haas, and Fuqua. The author of Great Applications for Business School and proprietor of Paul Bodine Consulting, Bodine has been helping Poets&Quants readers with identifying the best EMBA fits and increasing their chances of being accepted. Now, we’re featuring his best advice to readers over the past three years. From identifying the best EMBA programs for entrepreneurs to showing what it takes to get into Wharton, you’ll find plenty of wisdom and inspiration for deciding which (or even if an) EMBA program works for you.

3) How Employers Perceive The Online MBA Degree

 

If you are looking to advance your career but don’t have the time or money for classroom study, then an online MBA might be the right choice. But the biggest question asked by would-be students of these programs is the right one: Will employers give me credit for doing an online degree in business?

This article by Sandy Khan gives a thorough overview of the pros and cons. Khan is a world-class, London-based MBA talent acquisition consultant and founder of MBA Arena. She works with international employers and business schools on global MBA hiring. The benefits to an online program are many, as she points out.

You get the same curriculum as a classroom program and usually the same faculty. Basically you’re receiving the same quality business education at an accredited and reputable B-school. You don’t have to relocate, so there’s less disruption to your life and less cost.

You can keep your current job and your current salary, and like other EMBA programs, you

can APPLY the learning to your current job. Applied learning gives you an opportunity to make a business impact today and to share real-world learning with classrooms peers versus post MBA or during a short internship.

On the other hand, there isn’t a critical mass of job-seeking MBAs in online programs at elite B-schools who have the profile that campus recruiters want. So until there is, structured MBA hiring programs with big employers will continue to revolve around classroom MBAs. Read more of her smart advice.