MBA program gains strength
By John Ashley Menzies
Staff Reporter

A more selective approach to accepting students and a stronger group of students to choose from have helped propel the growth of the graduate program at the M.J. Neeley School of Business, said Peggy Conway, director of MBA admissions.

According to a Neeley school report prepared by Dean Robert Lusch, full-time MBA students have improved their Graduate Management Admission Test scores over the past six years as enrollment in the graduate programs has increased. The GMAT is a standardized test designed to test a student’s ability to succeed in an MBA program.

“The GMAT is only one part of the story, though,” Conway said. “Students are also coming in with more experience. So we are being selective with a stronger base.”

According to Lusch’s report, GMAT scores for full-time MBA students have increased about 70 to 80 points from 545 in fall 1997 to 605 in fall 2003. Scores got as high as 615 in fall 2002. Conway said the GMAT gives people a quick sense of how a school stacks up with other schools.

“We give students the option of telling us what other graduate schools they are applying to,” Conway said. “We are seeing a lot of students also applying to UT and Rice. In the mid-’90s, you didn’t see that.”

Conway said the university hopes to build graduate programs through other schools on campus as well, not just the business school and that it has done a lot to increase its reputation.

Neeley’s graduate enrollment is just under 375 and has grown by nearly 50 students since the fall of 1996, according to the report.

Conway said the graduate programs available are:
• The full-time MBA program.
• The professional MBA program offered at night to people who work during the day.
• The executive MBA program, which will groom people already in executive positions.

Tim Neuman, director of the executive MBA program, said the increase was driven by the current business climate.

“During economic downtimes, people will turn to MBA programs, hoping when they come out business will be better, and when another downtime comes they can get through it,” Neuman said.

The executive MBA program is a non-traditional setting with 42 students enrolled, Neuman said. The students average 41 years old and 18 years of work experience, he said.

“It’s great because they’re already successful before they enter the program,” Neuman said.

People use the ratio between the number of graduate students and number of undergraduate students to compare universities, Conway said. TCU is roughly 15 percent smaller in its graduate programs than other top universities, and it is something TCU is working to improve.

Conway said the MBA programs should continue to grow, but the business school will be careful with its growth. They will look for quality applicants rather than just letting people in to have number, she said.

“TCU is not about high volume,” Conway said.