Deferred Enrollment Programs – Latest MBA Trend

Update (30th January): Assistant Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, Kate Smith, announced on the 29th January that Kellogg School of Management will be launching their own deferred enrollment option for MBA candidates. Open to prospective candidates who qualify as Kellogg Future Leaders, the option will allow current undergraduate/master’s students to apply for the program, and then allow them to work between two to five years to gain professional experience. Successful candidates will be charged a deposit of $500 per year, which will be adjusted into the tuition fee. The school will also be waiving the application fee for the same.

Students will also get access to a number of perks, including:

– Receiving direct support from a dedicated admissions officer who will help you stay connected.
– Exclusive access to Kellogg events and resources.
– The flexibility to switch to an Evening & Weekend or One-Year Program.

Berkeley Haas recently announced the launch of a deferred enrollment program for its full-time MBA program, which allows students to gain the required professional experience before starting their academic journey at the business school. 

As the school joins the list along with some other prestigious business schools, we give you a rundown on Haas’s latest addition to their MBA program, as well as the offerings as the likes of Harvard Business School, Stanford GSB, Wharton and many more.

Berkeley Haas – Accelerated Access MBA

Announced on the 22nd January, the Accelerated Access program will be initially only available to UC Berkeley undergraduate and graduate students who are in their final year of study. There are also plans to expand the program to students of the University of California, and then later onto a broader audience.

Under the Accelerated Access program, undergraduates can apply to Berkeley Haas’s MBA program during the final year of their bachelor’s degree, with the successful applicants getting conditional admission, and can enroll in a flexible two-to-five year deferment program to gain more professional experience.

Speaking about the launch of the Accelerated Access program, Haas Dean Ann Harrison said:

“We’re so excited to offer this program exclusively to UC Berkeley students this year. We have so much talent here in the Berkeley community—and this is another way that we are cultivating and committing to that talent. “

“We believe that this program will increase the diversity of our class, compelling students from a wide variety of academic disciplines to consider an MBA—from students in environmental science who want to pursue careers in sustainability to engineering students who want to complement their technical skills with a business foundation.”

Additionally, Berkeley Haas will also be waiving the $200 application fee for UC Berkeley applicants this year for the application deadlines – Thursday, April 2, 2020 and Thursday, June 11, 2020. The rest of the application process will continue to remain the same. The school will also be offering up to five $100,000 scholarship awards to celebrate the launch of the Accelerated Access program, as well as the 10th anniversary of the ‘Defining Leadership Principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always and Beyond Yourself’.

Berkeley Haas might be the latest to join the deferred admissions process, but there have been multiple other business schools that have offered deferred admissions from before.

Anyone who qualifies as a Kellogg Future Leader can apply to the program before leaving your undergraduate/master’s program. You’ll then spend 2-5 years in the workforce, during which you’ll have unique access to Kellogg events and admissions personnel — more on that below. You’ll be charged a $500 deposit each year, but this money will go directly into your tuition balance once you start classes. Plus, we’ll waive the application fee.

Stanford Graduate School of Business

Stanford GSB allows deferred enrollment if the applicants meet certain criteria such as: 

Candidates in their final year of a bachelor degree or a joint bachelor/graduate program, whose degree will be conferred between the completion of the current and beginning of the next academic year.

or

Candidates who are currently enrolled in a graduate program, and began immediately following an undergraduate or undergraduate/graduate program.

Harvard Business School

One of the earliest adapters to deferred admissions, HBS has been offering deferred admissions through their 2+2 program since 2007. Eligible for students who are either in college or a full-time master’s degree program, the deferred enrollment program then allows the applicants to gain a minimum of two years of professional work experience (maximum of four years) in either the public, private, or nonprofit sector, which is then followed by two years in the HBS MBA Program.

Chicago Booth

Chicago Booth offers a deferred MBA admission to students who are in the final year of their undergraduate or postgraduate program, and allows gaining up to four years of professional work experience and enroll in their Full-Time, Evening, or Weekend MBA program. The program was launched in October, 2018.

MIT Sloan

Launched in January, 2019, MIT Sloan allows deferred enrollment to full time students who fulfill the following criteria: 

• Graduating or have graduated from an undergraduate degree program during the current academic year graduating from.
  
  or
  
• Currently attending a graduate degree program they entered immediately upon completing their undergraduate degree without full-time work experience.

The successful candidates are then expected to gain professional work experience between two to five years.

Columbia Business School

Columbia’s Deferred Enrollment Program also follows a certain criteria when it comes to offering their MBA program to students who don’t have enough professional work experience. 

• Students graduating during the current academic year from a bachelor’s degree program. 
• Students completing a graduate degree program. Candidates must have started the graduate degree program directly after completing their undergraduate degree to be eligible for the Deferred Enrollment Program. 

The deferred enrollment program then allows the candidates to gain professional work experience between two to five years. The program was launched in August, 2018.

Wharton

Wharton’s MBA Deferred Admission Program follows a similar route, where senior year (or final year of studies for graduate students) can apply during Round 3 of MBA Admissions, and then gain work experience for more than two years. Wharton is also home to the Moelis Advance Access Program, which offers Penn undergraduate seniors a guaranteed admission into Wharton’s MBA  program after pursuing two to four years of work experience. The program accepts a varied section of Penn seniors whose academic and career interests have gone beyond the traditional notions of business education. The program was launched in March 2017 after a $10 million gift from Ken Moelis, W’80, WG’81, and Julie Taffet Moelis, W’81.