Being able to study MBA both from China and from the North America was one of the reasons why Alice LI from Canada chose the Fudan International MBA Program. After two years of study at Fudan, Alice has successfully got enrolled in the Yale MAM (Master of Advanced Management) Program.
In order to help students increase their competitiveness and broaden their horizons, Fudan MBA Program has been cooperating with three top business schools: MIT Sloan School of Management, Yale School of Management, and York University Schulich School of Business in Canada to provide dual-degree study opportunities for Fudan MBA students, as well as alumni recently graduated.
Having embarked upon her study at Yale this September, Alice shared with us her application experience and some of her observations at Yale so far.
Why the second degree?
Alice used to work in the marketing sector of an international corporation before her MBA journey in Fudan. With relatively limited vertical move in her career, Alice wished to explore her options in higher management through her MBA study for future career development. This was when she noticed the Fudan International MBA Program, which has been ranking distinguishably in multiple indicators concerning career progression in the Financial Times (FT) ranking of the Top 100 global MBA programs. In the 2022 rankings, Fudan MBA Program placed No. 32 worldwide, No. 1 among business schools of Chinese universities and No. 3 in the Asia-Pacific region, finding itself among the Top 40 for the fourth consecutive year. It is one of the best performers globally across several criteria, including No. 2 worldwide and No. 1 in China for Salary Percentage Increase, No. 1 in Asia for Careers Service, No. 1 for Career Goal Achievement Rate in Chinese mainland, and No. 6 worldwide for Career Development.
In addition to these outstanding benefits for her future career development, the opportunity to apply for the second degree study at top business schools is also highly attractive to Alice since the very beginning of her Fudan IMBA application. After considering both MIT and Yale, Alice eventually chose the latter because it matches better with her career growth goals in the future.
What is the application process like?
The application for the second degree program is divided into several phases. Applicants are required to submit their transcript, GMAT/GRE score, MBA entrance examination score, recommendation letter, application video, etc. before the deadline.
Alice thinks that Yale does not place a significant emphasis on long and extravagant personal statements；instead, the school highly values how the applicant can contribute to the Yale academic and social ecosystem with his or her uniqueness. “Even if you’re not an A+ student, your background and experiences could make you a strong candidate. In my application video, I talked about my gains in taking courses like Decoding Branding and Business Ethics during my Fudan MBA study, as well as the projects I worked on, especially iLab Business Consulting Project, to strengthen my own advantage.”
How do you like your life at Yale so far?
The Yale MAM Program offers a wide selection of courses in addition to the core management courses. Alice especially enjoys Management of Software Development, as the lecturer/entrepreneur/developer Kyle Jensen delivers its content in an engaging and humorous manner. Alice told us that the MAM program also allows the students to explore outside the curriculum of the School of Management, for example by applying for STEM courses, which integrate learning in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. There is also a variety of student clubs at Yale.
“So there are plenty of opportunities to invest in passion projects or gaining a new skill,”she observed.
This is exactly where Alice devotes her time and energy. As someone who had never coded a single line in her life, Alice enrolled in the challenging Intro to Computer Science course, which is in collaboration with Harvard University, for she wishes to engage in project management in the tech or media industry upon graduation.
“Yale has an extremely diverse student body, and you’re able to easily find peers, programs, and opportunities you can align with,” Alice remarked.
Any suggestions for the 2nd degree applicants?
“Believe in yourself! You are as special as you make yourself to be, and all you have to do is to convince them.”
