DELVE DEEPER
WITH AN MBA FROM SCHULICH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Already lauded as one of the top master of business administration (MBA) programs in the world, York University’s undertaking is providing students with even more flexibility, convenience and choice.
That’s because in addition to being offered at the Keele Street campus, the full-time MBA can now be completed at the Schulich School of Business’s downtown Toronto location. Situated in the heart of the city’s financial district, the campus is facilitating a combined day and evening format of the MBA program, with the next cohort starting in January 2016.
Ryan Silva, chief administrative officer at CIBC Mellon, completed Schulich’s part-time MBA program with a specialization in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial studies in 2012. He studied at the downtown location and says not only was it accessible (the campus is a five-minute walk from the King, Union and St. Andrew TTC subway stations), but it also allowed for a unique learning experience.
“Classrooms at the downtown location can only accommodate about 30 people so the dynamic is different than lecture halls of 150 people,” Silva says. “Students can get really engaged and professors can delve a lot deeper, so you get depth of convo, as well as more interaction with your fellow peers.”
It, however, wasn’t just Schulich’s convenient downtown location that sold Silva on the program when he made the transition from manufacturing to the financial sector and decided an MBA would help advance his career. He also saw the offering’s quality reflected in its diverse student population.
“I think one of the things that led to my success was that I got to apply a lot of the things that we studied, whether through marketing classes or certain strategy courses, into my work life right away.”
– Ryan Silva, chief administrative officer at CIBC Mellon, and Schulich School of Business graduate
“I went to an info session and one of the things the person who was presenting highlighted was that in any given classroom more than half of the people hold a different passport in addition to a Canadian one,” he says. “Given the environment we are in, I wanted my studies to mirror a global perspective, so it was a compelling factor.”
It’s no surprise that Schulich attracts students from across the world, as its MBA offers 20 different areas of specialization, multiple start dates and scheduling choices (students can study year-round, in the fall, winter and summer or take a term off), as well as the ability to switch between full- and part-time study from semester to semester to accommodate lifestyle and career needs.
No matter the option a student chooses, the Schulich MBA experience offers a real-world experience that Silva attributes to the experts who deliver course material to students.
“I would argue that it’s one thing for professors who are PhDs to teach you about negotiations, for example, and it’s another thing for a person who is a senior partner at a law firm to,” he says. “You get that element at Schulich because you are taught by people who have sat at the table for some intense negotiations.”
The real world is also brought into Schulich’s MBA classes through guest speakers and application of theory that includes group projects. In fact, students conclude the offering with the Schulich 601, a full-year strategy field study course that represents the culmination of the Schulich MBA academic experience. Silva says such realistic approaches were so valuable that he still remembers them years after graduating.
“I can almost recite one of my projects word for word three years later, whereas in my undergrad I would have a hard time telling you about the project a month after it was done. I think one of the things that led to my success was that I got to apply a lot of the things that we studied, whether through marketing classes or certain strategy courses, into my work life right away.”
It is essential, however, Silva says, for program applicants to remember that their time in Schulich’s MBA will be maximized by how engaged they are in their classes as opposed to focusing on the end result.
“Don’t think, ‘I’m going to pay my tuition, sit in class, get the three letters and change industries.’ My experience is that you’re going to get out of it what you put into it.”
Forbes magazine recently ranked the Schulich School of Business No. 1 in Canada in post-MBA return on investment among all one-year and two-year MBA programs. In terms of two-year MBA programs, Schulich was among the leading schools worldwide in the five-year MBA gain category. Meanwhile, in the years to payback category — the length of time it takes a business school’s graduates to recoup their investment in an MBA degree — Schulich ranked No. 1 in the world.
For more information, please visit schulich.yorku.ca.