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| Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management |
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1999 Profile Update School Profile School Statistics Graduates' Comments: Thunderbird has made significant strides to better its standing amongst the top business schools, and during my two years there I witnessed a number of improvements. Namely, the caliber of professors named to the staff increased, and the helpfulness of the staff in assisting students increased a great deal, especially in career services. In this particular area, as in many other administrative offices at Thunderbird, a customer-service-oriented approach has been adopted that I feel will be very successful. --No career path given Nerberger has done a fantastic job in bringing the school up to par, and should be congratulated. However, many of the old guard in the administration should be rooted out. Many of the faculty are quite inadequate, and the school suffers. Some of the core courses, like International Marketing, are taught by very weak professionals, some of whom struggle with the English language. More importantly, the school has fallen into the habit of admitting less than qualified students, many of whom have no professional experience. Recruiters know this, and shy away from the school. The career center is dismal and needs overhaul quickly! --Entrepreneurship Thunderbird is an excellent school, however, a certain amount of work needs to be focused on the required basic courses since they usually contain the weakest professors. The electives by far contain the best education available in the U.S. --Consulting I would say that overall my experience at Thunderbird has been less than what I expected. Some of the professors are phenomenal, but more of them are mediocre. For whatever reason, they have lost the desire to teach the student. I also believe that the administration needs to learn that the employers and the student are both customers. I believe that a lack of concern for students' rights is a key factor in the low alumni donation rates. The administration will continue to blame it on a variety of issues, but until they are willing to ask and listen to the students, the rates will continue to be low. --Information Technology Having the opportunity to take a course on politics and leadership from former Vice-President Dan Quayle was a tremendous experience that Thunderbird granted to me. --Marketing I have no doubt that no other business school is so well positioned for the business challenges of our times. Globalization, world trade, regional interaction, etc., are the key forces shaping business today and only Thunderbird can be praised for having more than 50 years of preparation for this moment. Thunderbird's international focus and diversity are outstanding. In no other place can you turn around in your classroom and speak with an Indonesian about the turmoil in their country, speak with people from India, Pakistan, and China to discuss the implications of recent nuclear testing, comment with Brazilians, and Argentines about the challenges ahead for Mercosur, or simply have a member of each EU country giving you their perspective of how the birth of the Euro will change world business. These kind of things could only happen at Thunderbird! --Product Manager Unlike more traditional MBA programs, Thunderbird allows students to take internships for more than one semester. I had the opportunity to work for Hoechst Marion Roussel in both summer and fall of 1997, which gave me the opportunity to get real exposure to the pharmaceutical industry. Thunderbird's Winterim session (three weeks in January) allows students to take one 3-credit course at either the main campus in Arizona, or one of the two satellite campuses (Archamps, France, or Tokyo, Japan). As well, at least 12 other Winterim courses are offered in places such as New York, Paris, Lima, South Africa, Taipei and Dubai. I took advantage of a course on the oil industry in the UAE and ended up with an incredible offer from a major oil company. --Marketing I would recommend that anyone who has a business background attend Thunderbird. However, for those with other backgrounds, I personally believe that the introductory "Baby Courses" are not Thunderbird's competitive advantage. Therefore, this group of prospective students should really obtain introductory-level course experience before entering Thunderbird. In doing so, they could better focus on the real strength of Thunderbird, the capstone courses. --Unemployed The diversity of the student body (48 countries in my graduating class!) is celebrated, and it makes our group projects that much more valuable. I had one project with students from Ghana, India, Germany, China, and the U.S. These experiences greatly improved my team-building, negotiation, and cross-cultural skills. In the past two years, the school has greatly improved its information technology infrastructure. When we arrived, Windows 3.1 was still in use in many offices. Today, the latest technology (software and hardware) are in use. The head of the Information Technolgy Dept. is a former VP at Motorola. The school has done a great job in responding to these needs. The career services center has also greatly improved in the past two years. Top employers are coming to Thunderbird with increasing frequency (Merck, Enron, American Express, Citicorp, to name only a few). I interviewed with Hallmark, Kellogg, Lucent Technologies, Johnson & Johnson, and Campbell's Soup before deciding to return to Hallmark (my summer internship). I was completely satisfied with those opportunities. I also received invaluable assistance from one of the counselors. I attribute my success in the interview process directly to his advice. A new Career Service Center will open this Fall. --No career path given The alumni network at Thunderbird is world-class. Everytime I contacted alumni for assistance they were extremely supportive and helpful. The school has recently seen a dramatic increase in alumni giving and will complete its current $50 million capital campaign ahead of schedule. The faculty and level of instruction has also greatly improved. Several poor performers have been shown the door and replaced by excellent professors. The World Business Dept. has recruited three truly incredible finance professors (Luerhman, Sunduram, and Griffiths). The school is repsonding to the students by adding additional Marketing classes. Another aspect unique to Thunderbird is its overseas programs. With three campuses, nearly 30 exchange programs, and the awesome Winterim programs, this school is in a class by itself. For example, I participated in the Winterim in Japan: Automobile Industry. During this course, we had in-depth meetings (normally all day) with the top executives (CEO/CFO level) at Ford, Chysler, GM-Saturn, Mazda, Toyota, and J.D. Power. We toured Toyota City -- home of Just-in-time production and receved briefings from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Just this course was worth the $40,000 in loans I have! Thunderbird's unique curriculum requires language study, and I was very satified with the Modern Languages Dept. --No career path given I feel there are too many students and not enough individual attention -- the school is run like an inefficient business with poor customer service. For the amount of money I paid as a student, I was somewhat disappointed with the quality of the administrators, professors & staff. --Fulbright recipient During my two years, both the courses and professors have improved substantially, and I see the school paying more attention to the students' requests. The global alumni network is outstanding and unparalleled in any other MBA program. The only catch with a Thunderbird degree is the lack of recognition Thunderbird has in the business world. Companies that have been internationally focused for many years know Thunderbird, but to those which are just joining the global market, Thunderbird is not well known at all. This situation will improve, but career services must take a much more active role to improve Thunderbird's recognition worldwide. --Marketing Manager While the program is clearly the leader in international business, the overall ranking I find disappointing. There is a concerted effort being made to beef up the finance and accounting offerings. In fact, the results of this effort should be apparent beginning in the spring '98 class. I see the overall ranking improving in the near future... Investments are being made in technology and new faculty, [and with] overseas programs and campuses to again set Thunderbird apart. I am confident that this institution produces individuals that are some of the most well rounded and flexible available. --Consulting Thunderbird needs to be more selective in admitting students. Student GMAT scores range from 400-740. I understand low scores by foreign nationals due to language differences, but some U.S. nationals score as low as 420 on the GMAT. Many students are accepted even though they have not taken the GMAT! During the spring semester of 1998, over half of the students admitted were admitted on probation. More than half of the students have never worked outside of the U.S., and thus people are accepted with no international experience or work experience whatsoever. Additionally, employers come to this school primarily to hire foreign nationals which they can get at a lower cost. Many U.S. nationals are not selected for interviews because they are U.S. nationals. One organization recruits for U.S. positions at the Top 10 Business Schools, and will only interview foreign nationals here without even considering the U.S. students. Employers come to recruit at Thunderbird for cheap labor, not skilled professionals. --Consulting Every class integrated case work related to international business and cross-cultural management. All of my group work involved discussions about how this case would be interpreted in whatever other countries my group members were from. This ethnic and national diversity of the student body added tremendous value to my degree as an international manager. I could not have learned as much about so many cultures from practical experience as I did from spending four semesters as a Thunderbird in Glendale, Ariz. The school offers more opportunities to live and work overseas while a student than any other program I looked at, which is one of the reasons I decided to attend this program. --Consulting In the two years that I have been at Thunderbird I have seen a continuous effort on behalf of the administration and students toward improving the curriculum, the facilities, and the quality of entering candidates. Professors not meeting the Thunderbird standard are leaving, and their replacements are energized, enthusiastic, and educated in current business practices. Entering classes of students are more competitive, and as a group show less variability in the quality and number of skills they possess. Thunderbird still faces challenges that many other schools do not. Unlike Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, etc., Thunderbird does not have the luxury of a solid brand image created from an undergraduate program. Thunderbird must also keep a strong international student body, which given the economic conditions of some countries, has made it difficult to weigh the options of revenue vs. academic excellence. --Consulting Thunderbird has realized that all the top programs are changing their course work to something similar to Thunderbird's. As such, Thunderbird is instituting various changes to enhance itself... They are aggresively hiring top-notch professors from the big schools such as Harvard and Stanford. These professors are helping to implement excellent changes. The only disappointing aspect of the school was career services. However, career services has been totally revamped, new people have been hired, and a new high-tech career center is under construction. The professors were some of the best I have ever had, and they tried very hard to make time to help students. Many even used personal connections to help students find jobs. --Finance ...Being a dual degree student with another institution, I see how Thunderbird develops the whole person, rather than just business skills. The school is contemplating the creation of a functional track system. While this has clear advantages for the immediate marketability of its graduates, I fear some of the well-roundedness of the experience may be lost. One area Thunderbird needs to work on is developing technology-related curriculum. There are significant efforts being made toward integrating technology into the educational experience, but very little course work is related to technology, the high-tech industry, or technology management. --Entrepreneurship I think that Thunderbird is becoming one of the leading institutions in the international arena, but I really believe that they have to develop a better technological infrastructure in order to meet the new challenges of the new century. --Finance Thunderbird trains those who are going to develop business in foreign markets, deal with international business issues (currency management, international taxation, language barriers, international politics, foreign direct investment, etc.), and those who will manage foreign workforces (expatriates). For this reason, Thunderbird does not attract nor pump out highly specialized finance graduates such as other institutions (MIT, NYU, Columbia, Wharton). The best way for me to describe the Thunderbird graduate is when a company is expanding into new markets or is having problems with foreign subsidiaries, T-birds are the ones that are sent to these foreign countries to sell, manage, and fix problems. They speak many languages, understand many cultures, and are comfortable in strange and changing environments. --Finance The quality of teaching has improved significantly during my past two years at Thunderbird, especially in core business skill areas such as Accounting and Finance... Thunderbird still struggles in the area of Information Technology. It must rank at the bottom in even the most basic areas such as network reliability, instruction, E-mail access, and overall functionality. The school in my opinion seems to believe that its problems in this area are easy to resolve and minor in nature. To the contrary, the school's approach to IT is fundamentaly flawed. Not only have I witnessed the frustration of students on a daily basis, but more professors are becoming outspoken in their opinions related to IT as well. The degree of urgency is extremely high, and a radical overhaul of the department is needed. The lack of cooperation among faculty members within and between departments is remarkable for a university that aggressively pushes popular concepts such as teamwork, cohesiveness, and a shared mindset. Many professors have voiced their frustration with faculty politics, departmental conflicts, and infighting in recent months. --Finance The school sponsors many clubs on campus, which range from Rugby and Soccer to clubs from different cultures (ie, the German, Mexican, Japanese, Thai, etc. Clubs) as well as professional clubs. The nice part about having this type of social outlet, is that the clubs are open and offer events which allow the rest of the student body to share in their interests. Everything the school offers reflects the reasons this school was formed: to prepare students for a career in an international business. --Finance I feel the faculty respond to student concerns very well. The administration, however, seems slow to acknowledge student concerns and often responds by explaining that students don't understand the larger picture, thus the suggestions aren't valid. I found this to be a frustrating aspect of attending Thunderbird. I specifically found it frustrating when I helped start a new student chapter of a professional club and put together club-sponsored on-campus events. Options were often limited because of school contracts with specific vendors, whose prices were higher than off-campus vendors, and policies limiting how and when matching funds could be spent. The administration takes a very parental view toward the students. While this has some merits, I had a more adult relationship and cooperation from my undergraduate school. --Marketing The career center is of little help, but Thunderbird is building a new center which hopefully will be more efficiently organized. The T-bird experience was great. Unfortunately I went there to get better job opportunities, which has not happened yet, two months after graduation. Also, some rich kids make up the student population (around half). They don't really care about their studies as their future is ensured within family businesses or connections... Also, the international finance curriculum is not enough developed towards Investment. Treasury is omnipresent and tries to kill the Investment field, even though there are twice as many jobs in investment (Stanford's Sharp is adding more of these courses). --Finance I feel confident that Thunderbird provides the best choice for those pursuing careers in international management. While the education paid for itself inside the classroom, I found that I learned just as much (if not more) outside the classroom from my fellow students. The student body is so diverse and talented that one cannot help but learn more about the way business is conducted around the world. Overall, an MIM from Thunderbird is certainly a mind-opening experience. --Marketing Employers and their recruiters are missing out on Thunderbird grads. Although the placement office could do a better job of getting the word out, when they do, it seems to fall on deaf ears. Thunderbird's reputation outside the U.S. exceeds its reputation inside the country. This will haunt U.S. companies (particularly in Finance) in the future. I am in the process of receiving EU citizenship to possibly go work for a Continental investment bank because Wall Street, despite its process of "globalization," isn't interested in this Top 5% Beta Gamma Sigma T-bird. --Unemployed Back to Top 1999 Profile Update School Profile School Statistics |
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