Thinking of applying to NYU Stern’s Online MSQM program? [Show summary]

Launched right before the pandemic, NYU Stern’s online MSQM program offers a unique blend of business management foundations, leadership and analytics to (mostly) young professionals. NYU Stern’s Vice Dean for online learning, Dr. Kim Corfman, joins us to share details about the program.

Interview with NYU Stern's Vice Dean for Online Learning Dr. Kim Corfman [Show notes]

Welcome to the 447th episode of Admissions Straight Talk, thanks for joining me. Before we dive into today's interview, I want to mention an Accepted resource that can help you prepare your statement of purpose to the MSQM, to a data analytics program, or a master's in management, as well as to other graduate programs. Download Five Fatal Flaws To Avoid In Your Grad School Statement of Purpose to learn how to avoid the five most common mistakes we see in grad school statements of purpose. You'll also learn how to write an SOP that makes your story memorable and highlights your qualifications for your target program. Download this valuable, free resource at accepted.com/447download. 

Our guest today is Dr. Kim Corfman. She is a professor of Marketing at NYU Stern and Vice Dean for online learning. She has served 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 specifically. As I mentioned today, we're going to talk about Stern’s fairly new MS in Quantitative Management program. 

What is the Master's in Quantitative Management at NYU Stern? Can you provide an overview? [2:22]

The MSQM provides business basics, essentially, the MBA core plus analytics courses. The combination is designed to help students become data-literate managers and leaders. That's the really short headline about it. 

It's 20 months from start to finish and it's lock-step, so there are no electives. Students take one course at a time for three to three and a half weeks per course. They come one right on top of the next and are pretty intense, but we've calibrated them so they are manageable for motivated students.

What kind of academic background are you looking for? [3:16]

We welcome applicants with any undergraduate major and we have a wide variety. We do have some undergraduate business students. We even have some people who got MBAs already. Lawyers. A couple of doctors. It's quite diverse, which is really fun. 

The other part of that is submitting a standardized test score is optional. Something we want to make very sure applicants understand that if they choose not to send us a test score, we do need to see strong evidence of the quantitative, verbal, and reasoning abilities that are necessary to be successful in this kind of program. They do need some math and reasoning ability. They need to be able to write and we need to be able to see that.

What would be the minimum level of math that you would like to see? [4:12]

Some calculus and a lot of the basic maths that leads up to that. On our website, we very clearly lay out exactly what prerequisites they should have.