MBA in Cambridge Judge Business School

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Cambridge MBA

What is the Cambridge Advantage?

• • Experience of being a member of the graduate community, as well as a member of a college, in one of the world’s prestigious universities. This means that students have access to teaching drawn from the wider university and colleges, the surrounding ‘silicon fen,’ as well as being able to develop networks that extend way beyond the MBA class.
• • Academic rigour and, if desired, the possibility of taking concentrations in areas that are not commonly found in business schools (e.g. energy and environment, health management, cultural and arts management, etc).
• • Practical-orientation with two consulting projects, one in a small entrepreneurial (usually high-tech) company and one in a large, global company.
• • Small class with a lot of individual attention and a distinct ethos of collaborative leadership.

Has the MBA curriculum been restructured to face new challenges in the business environment? While the MBA remains a distinctly general management programme, it has recently been restructured to offer students the ability to consolidate what they have learned during their final term by allowing them to take ‘concentrations’ in their areas of interest, under the leadership of senior faculty or practitioner ‘coaches.’ Some of the concentrations are in standard MBA areas such as finance, consulting, entrepreneurship and international business, others in non-standard areas as mentioned above (the latter, along with entrepreneurship and international business, with a view to what we expect will be a decline in the finance and consulting sectors over the next few years). In addition, students are now able to choose from a range of alternatives for their summer activity, including internships, dissertation projects, and various short courses, many of which are aimed specifically at facilitating students’ job prospects and entry into the job market. Electives were increased by 50% this year, and we now offer students 45 different electives over the course of the programme, quite a few of which are offered by faculty from elsewhere in the university, visiting faculty from the US and practitioners. What will students learn during the programme? Fundamentals of finance, accounting, economics, marketing, strategy and management science, but also with considerable focus on management practice and practical application in the consulting projects and the Capstone concentration project. Students also have access to a large amount of ‘contextual’ electives ranging from the philosophy of business (taught by two senior members of the university’s department of economics), to fund-raising for not-for-profits, managing change and innovation and marketing in emerging economies. What can students do after the Cambridge MBA? Here are the figures for the last two years:

• • Post-MBA Sector - MBA 2008/ MBA 2007
• • Consulting - 16%/ 22%
• • Finance - 23%/ 36%
• • Industry - 48%/ 36%
• • NFP/Public Sector/Other - 13%/ 7%

Post-MBA Job Location - MBA 2008/ MBA 2007

• • UK - 47%/ 52%
• • Asia - 21%/ 22%
• • Europe - 19%/ 13%
• • North America - 12%/ 7%
• • Other - 1%/ 6%

What is the admission criteria? We demand:

• • A high GMAT (the average GMAT is 690) because of the academically rigorous programme
• • Strong academic record (at least a 2:1 or equivalent)
• • At least three years of good work experience
• • Two strong work-related references
• • An admissions application that includes two essays

How is the admission process different from other business schools? The biggest difference is how seriously we take the admissions process, such that only faculty members interview shortlisted applicants. Unlike their counterparts in stand-alone business schools, Cambridge MBA students also become members of one of the more than 30 Cambridge University colleges. The process of applying for admission to a college is handled by the school as soon as a student accepts the MBA offer. The colleges are a vital part of the intellectual and social life of Cambridge and they help students widen their network at the university, through interaction with students from other disciplines. CLASS OF 2010

• 171 students
• Average age - 29 years old
• Average work experience - 6 years 5 months
• Average GMAT 690
• 43 nationalities
• 161 non-UK students
• 45 women