Johnson Graduate School of Management Overview

The program’s strength lies in its finance curriculum. Johnson even offers a financial engineering program that focuses on subjects such as: derivatives, portfolio analysis, stochastic processes, and computer-based modeling

Finance and Consulting are two of Cornell’s strongest suits. There is an emphasis placed on hands on leadership training, which allows students to utilize analytical and quantitative reasoning in real life situations.

Those pursuing Assets Management gain experience working in the student-run training floor with a hedge fund and investment studio in the Parker Center for Investment Research.

Johnson’s Two-Year MBA program enrollment totals 280 students, which is considerably smaller than many of the top tier MBA programs. At the same time, Johnson has about 100 faculty members, which is on par with many of the MBA programs that have a considerably larger student body. This small student to teacher ratio allows for greater professor accessibility that often extends outside the classroom and into their professor’s homes. Professors at Cornell have a compassionate interest in their student’s well-being and long-term success.

Your application should highlight your ability to think in an analytical manner. This could manifest itself through a discussion of how you focus on developing solutions, your approach to analyzing problems, or an analytically driven business idea that you have. Analytical in this sense doesn’t purely mean numbers oriented (although Johnson will take a close look at your quantitative GMAT score), but rather it means based on rational and in-depth thought and examination. Examples you can provide along those lines will help you establish fit with the analytical strength Johnson values in addition to its application-focused learning model.

Examples of essay prompts previously used by Johnson:
1. Describe your greatest professional achievement and how you were able to add value to your organization. (400 word limit)
2. What career do you plan to pursue upon completion of an MBA degree and why? How will the Johnson School help you achieve this goal? (400 word limit)
3. (Optional) Complete this essay if there is other information you would like to add regarding your candidacy. For instance, if you believe one or more aspects of your application (e.g., undergraduate GPA or test scores) does not accurately reflect your potential for success at the Johnson School. (400 word limit)
This and dozens of other top business schools are covered in detail in Your MBA Game Plan, the definitive guide on MBA admissions, now in its second edition.