Ethan Rosen had just graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor of science in organizational management. Anticipating a long career in business, he’d taught himself as much business acumen as he could along the way, but he knew he wanted to get more formal training — and not have to wait five to seven years for an MBA.
The answer was right in front of him: the Kellogg School of Management’s elite Master in Management program. One of the premier MiMs in the United States, the 10-month program boasts world-renowned faculty and, for Class of 2022, a 97% employment rate three months after graduation. As a bonus, because he was a Northwestern alumnus, Rosen didn’t have to submit a Graduate Management Admission Test or Graduate Record Exam score to apply.
“I attended Northwestern for my undergraduate degree, and like many liberal arts universities, did not have the access to a formal business curriculum, aside from a business minor, despite my interest in the field,” Rosen tells Poets&Quants. “Most of what I knew was either self-taught or learned through experiences I was lucky to have through internships.
“However, I knew I wanted to have a more formal understanding of business before I started what I knew would be a long career in finance.”
A PROGRAM FOR THE AMBITIOUS
Spotlight On U.S. MiMs: Northwestern Kellogg School Of Management
Ethan Rosen: “(T)he chance to work for a few years with the added value of my master in management will allow me to gain some fruitful real-life experience”
Until this year, Kellogg’s Master in Management program was known as the Master of Science in Management Studies. And until this year, the program sought only students with less than a year experience, enrolling mostly those who had just finished their undergraduate studies. In a change this summer made in response to the fast-changing job market, the Kellogg MiM has expanded the reach of the program and is now open to students with up to two years of experience.
A program designed STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), with all the benefits to students that that entails, the Kellogg MiM is designed for recent graduates with a background in STEM, business and economics, or the liberal arts. A key appeal of the MiM is that it is based in Chicago, the third-largest city in the U.S. Another is that its rigorous coursework is taught by Kellogg’s world-renowned faculty.
It’s a program for the ambitious, says Steve Thompson, senior director of full-time admissions at the Kellogg School — a springboard to the next achievement.
“With a one-year duration and no significant work experience requirement, the MiM program provides an accelerated pathway for non-business undergraduates to enter the business field with an elevated skill set and comprehensive business knowledge,” Thompson tells P&Q, adding that Kellogg’s one-year MBA program “is a complementary program to our MiM curriculum, and is ideally suited for students looking to deepen their newly-developed general business foundation in a particular area, like private equity, or data analytics, for example.”
A TASTE OF KELLOGG’S POWERFUL NETWORK
Ethan Rosen, who graduated from the program this year, says all of the above and more drew him to the Kellogg MiM.
“I was drawn to this program for not only the formal business curriculum it offered,” he says, “but the distinguished professors that teach within it and also the opportunity the program offered to learn alongside of Kellogg’s part-time MBA students within the classroom, which was a really fruitful experience and added such an elevated learning opportunity hearing from their real-life work experiences and challenges.”
Deciding not to wait to get into Kellogg’s full-time, two-year program half a decade or more from now, Rosen, his MiM cohort’s Class President, has taken advantage of another benefit of his new degree: Through Kellogg’s Future Leaders program, he, along with the rest of the top 25% of MiM grads in his class, enjoyed automatic deferred acceptance to the Kellogg One-Year MBA.
“Though I just graduated from the program, I was fortunate enough to apply to Kellogg’s Future Leaders deferred admissions program as well — so I look forward to returning to Kellogg for my MBA,” he says. “To me, the chance to work for a few years with the added value of my master in management will allow me to gain some fruitful real-life experience to bring back to the classroom and approach an MBA with a completely different lens. I know I’ll be able to really lean into the Kellogg network as I progress in my career.
“Partaking in the master’s program gave me great exposure to Kellogg’s caliber, and a taste of what the power of their network and esteemed faculty looks like,” Rosen says. “It made me really excited to return eventually, when I have more experience to apply in the classroom.”
Q&A WITH STEVE THOMPSON, KELLOGG SENIOR DIRECTOR OF FULL-TIME ADMISSIONS
How is this program different from other MiMs on the market today?
Spotlight On U.S. MiMs: Northwestern Kellogg School Of Management
Steve Thompson: Kellogg’s MiM “now welcomes applicants with up to two years of career experience, broadening access to young leaders amid a rapidly changing job market”
Kellogg’s Masters in Management program is distinguished from other MiM programs in several key ways.
World-renowned faculty: Students benefit from extensive exposure to the Kellogg School of Management’s world-class faculty, including renowned professors like Bernie Banks, the Associate Dean for Leadership Development and Inclusion, and Shana Carroll, the Faculty Director of the Management Communications Program. The MiM Faculty instruct across other MBA Programs at Kellogg.
Location and proximity to bustling business scene of Chicago: MiM classes are held at the Kellogg downtown campus in the heart of Chicago, the third largest city in the U.S. and a true commerce and cultural hub. Students gain access to the local business network through opportunities with Northwestern’s Career Advancement Center as well, which holds sponsored career fairs multiple times a year, hosting employers from the local-Chicago area, but nationally as well. Other resources and opportunities include on campus and virtual informational and networking sessions and events, coffee chats with employers and more.
Robust curriculum and experiential opportunities: The program provides a unique opportunity to take a variety of courses; several that were carefully curated for MiM students specifically, and others through our Evening & Weekend Program, which offer our students the chance to collaborate with working professionals. In addition, MiM students can participate in Kellogg’s unique Global Initiatives in Management (GIM) course, traveling outside the United States to learn about a market’s key business trends, norms, challenges and successes.
Career Support: The program also boasts a robust career support system, including personalized coaching from the industry-leading Career Management Center. MiM graduates from the class of 2022 achieved a high job offer rate of 97% within three months of graduating, positioning them for success as they embark on their professional journeys. Since the program launched 10 years ago, nearly 400 students have graduated and made their mark across a variety of roles and companies. Program alumni have gone on to work for top companies across the globe including Google, Goldman Sachs, Bain, JP Morgan Chase and Microsoft, to name a few.
Furthermore, the MiM program stands out by offering an automatic deferred acceptance option to the prestigious Kellogg One-Year MBA program for the top 25% of MiM graduates, offering a valuable pathway to further career advancement and specialization.
What exactly are you looking for in a candidate/applicant?
Kellogg’s MiM program seeks individuals who bring diverse backgrounds and experiences to the cohort. While previously restricted to candidates with one year or less of career experience after undergrad, the program now welcomes applicants with up to two years of career experience, broadening access to young leaders amid a rapidly changing job market.
The ideal candidate for the MiM program should demonstrate strong on-campus undergraduate involvement and exhibit relevant internships or research work, reflecting a proactive and engaged approach to their academic journey.
Here’s a bit of background on some of our incoming students:
Irem, a Fullbright scholar, was involved in the Society of Women Engineers at Koc University in Turkey, and served as Club President. She also was a University Innovation Fellow and has been playing chess for 10 years.
Preston is a Northwestern University undergraduate alumni where he studied Economics and a wide-receiver on the Northwestern football team. He hopes to become a trusted advisor in the real estate industry.
Allison attended the University of Illinois and studied advertising. After holding several internships in copywriting and social media, she decided to make a career switch to business.
Chigz studied public health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and served as board member for Carolina For The Kids, a student-run non-profit volunteer organization with the mission of providing emotional and financial support to patients and families served by the UNC Children’s Hospital.
Above all, the program values candidates with a genuine interest in pursuing a career in business and a desire to build on a background in STEM, economics, or the liberal arts.
What are three or four things that are really core to your program, and how can an applicant best make his or her application express those things?
We value:
Future leaders with a mix of technical skills and emotional intelligence. Applicants can best express this by highlighting their academic achievements and technical knowledge in relevant subjects, such as finance or economics. Additionally, sharing real-life examples of handling conflicts, demonstrating empathy, or displaying strong interpersonal skills will underscore their emotional intelligence.
Innovators with a clear vision and entrepreneurial spirit. Candidates can demonstrate their entrepreneurial mindset by sharing experiences where they identified and pursued opportunities, even in the face of risk and uncertainty. Illustrating creative problem-solving abilities and innovative approaches to challenges will further emphasize their vision and entrepreneurial spirit.
Empathetic collaborators who can bring everyone to the table. Candidates can demonstrate their entrepreneurial mindset by sharing experiences where they identified and pursued opportunities, even in the face of risk and uncertainty. Illustrating creative problem-solving abilities and innovative approaches to challenges will further emphasize their vision and entrepreneurial spirit.
In what ways can a Master in Management provide an advantage over an MBA?
The MiM and MBA are completely different in nature, though the MiM can prepare students for a fruitful MBA experience later in their career.
Standard MBA programs require significant work experience (typically, four to six years) and take two years, though at Kellogg our portfolio is broad. An MBA curriculum builds off that work experience, leveraging student expertise and past challenges in the classroom, to bring learning opportunities to life.
The MiM program offers unique differences to a traditional MBA, primarily that it is designed for those who are early in their career. It also offers accelerated entry into the business field: With a one-year duration and no significant work experience requirement, the MiM program provides an accelerated pathway for non-business undergraduates to enter the business field with an elevated skill set and comprehensive business knowledge. For example, we welcome many students from liberal arts colleges who may have not had the opportunity to pursue a formal business major or minor; but are interested in still kick-starting their career in the space. Melody Hsu ’21 received a bachelor’s from Northwestern in Piano Performance. After graduating with her MSMS (since renamed to MiM), she transferred into User Design and Product Design roles. She is currently an Interaction Designer at Google, for Google One.
Another advantage of the Kellogg MiM is that to gives grads broad exposure to management topics. The MiM curriculum covers foundational business knowledge and essential management topics, offering students a comprehensive introduction to various aspects of business without requiring extensive prior work experience.
And it leads to diverse career opportunities: Graduates of the MiM program pursue diverse roles in various industries and functions, showcasing the program’s versatility and adaptability to different career paths.
William Lansbury ‘22 is a financial analyst at Houlihan Lokey, a global investment bank; and Kamryn Moe ‘22, is a global private bank analyst at J.P. Morgan.
Brigitte Xu ‘21 works in product development at Cater2Me, a Customizable catering and experiences company in San Francisco.
David Cao ‘21 pursued entrepreneurship after completing his degree as the Founder and CEO of Evanston Young Artists, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing Evanston’s youth with affordable private music lessons.
Nothing precludes MiM graduates from pursuing an MBA. Kellogg’s One-Year MBA program is a complementary program to our MiM curriculum, and is ideally suited for students looking to deepen their newly-developed general business foundation in a particular area, like private equity, or data analytics, for example. We recommend students collect a few years of professional working experience before they return back to pursue their MBA to both add value to the classroom, and so they have a clear goal in mind, post-MBA.
What are some impressions of your program that you’d like to dispel, and what are some things about the curriculum and community that you’d like more people to know about?
The MiM curriculum is designed to help student gain foundational business knowledge with courses like Business Analytics and Accounting for Decision Making; build on their knowledge through applications on a Global Immersion trip or in the lab; and develop expertise and strategic thinking in marketing, finance, operations management and negotiations classes.
While doing so, they are able to learn from the diverse functional and industry experience of their peers as they work through the curriculum. Students are encouraged to build a close-knit community with their cohort, made easier because of its intimate size. This way, they make tight-knit connections that provide them with a strong network to grow their career.
Additionally, the MiM program is a STEM-designated degree program. Kellogg graduates on F-1 student visas and approved F-1 12-month post-completion Optional Practical Training may be eligible to apply for the F-1 24-month STEM-OPT extension for up to three years of U.S. work authorization before requiring employer sponsorship for an employment-based nonimmigrant or immigrant visa.
