Olin Business School

-The EMBA program at Washington University is the highlight of my educational career and certainly opened my perspective to global business practices as well domestic. I have a new appreciation for how company's function, turn a profit and maintain their culture.

-The program at Washington University at Olin helped me mature as a leader and a team member. One of the many highlights is the program is not so geared up on text book study and uses case studies for a lion's share of the effort and then the text books are used to support this. But in my experience it is the actual application of materials not just learning by numbers that sets true leaders and great companies apart from one another as apart from learning the people aspects, how to motivate team members and class members which can be placed into direct application in the work environment. Then placing the critical decision making process to support the decisions we make not just relying on gut feel. Discovering solid tools in risk management and financial management to drive the company forward.

-The staff and faculty were genuinely concerned about each and every student. They created an environment where you felt there was always support just a phone call away if you needed it. Kudos to Washington University Olin School of Business for providing such a high quality program to a diverse group of professionals and for enhancing our ability to contribute to our firms and organizations in a more meaningful way.

-I was always inspired by the professors and couldn't wait to get to class and once in class I couldn’t wait to get back to the office and use my new skills. There were several times that the professors inspired a great idea in me that I literally used in the office right away and my staff recognized the difference it made in me as a leader, they were waiting for me to become a better leader and they were inspired too. You know that you have a great experience when you have completed the program and despite all the struggles to get through the coursework, you are sad that it is over.

-This was a life changing experience and it helped me acquire a great wealth of knowledge and meet a lot of serious people. Now I'm more capable to acquire information more effectively and I'm not afraid to talk to upper management. However it did not change my tangible wealth in one bit, actually I'm more in debt now and it is starting to get really scary. This program is not strong enough to beat our slow economy right now and needs to be more oriented to help people to gain jobs and teach others how to do it. My total assessment of this is the following: for a non manager professional like myself this program is a great stepping stone for a long term success, however right now finding the job is my number one priority.

-There needs to be more professional career services help. I’d like to see a more challenging course load as I felt a lot of material I learned in undergrad. I wish there was more strict streamlining of those accepted into program as some students should not have been allowed into the program due to age/experience/maturity level.

-The program just does a super job with everything, the attention to detail is obvious. They provided food, drink, supplies, bags, logistical support, textbooks, and TA's to assist with further curriculum enrichment. You have all the resources necessary to be successful.

-The school needs to understand that as it is such a great school and begins to pull more students regionally that these students may need assistance and or better tools as it relates to connectivity. As an example the school places students in teams and it is impossible to do all the work on the class week so the teams meet between classes so the logistics of these group meetings directly related to class work were difficult based on the tools we received early on in the program placing a non required strain on group dynamics. This did improve a little by the end of the program and is on track to help future cohorts but it hurt my experience a little. However, the support staff of the EMBA program did a wonderful job doing the best they could for example providing a calling card, reimbursing for Go-To-Meeting etc. During class weekends the support and tools were of course great.

-It was a terrific program, but there are opportunities to better incorporate cases and learnings applicable to America's business world today - things like small businesses, health care, service industry. The traditional B-school approach is geared toward old America - big business, manufacturing, etc. I believe our program did a good job at preparing us for the business world of tomorrow, but there is still room to improve.

-I’d like to see a greater commitment to commuting students living outside the state in terms of video conferencing and access to on-campus lectures.

-Some reading assignments were off target and didn't contribute much to the lectures or material. This was frustrating at times given the workload. Also, some of the packet materials were of poor copy quality and at times difficult to read.

-I love the career coaching for people in transition or career change. Taking it to the next level by helping students gain access to corporate recruiters would be an improvement.