Academics
The Foster School of Business at the University of Washington is a public business school that provides students with a transformative, inclusive education focusing on strategy and global business in the core curriculum while giving graduates “the ability to get what [they] want out of the program.” The school offers Full-Time, Evening, Executive, Technology Management, Global Executive, and Hybrid (mostly online) MBAs, all operating on the quarter system for a greater degree of customization. Even those in the full-time program find “the class hours are perfectly balanced,” and they can build out a personalized curriculum that lets them take electives to serve their career goals without being tied to a specific track. However, all students complete final core classes in ethics and macroeconomics and a summer internship or project. They must also compete in an MBA core case competition and take part in two international perspective and two practical experience activities, which can include courses and projects with actual businesses. Additionally, there are “significant opportunities to get involved with entrepreneurship, whether commercializing technology developed within research institutions, consulting projects with local entrepreneurs,” or the Center for Entrepreneurship, which hosts the annual Dempsey Startup Competition for $60,000 in prize money.
There is a “student-focused and student-led environment [that] is very palpable” at Foster because the school encourages proactivity from the start. As one student shares, “There is a shared expectation that you lean in and contribute to Foster, rather than always take take take.” As such, “work is done in groups for the most part” and “will definitely make you emphasize time management.” Seattle may be a business hotbed, but Foster offers a “small class culture in a booming city,” which “increases student learning and attention.” That means “learning is not only done in the classroom from teachers, but also from peers.” Still, the faculty are “incredibly engaged and care about student learning,” particularly in the core classes. “From finance and accounting, to ops and modeling, each core professor has far outperformed expectations,” says a student.
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