Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business

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Students Say - Academics
Situated near downtown Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business is "recognized by employers as the best quantitative MBA program in the country." Students are drawn to this school because of its "excellent quantitative reputation and core competencies in technology and entrepreneurship." One student captures the unique strengths of the school by describing it as "a small start-up with a tight-knit family, unparalleled intellect and bleeding-edge coursework that's going to change the game. Tepper channels and exemplifies the best reasons why you really want an MBA: genuinely relevant skillsâ€"not fluffâ€"that sharpen your blade and make you lethal in the business world." The school's approach can also be neatly summarized by its "Tepper 3C Philosophy: Content, Commitment, Community." The program works "on a mini-system" in which the "students have new classes every seven weeks" and partake in a program that is "fast-paced, yet flexible, and prepares one for the grind of professional life." Students praise how "The school goes out of its way to put business students together with engineering and design students." One student also notes that "Ethics is woven into almost every class, whether we talk about making certain OTC swap contracts in international finance or decide upon sustainable practices in operations." There is general agreement that "The small atmosphere at Tepper makes for an intimate learning environment plus a highly customizable experience." At the same time, several students point out that "although the school is small in class size…[s]tudy spaces and meeting rooms are hard to come by." The school's many assets include its "outstanding professors who teach from their own research" and "are very passionate about teaching and mentoring students. They make themselves available to students at any time not only for classes, but for career advice." In addition to a supportive faculty, students observe that "The administration is very responsive. Recently, they have deployed the ‘Think Big' feedback mechanism which allows students to offer instant suggestions for immediately improving aspects of the program."

Students Say - Admissions
Tepper's most recent application required two long essays on professional goals and contribution to the school's diversity. Applicants then answered three out of five short questions about professional background and personal character, with the option to include an additional essay.
Like many schools, Tepper staggers its admission deadlines. International students must apply no later than March. However, unlike at many schools, rolling admission is available after April for domestic candidates. Most successful applicants have undergraduate GPAs above 3.0 and GMAT scores above 700.

Students Say - Campus Life
The city of Pittsburgh is "affordable, and jam-packed with cultural attractions and an endless supply of nooks and crannies to explore." Because of the lack of "on-campus housing, almost all business students live in two surrounding neighborhoods. There is a collection of bars/restaurants/shopping in these areas so you feel very connected to your classmates both on campus and at home." Despite the challenging schedule and workload, "there are a good number of opportunities to socialize with classmates," especially because "Tepper has many great traditionsâ€"from our weekly satire magazine, to our bi-weekly B**rs social event hosted by clubs and companies." During the B**rs events, "students are able to eat and drink for free, as well as socialize with classmates and their spouses." Tepper attracts students who "tend to be very down-to-earth and humble" and who make up the "friendliest, most community-oriented group of MBAs you can imagine." According to one particularly enamored student, "If Tepper could bottle and sell the skills of my cohort, it would be the greatest business tool since the calculator." However, one student offers a slightly different viewpoint and cautions that most of the students "come from technical backgrounds, and so it is not an overwhelming amount of natural social butterflies."

Students Say - Careers
Students are generally pleased with Tepper's "excellent job placement record" as well as its "wonderful recruiting relationship with technology companies from around the world." The key to the school's success in recruiting and placement is its devoted alumni network. "Alumni from Tepper feel strongly about the school and are very bonded and willing to help current studentsâ€"this especially is something that Career Services has been able to exploit to help students in a very difficult job market." Offering an illustrative example, one student explained that "as internship recruiting started up and so many companies pulled back their recruiting, administration, faculty, and students utilized their connections in a concerted effort to provide internship recruiting opportunities which yielded another 100 percent placement of the 2010 class in the midst of a recession." Despite this excellent track record, students point out the need for improvement. "Being that Tepper is in Pittsburgh, PA, it seems hard to have companies on the West Coast (aside from Amazon.com) recruit at Tepper." Others feel that "recruiting is a little too concentrated in a few areas, namely operations research, IT consulting, and quantitative finance," and that although "the quality of companies is high (Amazon, McKinsey, Microsoft, etc.), and the salaries offered are competitive, the variety of employers and roles is not yet where it should be."

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