The Prospective Panel: Judging B-school's Diversity Events 2004-2005
by Shaquita Murphy

Spending time with the Fuqua Family

The NetWork taps prospective MBAS to give their take on minority recruitment events at various B-schools across the country.

Shaquita Murphy's Verdict:

Fuqua Alum Owen Mays said it best- “Every pot has a lid. You need to find your lid”. It is easy to identify which programs produce the most finance or marketing grads and which programs have a higher average starting salary. However diversity events provide an opportunity for minority applicants to witness firsthand the relationships between students, alumni, and faculty.

B-School #1: Fuqua School of Business, Duke MBA Minority Workshop, November 18-21, 2004
Overall Experience: Wonderful (Glad that I applied!!)
The Plus: The people
The Minus: Admissions presentation was a little intimidating

The weekend’s events began as soon as we arrived on Thursday. Students were able to participate in class visits and tours of Fuqua. I attended a class in corporate financial reporting taught by professor C.J. Skendler. The class was phenomenal! Dr. Skendler began the class with “Name that Tune” and performed a short dance to the Temptations before delving into the grade distribution of their last exams. And I actually learned something about accounting, which is an accomplishment in itself. Later that evening, the current students asked the admissions committee to leave and held an informal Q&A session. Fuqua also assigned all attendees a student mentor just in case you had any questions that you felt uncomfortable asking in front of the entire group. During the course of 4 days, however, many of us developed informal mentoring relationships with other Duke students and alumni.

Current Student Gary Kirton and Prospective Quincy Monk during lunch at Maggiano's


Prospective Students Maleika, Shivika, Emilio, Tiffany, and Shaquita

Friday and Saturday were filled with information sessions on topics such as admissions, financial aid, alumni career panels, career services, and even the unique health sector management program. Emphasis was placed on the quantitative score on the GMAT and fulfilling Fuqua’s requirement of receiving a ‘C’ or higher in a college-level calculus class prior to admissions and I have to be honest in saying that this frightened many of the applicants, some of which discussed delaying their application another year. Fortunately, later presentations and conversations revealed that the admissions committee does understand the trends in GMAT scores among minority applicants and stressed the importance of every piece of the application puzzle. During the workshop, we participated in a case discussion and watched the annual BLMBAO (Black and Latino MBA Organization) Case Competition. I was truly amazed to see the skill and insight that these first year students had already acquired. The evenings were capped with parties, with one member of the faculty offering dance lessons during Friday night’s salsa party.

Suggestions: I realize that this was a weekend for minorities, but I would have liked more interaction with students of all ethnicities.

Overall: The one thing that stood out during the weekend was the family like relationship between the students, the staff, and the alumni. Alumni from all over the country participated during the workshop and I was surprised to find that first year students were all ready friends with alumni.

A group of Fuqua Weekend participants from last year's Workshop (2003)

The director of admissions, Liz Riley, spoke of the concern that both students and alumni had during difficult times in her personal life. Second year student Crystal Hardie remarked that “during the last 1 ½ years at Fuqua, the line between friends and family has somehow become erased.”

Editor's Note: MBADiversity is proud to announce that Shaquita Murphy was accepted into Fuqua School of Business at Duke as well as Stanford Graduate School of Business for the Class of 2007.

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Glory Alcantara gives her verdict on:
Indiana University, Kelley In Focus weekend, Oct. 8-10 and Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, Inclusiveness Weekend, December 3-4

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