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To think that the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania excels only in churning out investment bankers and management consultants would be a mistake. In fact, Wharton boasts a truly international program that was ranked #6 in this area in the 2023–2024 U.S. News & World Report MBA specialty rankings.

International students constitute 31% of the school’s Class of 2025 and represent 70 countries, and 4.8% of the school’s 2022 graduates took jobs outside the United States. Students who wish to study international business at Wharton have no shortage of options for doing so, including the following:

• Numerous students study at a partner school each year. One popular option is to leverage Wharton’s alliance with INSEAD by taking classes at one of that program’s campuses in Singapore or Fontainebleau, France. Alternatively, students can choose a semester-long international exchange at one of 19 partner schools in 17 different countries.

• Students who wish to pursue a dual degree in business and international studies can combine a Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies from the Lauder Institute, a 24-month intensive program designed for those who seek to conduct high-level business in a country other than the United States. This program has been described by Bloomberg Businessweek as “arguably the single best global management experience anywhere.”

In contrast to Wharton, whose urban location in Philadelphia might seem ripe with international opportunities, the Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth is located in the quaint town of Hanover, New Hampshire, which has a population of approximately 11,500 and is therefore considered a small college town. However, “Tuckies,” as the school’s students are known, have no shortage of access to global learning opportunities.

Tuckies gain hands-on international experience through the required TuckGO program, which gives second-year students the chance to put their education into practice worldwide. TuckGO options include the experiential Global Insight Expeditions, which allow students to explore new countries while meeting with local community leaders and professionals; term exchanges that take place on four continents; and Field Study in Business, where students work with real companies during an immersive summer experience.

For more information on other defining characteristics of the MBA program at Wharton, Dartmouth Tuck, or one of 16 other top business schools, check out our free mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

As candidates navigate the job search, they can easily become frustrated and begin focusing too much on what is not going right. However, as a job seeker, you have many things to be grateful for and many ways of demonstrating your gratitude during your search.

How to Be Grateful

• Recognize that your job search is an opportunity to learn new things and meet new people. Not everyone you encounter will be able to help you land a new role, but expanding your network and knowledge base is valuable regardless.
• Remember that learning more about a role or company will help you be more successful when you join the organization.
• Observe (and celebrate) your increased level of comfort in talking about yourself in a concise and compelling way.
• Appreciate that the job search is building your resiliency and adaptability, especially when you receive critical feedback or encounter a setback or rejection.

How to Demonstrate Your Gratitude

• Send follow-up emails to thank your contacts for their time and insights or to update them on your progress.
• Be the connector; offer to make introductions. Think about the people you could help by connecting them with someone else in your network.
• Refer others to new job opportunities, or share job postings with your LinkedIn network.
• Take the call and share your wisdom with a graduate of your college or someone who worked at one of your previous employers.
• Find joy in the “silver linings” by keeping a journal of all the positive things that happen in your search.

Gratitude can also come into play at work:

• Make sure to thank your boss and coworkers for the opportunity and for their support if you decide to leave the organization; build bridges for the future.
• Elaborate on why you appreciate their support after a new experience; reveal your takeaway or the benefit you gained from it.
• Enhance relationships with your colleagues and direct reports; show them that they matter to you in a meaningful and substantive way.

Finally,  both require a lot of hard work, patience, and resilience, so reframing your mind-set is a good way to avoid burnout and maintain your energy and drive.

mbaMission’s Career Coaches are happy to explore with you any career-related topics—including selecting potential career paths, crafting your professional narrative, and maximizing the effectiveness of your job search—during a complimentary, 30-minute career consultation. Sign up for your free session today!

Columbia Business School (CBS) offers a series of student-run conferences throughout the year that give both first- and second-year students the opportunity to expand their knowledge across a variety of disciplines via panels and keynote speaker addresses, and to network with like-minded students, conference sponsors (who are often also big CBS recruiters), and even industry professionals.

During the popular Social Enterprise Conference, which typically takes place in the fall, speakers discuss the ways leaders and managers can use strategy as a tool to maximize social change and how organizations can incorporate a broader spectrum of social gains into their organizational strategies, among other issues. The 2023 Social Enterprise Conference was hosted on campus in October with the theme “Capital for Good” and the chief climate officer of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection serving as the keynote speaker.

Like the Social Enterprise Conference, the Marketing Association of Columbia (MAC) Conference usually enjoys a packed house in the fall. The MAC Conference has focused on such topics as the elevation, enhancement, and personalization of the brand experience for today’s mindful consumer. The 2023 event was hosted in November with the theme “Marketing in the Next Generation” and such keynote speakers as the founder of MaryamB and the founder and CEO of Kadima Careers.

The annual CBS Healthcare Conference, which is held in February, has featured such panel discussions as “The Business of Cancer: Innovations, Trends and Challenges in Delivering Cures” and “Healthcare M&A: Is Bigger Always Better?” The 2023 conference took place on campus throughout two days and had the theme “The New Patient Journey: Advancing Holistic and Personalized Care.” Keynote speakers included the head of the healthcare group and general partner at Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, while panel discussion topics included “Holistic Care Models: From Acute to Preventative Medicine.”

The year-round conference season at CBS also includes the India Business Conference and the Columbia Women in Business Conference. CBS often touts its New York advantage—students have the business world right outside the school’s door, ripe for exploration. As you can see, however, this advantage does not mean that CBS neglects to bring the business world to its students.

For more information on CBS or 16 other leading MBA programs, check out our free mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

Kelley School of Business

As the demand for business-savvy health care professionals grows, business schools are taking notice. Leading the way is the Business of Medicine Physician MBA at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, which is designed to train practicing physicians to assume management positions and face a changing health care business environment. The two-year degree program was launched in 2013 and presents a new kind of opportunity at the intersection of business management and medical practice. The degree combines the basic curriculum of Kelley’s full-time MBA with specialized health care courses supported by the school’s Center for the Business of Life Sciences. Core courses within the program include “Data Analytics for Physician Leaders,” “Leading and Managing Human Capital in Healthcare,” and “Anatomy and Physiology of the U.S. Healthcare System.”

Dean Idie Kesner said in a Financial Times article regarding the launch of the program, “With this degree, physician leaders will emerge with the full skillset to transform individual institutions, the broad healthcare field and, most important, patient outcomes.” Part of the Business of Medicine Physician MBA program—approximately 10–14 hours a week—is taught online, drawing on Kelley’s pioneering strengths in distance learning, while the other part entails one weekend residence per month, allowing for a more flexible time commitment.

Fisher College of Business

Despite the size of its parent institution, the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University, another Midwestern business school, boasts a relatively intimate classroom experience—with typically 100 students in each incoming full-time MBA class, although the three latest incoming classes have been smaller with 56, 61, and 59 students, respectively—and a close-knit community. Fisher students consequently benefit from the school’s wider university network (more than 580,000 alumni) and its proximity to major companies based both in Columbus and throughout the Midwest. Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Fisher 46th in its list of top full-time U.S. MBA programs in 2022.

The Fisher curriculum consists of a core sequence spanning the first year of the program and offers a plethora of optional pathways in which students can major, including Leadership, Corporate Finance, and Supply Chain/Logistics. Of the 60 credit hours required for graduation, 7.5 credits consist of experiential course work, including the Business Lab and the Social Impact Challenge. In these hands-on projects, students work with local and international businesses to apply the skills they have learned within the classroom to real-life scenarios. Nearly half (27 credit hours) of the required credit hours are dedicated to elective courses, proving that the Fisher MBA is a widely customizable program.