Where has the summer gone?

I can't believe it is already June 30. Today I will be running my year-end reports. This is when I see if all of my hard work has paid off. From my prospective student data base, I will run reports for each of our master's and PhD degree programs. I then compare these numbers with those from last year. In a perfect world, I will see an increase in prospects for all programs. Cross your fingers.

July is around the corner, literally. July 10th we are hosting our second annual Summer MBA Open House and Social. We held this summer event for the first time last year and were pleased with the success. I am hoping it's even better this year. The Open House will be at 5:30 in 403 Willard J. Walker Hall. This portion of the evening is for any prospective MBA student. We will explain the admissions process and then go into detail about each of our MBA programs. The Summer Social will be 6-8 at Powerhouse-a great restaurant located just off Dickson, which happens to be just down the street from Willard J. Walker Hall. As soon as we are finished with the Open House, we will join the Social already in progress. The Social is for current, former, new, and prospective MBA students. This is a great chance to get a good "feel" for the Walton College and our MBA. It also gives our current students a chance to hang out and enjoy each other's company away from an academic setting. We will be hosting this event each semester also.

At the end of July and into August we will be conducting all of our new student Orientations. My colleague, Deb Williams, spearheads these events but we all chip in to welcome our new students and to make sure everything runs smoothly. Here is a schedule:

July 30 - Master of Arts in Economics, PhD Accounting, PhD Economics, and PhD Finance
August 10 - Master of Information Systems (full and part-time)
August 13-16 - Managerial MBA
August 18-19 - Master of Accountancy
August 20 - PhD Information Systems, PhD Management, PhD Marketing

Classes begin August 24. It'll be here before we know it.

Tears for Life Wins Again

Tears for Life and their faculty mentor, Carol Reeves, have won the 2009 John A. White Award for Faculty-Student Collaboration. This partnership has won or placed in five business plan competitions across the country, earning more than $85,000.

The team includes three students pursuing a Managerial MBA — Jared Greer, Bessie Williams, and Chris Elizer — and an honors undergraduate student, Jordan Greer.

The students’ company, Tears for Life LLC, is a medical diagnostic equipment company that is licensing technology from the University of Arkansas for Medical Science. The UAMS diagnostic equipment tests for proteins found in tears to detect breast cancer. UAMS Bio Ventures — as well as more than 15 business people — advised the team on its plan.

This spring the Tears of Life team won first place and $25,000 in the Donald W. Reynolds Tri-State Cup and $1,000 for graduate elevator pitch in Las Vegas; first runner-up and $5,000 and first place for best presentation in the Superbowl of business plan competitions, the Global Moot Corp Competition at the University of Texas; first place and $10,000 and second place in trade show at University of Cincinnati Spirit of Enterprise MBA Business Plan Competition; first place and $20,000 at Tulane University Business Plan Competition; and first place graduate, $20,000 and $5,000 innovation award at the 2009 Arkansas Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup.

Follow me on Twitter

As I have mentioned before, Twitter was the next "thing I needed to get started" and that I was hoping to learn more about it and what other MBA programs were doing at the conference last week. Well, it was clear to me - Twitter is "it" right now. So, I took a deep breath and then just jumped in.

You can follow me on Twitter at WaltonMBA. And yes, I am tweeting. I have become a tweeter. You can't say "tweet" without smiling. It's just not possible.

Walton MBA Summer Internship Update

Over the summer, between their first and second semesters (remember, our MBA program begins in spring), Walton MBA students either study abroad or do an internship. It was much more challenging this year, nationwide, for MBAs to find summer internships. Many companies are laying off and experiencing hiring freezes; they certainly are not hiring interns. I know I keep saying this, but, here in Northwest Arkansas we are very lucky. We do currently have a few students doing unpaid internships but ALL of our students have found placement for the summer. This experience plays a vital role in their success in securing placement upon graduation. The internship component of the Walton MBA curriculum has proven to be quite valuable.

Walton MBAs are studying abroad in Greece, Brazil, and China this summer. Stacy Carty, who is blogging for us, is interning in Dublin, Ireland. Keep up with her adventures - link to the right.

Internship sites include: Hershey, Tyson, CEA, Diodes, Peekaboo, City of Fayetteville, Arkansas World Trade Center, Frito Lay, Foundations Resource Mgt, Applied Sustainability Center-UofA, Wonder State, Destinations, Frost PLLC, JB Hunt, Kellogg, Saatchi & Saatchi X, Dial, Dannon, and Land O'Lakes.

Final application deadline for this amazing MBA, is September 15.

Summer has arrived in Northwest Arkansas

I grew up in Oklahoma and there is a saying there, "if you don't like the weather, stick around for 5 minutes and it will change." Well, the same saying holds true for Arkansas. In this area of the country, we do have a variety of weather. It wasn't that long ago that I was talking about all of the rain we have been getting. In fact, last week when I left for Baltimore it was still relatively cool here - in the 70s and 80s. I am not sure what happened but when I came back from the east coast (where it was raining by the way - maybe it's me), summer had arrived in Fayetteville. Today it is expected to be in the 90s. Just to let you know, it will reach triple digits here - usually the high is about 102 degrees. August is our hottest month with July right behind. We are moving into the part of the summer where we either stay inside where it is cool or we are in the water somewhere - floating one of the many rivers in the area or boating on Beaver Lake. The hottest part of the summer is over then in September so it is short heat wave. We can be thankful that it isn't months and months long.

Along with the heat that summer brings, we also have summer television. For those of you reading this from outside of this country, during the summer the popular television series do not show new episodes. Instead, we get repeats and then quirky, sometimes odd, "summer" TV. These programs only occur over the summer. For instance, America's Got Talent started last night as did Superstars. These are both reality shows and there are several others that are very similar. Most people don't watch much TV in the summer, preferring instead to be outside. I have a confession to make. I LOVE So You Think You Can Dance. I know I have mentioned this before but it is on tonight and I am really looking forward to it. It started a few weeks ago and now it is well into the competition. It is the highlight of awful summer television for me.

So, now you know what summer in Arkansas means to me - heat, the lake, and So You Think You Can Dance. I am not complaining, sounds pretty good to me.

Good news - our MBA graduates are getting jobs!

My return trip from Baltimore went beautifully on Saturday. I had no difficulties whatsoever. I was out of the office yesterday, recovering from the trip, enjoying my kids, and celebrating my 18th wedding anniversary. I am back in the office today and frantically working through emails and seeing students. Being away is great, but it is so hard to get caught back up again.

I wanted to share with you the latest data from the Walton Career Development Center.

• At graduation, the MBA class of 2009 had a placement percentage of 72%-up from 68% last year.
• 80% were employed one month post graduation.
• When compared to students’ original salaries upon entry into the MBA program, the class average increase in salary, of employed students at graduation, is $28,218 – 84% average increase in salary.

When you are choosing your MBA program, placement is extremely important. Here is further evidence that a Walton MBA is a wise investment:

CAREER FAIR ATTENDEES
· ABF Freight System, Inc.
· Acosta Sales and Marketing
· Acxiom
· Aetna
· Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield
· Arkansas Department of Information Systems
· Arkansas State Bank Department
· Arvest Bank
· AT&T Mobility
· Baldor
· Becker CPA Review
· BNSF Logistics / BNSF Railway
· BOSC, Inc.
· Bridgestone/Firestone
· Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals
· BTX Air
· Buckle, Inc.
· C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc.
· Campbell Soup Company
· Carlton-Bates
· CaseStack, Inc.
· CED
· Cherokee Nation Enterprises
· Cintas Corp.
· Colgate - Palmolive
· ConAgra Foods
· ConocoPhillips
· CROSSMARK
· Data-Tronics Corp.
· Defense Contract Audit Agency
· Deloitte Consulting
· Deltic Timber Corporation
· Dillard's
· Dillard's - Fayetteville
· Eli Lilly & Co
· Enterprise Rent-A-Car
· Epes Carriers, Inc.
· Fairkeep Products
· Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
· FedEx Freight
· Firestone Complete Autocare
· Forest Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
· GDH Consulting
· General Mills
· Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
· Hallmark
· Hershey Company
· Hilti, Inc.
· Internal Revenue Service
· International Paper Company
· J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc.
· JCPenney
· Johnson and Johnson
· Kellogg Company
· Kimberly-Clark
· Knight Transportation
· LinkAmerica Corporation
· Lowe's
· Marine Corps Officer Selection
· Marshalltown Tools
· Marten Transport Ltd.
· Maverick Transportation, LLC
· Melton Truck Lines
· Mission Data International
· Murphy Oil
· Nebraska Book Company
· Nestle Purina PetCare
· Nestle USA
· Nielsen Company
· Northwestern Mutual Financial Network
· Nucor-Yamato Steel
· Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
· Pepsi
· Rockfish Interactive
· Saatchi & Saatchi X
· Sam's Club
· Sears Holdings Corporation
· Sherwin-Williams
· Southeastern Freight Lines
· Southwestern Energy Company
· State Farm Insurance
· Target Distribution
· Target Stores
· Teradata
· Thrivent Financial
· Tower Loan
· Transplace
· Tyson Foods, Inc.
· U of A Operations Management Program
· U.S. Border Patrol
· Unilever
· University Directories
· University of Arkansas at Little Rock
· USA Truck, Inc.
· Walgreens
· Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
· Walton College Graduate School of Business
· Webster University
· Wells Fargo Financial
· WESCO Distribution, Inc.
· Wyeth Consumer Healthcare

ON-CAMPUS INTERVIEWS
Fall 2008
· Nucor-Yamato Steel
· Wal-Mart
· Beall Barclay
· Goodyear
· Tyson
· Colgate Palmolive
· C.H. Robinson Worldwide
· Ernst & Young
· Nestle Purina
· Deloitte
· Kimberly Clark
· BKD
· MBA Mock Interview
· Data-Tronics
· Conoco Phillips
· Hilti
· JPMS
· Pepsi
· Office of the Comptroller of Currency
· M.S. Frost
· PriceWaterhouseCoopers
· ABF Freight
· Erwin & Co
· ABF-Econ
· Saatchi
· Walgreens
· Sherwin Williams
· Grant Thornton
· KPMG
· Stephens
· Rubbermaid
· Hallmark
· The Nielsen Company
· Rubbermaid
· Crane Worldwide Logistics
· Sears Holding
· General Mills
· Wal-Mart-Meghan
· Windstream
· AT&T Mobility
· International Paper
· Wal-Mart Internal Audit
· J.B. Hunt
· NPD
· Enterprise
· S.F. Fiser
· Acxiom
· Cintas
· CED
· Target
· FedEX Freight
· Transplace
· Chainalytics

Spring 2009
· Dial Corp
· Hershey
· Tyson
· Saatchi & Saatchi X
· Land O'Lakes
· Applied Sustainability Center
· Hersheys
· Dannon
· Crane
· U.S. Marine Corp
· Southwestern Energy
· AT&T Mobility
· University Directories
· Southwestern Energy
· Dial
· Wal-Mart-Megan Howard
· Target Stores
· ISNetworld
· Graduate School of Business
· Nestle USA
· ABF Freight
· Hewlett Packard
· State Farm
· Sherwin Williams
· Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
· Sears Holding
· CED
· Acosta
· JB Hunt
· Grant Thornton
· Procter & Gamble
· BKD
· Defense Contract Audit Agency
· JB Hunt
· Kellogg
· Belford Group
· Frito-Lay
· Transplace
· Colgate-Palmolive

Final application deadline for the Walton MBA is September 15. Very few assistantships are left. While other programs are struggling to place their MBA graduates, Walton College is succeeding.

Hogs make it to final 4 in College World Series

Greetings from Baltimore. The conference has come to a close and I decided that I was having "blog" withdrawal so I hunted up the business center so that I could write a post.

The University of Arkansas Razorbacks did make it to the final 4 in the College World Series. Their season came to an end yesterday courtesy of LSU. The final 2 are now Texas and LSU. The Razorbacks had an amazing season. I am not much of a baseball fan, but even I recognize the significance of a final 4 finish. Next up, football. I am all about football.

It is currently raining in Baltimore and I have to admit that I am a little worried about getting out of here later this afternoon. I am really hoping that 1) my flight does not get cancelled, 2) that my flight is not delayed indefinitely, and 3) that I do not sit on the tarmac for hours waiting for takeoff. Please direct all of your positive thoughts toward Maryland as I attempt to fly out of here at 4:45 EST.

I will return to the office on Tuesday. But knowing me, you'll probably hear from me before then - hopefully not from the airport tonight or tomorrow.