With its focus on diversity and ethical leadership, IESE is at the top of the list for applicants who seek high-impact, global careers. Furthermore, in the Economist’s latest MBA rankings release, the IESE MBA climbed 11 spots to #6 worldwide, meaning interest in this dynamic, case-study fueled program is at an all-time high.
Yet given the IESE MBA’s 19-month duration, the program was out of reach for applicants seeking a shorter business school experience. Until now!
That’s why I touched base with Pascal Michels, Head of MBA Admissions at IESE Business School to get an insider’s view into IESE’s new 15-month MBA and the exciting opportunity this program represents for global professionals.
(Pascal Michels, Head of MBA Admissions at IESE Business School)
Ellin Lolis: What prompted IESE to consider adding a shorter program?
Pascal Michels: For quite a while now, IESE has been the only European school to stick to the traditional two-year MBA model.
And for good reason: we believe that transformation, be it professional or personal, takes time. Leadership development is a slow process and a long format creates the space for our students to mature in a global setting.
On the other hand, one trend we have seen over the past year is towards more and more experienced candidates. Our latest intake brings an average work experience of more than five years, including some individuals with up to 10 years of work experience. It would be understandable that some of these more senior students see less transformational value in a three-month internship than the classical MBA candidate with four or five years of work experience.
This is why we have decided to offer students, regardless of their profile (there are no limitations or quotas) the option to forgo the internship and take classes over the summer instead. This new format may also be interesting to sponsored students or candidates with otherwise pre-agreed post-graduation plans (family businesses or entrepreneurship, for example).
Overall, because we are simply adding a choice for our students to make well into their first year of classes (March), we feel that this is a great way of allowing more customization in the program.
EL: What is the timeline for the program? Will students start at the same time the 19-month students start, or will they start 4 months later?
PM: Students will start together in our only intake in September, without having committed to any specific format when they start the course. The decision on whether to graduate in 15 or 19 months will be made in March of the 1st year, so students would have more clarity on which format suits them best.
Photo courtesy of IESE Business School
It is also important to highlight that the core of our MBA experience, the first year, will remain the exact same for all students. This is very important because of the transformative effect of this high-pressure part of the program.
EL: Will tuition and scholarship offerings be the same for this program?
PM: Yes, tuition and scholarship will be the same.
We kept the same price for tuition, because, in the end, all students (in the 15 or 19-month format) will receive the exact same academic value in terms of classes. What changes in the 15-month version of the program is simply that students will earn academic credits corresponding to a term, during the summer months.
The scholarship process is entirely unaffected, which is only logical since candidates do not need to choose the length of their studies until the third term of the first year.
EL: Will 15-month students and 19-month students study together, or will the two classes be kept separate?
PM: We want to keep the cohort as close as it has always been.
Therefore, during the first year, all 350 students will keep the same usual setting: split into 5 sections of 70 students, chosen without considering preferences of program duration. We use other more complex criteria to guarantee plurality and diversity inside each classroom, so discussions of cases can be as rich as possible.
After the first three terms are over (from September to June), that’s when students split: the 19-month format students go to their summer internships all over the world or to the Summer Entrepreneurship Experience, while the 15-month students stay at IESE taking classes.
Then, in September, everybody is back on campus to do the electives they chose previously. The graduation ceremony will also be together. Although 15-month students will finish classes in December, the idea is that they come back to campus in May to celebrate graduation with all their friends. This is also a way of keeping the bonds and unity among our students.
Photo courtesy @iesebschool on Instagram
At the end of the day, the change is likely to be undetectable. Already now, some students are going on exchange during the last term, meaning that they are off campus starting January and come back only for graduation.
EL: Will 15-month students have the same access to IESE’s career services as 19-month students?
PM: Yes, they will have the same access to our Career Management Center, which will support the students until they find their full-time job, even after classes are over.
That’s the same approach we have nowadays. Career Services Directors don’t rest until everybody is employed after graduation.
EL: Can interested applicants already apply for this program?
PM: Yes! This option will already be available for the Class of 2021 with intake in September 2019. Interested applicants can start their IESE application here.
EL: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
PM: IESE’s MBA is known to be one with a very high academic workload, especially in the first year. We are proud of our academic rigor and, indeed, see it as the “engine” behind the transformative journey our students embark on.
We believe that diversity in class for its own sake is not enough: what matters is really what you do with this diversity. We use the classroom, the case-study specifically, to create interaction, friction, really, between students – and this is how they grow.
By taking out the summer internship we make sure that this mechanism keeps functioning. Some may even say that through this accelerated track we have created an even more academically intense version of the program, as it implies continuous full-time classroom learning for 15 months, something quite unique in the business education landscape.
EL: Thank you for your time, Pascal. You’ve definitely shared great information about IESE’s new program!
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