Judge business school is one of the youngest business schools perceived to be in the top 20. How do you strive to keep the cut among top b-schools, given that some of them are nearly 100 years old?
This is a big challenge, and one that we are eagerly anticipating. The one year MBA program is now 8 years old, so we are a really new entrant to this very established market which has some very heavy players in both Europe and the US, so we realize we have an awful lot to do. We have realized that we cannot completely rely on Cambridge University, even though it is rated as one of the best universities of the world. We are very ambitious in our project and we also have a clearly defined strategy to get there which involves being incredibly selective in terms of admitting students. We see a problem with the rankings that the b-schools that are perceived to be the best tend to attract the best students, who tend to do very well and get great jobs. So if you have a school which is established into that loop rankings become a self-fulfilling prophecy. So a new entrant like us has to have a very clear strategy to break into that. We have successfully achieved that as we have been ranked number 11 by The Economist and rank 15 by the Financial Times and we are doing extremely well in Businessweek as well. So the strategy has been to make sure that we spend a lot of time attracting and admitting the best students. We currently have about 8 applications per seat and because of that ratio we are able to spend the required time to get the best people in. We teach extremely well and make sure that the students have the relevant skills, not just the technical and functional skills but also the softer skills that are in demand by employers. So this makes our faculty also in demand by the employers and they become great ambassadors for our students, who then go on to get good jobs and the salaries they get push our ranking up. This makes us very confident in our future position in the global ranking of the b-schools.
Could you run us through the structure of the program at Judge Business School and how it is planned to add value to the participants?
Let me start with the structure and then go on to discuss about how it adds value to the participants. The structure at our school is something like an inverted pyramid. We start off broadly, teaching core functional areas of business management fairly quickly and make sure everyone in the class is upto speed with others. The first term is rounded off with an opportunity for students to put the ideas learnt into practice by working on a project. The project is undertaken with local Cambridge companies. In the second term the focus narrows down to teaching core courses, designed primarily for increasing the leadership levels. We have programs like Leadership in Action where CEO, Chief Executives and Chairmen visit our campuses and help our students understand in what it really means to be a leader. So in past 18 month or so, we have had managing partners or CEOs or Chief Executives of Barclays, Mckinsey, Goldman Sachs, BBC and even head of MI6. The second term is rounded of with a Global Consultant Project, where our students go around the world, India or China or Japan or Germany or Sweden, applying their skills in a multinational environment. At this stage also the students are beginning to think much more about their career and how they would be using their skills in their chosen career. The third term is an opportunity to focus on what interests you, whether you want to be an investment banker or consultant or entrepreneur, it’s the time to take electives or individual projects. So if we go back to the beginning of the answer, we see that it clearly shows what we mean by inverted pyramid structure, it starts of broadly and then narrows down.
The short term value addition is in terms of return in investment and the career opportunity. The Cambridge MBA is second to none in terms of career opportunities. We have been attracting some of the best students who get the best salaries in the world. It’s no only about the highest paying jobs but also the right kind of jobs. We have a careers service fully integrated into the program and that enables us to understand the motivation levels of student and their aspirations.
The long term value is something more. When we speak to our alumni, they don’t refer to us as an institution that gave them a good first job but as one that gave them the leadership qualities, taught them to self-propel, reflect upon their areas of strength, and understand how to interact with people much better. The size of our batch as compared with other larger programs actually enables us to deliver much better, and it is these values that would go a long way in shaping the careers.
Being in Cambridge University offers access to a lot of resourses, so can you illustrate an example of how Judge MBA students typically make use of these resources?
I will give you an interesting example for this one. Al Gore had recently visited our campus to talk on a host of topics ranging from global warming and the likes and afterwards, a lot of our students wanted to go upto him and meet him. But one of our students went and spoke to the sponsors and saw this as an opportunity to speak to the managing partner of private equity firm Terra Firma and show her interest to get into that sector. She subsequently got the job offer from Terra Firma. So it’s opportunities like these that students get because of the chance to interact with a range of people who visit the University. Many prospective students ask me, what are the number of companies that visit your campus and I tell them, it is the wrong type of question to ask. What one must really ask is the number of opportunities that a student gets in Cambridge.
Is it possible for Judge MBA students to take courses in other departments of Cambridge University?
Yes it is. Once you’re a student of Cambridge University you can take courses in any department of the University, that’s the benefit of being a member of the University. Also, Cambridge has the distinction of being the only university to produce 81 Nobel Prize winners, and they very frequently can be caught on campus giving lectures or dining in, and so students can make use of these opportunities and interact with them. The factor a student needs to take care of is the time. Since it’s a one year program students generally focus all their time and energy on the MBA program.
Do students make use of these opportunities?
Absolutely.
The Judge Business School MBA is perceived as an institution which is highly tech-driven, owing to its proximity to the Silicon Fen’s technology startup cluster.
Well, that’s a very wrong image for someone to have of our MBA program. As you must be knowing, Cambridge is one of the top universities in the world for science and technology, and it is also Europe’s leading venture cluster, so people who have interest in entrepreneurship have a fantastic time in Cambridge. But the MBA program is in itself not all about entrepreneurship. It’s a highly innovative and creative program. With the city of London so close by, a lot of our students who graduate end up getting jobs London.
What are the number of applications you receive and how many make the final cut into the interview stage?
Well last year we received about 8 applications per seat, and also the quality of applications we receive is very high. As I had already stressed, we are very selective with our admission process and select only the cream of the students. This year we have invited about 200 students for the interview and will be selecting 130 to 140 students for final admission. Since the quality of applications has been so high especially from Indian students, we have increased the class strength from the current size of 110 to about 130 or 140.
How many Indians are studying in Judge Business school?
The number of Indians have been steadily increasing year upon year, this year we have 13 Indians studying in our school, last year we had about 10 and for the coming year we are looking at something like 16 or 17 students from India.
Is there any reason why you still only accept applications only by snail mail, while other Business Schools have upgraded to online applications?
Part of the reason is accessibility. We also don’t charge application fee, because the reason for our existence is not for business. We are an educational institution and we would like to have equal accessibility for all candidates wherever they are in the world and don’t want to discriminate against people who don’t have internet access or can’t afford the application.
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You say that you are an institution with a 90 pc international classroom. Within this 90 pc, do you have quotas for any region?
No, we don’t have quotas at all and we don’t only think of class balance in terms of only nationality. We also think of gender mix, national mix and also culture mix. We try look at a person in terms of background and experience. We try to achieve a class with the best mix of students who can add value to each other and help one another in different indirect ways, like for instance an army officer who would have good leadership skills, or a software engineer who will have good technical and reasoning skills. So that’s the type of diversity we try to bring into the class.
When an application reaches your office, how do you go about analyzing it?
The first thing we look at is academic ability and a good GPA. We then look at skills needed to do an MBA, like analytical skills, quantitative skills, reasoning skills and a way of knowing this is by assessing the GMAT scores. Since we are a one-year program we also look at work experience, as we can’t go into basics of finance or marketing due to time constraints. So project management and people management skills are very important in assessing our applications. The next aspect we try to focus our attention is in knowing how best the candidate can add value to our various courses and we try to detect hints of a future leader in the applications, and that’s what we try to focus our attention during the interview process and see if the qualities we found are indeed present.
In an admission process that lays such stress on prior academics, how does an applicant compensate for below-average prior academic performance?
Although you see that the average GMAT score we accept is very high, we have a broad range of scores which we do accept. So even if you don’t have a degree or have low scores in academics or GMAT, and if we find that you are a bright student we do offer you admission. Last year, we offered admission to a student, who did not have any formal degree, but he had started a record company. He sold the company for a good sum as he wanted to shape his career in business and he is someone we were glad to invite. Another such instance is our selection of a student who scored a CGPA of 4.95 out of 5 from MIT and had an appalling performance in GMAT. But we didn’t care much, as someone who has that good a CGPA from MIT is certainly good intellectually.
What is the lowest GMAT score, below which you even refuse to look at the rest of the application?
There is really no lowest score. We are pretty clear with the kind of person we are looking for, so it’s more about the kind of general fit rather than to worry about GMAT score or CGPA. It’s more on the students to proactively think if they fit into the class, and see themselves participating in the discussions. If they are comfortable with the fit, then they are welcome to apply to the institute.
In India, where urban school education is primarily English, do you ask for TOEFL scores?
No, not from a student applying from India, as we feel the English spoken by an Indian is good enough.
How has the job scene been for international students during the previous academic year?
It’s been absolutely fantastic. There are not as many students applying to B-Schools these days as they were 5 years back, but the job scene has been very strong. One of the key strength of the Cambridge MBA program is that it gives you an automatic work permit visa for the UK, as students from Cambridge are in huge demand.
Which sectors are picking up more students in terms of placements?
The mainstream MBA recruiters like investment bankers are very strong at the moment, but in Cambridge a lot if venture capitalists and entrepreneurial companies are also doing very well. As I mentioned earlier, in a university like Cambridge we just don’t focus on getting good companies to campus but also strive hard to know the requirements of each student through a career cell, so that we will be able to cater to him better by bringing a job he is good at.
How many MBAs from Cambridge are starting their companies right after school?
Typically the numbers are quite less for MBA graduates, because when they join a b-school they are under a considerable amount of debt, so it’s tough on them to start a company right off. But more and more are taking that route. One of our students last year was offered a job in Citigroup, and after working there for a couple of months she started her own company with another graduate from Cambridge, which is already doing considerably well.
What are the avenues for financial aid and scholarship for Indian students?
When we assess the application, we do so purely on the basis of their ability and not on the basis of their financial position. Once we’re done selecting the candidate, we try to work out a way in which we can help them find the finances they need.
Do you offer any kind of scholarship?
We have special tie ups with HSBC, who have a lot of regard for our MBA programs and thus offer loans for students with no security and co-signatures, so you don’t have to provide a lot of proof and documents to them, thus making the whole process simpler. We also have scholarships and last year our class of 110 students received $800,000 of scholarship, which is a significant amount. We have full scholarships for people in oil and gas industry and one for Polish people, for Lebanese people and we have processes that identify people who are excellent in specific fields. We also have need based scholarship for financially backward candidates.
Oxford’s Said Business School also has a one-year MBA program. In what way is your program better than the program offered by Oxford?
Well, that’s a very interesting question, but one that I would not prefer answering because the competitive field is much broader. We are in the market for students and we attract them based on our respective strength. We are a great business school at the heart of a great university, and because of that students get a lot of added value. Also, since we are a lot smaller than most schools, we have a much more personal, much more collaborative method of teaching.
How does someone who gets admission into INSEAD and Judge select between these two schools?
Well as I answered, Judge is a smaller business school with a collaborative method of teaching. Also, if you are broadly focused and want to know and interact with a lot of people then you are more suited for the Cambridge environment. On a more personal and social front, if one wishes to excel then Judge Business School is the place to be.