Vanderbilt University - Owen Graduate School of Management

The Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management in Nashville offers a range of management education options to accommodate professionals at all stages of their career. The traditional two-year MBA program is a full-time, on-campus option that features a core curriculum of management classes and a summer internship after the first year. These classes incorporate a high level of practical learning, “an element of group assignments,” and real-world projects. They also work on a modular academic calendar, wherein students take seven-week intense courses followed by an exam week. While these modules “definitely feel like sprints where each class is packed with a firestorm of information,” students find that “the pace is fast but manageable.” That may be because, while students are required to complete a concentration in order to graduate—choosing from Brand Management, Corporate Finance, Human and Organization Performance, and Investment Management—they are given freedom as early as the second module of their first year. This allows them to customize their curriculum with electives of personal interest and to take cross-disciplinary courses at Vanderbilt’s other graduate schools, which can make the work more engaging and therefore more motivating to complete.

At Vanderbilt, class sizes “are small enough to get to know everyone in your class and those the year above and below you,” and “the collaborative nature of the work” is one of students’ favorite aspects of their time here, as it helps to “get comfortable with communicating and working with other people with various styles.” To further those skills, there are “opportunities to lead and work on teams because of the class size,” with many here treating club leadership positions “very much like a full-time job.” Overall, Vanderbilt offers “a rigorous, high quality, yet personal education in a vibrant location” where “professors know your name [and] you get individualized attention/development.” As one student puts it, “You have every opportunity to learn, lead, and grow.”

Each student is expected to spend their first summer at Vanderbilt in an internship, which is an automatic career jumpstart. The school has “wide recognition … as a highly reputable academic school,” which helps a student’s odds of landing a job from that first position: 50 percent of the most recent class returned from their internship with a job offer. Similarly, the Career Management Center has “strong recruiting partnerships” and arranges for students to visit with executives and alumni in cities across the country in order to get firsthand experience and explore job options. These opportunities include programs such as Wall Street Week, Consulting Trek, and Day in the Bay: San Francisco. There are also career-focused short courses such as Brand Week, a Real Estate Capstone, and structured trips to major international business cities. As for alumni, they are “extremely helpful and want to see the current students succeed.” One enrollee shares, “It makes you want to give back if you are lucky enough to be in the position” to “advise on what should be the best career path.”

Nashville is “a great city with plenty to do,” but students often stick close to Owen, as “the school does a great job of providing opportunities to stay engaged and build community.” And even though Fridays are considered part of the weekend, “they are typically spent in Owen doing work and preparing for Mondays.” Group projects automatically build connections between students, but the school also has “a plethora of clubs,” many social activities, and “a thing to do every night if you want.” One student says, “Between companies hosting recruiting events, Vanderbilt sporting events, and club/social activities, you will never be bored at Owen.” Even with so much going on, peers here are “eager to help one another,” and the general culture is one of “cooperation, teamwork, and making sure that the business school experience isn't a zero-sum game.” To give everyone equal opportunity, the school is “extremely welcoming to partners [of students] and seeks to intentionally include them in events and clubs.” This leads to a “small-town feeling amongst the students” that is helped even more by “fun schoolwide events like our crawfish boil and bubbly brunch that bring together the whole school.” Another attendee shares, “From the professors to your fellow classmate's pets, everyone gets to know everyone.” To that end, Vanderbilt works with the goal of promoting “network building among the various schools,” and there is also an “amazing library with enough study rooms and study space for everyone.”