EMBA Admissions Panel: Do You Need To Be An Exec?

You work and love your job, but you want more of a leadership position. Or you are an entrepreneur who has some great ideas, but could use some help with leadership and management skills.  So you are considering an MBA that will allow you to keep working while developing these skills at the same time. I've been working on an upcoming MBA Podcaster live show titled "EMBA Admissions Panel: Debunking Myths and Understanding the EMBA."  In the podcast, three admissions deans from top Executive MBA programs tell you the truth about EMBA's, give you the skinny on their programs and advice on getting in. 

 

The live panel was moderated and organized by Betsy Massar, the founder & CEO of Master Admissions. The first question Betsy asked and you should too if you're wondering if you should even look at a particular program is "do you have to be an executive to apply or participate in an EMBA program."

 

Sylvia Haas is the Director of Admissions for the EMBA program at UCLA Anderson School of Management.  She says leadership potential is important.

"We do take a look at people who have made some strides in their career before applying for the Executive MBA because we're a believer that past performance will predict future behavior. And then you add an MBA on to that and you've got a great candidate and a great alum. We ...start executive MBA students in the cradle and we won't talk about how far we watch them but certainly through years and years of being an alumni."

 Haas clarified whether or not you need the executive title in your job description, like executive vice president or executive director.

"No, but what we do look at, and also letters of recommendation usually make this very clear, because we find out things in letters of recommendation that add to your career progression after graduation. So we know from the interview from the app and the essays and the letters of recommendation exactly where the career path is leading you and it's going to be someone that has their sights set on, they're already an executive, but there's those managers that want to go to that executive level and we're the perfect program for that. EMBA programs are perfect for that."

Learn more about other potential misconceptions about EMBA programs and what the other admissions directors have to say about their programs in our upcoming show. Other guests on the show include:

 

John Lyon – Director, Wharton MBA Program for Executives, San Francisco

Marjorie DeGraca – Executive Director of Admissions, Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program