Ivey MBA Information Session

by: George Kesselman
Ivey MBA - May 2007 Cohort

Both Ivey and Queens MBA offices started doing another smart thing this year. As we all know, big components of an MBA program are the quality of its content, the way that content is delivered to students, and the atmosphere of growth and innovation, nurtured by the school. At the same time, the academic content is one of the most tangible parts an MBA program, as the result it can be easily replicated. By simply using the same books, the same cases, and the same study materials, content becomes common between any two MBA programs. The real trick then becomes to figure out the best content delivery system and at the same time build a collaborative environment on campus. So what was it that Ivey and Queens MBA programs do differently?

Both schools started offering travel awards to potential students to come and visit them, sit in one of the classes, and talk to current students. Travel awards at Ivey for 2007 are 600$ for North American travel and $1,200 for those traveling from outside North America. It’s not much, but should at least provide an incentive to come and visit the school in person if it’s on your list of potential schools. The smart part about getting a potential student to come and visit an MBA program is the opportunity to let them experience the program first hand and at least get a snapshot view of a typical day at that school.

I would recommend visiting at least top three schools that you are considering. As I wrote in one of my previous postings, during a school visit to my number one choice at the time, it just didn’t feel right. I have also visited couple of schools in UK which helped me better understand the true value and advantages of one year MBA program. At the end, choosing an MBA is not that different from the game of dating: you have to find the right fit, but it also goes the other way around too in that you have to also be the right fit for your partner.

I really enjoyed my Ivey MBA Info session experience. It fully confirmed the preliminary research about the program. It was interesting to hear that both students and alumni were excited about Ivey MBA. I also had a chance to talk to couple of students in both the new one year MBA program and the last class of the two year MBA. It sounds like the job prospects for the new one year MBA program are turning out to be better than those for the last class graduating from the two year MBA. (Students in the one year MBA program are getting offers earlier in the year).

The day before the information session, we were sent a case study that outlined challenges that a company was facing through its growth period. The information session day started at 10:15am at Spencer Leadership Centre. We were greeted by the MBA program director. He talked about the exciting changes that the MBA program is undergoing and then opened the floor to questions. I would say there were about 35 potential students at the info session. After the program director, we had a chance to get our questions answered by two Profs: Strategy and Leadership. They gave up a quick summary of the case based teaching style and the types of material presented in class. After the session with professors we were given the tour of the building and then came lunch. Following lunch we had a Q&A session with current students that covered everything from how the like the program to how do you do your MBA if you have a husband and kids at home? It was a very positive session with students sharing their thoughts about the Ivey MBA program. Following the session with current students we invited for the highlight of our visit: an actual Ivey MBA class. We came into class, mixed with current students and sat down in anticipation.

The first couple of minutes were taken by one of the students talking about his 3x3 session with investment bankers the week before (three students and three investment bankers talking about their experience during specially arranged dinner meeting). After the student’s quick presentation we jumped into the case and started discussing the details with professor shooting questions at the class trying to lead the learning process towards the answer. It was really interesting to see how the discussion started to unravel. All of the students had their financial analysis results based on the metric analysis of the company from the financial data that was included in the case. The whole class was very interactive with very little lecturing from professor. It looked as if the professor was playing a role of a facilitator instead, helping students to come to the decision themselves rather then telling them the solution.

The information day concluded with the career services session. We’ve talked about career prospective and the strengths of Ivey career management team.