Wednesday, August 22, 2012

And Let the New Semester Begin

Classes started on Monday. The month of August is intense in the Walton Graduate School of Business. We are finalizing our fall classes and conducting all of the new student orientations. Deb and I also made a quick trip to Las Vegas last week to attend the ALPFA conference. Today was the annual fall welcome back Block Party. This is a fun event where students can grab a bite to eat and talk to staff and students from many organizations on campus.
Final application deadline for the Walton MBA is September 15. This program begins each January and is completed in 3 semesters and 16 months. Learn more at http://gsb.uark.edu/mba and our application requirements are at http://gsb.uark.edu/admissions.asp.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Teams at Work

New Walton MMBA students are working in teams today during orientation. Tomorrow they will compete in a case competition.







MMBA Orientation

We are in Day Three of our part-time MBA program orientation. This program is designed for very busy working professionals. It is completed in two years by taking six hours a semester for six semesters. Students are in class in Fayetteville only one Saturday each month. You can learn more about this opportunity as well as see the schedule for the upcoming academic year at http://gsb.uark.edu/mmba.

The Walton MMBA starts each August with a four day orientation. This year's schedule looks like this:

Thursday, August 2
7:45-breakfast and pictures for meetbook
8:15-welcome by Dean Eli Jones
8:30-introduction of GSB staff by MBA Director Vikas Anand
8:40-icebreaker
10:30-break
10:45-technology training
12:00-lunch with current students and alumni
1:30-program overview
2:00-orientation to online learning
2:30-break
2:45-lecture-introduction to value chain-Dr. Vikas Anand
3:30-lecture-continue topic-Dr. Jeff Murray
5:00-dismiss

Friday-August 3
7:30-breakfast
8:00-lecture-continue topic-Dr. Chris Hofer
10:00-break
10:15-Walton Career Center
10:45-introduction of fall professors
11:30-lunch at Union and student ID's
1:00-lecture-continue topic-Dr. Jason Arentz
3:00-break
3:15-case overview-Dr. Chris Hofer
4:00-hand out competition case
4:30-dismiss
5:00-7:00-networking event at Powerhouse Seafoof & Grill

Saturday, August 4
7:45-breakfast
8:00-case competition rules and team assignments
8:15-case preparation
12:00-lunch
5:00-case presentations due

Sunday, August 5
8:00-breakfast and presentation order revealed
8:30-heat 1
9:10-heat 2
9:50-heat 3
10:30-heat 4
11:10-judges deliberate
11:30-lunch and judges decision revealed
12:30-final round of competition
2:00-judges deliberate and winner announced

This class consists of 55 outstanding students. They work at Walmart, Tyson, JB Hunt, Sam's Club, Coke, Nielsen, Nabholz Construction, ABF, Pfizer, Cobb-Vantress, Kimberly Clark, Johnson&Johnson, Arkansas Electric, the US Military, Fastenal, Fidelity National, and many more.

They attended college at The Ohio State University, BYU, Texas A&M, UofA, Oklahoma State, Miami Univ, SMU, Louisiana Tech, North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Georgia Tech, Villanova, Texas Christian, Westpoint, and many more.

If you want to become a part of the next class, early application deadline is April 1, 2013 and final deadline is July 1, 2013. Application requirements can be found at http://gsb.uark.edu/admissions.asp. Email questions to gsb@walton.uark.edu.