Vol. 2, No. 1, Fall 2006
| Simon Graduate School of Business Competition The Simon Graduate School of Business is in its second year of a very innovative competition designed to recruit the best students to its graduate program. On September 25, 2006, the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration launched a scholarship competition that utilizes the Marketplace simulation as a unique method for identifying MBA candidates with potential for successful careers in business. This competition allows participants to demonstrate their business savvy and is used in addition to standard admissions criteria in order to award scholarships to qualified individuals. The winner of the competition will receive a full scholarship to the Simon School valued at over $70,000. Several partial scholarships ranging from 25% to 75% will also be awarded. In the first round of the 2006 competition, 80 participants played the Marketplace Introduction to Marketing simulation, against the computer. This year’s group contained more women, more US applicants and more people from the Rochester area than last year. Twenty-five participants moved on to the second round where they played the Integrated Business Management game. The top 15 players will be invited to Rochester on January 12th, 2007 for a presentation round where they will have to report on and defend their strategy and tactics before a panel of judges. Dawn McWilliams, Simon School Executive Director of Marketing and Communications, is very pleased with the results of the competition. One of the winners from last year’s competition will start in the MBA program in the fall of 2007. One of the 50% winners started in the Executive MBA program in the fall of 2006 and two of the 25% winners also started in the MS in Marketing program. Even if the participants did not win, they are signing up for the Simon School MBA. Two started in the fall and two more plan to begin in January 2007. It is also interesting how participation in the competition is causing the school to expand its admission criteria. For example, two participants would not have been considered for the MBA program. However, based upon their performance in the competition, in addition to other criteria, they were admitted to the MBA program. Going forward, Dawn expects to greatly expand the program. She frequently promotes the competition when she visits schools that feed into the Simon Graduate Program. Dawn is getting media coverage for the school and all school applicants and visitors to their web site are encouraged to join in on the fun. To keep the hype building, they post the results of each quarter of play on the School’s web site. It is hard to not be excited about the competition and the Simon Graduate School of Business.
Marketplace Community Newsletter, issued quarterly. www.marketplace-simulation.com |
back
to top
Previous
Article