| BUSINESS WEEK ONLINE:
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Management |
OVERALL 1998 RANK: 2 BW corporate rank: 2 BW graduate rank: 6 BW 1996 rank: 3 |
|
1999 Profile Update School Profile School Statistics Graduates' Comments: While there are areas that need some improvement (integration of the core, gaining access to smaller, more entrepreneurial companies, and raising the level of overall teaching quality), Kellogg's emphasis on general management, strength in finance, strategy and entrepreneurship, real (not just words!) emphasis on teamwork, and quality of students places it among the best business schools. Students are involved -- in everything from selecting the next class of students, to working with faculty on course development, to revamping the school's information technology, to running community service efforts in and about Chicago, to ensuring that Kellogg is a terrific social environment. And perhaps most importantly, engaging in the overall education process with vigor -- teaching others when necessary and always learning from and respecting the opinion of others. --Consulting The school is unmatched in its ability to bring recruiters from every industry imaginable. Most of the professors are the leaders in their particular fields, but they are willing to listen to ideas that are different from their own. The network has already proven to be invaluable, as I've witnessed through the many alumni who have been willing to help me and offer advice throughout my time at Kellogg. Finally, I feel that I have spent my time with exceptional classmates who care about issues beyond revenue and profitability. Most of these students have a conscience and use the student-run organizations as a vehicle to voice their concerns about everything from community service to affirmative action. It is for all of these reasons and more that I would recommend Kellogg to anyone looking for a first-rate graduate business school experience. --Consulting Kellogg has been a fabulous experience. It stands out also because people are here not just for making money, but also for making a difference. This is partly reflected in the degree given -- Master of Management, not MBA. In the last two years the graduating class has decided to give the class gift to a nonprofit program at Kellogg which will give financial help to graduates who will work in nonprofit organizations and cannot afford to pay off loans. I had sometimes heard that Kellogg is an "easy/party school". In reality, I had never worked so hard. I had to constantly skip on fun activities to do assignments. It was tougher because if it is individual work, I can decide to skip it and hurt only myself. Since group work pervades Kellogg, not doing my part of work meant hurting the whole group, which is a no-no at Kellogg. As a result, the only way to survive was to do my part. --Unknown One great aspect of Kellogg was the support for spouses. Spouses with and without children have a tightly knit group. The school encourages family participation in all activities. Spouses can even audit courses for free if space remains. --Consulting The school was like a fraternity with fraternities within the fraternity. I was deeply disappointed in aspects such as diversity and technology. Despite being a top-rated school, it was intellectually unchallenging, probably the easiest academic two years of my life. Also, they prided themselves on being teamwork-oriented to the point that it was not really being understood, only believed, similar to a religion. In the end, everyone was for themselves and there were only a few who I thought really believed in teamwork. --Unknown However, there were a few good points. The core courses were satisfactory. The marketing department was interesting but, in my opinion, probably not deserving of the reputation they have now, especially since losing one of the best teachers I have ever had the experience of learning from to the University of Chicago. I admit that the school's reputation helped me gain the job I have now, which probably would have been very difficult or perhaps impossible if I had not gone to Kellogg. However, they are quickly losing there faculty and the administration was totally inflexible and controlling especially recently since they lost one of their best in student affairs. And the faculty, though very kind and helpful, did not meet my expectations except for a select few. And they are quickly losing the good ones each year. --Unknown Kellogg, and especially the administration, is still believing in the past when they were number one and has not learned to change in the decade since they first became number one. However, in the end, it was a worthwhile investment since I have the job I hold now because of the MBA (not necessarily because of Kellogg, though). I see it as paying $100,000 for having the right to write Kellogg MBA on my resume, nothing more, nothing less. --Finance Kellogg provided a number of intangibles that do not show up in the survey. For instance, I am married, and my wife and I were both able to have a fantastic experience. Kellogg has a program called Joint Ventures that allows couples to fully integrate into the community. --Finance When I was applying to schools, I had heard Kellogg emphasizes teamwork, and I dismissed it as typical application hype and trendy management teachings. Looking back on my experiences, learning how to work with my peers day in and day out and to lead them on occaision are by far the most important skills I take away from the program. That's not to say all of my teams have been one big happy family (teams that were not were learning experiences in themselves), but I learned time and again how to work within a group and how powerful that can be. --Unknown The extent to which the use of information technology has improved over the last two years is astounding. Newsgroups are used in nearly every course, and the school's Web page is accessed nearly everyday by the entire student body. The student groups, led by Sadhana Dixit ('97) and Sanket Akerkar ('98), that planned and implemented this infrastructure deserve credit for the tremendous asset they bestowed upon the school. In addition, the quality of the finance department vastly exceeds its reputation in the outside world. The curriculum is fantastic, and the faculty is possibly the strongest group of teachers in the school. Wally Hopp, co-director of the Master of Management in Manufacturing (MMM) program along with recently named Sunil Chopra, has done an admirable job of developing the program. He was nominated for Kellogg's teacher of the year by the class of '98. --Operations Kellogg relies on students to run a lot of the school more so than any other business school. This may mean that we sacrifice a little class prep time, but it also means that we are developing very important leadership skills beyond running a special interest club. And we are learning to set priorities and balance responsibilities. Student involvement is an integral part of the education at Kellogg and I beleive it is what keeps recruiters returning year after year. --Marketing Like most American B-schools, Kellogg needs to increase the percentage of non-Americans in its student and faculty population so that the school can be truly international in both culture and outlook. With 75% of the students being Americans, American culture dominates the school. With few faculty members who were well-versed in non-American business environments, the viewpoints taught are generally American, and they only represent the American understandings of the business world and ways of doing business. --Unknown Notwithstanding its tremendous reputation in marketing and brand management, Kellogg is an extremely well-rounded school. Some of my favorite classes and the school's best professors are in the disciplines of real estate, general management, and finance. Kellogg has some 20 international exchange programs with business schools all over the world. Students have the opportunity to spend a quarter (even two quarters!) abroad in their second year. The highlight of my Kellogg experience is when I was on exchange to London Business School. --Unknown Kellogg is treating students like customers. That's both good and bad. The good thing is that the administration is responsive to students'concerns. But an education should not be entirely a customer-salesman relationship. It ought to entail more coach-athlete or master-apprentice relationship in which the coach balances accomodation and discipline. --Finance Overall, my business school experience at Kellogg was a positive one, but one also where I felt I was "dragging my feet" at times. Having taken some classes a few years ago at the University of Chicago's more technical MBA program, I feel that Kellogg has the best team-oriented environment in the country. However, there exists an "aura" of the students at Kellogg being too nice and avoiding confrontation and criticism at all costs. --Finance One surprise was the level of teaching in the finance department. I expected a high caliber of professor and education, but each of the classes I took exceeded every thought I had. The professors and curriculum were both outstanding; the classes were some to which I looked forward the most in my two years. Kellogg has a joint program with the McCormick School of Engineering, the Master of Management in Manufacturing (MMM). This program combines operations and plant-floor management with the key concepts of business such as finance and marketing. The program stresses more than just operations, however; it imparts the importance of a well-rounded manager and supplies the curriculum to ensure that well-roundedness. The MMM program is young and growing, but is already a top caliber curriculum. The future of the program is bright, with the two program directors -- Wally Hopp from McCormick and Sunil Chopra from Kellogg. --Consultant I was pleasantly surprised by the academic rigor at Kellogg, and in the MMM program vs. the school's reputation. I am also extremely impressed with the finance faculty -- I thought I was giving up finance in coming to Kellogg, but I cannot imagine better instruction anywhere else. The curriculum is also well integrated, though the administration does not focus on integration as much as other schools like Tuck. --Consulting Since I was in the Masters of Management in Manufacturing (MMM) program, I was able to strengthen my skills as an engineer and a manager. I was able to learn in a very friendly environment that emphasized teamwork and celebrated diversity. With my engineering background, I was challenged to further excel analytically, while simultaneously challenged to understand others' points-of-view. --Consulting As a founder of a club, Admissions Committee member, and student leader, I was fully engaged in and surprised by what Kellogg had to offer. While one gets teamwork and marketing in spades, the unmarketed departments were where Kellogg became a superior value. As a linguist and anthropologist who worked on writing American Indian dictionaries and working with tribes on economic development and political issues, my skills at number crunching were lacking. From day one of my Decision Sciences core course, I saw the power of numbers and learned how to prune a new kind of tree -- a decision-tree. From that first course I became a number-cruncher. Indeed, during my summer job, my employer was in a state of disbelief that this "data hog" could have come from that "marketing school." --Consulting Aggressive marketing professors are building upon the reputation of Kellogg and are really introducing amazing courses. The Organizational Behavior department is just amazing with a great course "Negotiations." As well, the empowerment of students in making all major decisions is just amazing at this school. For example a bunch of foreign students who wanted to organize a Silicon Valley study tour were encouraged and were provided all the contacts by the professor concerned as well as the office of student affairs. This school is all about helping the end customer - students. The range of extra-curricular activities at Kellogg beyond just studies is amazing. It shows that the caliber of students recruited at Kellogg is top notch and they attract the best students from all over the world. --Consulting Coming from Canada, I took one look at the tuition and recognized that the typical company in Canada was never going to reward me sufficiently to justify coming to Kellogg. I assumed, therefore, that I would have to work in the U.S. To this point, international students should know that there are foreign career opportunities that pay the same as U.S. jobs -- in consulting and banking. In fact, these positions offer the best MBA salaries, so if that's what you want, then you're lucky. If you don't, then you should recognize that it could be very difficult to stay in the U.S., even with a tier-one MBA. The problem hasn't so much to do with federal restrictions as it does with the fact that many companies -- even large, global firms like Disney and Ford - have not equipped themselves to handle Visa applications. As for all those exciting, high-tech startups in Silicon Valley, forget about it. Besides, as a foreign student, you can't afford to hang your luck on firms that don't make offers until the spring, unless you have a consulting offer in your back pocket from the fall. Foreign applicants need to know this in advance. --Unknown At Kellogg, about a quarter of the courses each quarter are 'experimental' courses dealing with everything from complex financial instruments, to Internet marketing. The administration takes a lot of chances and listens to the feedback of students. Mohanbir Sawhney, who teaches High Tech New Products Marketing, developed his course from student cases in response to their requests just a few years ago. Now it, and he, are one of the most popular electives. --Unknown The administration also responds to the needs of students in other ways. When 300 people all ranked professor David Besanko's Competitive Strategy course as their first choice for the spring quarter of 1998, Professor Besanko and the administration found a way to offer it to every student. In doing so, Professor Besanko make tremendous sacrifices, but he felt honored that so many students wanted to learn from him. His response was not to halt course development and merely manage this huge number of students, but to add more cutting-edge econometric content, and raise the course to a new level. --Unknown What can I say about Career Services at Kellogg, and their leader Roxanne Hori, except, 'Wow' and 'Thank you.' Roxanne and the others managed to coordinate and endless stream of companies, schedule a mind-boggling number of interviews, and organize innumerable information sessions, all with grace and professionalism. In between those chores, they saw to it that every student took the time to reflect on their personal career goals rather than follow the herd, and gave each and every one the opportunity for counseling and mock interviews. Oh, and did I mention that they attracted the best jobs to Kellogg? --Consulting As an international student, Kellogg provided me a unique environment that helped me adapt to the U.S. and to the Kellogg community fast and easily. Also the career placement office was an incredible aid in my search for a job in the U.S. --Consulting I've had the opportunity to take advantage of some outstanding international programs -- GIM trip to Singapore and Malaysia, exchange program to Copenhagen and interaction with smart classmates from around the world. I've had outstanding faculty, with a real surprise in the absolutely superb quality of the finance staff (a subject for which I have high standards as a U. of Chicago undergraduate). Overall, the faculty cares surprisingly about their students and teaching quality, and I hope to stay in contact with many of my favorite professors. --Consulting Academics are fundamental, however, Kellogg also pushes students to develop 'outside the classroom' attributes, such as leadership and community consciousness. Kellogg believes that these attributes are prerequisites for fulfilling, servant-leader-oriented business careers. If you don't want to get involved on an extracurricular basis, you would be better suited somewhere else. Also, the Entrepreneurship and Finance faculties are top quality -- they are the hidden secret of Kellogg! --Finance I got much more from my Kellogg experience than I had initially anticipated, both in and out of the classroom. I knew I wanted finance and accounting as majors when I started. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the professors in these departments. However, some of the learning experiences that will stay with me the longest came from extracurricular activities. Kellogg really gives you the opportunity to really manage other people through the outside activities that are offered. I had the chance to manage a $500,000 budget and over 125 students with a small team of people and the experiences I had with that activity count as the best managerial experience I've had. --Finance First and foremost, Kellogg's finance and accounting programs do not get the credit they deserve for their academic strength and great faculty. What surprised me most here, was how mediocre I thought the marketing courses were in comparison -- yet Kellogg receives marketing accolades year in and year out. It would be refreshing to read an article on Kellogg that looks at how the school has developed the departments that it supposedly was not strong in for so many years (finance and accounting). The fact is that business school is a self-selective process. The top eight to ten schools offer comparable educations in all the major disciplines -- where they differ is in the personalities of students that attend them. Wharton has a high percentage of Wall St. alums applying for admission, whereas Kellogg has a high percentage of general management and marketing managers. This is due to historical myths that each school is "stronger" in particular disciplines. However, the average student can come out of Wharton with an equal/better marketing education while the average student can come out of Kellogg with an equal/better finance education. --Finance I believe that Kellogg's reputation of being a marketing school is totally outdated. I found the school's main trump to be its ability to provide good course quality in nearly all the departments. Also, I can only warmly recommend the four-quarter program (which I have attended). Probably tougher than the usual MBA, especially during the recruiting season, and extremely challenging because students waive all the core courses. In this way, students can perfectly tailor their MBA to their needs. Finally, the 4Q group, although composed of a large minority -- nearly 50% in the 1998 class -- of people coming from the consulting world, is highly motivated and comprises particularly bright individuals. --Consulting I attended Kellogg's four-quarter program, which allows students to graduate with a full MM degree in one year. To qualify, prospective students need to have a substantial business background, which exempts them from most of the core curriculum. Given my background before going to business school, I appreciated that Kellogg offered a quality program that could be completed very quickly. If Kellogg did not have the four-quarter program, I probably would not have attended business school (a two-year commitment would not have made sense personally or professionally). --Unknown The four-quarter program starts in the summer quarter while most first-year students are doing their summer internships. This quarter was stacked with high quality professors who don't really have an opportunity to teach during the year (e.g. the Assistant Dean taught a class). They were some of the most impressive professors from whom I had ever taken classes. Throughout the year, I continued to be impressed by the quality of teaching. I don't know how deep the quality of teaching is at Kellogg, but I can attest that the ones I had were outstanding (with few, if any, exceptions). --Finance Please note that I was a student in the four-quarter program at Kellogg. As a result my expectations and experiences were probably quite different than that of a typical two-year student. There were approximately 75-80 students in my program at Kellogg. The sole reason I chose to go to Kellogg was that they were offering the four-quarter program, which would allow me to get my MBA in one year. There was absolutely no way that I would go back to school, particularly Kellogg, if I had to do it in two years (lots of redundant classes from undergrad and different levels of experience among all students). --Unknown I was very impressed with Kellogg and the programs it offers. I completed the four-quarter program available to business/accounting undergrads that eliminates the core classes taken by the six-quarter students (which is usually a repeat for business undergrad majors). I was able to get my Masters in one year, limiting my lost earnings and the loans I needed to complete my education. I would also like to comment on the extremely high quality of finance professors at Kellogg. There are more finance majors than marketing, or any other major, at Kellogg. --Finance I am a four-quarter student, and nearly 50% of this class is non-American. The diversity of people (academic, social and employment achievements) at Kellogg is what makes it such a rewarding experience. TOTAL flexibility in the courses which each MBA student takes (especially four-quarter students who must take only one compulsory course) attracted me to Kellogg rather than Insead (the other school that I applied/was accepted to). The one-year program is a fantastic opportunity for a business undergraduate student to get up to date on core issues, fill the gaps in their business experience. The four-quarter class, only 80 students, is (in my opinion) more impressive academically than the average business school pool of students. There is a much greater level of true bonding between individuals, and helping each other to learn (rather than selfish learning) than the average two-year program student would experience. --Consulting Back to Top 1999 Profile Update School Profile School Statistics |
||
