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(4.8) |
At first when I was applying to schools, I read 'collaborative culture on almost all school websites. Frankly I wasn't impressed with the hype around collaborative culture and thought to myself "does it really matter?". However, after coming to Smith, I truly understand how culture makes a difference. I have spoken to people from various schools including Fisher. Culture makes a lot of difference to your school experience and experience is what matters in an MBA. My favorite aspects about Smith are:
- Collaborative culture
- diversity (we have people for 20+ nationalities)
- faculty
- curriculum is data analytics focussed
- Dingman center is great if you can leverage it
Having said that there's are some cons:
- DC is not the place for internationals to find sponsored jobs
- the office of career services is not that strong. Has local contacts only.
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Great school for domestic applicants as there are ample career opportunities.
International students here need to work their network but the location plays an advantageous role in that aspect. Being close to a metro provides lots of opportunities for international students as they get easy access to a plethora of companies. Most of the schools in United States are facing the issue of companies retreating from sponsoring international students and being close to a metro hub proves helpful. With plenty of startups gaining ground in DC area, there are ample opportunities for those looking for a career in startups too.
The school tends to foster a strong entrepreneurial culture.
Various clubs and activities foster a very strong student body and the relatively small class size is close knit. Everyone is willing to support each other and the school is really collaborative. The administrative staff deserves a special shout out for the amazing job that they do here and provide a very strong support to students.
Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
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The school's culture is very collaborative. There is a strong sense of community. The program has a very tight knit cohort. The small class size provides lots of leadership opportunities and better interactions with the cohort, the faculty and the staff. The class room culture is very collaborative.
There are a lot of employers on campus and many domestic students get multiple job offers whereas very few of those companies coming on campus hire international students. Most of these companies do not sponsor international students and that is a major disadvantage for both the students and the school. Students have to go through their network to get a job which takes a lot of focus away from academia while Smith's ranking takes a hit as almost 38% of the class comprises of International students.
This is the only disadvantage of the school but a bit of that is made up for by proximity to DMV area which has lots of employers.
Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
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Smith has great professors and coursework. Especially the core courses are amazing with so much learning in a short time. There are all types of courses such as theoretical, practical and real-time with the right mixture. SmithX courses are real-time and provide in-depth understanding of the concepts already learnt in school.
Career Services is very good in terms of helping students prepare for the interviews. They do organize lot of alumni networking events where we get a chance to meet lot of people in our area of interest. Also, we have mock-interviews with alumni which helps a lot in developing our interviewing skills. When it comes to on campus jobs - there are not many opportunities for international students. We need to work hard outside school in order to get placed.
Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
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A lot of diversity in this closely knit community. Smith has one of the smaller class sizes at roughly 100 students per class which makes it a lot easier for everyone to get to know one another. This makes it possible for Smith MBAs to get to know many of their classmates intimately and helps reinforce Smith’s “Terps Helping Terps” philosophy.
I would advise future candidates to be in touch with Smith through as many avenues as possible to explore whether Smith is a good fit for them.With so much emphasis on networking throughout the MBA experience, you want to join a program where interacting with your peers feels natural and fun, rather than forced and transactional.
Be yourself. Admissions wants to build a diverse class of smart and interesting people who come from different backgrounds, so there is no reason to try to fit a certain mold or be someone who you are not.
PS: If you're an introvert, go for this school!!! The small class size and the collaborative culture will make the MBA journey a fruitful and more experiential than you would otherwise get elsewhere.
Also PS: If you're an extrovert, go for this school!! The small class size will let you shine even more!
Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
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SmithX Courses : One of the real time courses at Smith is the SmithX program. There are atleast couple types of SmithX courses in every track. The one I took was with the digital innovation department where we consult a startup on the Google Analytics and adwords platform to increase customer base and sales of the company. It was a fun and exciting course with lots of learning.
Student Body and Support: Another quality that I like about Smith is its closely knit community where everyone support each other. The class strength is close to 100 and so everyone gets to know each other. Let it be group projects, class team work or any other external competitions - we all support and help each other and this is what makes the school special.
Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
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Curriculum, Classes, Professors - Great coursework and professors in most of the departments especially in marketing and finance.
Student body, diversity - Program is very diverse. We had classmates from 30 different countries who helped each other though out the coursework.
Career opportunities provided by school - This is one item that's lacking in our school. We do have good career coaches who help us prepare for our career but there are not many on-campus opportunities. We need to work hard outside of school especially in various networking events to get interviews. One good opportunity that the career services provides is that we have alumni coming up to school every now and then to take mock interviews. This would help us be prepared for real interviews.
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The program has a very tight knit cohort. The small class size lets you get more learning opportunities, leadership opportunities and better interactions with the cohort, the faculty and the staff. There is a strong sense of community. The class room culture is very collaborative while the faculty are very knowledgable. The school offers a breadth of electives to shape your profile. The office of career services provides enough support to build your profile and prepare for an interview. It brings in a good number of employers who hire the domestic students however the international candidates are at the big disadvantage as there are very few employers willing to sponsor them. As an international student, this is the only thing I would change about the program. Otherwise it is exceptional!
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