Admissions Straight Talk

Merging two hot new programs -- analytics and management -- as well as online delivery so that you don’t need to leave the workforce, NYU Stern has created a new exciting entry in the master's in management and data analytics space. Let’s learn about it from the Vice Dean for Online Education at NYU Stern.

Interview with Kim Corfman, Vice Dean for Online Learning at NYU Stern [Show Summary]

In this interview with Dr. Kim Corfman, Vice Dean of Online Learning at NYU Stern, she discusses Stern’s brand-new online option in graduate management education. Aimed at early-career applicants, the program merges two degrees in demand: data analytics and a master's in management.

NYU Stern’s new online Master's in Quantitative Management [Show Notes]

Our guest today is Dr. Kim Corfman. She is a Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern’s Vice Dean for Online Learning, and Academic Director of Stern’s MBA in Fashion & Luxury. She has served previously as Vice Dean for MBA Programs, Academic Director of the Langone Part-Time MBA Program, and coordinator of the doctoral program in marketing. Needless to say she knows a ton about management education and NYU Stern, and as I mentioned, today we’re going to talk about Stern’s brand new MS in Quantitative Management.

What is the Master's in Quantitative Management at NYU Stern? Can you provide an overview? [2:10]

The program is a combination of things we’ve never done before and is designed for a market need we didn’t feel was being met. It is for people without business degrees, and combines the business essentials (essentially MBA core courses) with an emphasis on analytics. It is designed to help professionals become more able to use data, which is very important to their professional success – how to ask for data, analyze it, and make decisions from it. It is online and you can attend from anywhere, with two short residential immersions each August, offering the chance to meet the cohort and do interactive face-to-face work. The program is lockstep and fits well with working professionals’ schedules, and can reach people all over the world.

Business Analytics master's programs have been mushrooming and the number of master's in management programs have also increased. How did NYU Stern decide to combine analytics, management, and online in one distinctive program that a student can complete in 20 months. [4:11]

We could have developed an online master's in management, but are sensitive to the fact that most of our MBA students find the most benefit to their careers from more analytics than they thought they needed. It is critical everywhere and the new business essential. Any working professional has greater demands on their time, but our format makes it much easier to do. In a given week it is self-paced, with optional synchronous Q&A sessions with faculty, and various deliverables each week.

I realize that an undergraduate degree in business is not a requirement for this program, but what kind of coursework are you looking for on applicant transcripts? [5:42]

We are looking for people who know how to do well in whatever they have done in the past. They have taken courses that challenged them and have succeeded in them, and who know why they are taking this program. We take people with backgrounds in social science, liberal arts, natural science, engineering, everything. We don’t require quantitative coursework per se, but applicants do have to

Interested in a non-traditional medical path? How about considering a medical program that completely integrates engineering into its curriculum? Carle Illinois College of Medicine might be the right choice for you!

Interview with Dr. Nora Few and Dr. William Pluta [Show Summary]

Dr. Nora Few and Dr. William Pluta discuss the highly innovative and multi-disciplinary curriculum at the Carle Illinois College Medicine. This fairly new medical school took advantage of the opportunity to design its curriculum from the ground up and integrates engineering and medicine throughout. In this interview we gain insight into the program as well as Carle Illinois’ pioneering approach to medical school admissions.

Carle Illinois College of Medicine’s Unique Curriculum and Approach to Admissions [Show Notes]

Our guests today are Dr. Nora Few and Dr. William Pluta. Dr. Few, who earned her Ph.D. in Health Behavior, has been with the University of Illinois since 1990, including 15 years at the UIC College of Medicine. She became the Carle Illinois College of Medicine’s first Director of Admissions in 2017 and managed the enrollment of its first class in 2018.

Dr. Will Pluta earned his PhD in Educational Psychology at Rutgers University in 2015. From 2012-2015 he worked at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons as an Education, Assessment, and Evaluation Specialist. He then headed to Georgetown Medical for a year as Assistant Dean for Assessment and has been Carle Illinois College of Medicine’s first Director of Curriculum since 2017.

Dr. Pluta, can you give us an overview of the Carle Illinois med school program? [2:34]

It is a four-year curriculum that leads to an MD degree, with a focus on engineering and innovation across the curriculum. We emphasize the development of competent and caring patient-centered physicians. It is a 3-phase program. The first is basic science with engineering built in, introduction to systems and early clinical exposure. The second phase is built around clerkships, with time for electives early on to explore interests, and students are encouraged through the IDEA course to generate innovative ideas to impact healthcare. The third phase has the relatively standard electives around medicine – with the opportunity to specialize, and students are expected to complete a capstone project and data science project.

Why combine the teaching of medicine with engineering? [4:51]

Engineering has the emphasis on technology, and that is where we see the real opportunity to move medicine forward.

What is the IDEA course? [5:21]

IDEA stands for Innovation, Design, Engineering and Application, and is a year-long course integrated into the core clerkship period of the curriculum. On Friday afternoons students come together and talk about the challenges they are seeing in their clerkships and work on solutions. Engineering rounds are incorporated with rounds, where an engineer from our faculty will help students think about problems in different ways to promote innovation.

The Carle Illinois website says it has a “Paradigm-shifting Curriculum.” How so? [6:47]

The critical part is that engineering is built into every part of the program. The emphasis on technology is all part of our mission. We are different in that we have integrated these two subjects from the very beginning.

The Carle Illinois Site discuss 4 pillars of its curriculum basic sciences, clinical sciences, engineering and innovation,

Interview with Rajat Sadana & Payal Tandon, Co-Founders of e-GMAT [Show Summary]

Do you need to prep for the GMAT? Dreading having to go to class? Unsure about online test prep? Our guests today are GMAT online test prep experts. We’ll be speaking with the co-founders and CEO and COO of e-GMAT, the GMAT prep company that has 1,818 reviews on GMAT Club and a 4.7/5 rating.

An inside look at e-GMAT: The innovative test prep company that MBA applicants are raving about [Show Notes]

Our guests, Rajat Sadana and Payal Tandon are the co-founders of e-GMAT, which they started in 2010. Today they are also CEO and COO respectively of e-GMAT, which has 1,818 reviews on GMAT Club as of 2/19 when I prepared for the podcast, and most are 5 stars.

Rajat and Payal, how did you get involved with GMAT test prep? [2:10]

We were very fortunate as kids to have had great educations. We both had personalized attention and were provided the opportunity to learn anything we wanted to learn. We are technologists at heart and realized that not everyone is fortunate enough to have a private tutor, so we wondered if we could provide instruction similar to a private tutor but at the price of a book. The idea was to build a learning platform to provide this private-tutor-like instruction, and we had to start with something. With the GMAT there was clear demand, and we felt we could carve a niche. Our engineering background was key. We came at it from an ed-tech perspective as opposed to a GMAT perspective.

There are lots of test prep companies out there? What does e-GMAT bring to the marketplace that it previously lacked? [6:25]

The existing learning architectures were book-based or private tutor-based. For online courses, you learn a bunch of concepts, but there is no feedback on how well you’ve learned. A few people can excel in this type of format and are able to build on the foundational work. Others continue to try and learn a few more times and many give up. What we wanted to do was provide immediate feedback when you are learning a concept. So, you learn a concept with a 10-15 minute video, and then take an embedded quiz. If you haven’t learned any aspect of the concept well enough, you get that feedback and try again.

It is very structured. With each concept there are typically three different objectives to fulfill, and the quiz will test whether you know them all. If not, you go back and learn again and take the quiz again.

An example of a concept to learn about is modifiers. The three objectives are to learn what a modifier is, whether it is serving the intent of modifying a noun or clause, and placement of the modifier. At the end of the concept you take a 5-7 question quiz.

When you work with a private tutor they are able to tell you how to attack a problem step by step. When you make a mistake, they help you explicitly on where you made the mistake. With the other learning architectures you don’t learn where in the thought process you diverged from the correct answer. The goal of e-GMAT is to provide a private tutor experience at a more effective cost.

How is e-GMAT structured in terms of its products? [13:30]

We have two kinds of products that serve slightly different needs. We have an on-demand product for someone who needs a private tutor-like set up, but has enough discipline not to need to interact with another person. They want to be on their own to have flexibility to set their ...

Interview with Dr. Alexa Mieses, family medicine resident, mentor & writer [Show Summary]

Do you want to be a clinician? Are you concerned about your ability to gain acceptance to med school? Listen in to today’s interview with the author of The Heartbeat of Success: A Med Student's Guide to Med School Admissions, Dr. Alexa Mieses.

The journey of a family practitioner, author, advocate [Show Notes]

Our guest today is Dr. Alexa Mieses, who has an MD and MPH and in her own words, "strives to have influence beyond the confines of the examination room." She is a resident physician in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. In addition to providing clinical care to marginalized patient populations, Dr. Mieses' interests include population health, increasing diversity in the physician workforce, mentoring premedical students, writing, and research.”

Dr. Mieses graduated from CUNY magna cum laude in 2011. She then studied for her MD/MPH at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai from 2012 to 2016 and graduated with distinction in Research and Excellence in Family Medicine. She has been a Family Medicine Resident at Duke University since 2016 and has earned the Harvey Estes, MD Memorial Award for Leadership and Advocacy.

Can you tell us about your background outside of medicine? Where you grew up? What do you like to do for fun? [2:45]

I am a native New Yorker. I grew up in NYC in Queens and had a very interesting childhood. I am bi-racial - my dad is from the Dominican Republic and my mom is American of Italian/Irish descent, so I grew up in a very ethnically diverse family and neighborhood, which shaped who I am and what I have done in my career. I have been a writer since childhood and have incorporated that into my career and leisure time. I really enjoy spending time with friends and family, and I am a mom of three pets – two cats and a dog.

How did you know you wanted to be a doctor? [3:57]

I really feel like medicine is my calling, and it’s something I’ve thought about since I was a kid. I was first interested in science when I was 3 or 4 and told my parents that I wanted to be a marine biologist. I was a big nerd and loved watching National Geographic specials, and I would read encyclopedias. I was always fascinated by life science. My mom actually got me interested in medicine – not because she is a doctor, and in fact neither one of my parents went to college. My mom had diabetes, but I remember helping her check her blood sugar and going with her to her doctor and seeing the positive relationship she had with her doctor and wanting to have that same positive impact on someone’s life.

What was the hardest part of the med school application process for you? [5:26]

I remember that it was a marathon and not a sprint. In hindsight I feel like I lived, breathed, and slept my dream of becoming a physician, which meant I was very intentional about what I did. For example, I was accepted to both a science high school and a performing arts high school. I probably would have been fine going to either, but at the time it felt do or die, and so I chose the science high school. As another example, in my first and second years of college I was working fulltime in addition to going to school fulltime so I had to make serious decisions about the type of job I took that would allow me enough time to...

Interview with Dr. Andrea Masini, Associate Dean at the HEC Paris MBA Program [Show Summary]

HEC Paris’s MBA program has a class that is comprised of 90+% international students. If you are interested in an MBA with a strong focus on diversity, the HEC Paris program might be for you! Dr. Andrea Masini, Associate Dean in charge of the HEC MBA Program, provides an excellent overview of HEC’s MBA program and its admission policies. The podcast shows that HEC is an MBA program with a global and innovative focus and commitment to developing business leaders around the world on a campus that values diversity and community.

HEC Paris: All About the MBA Program and How to Get Accepted [Show Notes]

Dr. Andrea Masini has been the Associate Dean in charge of the HEC MBA Program for the last three years. He is also an Associate Professor of Operations Management at HEC since 2010. He earned his PhD in Management from INSEAD and prior to coming to HEC was an Assistant Professor of Operations and Technology Management at London Business School. Dr. Masini’s research focus is in the operational and organizational impact of technology innovations, with a particular emphasis on information and communications technology, renewable energy technologies, and sustainability issues.

Dr. Masini, can you give us an overview of the HEC Paris MBA program? There may be listeners who aren’t that familiar with the program itself. [2:29]

We have a 16-month program, which we believe is the optimal length. The first eight months are composed of fundamentals of management, and the other eight months are customized with seven specializations dedicated to specific topics of management and dozens of elective courses. We also offer the possibility of doing projects with global partners in various locations around the world. It is a very comprehensive program and allows graduates to be credible talking to any subject matter expert, but also specialize for their professional needs.

What’s new at HEC Paris? [3:48]

We just went through a curriculum review and revamped it with greater attention to leadership and multicultural understanding. We have about 275 students, almost 60 nationalities, and are 90% international, so students are confronted by diversity on a constant basis and we want students to understand and value the diversity and manage and leverage it. We also have two new specializations (a specialization is a coherent set of eight electives dedicated to one topic) – Digital Innovation and Sustainable and Disruptive Innovation. These are important for recruiters but more so for participants, as more and more want to transform their career in a way that is meaningful with a digital and sustainable/social point of view.

How has HEC been affected by the recent turmoil in France, the Brexit situation, and the perception that the U.S. is less welcoming to foreign students than it used to be? [8:52]

The MBA program welcomes globalization, exchanges, and of course we are not pleased with the tensions we’ve observed. HEC has been growing double digits in application volume and class size-in the last 3-4 years. We had 200 students and now we are closer to 275. We are also seeing higher quality candidates. I wouldn’t say it is related to Brexit or the U.S. situation,

Interview with Dr. Dana Corriel, Internist and Founder of SoMeDocs [Show Summary]

It’s not often you hear from a doctor who has consciously taken time to “smell the roses.” Dr. Dana Corriel shares how she keeps balance in her life while practicing medicine, raising a family, and managing a growing social media presence.

Finding Balance in Medicine, Giving Doctors a Voice on Social Media, and More [Show Notes]

I’m thrilled to introduce our fascinating guest, Dr. Dana Corriel, who graduated from my alma mater, UCLA and then went to medical school at the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, graduating in 2003. She did her residency in internal medicine at Albert Einstein in NYC. Since then she has served as Assistant Professor of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, practiced medicine, and in 2017 became Director of Quality at Highland Medical, also in NY.

Can you tell us a little about yourself? Your background and where you grew up and how you got interested in medicine? [2:05]

I was born in Israel and moved to the U.S. around age 10, to the LA area – Walnut specifically. I attended UCLA and earned a bachelor of science degree in neuroscience. I then went to medical school at Tel Aviv University, and came back to NY for my residency at Albert Einstein. One unique thing about me is that I took about three years off during that time to stay home and be mom to my three boys. That helped shape who I am today.

Were you scared to take the time off? Worried to come back? [3:48]

There is a multifaceted answer to that. I had spent years and years of my life to become a physician, and it was so difficult to get in and go through the process. So yes, it was very scary in that regard but ultimately very valuable to me. Since I took time away from medicine I was able to discover things about myself I never knew. Doctors always take a very straight path to medicine and don’t stop to smell the roses. I took time off to be with my kids and get to know my kids (I had my first son when I was an intern, when I was working so hard and didn’t have time to really connect). When I took the time to connect I was able to do that but also discover something about myself.

I discovered that I am very creative which puts me in a good place. Burnout really applies to physicians and so many things are broken with healthcare, but part of fixing it is finding out what is missing in yourself that could make it better. Physicians need to find their voice. The thing that puts me in a good place is expressing myself, either through creative writing with my blog or traveling/discovering and sharing that experience with the world.

Judging both by the volume of your writing on your site and the quality of it, you also love to write. Have you always been a writer? [7:24]

Not at all. It is amazing what you can discover by giving yourself time. I had never done any major writing, and didn’t write well when I first started to write. It evolved over time. My ultimate goal is to write a book, either fiction or something in my life that is funny that makes you think – like random things that are metaphorical and help you start to think.

You attended medical school in Israel. How was that experience enriching or difficult? Did you have difficulty coming back to the U.S. and getting a residency? [10:53]

I would not trade it for anything.

Accepted Founder Linda Abraham Provides an Inside Look at the World of Admissions [Show Summary]

For 299 episodes, Linda Abraham, founder of Accepted, has interviewed school deans, admissions directors, students, and more. Today we learn about her!

The Interviewer Becomes the Interviewee [Show Notes]

Linda Abraham: This is our 300th episode and since those round numbers seem to beg for special treatment, I decided to do something that members of my staff for several years have asked me to do: Be the interviewee.

Jen Weld, Accepted admissions consultant and former assistant/associate director of admissions at Cornell Johnson’s EMBA program is going to be the interviewer. I’m going to turn the mic over to her and climb into the hot seat.

Jen Weld: Our “guest” today, Linda Abraham, attended UCLA for both her bachelors in Political Science and her MBA. She started Accepted in 1994 as Linda Abraham & Associates. After putting up Accepted’s first web site in 1996, the company was incorporated as Accepted.com in 1997. Linda is also the co-founder of the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants and the co-author of MBA Admissions for Smarties. She has been sought by the media, including CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, Poets & Quants, Bloomberg Businessweek, and others for her admissions expertise.

Linda, welcome to AST!

Can you tell us a bit about your background and why you decided to start Accepted? [2:48]

When I was a senior in college there was a lot of concern about declining writing abilities based on the “nefarious influence” of television in the 1960s. UCLA, where I was a student, was increasing writing requirements for Poli Sci 1, and I was asked to be a tutor for that course. I was a Poli Sci major but also had taken a lot of English courses for a non-English major. I loved the tutoring and editing work - helping individuals clarify their ideas and get them down on paper was really rewarding to me - but I didn’t think I could make a living at it.

I am a child of immigrants, which meant that I needed a defined profession – a doctor, lawyer, or engineer, for example. My parents weren’t very happy when I graduated and I didn’t know what direction I wanted to go in, so they were relieved when I decided to go for an MBA. About halfway through the program I got married, and shortly after graduation in 1979 my husband and I started our family. In the early 90s my husband and I needed some more money to make ends meet. I had gotten my real estate license but was no longer enjoying the work, and I wanted to work from home to be more available for our six children, who at the time ranged in age from 3-12. I decided to go back to editing which I loved, and advertised in UCLA’s paper, the Daily Bruin, and got work. I was frequently asked to edit personal statements and application essays, and I’ve always loved biographies, personal stories, and historical fiction - a lot more fun than research papers! I also experimented with writing experience pieces and studied journalistic techniques. I realized that if applicants applied journalistic techniques to their personal statements and application essays, those pieces would be much more effective.

The other major development coming on to the commercial scene at the time was the internet, which removed all geographic boundaries. Initially I was able to work with people maybe 30 minutes away, and suddenly I could work with people in Hong Kong, India, anywhere! Initially we would be faxing applications back and forth.

Interview with Imran Kanga, Director of Recruitment and Admissions at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management [Show Summary]

Toronto Rotman wants to see a “spike factor” in its applicants. What is a spike factor? What’s Toronto Rotman’s spike factor(s)? How can you show a spike factor. What else does Rotman offer? What are its 3 other criteria for acceptance?  All questions covered and answered in this informative podcast interview with Toronto Rotman’s MBA admissions director, Imran Kanga. Pull up a chair!

All About Toronto Rotman and the Spike Factor They Seek in Applicants [Show Notes]

It gives me great pleasure to have for the first time on AST Imran Kanga, Director of Recruitment & Admissions for the Full-Time MBA Program at the Rotman School of Management, at the University of Toronto. Imran attended Ridley College for his bachelors and earned his International MBA from York University’s Schulich School of Business in 2010. But he wasn’t finished at Schulich when he got his MBA. Upon graduation he became the Assistant Director of Marketing and Recruitment for the Schulich School of Business in India and managed the Schulich MBA program there. In December 2018 he became Director of Recruitment and Admission for the University of Toronto’s Rotman School.

Can you give us an overview of the Rotman MBA program, focusing on its more distinctive features? [2:11]

It’s a two-year, fulltime MBA. The first part is the core component, where students learn the basic business fundamentals and foundations. The second part allows students to choose from 15 concentrations, and some are quite unique to Rotman in areas like investment banking, business design, and innovation. It’s not required, but students have opportunity to specialize if they like in the second year. In terms of other unique initiatives, we have the Creative Destruction Lab, Design Works Lab, and Self Development lab that allows students to develop their leadership presence. We also have a flexible internship program. Students are required to have an internship, but can choose to do so not just in the summer, but the fall and winter are options as well. Employers like the flexibility to get students on board when they have a requirement for it, not just over the summer.

In January Bloomberg Businessweek proclaimed “Canada Says, ‘Give Me Your MBAs, Your Entrepreneurs.”  Not quite the Statue of Liberty, but the article points out that in three years Canada has experienced a 60% jump in international students studying in Canada. Furthermore, more than 65% of foreign-born adults in Canada in 2017 had a post-secondary degree. How does the Rotman MBA fit into this picture of Canada welcoming the talented, the educated, and yes the entrepreneurial yearning to breathe free opportunity? [6:14]

Canada has come to the forefront in terms of being a preferred destination for international students, which is very much in line with the government’s goal to recruit top talent from across the world to study and then live here.

Interview with James van Rhee, Director of Yale PA Online [Show Summary]

Have you always wanted to be a PA, but did circumstances in your life just not allow for it? Yale might have just the right program for you – a PA program delivered primarily online, with clinical experience in or near your hometown. Learn more from Jim van Rhee, Director of Yale PA Online.

An Inside Look at Yale's Online PA Program [Show Notes]

It gives me great pleasure to welcome back to AST Jim van Rhee, Director of Yale PA Online. Jim became a PA in 1989 and after several years of working in patient care returned to academia. Since 2006 he has been Physician Assistant Program Director at first Wake Forest, then Northwestern, and now Yale, which he joined in 2013 as Director of the Yale Physician Associate Program. In 2016 he became Director of the Yale PA Online Program.

Can you give us an overview of Yale’s Online Physician Assistant Program? [2:01]

It is a blended program with a lot of different teaching methodologies. We have synchronous and asynchronous coursework, so students learn via video lectures, problem-based learning in small groups, immersions on campus for a week at a time where students learn the hands on skills that need to be taught face-to-face, and clinical rotations just like any other program. We do lectures online, small groups online, and use technology to the fullest extent.

The lecture portion of our curriculum is recorded. When we are online, students are doing application work in small groups – doing a case history, a physical exam applying what they learned in the lectures. It is really important to show and teach students how to utilize information, and we use all of our face-to-face time in application, not delivering content.

For our in-person immersions, the first one is 10 weeks, which is anatomy and physical exam skills. Right before rotation (12 months in) we have a procedural immersion - how to draw blood, how to give a shot, start an IV, etc. The last immersion is right before graduation to give a final assessment to make sure students are ready for clinical practice and boards.

A lot of programs frontload basic science, but we divide the curriculum by organ system. For example, students learn about congestive heart failure having just studied the physiology of the heart. They learn basic science and within days apply it to clinical medicine in cases with small groups

How many students are in each class of the Yale Online PA program? [6:00]

Our first cohort was 41 students, the second was 59. We plan to grow but are more interested in keeping at 60 for now to see the outcomes of our students. Our first cohort was January of 2018 and they just started clinical rotations and our second year students just started January 7th. Our first class graduates in May of 2020.

<< READ: Macy’s Journey Through Yale’s Online PA Program >>

What does it take to get into the program? [7:40]

Just like every PA program, you have to have the academic skills to be in PA school. Our students tend to be a little older, so we are looking for people who have really thought this through. It really can take time to decide if you want to be a PA. When I went to PA school I had been a medical technologist for years.

Interview with Gareth Howells, Executive Director of the MBA, MiF & Early Career Programmes at London Business School [Show Summary]

Harvard Business Review declared in 2012 that being a data scientist is the “sexiest job of the 21st century.” Bloomberg Businessweek’s headline in May 2018 pronounced, “This Is America’s Hottest Job.” Let’s hear from the director of London Business School’s Early Career Programs about its response to surging demand for graduates in data analytics, its brand new master's in analytics and management.

The Master's in Analytics and Management Program at LBS: Everything You Need to Know [Show Notes]

Our guest today is Gareth Howells, Executive Director of the MBA, MiF & Early Career Programmes at London Business School. He graduated with a degree in Politics in 1995 from the University of Leeds. In 2004 he joined London Business School as Associate Director of the MBA Program, and has been at LBS in different and expanding roles culminating in his current position.

What is the master's in analytics and management at London Business School? Can you provide an overview? [2:17]

It is our newest and most exciting program. We have four different early career programs which make up about 500 students, and we launched this new program last summer and are enrolling our first cohort for the Fall of 2019. There is a strong focus on analytics with a rigorous leading-edge curriculum and strong emphasis on experiential learning. The program is customizable as well.

Can you give us a bit of background on how it came into being and how it fits into the portfolio of early careers programs at LBS? [3:42]

We have 13 different degree programs at LBS, but early career programs are split into two groups. We have two general management and two specialized master's - one in finance and this one in analytics and management. We came to this because data analytics is transforming the way the world does business. It is sector neutral. All businesses are switching on the power of data and responding to a data-driven world, and business school is nothing if it doesn’t create graduates and programs that speak to the needs of business.

We talked a lot to our recruiters who wanted this level of capability and we wanted to respond to that. There has been a real explosion of programs of this type. We wanted to leverage our own faculty, and London is the largest data center in Europe. There is a projected 250% increase in data jobs in the next five years so we wanted to meet those needs.

Business analytics master's programs have been mushrooming around the world. What is distinctive about LBS’ program? [6:21]

We feel that the blend between analytics and management is unique. When we talked to recruiters, they said they see data scientists in an organization, mining the data and then handing it off to business managers to analyze. If you can develop those skills and capabilities in one candidate – mining data but then also translating the data, we would hire those students. We are trying to develop that skillset in one graduate as opposed to needing a data scientist AND a business manager. The curriculum is roughly 60% analytics, 40% management. It is a one-year program with an option to stay for a third term.

What kind of careers will graduates go into? [10:39]