Mason School of Business

I've never felt so welcomed and as part of a family in an academic setting as I do as a student in the Mason School. At the same time, I am challenged everyday to reach my full potential intellectually, as a leader, and a contributing member to a team. Every resource I have ever needed has been provided to allow me to be competitive with my classmates and every other business student in the nation.

The only area in which I have been frustrated is that on campus recruiting is primarily for companies in the DC area. I am looking to move out of state, and many other students who are not from Virginia find it difficult to break out of the regional market.

The program is very hands-on. Almost every undergraduate professor and academic adviser in the business school knows me by name and I can come speak with them whenever I need to. Networking and interview opportunities were abundant.

We need to widen the range of firms that recruit at William and Mary, especially financial firms. The options are few and far between and we don't seem to be anyone's first choice when hiring for full time graduates.(with the exception of maybe government consultants) Also, the way that hiring, internships, interviews work needs to be explained long before entry into the undergrad program. I can only speak for myself, but I had no clue how recruiting went, how internship searching worked, how to interview etc. I had attended some career center "events" but largely I had no idea what was going on. I was also not prepared for the finance related interviews I did get because the classes up until that point were woefully inadequate.

Our business program is unique because of its focus on teamwork. I feel like this is the hardest aspect of the real world for a class to teach and our program has been exceptional in this area. Our program also places more emphasis on ethics and sustainability than some other business programs.

I think the program is ahead of the curve already and continuing to head this direction, but I'd like to see a stronger emphasis on social impact and social entrepreneurship. I believe that William and Mary can be the collegiate leader in sustainability and social change.

The undergraduate business program requires all business students to complete the "foundation semester" at the Mason School of Business. This semester introduces students to key ethical issues in today's business environment, a variety of business interests (finance, accounting, marketing, and consulting), and creates a cohesive community.

Recruiters indicate that William and Mary students sometimes are weak in their personal skills during interviews. They are never concerned about the quality of work from a William and Mary student, they are however concerned with their ability to work in client service.

The teachers are always available for office-hours. None of my classes have been taught by a T.A. and I believe I've received a better education because of it. The Professors share practical stories about their experience in their field that I can use after graduation.

Courses could be more closely tied to businesses - instead of just pitching a marketing plan to the professor and our students we could be pitching this plan to the actual business that it is for. Our business program is still in the early stages of incorporating this aspect into the classroom.

I think that the teachers in the finance department are truly amazing. The Mason School of Business itself is extremely impressive. I have never visited another business school in the entire country that enjoys the same facilities such as these. The multimedia rooms, presentation rooms, and assembly halls, are conducive to an extraordinary work environment.

Since we are a smaller school we struggle to attract larger firms who are looking for a larger recruiting base. Just recently these larger firms are starting to realize that while we may have fewer students, our job-readiness tends to be quite high, but we could still stand to attract more large firms.

Small community yet robust teaching quality. Students are made available to engaging learning environment due to the size of the program. Faculty is the biggest plus. Amazing and very competent members. Why is WM less competitive in the job market? I don't know. Maybe the students in WM is just too achievement-oriented that they forget the most important aspect of landing a solid job - interpersonal skills for interviews.

The "core business" classes could definitely be improved; they are generalized classes that are useless for students who already have experience, but integral for those who don’t. They should be treated like language classes (with placement exams, etc.).

Our first semester in the business school is called the integrated foundation semester. This is the students' introduction to the program that consists of a wide range of business classes. The students have a single group across all of these classes, so it is essential to have a great relationship with your team. This is more realistic because in the working world we will be working with the same team day after day on many different projects. I have never heard of another business school that has this same structure.