Graduate Programs Update

Hi, everyone,

Happy Labor Day! I hope you’re settling in well for the 2023-24 academic year. Our first home football game is in the books and we’re already into week three of the fall semester. If you’re anything like me, summer is but a distant memory by now. That’s OK, though — Christmas will be here before we know it. 

Today, I’m writing to provide an update on the College’s graduate programs. I’ve been in my role as associate dean for academic programs for a little more than a year now. I continue to be honored and grateful to Dean Martijn Cremers for giving me the opportunity to serve in this role, and to work with hundreds of outstanding Mendoza colleagues and thousands of engaged, committed students. 

There are far too many people to thank than I could do individually, but I do want to recognize three colleagues that I work closely with every day in my role — Kristen Collett-Schmitt, Associate Dean for Innovation & Inclusion; Ken Kelley, Sr. Associate Dean for Faculty & Research; and Rob Kelly, Chief Operating Executive — for their wisdom, support, and patience with me as I’ve gotten up to speed over the last year.

The Mendoza College has over 50,000 alumni. Easily one of the best and most inspiring parts of my role is hearing from so many of these alumni — from recent graduates to retirees — about the transformative influence that our academic programs have had on their lives and careers. I had the great fortune of serving as a guest speaker recently for the Notre Dame MBA Class of 1973. We did not enroll MBA students until fall 1967, so this was one of the very first MBA classes to graduate. 

I discussed the history of our MBA program, gave an overview of our current program and approach, then asked for some examples of their own experiences on campus. It was a fascinating discussion, and I know that I learned more from them than they did from me. As an aside, for anyone interested in learning more about the College’s history, I can’t recommend the updated version of “O’Hara’s Heirs” strongly enough.

The most moving story I heard was after the presentation. One of the MBA alumni (we’ll call him Bill to maintain confidentiality) approached me to discuss a situation that occurred at work only a few years after graduating with his MBA. Bill came to believe that his employer was acting unethically when it came to a particular relationship with an outside firm. Discussions with his manager and several other senior executives weren’t able to resolve his concerns. Although this was a challenging time for Bill personally and professionally (he was the sole income -earner for a young family), he chose to resign from the firm. 

As he explained the situation to me, Bill credited his Notre Dame education and its focus on the critical importance of ethical decision making in helping him make his decision. While this is the type of response that we would all hope to take in such a situation, many of us struggle with the strength of our convictions when put to the test. 

This story reminded me again of the recurring theme in Notre Dame business education over the last 100-plus years, from the words of our founding dean back in 1921 (“Business has a code of ethics based very largely on divine principles. When this code is followed, commerce can and does advance civilization”) to our current College mission today (“As a leading business school guided by the University’s Catholic identity, the Mendoza College of Business seeks to grow the good in business, to improve the human condition in an ever-changing society”).

One of the other privileges of my role is that I’m fortunate to have a great view of the full picture of Mendoza academic program activity. I would summarize this picture in a few short words: “There is a *lot* going on in Mendoza.” Let’s start with all the individual graduate degree programs and cohorts that the College is responsible for in fall 2023:

Specialized Master’s Programs

• Master of Nonprofit Administration Class of 2024: 40 students
• Master of Science in Accountancy Class of 2024: 68 students (two cohorts)
• Master of Science in Business Analytics Class of 2024: 112 students (three cohorts; two MSBA-General track and one MSBA-Sports Analytics track)
• Master of Science in Finance Class of 2024: 40 students
• Master of Science in Management Class of 2024: 73 students (two cohorts)

Full-time MBA Programs

• One-year Master of Business Administration Class of 2024: 36 students
• Two-year Master of Business Administration Class of 2024: 95 students (two cohorts)
• Two-year Master of Business Administration Class of 2025: 104 students (two cohorts)

Executive/Working Professional Programs

• Executive Master of Business Administration-South Bend Class of 2024: 54 students
• Executive Master of Business Administration-South Bend Class of 2025: 42 students
• Executive Master of Business Administration-Chicago Class of 2024: 45 students
• Executive Master of Business Administration-Chicago Class of 2025: 22 students
• Executive Master of Nonprofit Administration (Flexible Graduation Date): 81 total students; 40 new this year
• Master of Science in Business Analytics-Chicago Class of 2023: 24 students

If my math is correct, this means that our college is currently supporting a total of 836 graduate students across 20 different cohorts, eight different graduate degrees, two different locations, and a range of different program entry points. 

Every single one of these students carries with them their own backgrounds, goals, needs, expectations, idiosyncrasies, and, at times, frustrations and complaints that they choose to share with us. This makes for a very complex administrative task for our College. In case you were wondering why there seems to be so much activity in the Mendoza academic programs space (and why we spend so much time and energy on Now Irish over the summer), there’s your answer. 

Moreover, beyond our graduate programs, the Mendoza College is also responsible for the small matter of over 2,000 undergraduate students (approximately 550-600 per year) and a series of other academic Centers, Institutes, and Programs – the Business Ethics and Society Program; Business Honors Program; Center for Accounting Research and Education; Fanning Center for Business Communication; Meyer Business on the Frontlines Program; Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership; Powerful Means Initiative; and Notre Dame Institute for Global Investing. 

None of this activity would be even remotely possible without the strong cooperation and integration we see across the three faces of the “Mendoza Pyramid”: 1) Academic Programs; 2) Staff Functions; 3) Faculty & Departments. 

As you might expect with this many students, cohorts, and programs, our College continues to see a lot of innovation and exciting new developments. Here are just a few short examples:

• The Executive Master of Business Administration program — currently offered in South Bend and Chicago — has been re-envisioned as the Notre Dame Global EMBA, beginning with students matriculating in summer 2024 (Class of 2026). As part of their program, students will participate in monthly residencies on the Notre Dame campus and up to three immersive global residencies — one at orientation, one in the final semester of the program, and an optional global residency in the summer between years one and two.
• In 2022-23, the Notre Dame MBA program successfully offered two “Mods Away” for the first time — Santiago (Chile) and Silicon Valley — and will continue to offer both this year. The Mod-Away program includes a full module (seven weeks) of off-campus classes and experiential learning opportunities in the second half of the fall semester. Approximately one-third of the MBA class participated in a Mod-Away program last year.
• This year, the Meyer Business on the Frontlines program will offer five different for-credit class options for students: International BOTFL; Frontlines Engagements; Frontlines in America; Ways of Rebuilding Community (WORC); and Regenerating Ecologies, Economies, and Livelihoods (REEL). This broad range of classes allows the College to provide access for both Mendoza and non-Mendoza students and also to provide a wide selection and scope of external partner engagements that best fit with individual student interests and circumstances.
• All our programs continue to work tirelessly to build stronger, more diverse cohorts of students. The MNA and EMNA programs have helped lead the way in this area via partnerships with outside organizations including Diversity in Leadership, Xavier University of Louisiana, the Divine Nine (National Pan-Hellenic Council), and other Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
• The College’s reimagined and redesigned “Now Irish” (Orientation) experience for students has been a great success. For each program, a cross-functional College team works hard for months to create a comprehensive schedule combining leadership development, administrative success, class preparation, and introduction to the Mendoza and Notre Dame cultures. As an illustration of the positive student response, here are some examples of the mean overall student satisfaction score (out of 5.0) for Now Irish in different programs over summer 2023: MSA (4.7), MSF (4.8), MSM (4.7), Two-year MBA (4.8), EMBA-South Bend (5.0).
• Although my column today is focused on our graduate programs, I also want to briefly highlight the range of undergraduate minors and new double majors that are now being offered by the College as a further example of the innovation we’re seeing. As of fall 2023, we offer minors available to Mendoza students (e.g., Minor in Business & the Common Good), non-Mendoza students (e.g., Minor in Foundations of Business), and all Notre Dame students (e.g., Minor in Innovation & Entrepreneurship). We also now offer six different double-major options within the College.

Finally, I’d like to briefly comment on the outcomes for the Class of 2023. Students come to Notre Dame for myriad reasons, including personal growth, career advancement, network building, and future financial security. We’re therefore cognizant that no one metric can effectively capture student outcomes. That said, we know that many of our graduates are hoping to use our programs as a springboard to professional success, and so we try to keep a close eye on mean/median salaries and the percentage of graduates with accepted job offers. 

In the coming weeks, the College will be able to provide more concrete information about these metrics at three months post-graduation, which is a widely used benchmark. Preliminary results suggest that mean salaries are up compared to last year, but our jobs-accepted figures are slightly lower than last year. This is consistent with what has been identified as a tougher employment market, especially for our international students.

We also track more holistic and nuanced measures of student satisfaction with our programs via exit surveys. As in previous years, these results for the Class of 2023 continue to be impressive. For example:

• 95% of students strongly agreed or agreed with the statement: “The MSM program helped me gain a solid foundation in business principles.”
• 100% of students strongly agreed or agreed with the statement, “The quality of the faculty teaching in the MSF was satisfactory.”
• 92% of MSBA students strongly agreed or agreed with the statement: “My overall experience in the program was satisfactory.”
• 100% of the EMBA Class of 2023 stated that their expectations for the program were met or exceeded.
• The mean response to the question “Do you feel like you are an included member of the MBA community?” was 4.4 on a 5.0-point scale.

Although we operate in an environment of continuous improvement, and there is always a desire and a need to get better, it is reassuring to see these positive responses from our graduates with the most recent experience of our programs. 

I’ll end by offering my sincere thanks to you. If you’re reading this, you play a vital role in the success and development of our college’s academic programs. Thank you for all of your efforts to make the Mendoza College of Business an even better, more inclusive place to work, learn, and grow.

Sincerely,

Craig