Prepping for your MBA: Vanderbilt's Accelerator Program

I'm Catherine Girardeau with MBA Podcaster. I'm working on an upcoming episode on prepping for an MBA by taking courses before starting the MBA program. How do the experts - program administrators, professors, students -- advise non-business majors about getting some coursework under their belts before applying for or entering an MBA program?

Meena Putatunda, a 2005 Vanderbilt University Biomedical Engineering graduate I spoke with the other day, seemed poised for a career in just that. But after a post-baccalaureate year doing glaucoma research in Vanderbilt U's medical center, Putatunda realized she wanted a "more people-facing career". She simultaneously applied for an MBA and for a unique summer intensive business institute specifically for undergrads and recent grads with non-business backgrounds, Vanderbilt's Accelerator program.

Students from a variety of work and academic backgrounds come together to solve real-life business problems in the Accelerator program. Putatunda's group was charged with coming up with a sure-fire plan to market the Dodge Caliber to millenials -- not exactly what Putatunda had been doing up to that point in her life! The students in Accelarator are not doing this work in an academic vacuum. "We had to present our plan to a team of executives," Putatunda said. After the Accelerator program, many students got to work with Dodge on further refining the marketing campaign. "It was the real deal," Putatunda said.

On top of 100 hours of MBA-prep coursework, students did five main business projects. Putatunda said the coursework, plus the teamwork, plus the contacts she made with the professors and working professionals in the business world, prepared her very well for her MBA program. And with her non-business background, having an Accelerator acceptance on her resume (she hadn't taken the summer course yet when her MBA applications were due) probably didn't hurt her applications, either.

Another advantage to this type of program for non-business grads, Putatunda said, are experience learning how to problem-solve in a business setting. "In engineering, problems are cut-and-dried, numeric," she said. "In business, you have to understand psychology to target solutions to clients." Putatunda said she learned to use the skills she had and apply them in a different way.

Putatunda earned her MBA from Vanderbilt's Owen School of Business in 2008 with a Health Care & Operations concentration. She's currently working for McKesson Provider Technologies as an Implementation Consultant.

For one non-business undergrad, an intensive course in business curriculum and skills really paid off.

Listen for the full show on MBA Podcaster in the next couple months.

(Updated! Listen to the complete show here: http://www.mbapodcaster.com/MBA_MoreInfo/Preparing_for_an_MBA.asp?iEpisode=79)