MBA Insider: Admissions Q&A August 3, 2009, 11:54AM EST

UConn Admissions Tips

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Michael Deotte
University of Connecticut

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What is the school doing to help students find jobs in a tough economy?

Our Business Career Center has embarked on a number of different initiatives, from hiring additional staff to coming up with some unique job-finding tactics. We developed a new program, Opportunity Knocks, which reaches out to our alumni with the goal of generating 200 jobs by the end of this fiscal year. So far we've created 100 new jobs. We're really working our alumni connections. And we're branching out to also include a lot of international opportunities.

How does financial aid work?

The business school offers some limited teaching assistantships and various scholarships. The teaching assistantships provide tuition waivers as well as stipends and health benefits. Aside from those opportunities, the university itself offers financial aid.

What would you say differentiates the University of Connecticut from other MBA programs of similar caliber?

Our experiential learning initiatives and opportunities. Our longest-running one—edgelab, a partnership with General Electric—was started in 2000. Unlike internships or co-op programs, it allows students to work directly with GE executives and our business school faculty to solve real challenges that the company is facing. These are challenges that have educational merit, are without known solutions, and have a minimum of a $1 million impact on the bottom line in terms of revenue-enhancement, cost-cutting, or competitive advantage. It's a very intense model.

The other thing that separates us is our return on investment. Since we're a state institution, we can offer a high-quality education at an affordable value, even in these difficult economic times.

Is financial aid need- or merit-based?

The merit-based awards from the business school are primarily based on undergraduate academic performance, GMAT scores, and work experience, which plays the most critical role.

You mentioned edgelab. Can you talk about the school's other experiential learning initiatives?

On our Hartford campus, we have the SS&C Technologies Financial Accelerator. It's the same model as the GE edgelab, but instead of working with just one company, it works with multiple organizations, usually insurance or risk-management companies.

The Innovation Accelerator is on our East Hartford campus. It deals primarily with new startup companies in Connecticut. Students and faculty work with these organizations to bring their business models to the point where the companies are ready to enter into the market.

Aside from that, we have the Student Managed Investment Fund, which is $2 million of real UConn foundation money that students manage throughout the year. At the end of the year, they report to an investment advisory board. Despite the economy, our students still outperform the S&P. So, while they lose money, they still do better than most.

We have a new program that will be launched this fall. It's called SCOPE—Sustainable Community Outreach & Public Engagement. That model will work with nonprofit organizations and businesses that do work with nonprofit organizations. We already have a project lined up that has to do with veterans with disabilities and another that has to do with the Special Olympics.

What do students gain from working with these programs?

The programs bridge the gap between theory and practice. Students add to what they're learning in their classes with experience in these rigorous environments. They really help students apply their pre-program experience and what they're learning in the classroom to real problems and challenges being faced by today's businesses.

We had something called the Integration Project, which was the capstone of our first year. It's being reevaluated right now and will be introduced this fall in a new package called the Application of Core Teaching project. Throughout their first year, students will work in their core classes with companies that have partnered with us. Students will work in teams and will spend the first semester poring over the companies' financials, annual reports, and the industry to really understand who the companies are and what they do. Then, at the end of the semester, students will present growth ideas and opportunities that would add value to the company. Over Christmas break, the companies will evaluate what the students have presented and select one or two ideas to work on during the spring semester. Then, students will develop solutions much like they would in our experiential learning initiatives. At the end of the semester, they'll give presentations to the company executives and the core faculty. It's really robust in terms of taking what you're learning in the classroom, what you've learned in your previous work experience, and really applying it in an meaningful way.

How would you describe the culture at UConn's School of Business?

Very friendly. The camaraderie among the students is wonderful. It's a very tight-knit group. Business schools can be notoriously competitive, but the competition at UConn is friendly competition.

The Graduate Business Organization gives students opportunities for professional development, community service, networking, and clubs, both academic and social. This really helps round out the educational experience.

Are there any stereotypes about UConn that you'd like to disprove?

It's hard to say it, but we're a public school. And we're a very good public school. Sometimes there's a perception that public is not as good as private. I think our track record shows that that's not the case.