Letter from Liz
Liz Riley Hargrove, Associate Dean, The Fuqua School of Business
Greetings from The Duke MBA! October is a time of year when we find a new group of prospective students contacting our offices, visiting our campus, and arriving at fairs and information sessions around the world. In an effort to keep you informed about The Duke MBA and activities, we are pleased to offer this issue of Impact@Duke, our e-newsletter for prospective students.
If you are new to receiving our e-newsletter, I hope you will find it a valuable resource. You will receive application tips, meet current students and alumni, learn about our faculty, and stay up-to-date on Duke MBA events and activities. Our admissions team is continuing to travel around the world, and I hope that you will take the opportunity to meet a Duke MBA representative in person. At many events you will also have the opportunity to meet current students and alumni. For a complete listing of upcoming events with The Duke MBA, please click here.
In addition to traveling to visit with prospective students, we offer several opportunities for prospective students to come to Duke and experience our program first hand. The Duke MBA Workshop for Minority Applicants will be held November 20 - 23 and The Duke MBA Weekend for Women on December 4 - 7. We are also hosting a number of "Super Saturday" campus visits for interviews and admissions visits throughout the year, including the Diversity Super Saturday on January 31. Details on these events may be found in the right-hand column, or on our Web site.
In this issue of Impact@Duke, we invite you to learn more about The Duke MBA application process. You can find application tips as well as answers to common questions regarding our online application. We are also excited to introduce you to Vince Rights, current president of the MBA Association, The Duke MBA's student government. We also introduce John Graham, Associate Professor of Finance, a leading expert in his field and author of the quarterly CFO Survey. Finally, you can learn about upcoming events, announcements, and recent articles featuring Duke in the world press.
I hope you take full advantage of this issue and those to come, as we will share valuable insights into The Duke MBA program, the Duke community, and the application process. I wish you the best in your pursuit of graduate business management education and hope that your research leads you to The Duke MBA.
--Liz Riley Hargrove
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Profile
 Vince Rights , Class of 2009
Philadelphia, PA
Although my career in Finance prepared me for high pressure environments and critical thinking, I knew that I was lacking the leadership experience and training to become the business leader that I wanted. As I researched the top MBA programs, The Duke MBA stood out to me as a program that truly develops global business leaders of consequence. With a student body of over 800 students, the opportunities to lead and develop as a leader are robust. One thing that really struck me when I spoke to students was their emphasis on the quality of leadership opportunities at Duke. Student leadership is held to a higher standard at Duke; the leadership experience is equally as important to your learning as is the coursework.
Since arriving at Duke, I could not be more impressed with the level of leadership displayed by our students. Whether it is leading Blue Devil Weekend, leading a Global Academic Travel Experience (GATE) trip to China, or leading one of our 45 student organizations, The Duke MBA sets the standard for business leadership education. Better still, the environment we create at Duke allows you to grow and develop as a leader and provides the training and tools to do so.
While The Duke MBA leadership experience had me sold on the quality of the program, it was the people I met at Duke that made it the obvious choice for me. I visited the campus twice and every person I met, from student to faculty, felt like family to me. As I heard them tell their stories, I was equally impressed by their accomplishments as I was by their realness. The people in the program you choose will not only impact your two year MBA experience, it will shape relationships and friendships that will last a lifetime. It was clear to me that The Duke MBA would provide me the exceptional leadership experience I sought while sharing that experience with people I was proud to call family.
Announcements
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation
The Duke MBA is pleased to partner with the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, an organization whose goal is to empower future generations to devise sustainable home-grown solutions to challenges faced by the Arab world through education. To read more about this organization and to see a calendar of upcoming informational sessions throughout the Arab world, please click here.
Loan Availability for International Students
Historically, The Duke MBA has offered an international student loan program (The Expanded MBA Loan) that did not require a U.S. cosigner. This loan is currently available for students in the 2008 - 2009 academic year. However, given the current financial market situation, we are uncertain as to our ability to offer this loan in the future to incoming international students. The entire Fuqua community recognizes and understands the importance of this loan, and we are exploring all potential funding avenues. We will utilize our Web site and this newsletter to update prospective students as to the status of this loan program. International students will still have the option of applying for loans with a U.S. cosigner.
Application Tips & Insights
Application season can be a busy time of year as prospective students around the world reach out to recommenders, study for the GMAT, and begin writing their essays. To assist you as you prepare for The Duke MBA application, we have highlighted key application-related activities and provided some tips below. For a quick list of Application “Fast Tips,” read along the right-hand column.
Application Deadlines
The Duke MBA has two remaining deadlines for application. All application materials must be submitted no later than the deadline date for that round to be considered. If an application is submitted later, or is incomplete, the application will be moved to the following round. This year’s application deadlines are:
| Round |
Application Deadline |
Decision Notification |
| Early Action |
October 15, 2008 |
November 14, 2008 |
| 1 |
October 27 , 2008 |
December 19, 2008 |
| 2 |
January 7, 2009 |
March 10, 2009 |
| 3 |
March 16, 2009 |
April 23, 2009 |
Features in The Duke MBA Online Application
In response to a number of frequently asked application questions, please review the following notes about the online application:
- Applicants must submit a scanned copy of their transcripts with the online application. Hard copies are not accepted at time of application. Once admitted, matriculating students will be required to submit an official transcript with their tuition deposit.
- The Duke MBA accepts either the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) scores for international applicants. Official score reports from either language testing agency are required to be submitted along with the online application. Please note that applicants who attended an undergraduate institution whose language of instruction is English, even if that institution was outside of the United States (i.e., India, Australia, Singapore), are not required to submit a TOEFL or IELTS score.
- The online application requires two letters of recommendation. These recommendations must be submitted online, and applicants are asked to submit only two recommendations. You may ask a current student or Duke MBA alumnus to submit a peer or alumni recommendation, respectively. These forms can be found on our Web site. The Peer Recommendation form is found on the password-protected student intranet, FuquaWorld, while the Alumni Recommendation form is found on the password-protected alumni Web site. If the individual submitting either a peer or alumni recommendation for you needs more specific information on where to find the forms, ask those individuals to please contact The Duke MBA Office of Admissions.
Interviews and Campus Visits
Every applicant is invited to interview with a Duke MBA representative and applicants do not need to wait for an invitation to interview. We offer a convenient online scheduling system that will allow you to choose the date and time that works best for you. You may interview either before or after submitting your online application, depending on what you prefer or what your schedule permits.
Interviews are not required for admission, but are highly recommended. They give you the opportunity to interact with a current student, alumnus, or an admissions staff member, and to explain your interest in The Duke MBA. We do ask that applicants come to Durham to interview, although applicants who live on the West Coast of the U.S. or in international locations outside of Canada have the option of requesting an alumni interview closer to home.
Alumni interviews are scheduled only after the online application has been submitted and are by invitation. Simply indicate "Alumni Interview" on your application, and our office will contact you two weeks after the application deadline with more information. Although we do our best to accommodate as many alumni interview requests as possible, they are not guaranteed. Please see the interview deadlines for each application round below.
| Round |
Campus Interview Deadline |
Alumni Interview Deadline |
| Early |
November 1, 2008 |
November 1, 2008 |
| 1 |
December 6, 2008 |
December 8, 2008 |
| 2 |
February 14, 2009 |
February 16, 2009 |
| 3 |
April 11, 2009 |
April 15, 2009 |
We invite you to schedule a campus visit and an interview through our Online Scheduling System. Our campus visit program began October 2. If you are unable to travel to Durham during the week, we do offer a limited number of “Super Saturdays,” which are Saturdays dedicated to hosting prospective students for interviews. As classes are not in session on Saturdays, you would not have the opportunity to visit a class, but you can tour the campus and interview with a second year student. Upcoming Super Saturdays are November 1, November 8, January 24, and January 31. Look for additional Saturday dates in upcoming newsletters, or visit the schedule online.
Faculty Spotlight
 The Duke MBA is proud of our faculty, who are recognized around the world for their cutting-edge research and expertise. John Graham, Associate Professor of Finance, is an outstanding example of how our professors, who teach both core and elective classes, are making a difference in the business world.
Prof. Graham received his PhD from Duke University in 1994. His teaching and research interests are corporate finance, taxation,
investments, herding, and combining and assessing forecasts. He is also the director of the quarterly Duke/CFO Business Outlook Survey, which gauges the country’s economic outlook from the perspective of corporate CFOs. As the director of the CFO Business Outlook Survey, Graham is the primary spokesperson, appearing quarterly on CNBC to discuss the results and conducting follow-up interviews about the survey with major print and broadcast media. The survey is conducted each March, June, September, and December.
Results from the latest Duke University / CFO Magazine Business Outlook Survey were released September 10, 2008. This is the fiftieth consecutive quarter that the survey has been conducted. Among the industries represented in the survey are retail/wholesale, mining/construction, manufacturing, transportation/energy, communications/ media, technology and banking/finance/insurance.
For a complete report on the CFO Business Outlook Survey, please visit www.cfosurvey.org to review the report online.
The Duke MBA in the News
Across the country and around the world, The Duke MBA is making headlines. On September 15, Duke announced a new initiative to make Fuqua the "first legitimately global business school." If you missed the original webcast announcement, click here to view. Faculty members have also been interviewed in a number of media outlets regarding the current financial crisis. Click on the links below for some of the most recent news stories about our faculty and our program.
Headlines
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