The Touch MBA Admissions Podcast

Beau Gresham, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Mastercard and NYU Stern MBA '20, shares his journey as an applicant, student, and alumni of NYU Stern. How did Beau transition from the military to consulting through the MBA? How was the NYU Stern Full-time MBA experience? How did Beau break into mergers & acquisitions consulting at Deloitte, and then land his current job at Mastercard? And how does Beau view the MBA three years after graduating? Topics Introduction (0:00) Beau's Background (4:00) Beau's MBA Application Journey & Lessons: School Selection, GMAT, Career Goals (6:30) MBA Application Resources for Military Veterans (20:30) Beau's #1 Tip: Finding "Champions" (23:30) Beau's NYU Stern MBA Experience (33:30) Breaking into Consulting- How Beau Landed his Internship & Job with Deloitte (39:00)  The NYU Stern Network in NYC & Study Abroad Trips (53:00) Beau's Post-MBA Career with Amazon & Deloitte (1:00:00) Advancing at Deloitte & Transitioning to Mastercard (1:07:00) Beau's Last Tips for Applicants (1:21:00) About Our Guest Beau Gresham is Director of Strategic Initiatives in Cybersecurity at Mastercard. Previously, Beau worked as a Senior Consultant & Manager in M&A Strategy for Deloitte. Prior to his MBA, Beau served in the US Army in a variety of leadership, operational and combat roles, including as a Company Commander in Afghanistan. Beau got his MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business with specializations in Finance, Strategy & Management, his Masters in Management and Leadership from Webster University and his Bachelors in Political Science & Government from the University of South Florida. He currently serves on the Stern Alumni Council. Show Notes Beau Gresham on LinkedIn Avanti Prep Admissions Consulting Team (mention Touch MBA + Beau Gresham) NYU Stern MBA Programs Hiring Our Heroes - Connecting Military to American Business Service to School - Helping Veterans Apply to Best College or Graduate School What's Next? A Military Veteran's Guide to Maximizing Your MBA by Matthew Cowsert Deloitte's CORE Leadership Program American Corporate Partners (ACP) Mentorship MBA Veterans Career Conference & Expo GMAT Club Panel on Breaking into Consulting, featuring Beau Gresham #136 Military to MBA to Management Consulting with Alex Tuininga, Harvard MBA ’18 Touch MBA's Admissions Edge Online Course Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA: https://touchmba.com  

Listeners share valuable application lessons on drawing a roadmap, prioritizing conversations, prematurely applying, and being strategic yet flexible. Insights on non-traditional applicants, school selection based on conversations, and adapting to the MBA journey.

Touch MBA's goal has always been to offer you evergreen content that will help you shortlist and get into best-fit MBA programs. We invite listeners to share lessons from their MBA application journeys not just on the podcast, but in written form, too. These short reflections are full of timeless application wisdom! Darren shares three lessons from three listeners that have stood the test of time: how to overcome working for a relatively unknown company, how to research and find best-fit b-schools, and how to deal with dings. Want to share your hard-earned application lessons? Contact us at https://touchmba.com/contact Topics Introduction (0:00) Working for an Unknown Company - Daming, Northwestern Kellogg MBA (4:30) Determining Best-Fit Schools - William, Texas McCombs MBA (10:30) Dealing with Dings - Bren, Emory Goizueta MBA (17:30) Show Notes My Application Journey - Touch MBA Listeners Share Hard-Earned Lessons Share Your Journey and Lessons Learned Admitted to Kellogg, Insead, Ross, Fuqua, Johnson – Here’s How I Did It I Got Into 8 Top MBA Programs; These Are My Top 3 Tips 2 Years, 8 Dings and 2 Scholarships Later  –  My Reflections on the MBA Application Process Touch MBA's Admissions Edge Online Course Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA: https://touchmba.com  

How are top business schools using the GMAT Focus exam, which will replace the GMAT in January 2024? What do you need to score and on which sections? Do schools prefer the GMAT, GMAT Focus, or GRE? Darren asks Admissions Directors from two top schools – Toronto Rotman (#1 in Canada by the Financial Times) and IESE (#1 in Spain by the Financial Times) – tough questions about the GMAT Focus test and GRE. Listen on to get your GMAT Focus questions answered and to understand how top b-schools use standardized test scores when making admissions decisions. Topics Introduction (0:00) Toronto Rotman MBA - Agnes Mak (4:20) IESE MBA - Tomofumi Nishida (30:20) About Our Guests Agnes Mak is the Assistant Director, Recruitment & Admissions managing the East Asia region for the Full-Time MBA program at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management. She has over 20 years of professional experience in higher education and business advisory. Prior to joining the University of Toronto, she was a Partner at KPMG Canada and held numerous leadership roles to attract and promote international talent. Tomofumi Nishida is Deputy Director (Asia, MBA Admissions) for IESE Business School, where he has been since 2016. Prior to IESE, Tomo worked for NTT DOCOMO as a strategic investment analyst and account manager in corporate sales. Tomo got his B.A. in Occidental History from the University of Tokyo and MBA from IESE. Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA: https://touchmba.com

Professor Adrian Buss, Associate Professor of Finance and Academic Director of MBA Programs at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, discusses what makes the Frankfurt School’s MBA unique, the school’s admissions process, career opportunities and more. Topics Introduction (0:00) Program Highlights – What Makes the Frankfurt School MBA Unique? (4:20) Frankfurt School MBA Admissions & Scholarships – How to Improve Your Chances? (20:45) Career Opportunities after Frankfurt School – What to Know & How to Prepare (36:15) About Our Guest Dr. Adrian Buss is Associate Professor of Finance and Academic Director of MBA Programs at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. Prior to joining the Frankfurt School, Adrian taught as an Associate Professor of Finance at Insead for over 10 years. Adrian graduated from the University of Mannheim with a Masters of Science in Mathematics and Business Informatics before getting his PhD in Finance at Goethe University Frankfurt. Show Notes Frankfurt School of Finance & Management MBA Program Touch MBA's Summary of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management Full-time MBA:  https://touchmba.com/frankfurt-school-finance-management-mba-program-admissions-interview-adrian-buss/ Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA: https://touchmba.com

Professor Wan Wongsunwai, Associate Dean of MBA Programmes and Director of MBA Programmes at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School, discusses what makes the CUHK MBA unique, the school's admissions process, career opportunities and more. Topics Introduction (0:00) Program Highlights - What Makes the CUHK MBA Unique? (4:30) CUHK MBA Admissions & Scholarships - How to Improve Your Chances? (27:30) Career Opportunities after CUHK Business School - What to Know & How to Prepare (47:20) About Our Guest Professor Wan Wongsunwai is Associate Dean of MBA Programmes and Director of MBA Programmes at CUHK Business School, where he has worked for over 7 years. His research interests include financial reporting quality, corporate governance, entrepreneurship and private equity. Before coming to CUHK, he taught and researched at Insead and Northwestern Kellogg Professor Wan earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics at Imperial College and later received his Doctor of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School. Prior to obtaining his doctoral degree, he worked at KPMG in London, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Hong Kong and then as an equity analyst with ABN AMRO Bank in Hong Kong, covering software and information technology. Show Notes CUHK Full-time MBA Touch MBA Episode write-up and overview of the CUHK Full-time MBA:  https://touchmba.com/chinese-university-of-hong-kong-cuhk-mba-program-admissions-interview-wan-wongsunwai Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA: https://touchmba.com

Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke Fuqua, talks about the unique features of the MBA program, admissions process, scholarships, and career opportunities. The podcast covers what sets Duke Fuqua apart, tips for improving admissions chances, and preparing for post-MBA careers

"We pride ourselves in being at the center of business and technology... We've asked employers, 'How would you describe our students?' and most often the words we get back are 'humble, hardworking and good problem solvers.' I think that's fantastic and that's how I would describe our students as well." Dr. Jonathan Clarke, Interim Dean at Georgia Tech's Scheller College of Business, discusses what makes the Scheller MBA unique, the school's admissions process, career opportunities and more. Topics Introduction (0:00) Program Highlights - What Makes the Georgia Tech Scheller MBA Unique? (4:00) Scheller MBA Admissions & Scholarships - How to Improve Your Chances? (17:20) Career Opportunities after Georgia Tech Scheller - What to Know & How to Prepare (32:20) About Jonathan Jonathan Clarke is Interim Dean and Associate Professor of Finance at Georgia Tech's Scheller College of Business. From 2012-2018, Dr. Clarke served as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs, where he helped raise the school's profile. Dr. Clarke was named to the Poets and Quants 2018 list of Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors, and also voted the 2009 and 2013 MBA Core Professor of the Year. He has taught custom programs for NCR, Clorox, Georgia Pacific, Lockheed Martin, and the National Football League. Dr. Clarke is on the board of the Eastern Finance Association, on the editorial board of The Financial Review, and edits the Handbook of Modern Finance. Dr. Clarke received his PhD from the Katz Graduate School of Business and the University of Pittsburgh and his undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Economics from Indiana University in Bloomington. Show Notes Georgia Tech Scheller Full-time MBA Program Tech Square Atlanta Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) - Georgia's technology business incubator Episode write-up and snapshot/stats of the Georgia Tech Scheller MBA: https://touchmba.com/georgia-tech-scheller-mba-program-admissions-interview-jonathan-clarke/ Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA: https://touchmba.com

Sue Oldham, Associate Dean at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management, discusses what makes the Vanderbilt MBA unique, the school's admissions process, career opportunities and more. Topics Introduction (0:00) Program Highlights - What Makes the Vanderbilt MBA Unique? (4:40) Vanderbilt MBA Admissions & Scholarships - How to Improve Your Chances? (19:30) Career Opportunities at Vanderbilt - What to Know & How to Prepare (39:45) About Sue Sue Oldham is Associate Dean at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management, where she is responsible for recruiting and admissions, enrollment management, academic and student affairs, and the career management center. Previously, she worked at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business as Executive Director of Recruiting & Admissions and Alumni Engagement. Before jumping into higher education, she worked over 10 years as a consultant. Sue got her B.A. in English from Rice and her MBA from Vanderbilt. Show Notes Vanderbilt MBA Vanderbilt's MBA Admissions 101 Webinar - Find the Next One Here Episode write-up and snapshot/stats of Vanderbilt MBA: https://touchmba.com/vanderbilt-mba-program-admissions-interview-sue-oldham Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA: https://touchmba.com

Shelly Heinrich, Associate Dean, MBA Admissions and Director of Marketing at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, discusses what makes the Georgetown MBA unique, the school's admissions process, career opportunities and more. Topics Introduction (0:00) Program Highlights - What Makes the Georgetown MBA Unique? (3:30) Georgetown MBA Admissions & Scholarships - How to Improve Your Chances? (23:00) Career Opportunities at Georgetown - What to Know & How to Prepare (45:00) About Shelly Shelly Heinrich is Associate Dean of MBA Admissions and Director of Marketing for Georgetown's University McDonough School of Business. Previously, she worked as a Client Services Director for Wunderman Thompson and Young & Rubicam. Shelly got her EMBA from Georgetown and her Masters in Education from the University of Texas at Austin. Show Notes Georgetown MBA Episode write-up and snapshot/stats of Georgetown MBA: https://touchmba.com/georgetown-mba-program-admissions-interview-shelly-heinrich Get free, personalized school selection help at Touch MBA: https://touchmba.com