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| The Pennsylvania State University The Mary Jean and Frank P. Smeal College of Business Administration |
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1999 Profile Update School Profile School Statistics Graduates' Comments: The small class size made it possible to interact closely with both classmates and faculty members... What I learned in the communication classes surprised MBAs from other top schools during my summer internship. Penn State MBAs can simply make better presentations than anybody else. The new MBA director is much more sensitive toward students' needs and concerns. --International Sales Engineer The mutual respect of everyone involved in the program was tremendous. I never felt more of a team presence in my life. The network created over the two years will last a lifetime. Every step of the way, even when competing for one job opening, my fellow classmates devoted 100% effort in helping me succeed. --Consulting Penn State's small class size, rigorous curriculum, and excellent communication program has prepared me well for a promising career. With the help of the MBA program, I was able to land an internship in Silicon Valley this past summer, and finally a permanent job offer from one of the Big Six consulting firms. The program has everything in place to help a person to be successful in his/her career, and I believe that I am a good example (hopefully). Besides the excellent program, the school also offers an excellent football team to cheer for, a diverse student body, and lots of activities. Finally, the alumni network is incredible -- my summer internship and many of my interviews were obtained through the alumni network. P.S.: I am an international student. If a program can help an international student to land an internship in a Fortune 500 company and a permanent job in the Big Six, the program must be doing an excellent job in preparing and placing its students. --Consulting Looking back I had a wonderful MBA experience, and I am very happy with my choice to attend Penn State. The faculty and staff were extremly friendly and helpful, as were other students. A strong sense of family surrounds the Smeal MBA program (attributed to our small class sizes). I feel that I can always contact my professors and classmates at anytime for the rest of my life and always get a warm reception. I found that State College provide a wonderful setting for learning and growing, as I have in the past two years. I always felt safe in State College, and found living conditions (town and housing) to all be very nice. I can see why many people like to retire there. My job search went so well, and the placement office was so helpful, that as soon as I had my offer, I knew that was the job I wanted (I accepted in February). In addition to job searching: My most recurring reason for not receiving an offer was lack of work experience. --Marketing The administration and faculty at Penn State know each student personally and are extremely responsive to student needs... The environment at Penn State is very much one of cooperation and teamwork. This is not the school for people who are not interested in teamwork. --Finance I was especially pleased with administration's concern and responsiveness. --Assistant Category Manager Smeal has the potential to be a school that could consistently be ranked No. 15-25. Several aspects of the program presently hold them back from reaching that level, however. First, the dean of the business school does little to develop or promote the MBA program. He places more emphasis upon his undergrad program and rarely supports the MBA program financially or developmentally. The new director of the MBA program, who has been a professor in the program for some time, has made significant inroads in her first year. But she cannot make this program move on her own... The school is able to attract top-notch students but lacks depth throughout the class, with the bottom students severely lacking. The top students cannot compensate for these much less qualified individuals. The core courses are solid but are lacking in Ethics and Management. The school relies too much on...the communications curriculum (which is top-notch) and does not always progress in the proper direction to stay at the top. The written and speech components are moving forward but the visual and technology component is useless. The placement office has... a select group of solid companies recruiting on campus but then quality drops quickly. The placement director...offers only three hours of office hours per week. --No career path given My concentration in Finance was solid with many excellent professors. My work experience background combined with my finance emphasis here opened doors with many companies... I gained solid business skills and great relationships with future business contacts. Also, the cost of the program (one of the least expensive) is attractive to many people. --Financial Analyst and Project Manager The new MBA director, Rocki Lee DeWitt, is going to make our program a top 20-level program. She is very student-focused and an incredible consensus builder. --Sales The program takes an exceptionally integrated approach to its core classes. Study group assignments force development of interpersonal skills and informal leadership. Continuing emphasis and use of team mentors will propel the program to an exceptional one for learning leadership and personnel management. The placement office runs the most completely aggressive and innovative professional development program I've seen. There are too many opportunities for professional development for most students to take advantage of. --Management Consultant Because I had already planned to start a business after I completed my MBA studies, I came to Penn State simply looking for a well balanced education in Finance, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship. The course work has exceeded my expectations. I also feel very strongly about the instructors. Each was extremely knowledgeable in their field. --Entrepreneurship We learn the same stuff here that they learn at MIT, Harvard, Wharton, and the other top-flight schools. The difference is that we work harder at it because we know we have to in order to compete at the highest level. Very few people slide on through here. Our program isn't higher ranked because we're not located near a major metro area -- which hurts recruiting -- and because the program is and has been small, so we're not as well endowed as the bigger name schools. --Finance Back to Top 1999 Profile Update School Profile School Statistics |
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