Sabrina White
Vice-President, Market Development
Americas & Europe
Colleagues—
We are halfway through the year and for many of you that means finalizing (or bedding) the fall class and accelerating recruiting for the 2019 intake. As your eyes most likely need a break from reviewing a spreadsheet or file, please take a few minutes to catch up on what is happening in the Americas market of GMAC.
Annual Conference
Wow! What a conference! Those of you who heard my opening remarks are aware there was record breaking attendance as more than 900 industry colleagues (750+ from schools) from 261 universities across 32 countries joined us in Boston for what I’ve termed our very own “GMAC Wakanda.” Energy was high as Amy Blankson encouraged us to “Consciously Innovate” by up sourcing knowledge, applying a growth mindset and collaborating with intention. (Anyone buying lollipops for your doctor or downloading the app to determine how much time you spend on your phone?) That energy was maintained as we learned how to engage with GenZ, discussed best practices for B-school content strategies and email marketing techniques that drive results, explored how schools are weaving implicit bias training into student and staff development programs, peaked into the future and was challenged (or terrified) and so much more!
If you attended the conference, you should have received a link with session presentations. If for any reason you are unable to access the presentations, please contact your GMAC rep.
A special “thank you” to each of you who played a role in the success of this year’s annual meeting: from those who submitted concurrent session ideas to those who presented, facilitated, sat on panels, shared ideas- or simply spread positivity and good vibes. Even after 20 years- I am still thrilled to be a part of this community!
URM Research- Under-represented populations and for-profit institutions
In 2016, GMAC partnered with the marketing research firm globalsojourn to gain insights into the dynamics of the perceptions and interest of U.S. underrepresented populations (URPs) in the pursuit of graduate management education. We released our findings in the white paper entitled Increasing Graduate Management Education Candidate Diversity: Improving Attraction to Underrepresented Segments.
In 2017, we went back to globalsojourn and asked them to help us understand URPs’ attraction to for-profit institutions. URP students accounted for half of for-profit GME degrees conferred in 2015-2016, including 37 percent among African Americans alone. Our latest white paper sheds light on the URP recruitment success of for-profit GME programs, aspects of for-profit GME URP candidates find most appealing, and what possible implications may be for nonprofit programs in their efforts to increase diversity in their applicant pools.
Join the Americas Market Development Team
Have you ever thought about working for GMAC? Looked at what our Market Development managers (your GMAC representatives) do and think- “Hey, that might be interesting.” If you are interested in leveraging your experiences to enhance our relationships and business development activities with graduate management education schools, candidates, industry alliances and other stakeholders, please check out our opportunities. You can also contact any member of our team for a job description.
Enjoy the remainder of summer-
Sabrina
Americas Market Development Team