Experiential learning is one of the top opportunities MBA students look for in a program. It's often highly touted by business schools, but what does that experience really look like?
At the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, the MBA experience connects the business world to the classroom. Under the guidance of industry experts, students gain hands-on experience and make a significant difference for real-world clients.
These opportunities not only build resumes, but build relationships with companies, acting as a springboard for a career. Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, within months of graduating from the Carlson School, 95% of 2021 full-time MBA graduates were was working or had offers and 84% of 2021 part-time MBA graduates made a major job change.
Greater commitment to hands-on experience
The Carlson School integrates experiential learning opportunities into the core of its full-time MBA and Management Science programs, requiring students to participate in one of four Business programs. Each Business has a dedicated faculty and makes up eight units of the FTMBA workload – a greater commitment to hands-on learning than most business schools.
- Carlson Brand Enterprise: Students consult for a real client by analyzing and proposing marketing strategies. Past clients include Target, 3M, Polaris, Boston Scientific and Land O'Lakes. These companies and others have hired students from the program.
- Carlson Ventures Enterprise: Students research, validate and implement strategies to help entrepreneurs grow their business or help established companies explore new ideas.
- David S. Kidwell Funds Enterprise: Funds Enterprise is the largest student managed investment fund in the US with more than $50 million in assets. As an asset management firm, students are responsible year-round for portfolio management activities.
- Carlson Consulting Enterprise: Students evaluate and develop new business strategies for nonprofits at Fortune 500 companies.
The work in these programs is more than just a class project, as students strive to make a real impact. At Carlson Consulting Enterprise, a team that included student veterans worked with Outward Bound USA to optimize the business strategy for their experiential outdoor education program for military veterans. The project combined the students' passion to help fellow veterans by gaining industry experience.
“Having the opportunity to practice putting into practice the theory and training we receive in the classroom while working with a client on a project that really matters to them is extremely unique,” said Joe Crawford, MBA '22, a Navy veteran. “Coming out of the military with no prior work experience, I knew this immersive experience was something that would be unmatched.”
Development of innovations in the field of health
The Carlson School is ranked among the top healthcare MBA programs. Companies such as Boston Scientific and Medtronic regularly hire graduates from the Carlson School.
In the Medical Industry Leadership Institute Evaluation Lab (MILI VL) students complete market assessments for medical innovations. Since the program's inception in 2008, more than 400 projects have been completed for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to startups.
For the past five years, the students have worked with medical technology startup Urinary Technologies Corp. to provide meaningful market and product research to develop a faster and more accurate diagnostic test for urinary tract infections.
“Analyzing them was critical to the development process because you want to make sure you're building something where there's a demand,” said Mike Finch, UTC CEO. “Students focused on specific questions to determine what this product should really look like and what the requirements are to meet this broader market need.”
Collaboration across disciplines
The New Product Design and Business Development (NPDBD) course offers a unique collaboration between mechanical engineering students and business graduate students to develop and commercialize a new product. For more than 20 years, students have worked on devices for companies including 3M, Medtronic, Boston Scientific and TORO. As emerging business leaders, MBA students learn how to understand customer needs and work with designers to create a solution.
M Environmental Engineering professor Paige Novak worked with Carlson School MBA students at NPDBD on a pilot project at Fulton Brewing to determine a more cost-effective way to treat wastewater from the brewing process. The students' research helped Novak determine applications for the technology in other industries and markets. The findings also helped lay the groundwork to help her secure a grant from the Department of Energy to refine the project to implementation.
Jordan Freitag, MBA '21, said the NPDBD course gave him the opportunity to apply the concepts he learned throughout the MBA program – such as strategy, marketing and finance – to a real-world project with real results, not just theoretical cases.
“From working with engineers, conducting user interviews, or trying to master the basics of an entirely new technology in a few weeks, this class and project pushed me in ways that others hadn't,” Freitag said. “Overall, this was the most valuable experience I had during my MBA, and it taught me things I use every day in my product management career.”
Invaluable industry experience
Hands-on learning opportunities at the Carlson School allow students to develop creative solutions to real-world problems facing companies, nonprofits, and startups. Students enrich their skills while gaining the experience needed to make an immediate impact in their chosen field.
“Being able to gain industry experience, especially through Enterprises, really sets Carlson apart,” said Linda Nkosi, '22 MBA. “I'm learning new contexts, but it still feels like I'm at work. So you feel connected to your pre-MBA life while still connected to your studies and building a network for post-MBA.”
The Carlson School's deep commitment to experiential learning equips students with practical skills and industry knowledge to solve today's problems and become the business leaders of tomorrow.
