National Health Service Corps Demands Additional Flexibility for Participants due to Center Closures in Pandemic-era

The National Health Service Corps is a federal program with a mandate to improve access to healthcare in underserved areas. The program provides incentives to physicians—and other medical workers including dentists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants—to work in designated Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) in exchange for scholarship or loan repayment funds.

There are three programs specific to physicians: 

1. Federal Scholarship Program: Full-time students who are U.S. citizens and complete a primary care residency are eligible to receive a scholarship for tuition and school-related expenses as well as a (taxable) stipend. For each year of scholarship, students are expected to serve a year working as a physician at an HPSA; there is a minimum of two-years full time service (or four years part-time) with a maximum of four years of scholarship. 

2. Federal Loan Repayment Program: If employed by NHSC-approved sites, primary care physicians can apply to receive loan repayment, including loans for tuition and living expenses for both their medical school and undergraduate education. Within this program, there are three tracks: general, substance-abuse workforce, and rural community. 

3. State Loan Repayment Programs: A state-tailored version of the program, with modifications on program eligibility and service requirements based on specific state-wide needs. 

The programs are competitive, with about ten percent of applicants receiving federal scholarships and entry into the loan repayment programs. However, medical students should carefully consider the contractual agreements when committing to the program. The Student Doctor Network describes the pros and cons of the program. The pros, of course, come in the form of loan repayment and scholarship, which for medical school, can provide a significant sum. The cons, however, are in the restrictive nature of the program. For physicians, scholarship recipients are locked into primary care and fellowships within primary care, which can be limited. Participants also need to be open to relocation throughout the United States, as the NHSC has the final approval on placement. This can be particularly onerous for medical providers with family responsibilities or ties to a specific geographic location. Finally, there are significant financial consequences for breaking the contract.  

The pandemic magnified the restrictive nature of the program and need for participant adaptability. Last week, the Wall Street Journal ran an article profiling several program participants who experienced center closures and resulting job loss. Upon losing their positions, they had 90 days to find a new job; in the cases profiled, the participants needed to relocate in order to find a qualifying placement and when they were unable to do so, they described significant consequences. They had to repay the money they’d received. And those who violated their contracts were charged heavy monetary fines. In one case, a dental hygienist owed a fee that was more than five times the original loan repayment. In all of the cases, the participants described obstacles that made it difficult, if not impossible, to find a qualifying role to continue their service, as well as the financial devastation that would come from repaying the loans with the penalty. 

So, is it worth it? The Student Doctor Network says, “It depends. Once you’re a physician there will be many opportunities to pay off your debt. You can choose a better paid position or find one that offers loan repayment. How committed are you to public service? To primary care? How expensive is your medical school? Like many programs with financial incentives, it is important to believe in the mission before you sign the dotted line.”

Harvard Business School Sets a New Agenda Focused on Positioning Business to Solve Society’s Biggest Challenges

Srikant Datar took over the leadership of Harvard Business School in January 2021, mid-way through the academic year, and in the midst of the covid pandemic. Rather than derailing his vision, the pandemic, with its emphasis on technology and hybrid learning formats, has actually expedited it. “COVID is the passage to the school’s future. Without any doubt, it has been an extremely exciting and rewarding year,” he said.  

Datar spent a considerable amount of time seeking input from the HBS community when building his agenda. He spoke with every faculty member and facilitated individual and small group meetings with alumni, students, staff, and others to understand their goals and perspectives. Datar then defined three “aspirations” for the school, “...stretching HBS and its learners beyond notions of merely personal success toward becoming, collectively and individually, driving forces in redefining the role of business in society around the world—addressing inequality, exclusion, climate change, and other intractable problems. Second, directing HBS’s research to action, ensuring that the leaders it trains or influences change practices and engage human differences to enhance the constructive role of capitalism. And, finally, the school must transform learning, extend its reach, and work with its students throughout their careers.”

Datar also named the “engines” that would make these aspirations possible: recruiting a diverse array of talent and enabling their success, undergoing a digital transformation for education delivery and the HBS “research infrastructure”, and “expanding and deepening ties” to the greater University, particularly into the humanities. 

To activate the aspirations, Datar announced that Harvard Business School will be creating two institutes, one focused on business and society, and the other on digital and technology. These institutes will provide a structure that facilitates faculty interactions, student engagement with research efforts and new technologies, and space for alumni and businesses to access, train and collaborate using the latest research.  

The Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society, which will be led by Debora L. Spar, will house the following activities:

• HBS’s academic partnership with OneTen, an organization dedicated to advocating for black individuals who do not have an undergraduate degree, but wish to use skills and knowledge to obtain “family-sustaining careers”

• Climate change research and the promotion of carbon neutral goals by considering alternative accounting metrics

• Economic development within mid-American cities harmed most by de-industrialization; researching promising engines to spur business and economic growth

• Social Enterprise research and the development of new models to enhance impact

The second institute, currently labeled “D3,” will be led by Karim R. Lakhani and focus on digital and technology, data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and design thinking. Clustering the topics together will optimize research efforts and maximize the impact for HBS and business overall. 

While the HBS priorities are centered on two key pillars, business and society, and data and technology, Datar says he considers these components two parts of a whole. “When I think about the challenges we’re talking about,” Datar said, alluding to both the school and society writ large, “every time we have talked about technology on one side of the coin, on the other side is humanities and people. Any time you let those two get out of synch, the opportunity for division arises, and with it, economic harm. Leadership at the core means always thinking about impact on people, and on what you are trying to achieve through an organization.” 

Read the full interview between Srikant Datar and the Harvard Magazine here.  

Legal Community Proposes Law Schools Incorporate Stress Management into their Curriculums

The first year of law school is a time of significant stress. Last week, Law.com reported on a post made in the r/lawschool sub-reddit by a user who described their experience as a first semester law student. The poster noted that because of stress, they suffered from unintentional weight loss, vision changes, headaches, acid reflux, and newly acquired tremors after the first semester. The thread quickly garnered many replies. While some expressed sympathy and concern, over 70 comments by other law school students described similar stress-induced physical ailments including weight gain, low energy, poor nutrition, constant fatigue, eczema, and anxiety.

Charles N. Todd, Dean of Students for the University of Chicago Law School, speaking to Law.com about the thread, described the first year of law school as “one of the steepest learning curves.” However, he continued on to say that, “I tell students all the time that it’s not going to get any easier. The demands of your time will not go away once you leave school. In fact, you’re going to have more things with family responsibilities, life, and work, so we really want them to learn how to develop healthy habits in law school so those will sustain them throughout their career.” 

The initial reddit poster followed up to share their decision to visit a doctor and noted their intention to create healthier habits the next semester. Dean Todd recommended taking small breaks throughout the day to incorporate healthy activity. “It doesn’t have to be this big interruption in your day, it could be a 10-minute break to color or to have some healthy food or do some stretches because you’ve been sitting a long time,” he said. 

Others in the legal community suggest that law schools should take more responsibility for student health. Janet Thomas Jackson, a law professor at Washburn University School of Law, calls for law schools to take an active role in promoting wellbeing and mental health within their student populations. In an article written for Bloomberg Law, she noted how frequently law students and legal professionals are impacted by depression. According to the Dave Nee Foundation, “Depression among law students is 8-9% prior to matriculation, 27% after one semester, 34% after 2 semesters, and 40% after 3 years.” Further, just as Dean Todd noted, the foundation’s data shows that stress and its associated effects do not necessarily recede after law school. Rather, lawyers are the most frequently depressed professional group within the U.S., and lawyers suffer depression at a rate 3.6 times that of non-lawyers. 

Jackson suggests that the legal community not accept this as inevitable; she proposes that law schools integrate discussions of physical and mental health throughout student’s tenure, starting at orientation. And prior to starting classes, law schools should educate students and their families on the “expectations and predictable stressors” of law school, resources for seeking help, and insight into healthy habits and effective stress management. She notes that students of color should receive additional support, including safe spaces and communities where they can share their experiences and feel a sense of belonging. Finally, Jackson recommends that self-care practices and physical and mental health be integrated into the curriculum. “In other words, law schools should play a primary role in normalizing discussions and actions around the mental and physical care of its students,” she said.  

Related Blogs: Law School Students Still Not Receiving Adequate Mental Health Support

Medical Community Lauds Addition of Public Health Priorities to Methodology of U.S. News’ Medical Rankings

In response to criticism from the medical community, the U.S. News & World Report updated the methodology behind their 2022 Best Medical Schools in Primary Care ranking. A recent JAMA Viewpoint article entitled, “Increasing Transparency for Medical School Primary Care Rankings—Moving From a Beauty Contest to a Talent Show“ by Robert L. Phillips Jr, MD, MSPH, Andrew W. Bazemore, MD, MPH, and John M. Westfall, MD, MPH described the updates: “The rankings were modified in 2021 such that 30% of the score is now based on graduates practicing primary care after their residency training, rather than those entering primary care training. Initial residency comprises 10% of the score, which still overestimates primary care, but this measure has been reduced from its previous weighting of 30%. The remaining score (60%) is still largely based on reputation, which is assessed by (1) surveys of medical school deans, internal medicine chairs, or admissions directors (15%); (2) survey of primary care residency directors (15%); (3) student selectivity (median Medical College Admission Test score, 9.75%; median undergraduate grade point average, 4.5%; acceptance rate, 0.75%); and (4) faculty to student ratio (15%).” The authors call the updates to the methodology “a step in the right direction,” although they continue to express that the reputation portion of the score is subjective and self-perpetuating. 

More important than the methodology update, the authors say, is U.S. News's addition of four new data-based rankings. The newly added rankings include: 1) graduates practicing primary care; 2) most diverse medical schools; 3) graduates practicing in medically underserved areas; and 4) graduates practicing patient care in rural areas. These rankings were created with the Robert Graham Center, a division of the American Academy of Family Physicians, and were defined to measure medical schools’ performance on key health care issues. The graduate-based rankings use data collected five-to-seven years after a physician’s training, making them more reflective of student outcomes and better able to showcase the public health contributions of schools that are hidden within the broader rankings. For example, the authors point to the disparity seen in the Harvard Medical School rankings; the medical school, ranked 8th for Best Primary Care, ranks 141st for graduates practicing in primary care fields. Conversely, the Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, which is unranked in the primary care ranking, ranks second for graduates practicing in primary care fields, second for graduates working in medically underserved communities, and seventeenth for graduates working in rural areas.  

One of the article’s authors, Dr. Phillips, speaking with the AMA, notes that students should understand the large role that reputation plays in the mainstream rankings and should proceed with caution when using the rankings to inform their medical school options. “Students should be careful in using medical school rankings to inform their choices as many rankings are opinion-driven.” Rather, he recommended that students consider the more objective, data-driven rankings based on where and what graduates end up practicing. “We also hope that the new ranking heralds continued improvement of the information that help students make career decisions. 

On a wider-scale, the authors call out the importance of the four new rankings in providing transparency into how schools contribute to key social outcomes, for policy decisions by both states and medical schools themselves. “These outcome measures should help medical schools to assess fidelity to their missions and alter admissions, curriculum, and training settings if different outcomes are desired.”

Biden Administration Remains Under Pressure to Move Forward with Student Debt Cancellation

On May 1, 2022, which is just three months away, federal student loan payments will resume. This comes after a two-year period during which borrowers could choose whether or not they would make payments. As the date nears, the Biden administration is under pressure to make good on campaign promises to reduce student debt for millions of Americans with federal loans. Last week, 85 Democratic members of Congress sent the President a letter urging him to, “...direct the Department of Education to publicly release the memo outlining your legal authority to broadly cancel federal student loan debt and immediately cancel up to $50,000 of student loan debt per borrower.”

But it is still unclear how President Biden will move forward. During his campaign, he promised to forgive up to $10,000 per student loan borrower, but he has since expressed hesitancy to extend loan forgiveness to those attending elite schools or who obtained professional graduate degrees, and have strong repayment prospects. In a press conference last month, President Biden declined to comment on a question about student loan forgiveness. 

An article in the Wall Street Journal speculates that the Biden Administration may opt to forego blanket debt forgiveness for an alternative path, “...by starting a regulatory process, complete with input from stakeholders, to set up a debt-forgiveness program that targets people most in need.” This path may allow the administration to avoid a potential Supreme Court battle that an Executive Action may spur.

In the meantime, the administration has moved forward with more targeted loan-relief initiatives, such as a revamp of the long-standing Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. This would allow those who have worked for a public or nonprofit organization, and also made monthly payments for a ten-year period (120 payments) to have their loans forgiven. A revamp is exciting for current business, medical, and law students who wish to go into public service, and necessary. The original program, which dates back to 2007, burdened participants with bureaucratic hurdles, and only provided benefits to a small percentage, about 16,000 out of 1.3 million. 

A Compelling Diversity Statement will Strengthen Your Candidacy for Law School

Let’s start with some context around the importance of diversity within the legal profession. The ABA recently published a piece on why diversity matters in the law, defining diversity as “... more than just racial or ethnic diversity. The concept of diversity encompasses all persons of every background, gender, race, sexual orientation, age, and/or disability.” The article goes on to provide the perspectives of leaders within the legal industry on the importance of diversity, which we have excerpted below. 

Find the full text here. 

• Public confidence. “[R]acial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession is necessary to demonstrate that our laws are being made and administered for the benefit of all persons. Because the public’s perception of the legal profession often informs impressions of the legal system, a diverse bar and bench create greater trust in the rule of law.” (ABA)

• Quality of legal decisions. “A diverse legal profession is more just, productive, and intelligent because diversity, both cognitive and cultural, often leads to better questions, analyses, solutions, and processes.” (ABA)

• Competitive advantage. “A demonstrated commitment to diversity and inclusion can be a key aspect of a law firm’s competitive advantage when it comes to recruiting and retaining talent and pitching certain clients. Clients receive the highest quality service when their legal teams are drawn from professionals mirroring the diversity of the marketplace.” (Tiffani Lee, Partner, Holland & Knight, LLP)

• Path to leadership. “In order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity,” (Justice O’Connor, Ret., noting that the nation’s leaders often come through the legal system)

• Thought leadership. “Their unique backgrounds help to ensure that a 360-degree approach is used to analyze each issue. Having a diverse legal team helps to eliminate the possibility of bias affecting your final decision.” (Robin Wofford of Wilson Turner Kosmo LLP, who also serves as chair of the National Association of Minority & Women Owned Law Firms)

For these reasons, and many more, it is critical that law schools and the legal profession are representative of the larger population. So, what does that mean for your application to law school? It means that you will want to craft a diversity statement that will show the reader your ability to connect, grow, thrive, and meaningfully collaborate in diverse environments and/or explore how you will contribute to the diversity of the incoming class. Of course, you want the piece to strengthen your candidacy, so if it feels forced or inauthentic, or if the prompt seems limited to those who identify as a racial or other minority and does not apply to you, it is best to leave it blank.  

In brainstorming possible experiences or anecdotes to include, ask yourself the following questions: 

• What traits or characteristics make you unique? 

• In what way might you be able to offer your law school cohort an unconventional perspective? 

• What are some collaborative situations in which you have experienced discomfort? Did you work with an international group on a project in an academic or professional setting, or have an internship in a foreign country where no one else in the office spoke English?

• What are some experiences that prompted an evolution in your perspective? Did you participate in a volunteer project serving an underrepresented clientele or provide services to those with disabilities or unique obstacles?

• How are your experiences likely different from those of other candidates? Did you take an unusual career path prior to applying to law school? 

Once you have a thorough brainstorm, we can help you to further develop a story that communicates to admissions committees your ability to contribute to a dynamic and diverse learning environment and grow from others’ perspectives. 

Pre-Med Students Face Stress as Clinical Experiences Become Harder to Find

The stress of applying to medical school has always been significant. A Kaplan survey of 400 pre-med students, taken in early 2020, found that 37 percent “seriously considered” changing their plans for a medical career due to stress. Just over a quarter (26 percent) said that they experience stress “pretty much always,” and another 45 percent said “frequently.” Over half (57 percent) said that self-medicating with alcohol or drugs is common for them as they work to grapple with the demands. 

And experts say that the pandemic is only increasing these stressors. “I don’t think we can underestimate how COVID-19 is impacting the mental health of the entire population, never mind students who are preparing to apply to medical school,” said Carol A. Terregino, MD, and the Senior Associate Dean for Education and Academic Affairs at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. “There are fewer opportunities to engage in the humanistic activities, to shadow and volunteer to demonstrate one’s passion for medicine because of the pandemic and more time to focus on metrics and study for the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test). And that isn’t necessarily a good thing.”

This sentiment was echoed in a Yale News interview with pre-medical students. Students spoke of their experiences with the closures and re-openings of “wet labs,” with seniors claiming to be overlooked in favor of younger students who could commit to multiple years of research. Students also reported difficulties finding opportunities to shadow doctors, or volunteer at local hospitals. “If you’re trying to volunteer at the New Haven Hospital or the HAVEN Free Clinic, it’s hard to do so because of COVID restrictions,” Courtney Li, pre-med class of 2024, explained. “There was definitely a time period where they weren’t accepting volunteers.”

In response, Dr. Terregino provides a calming perspective to applicants. “Medicine is stressful. Getting ready for medical school is stressful. But I’d offer that one can temper their stress knowing it’s more than just grades and MCAT scores that admissions committees are looking for, and there is a full understanding of the limitations on experiences placed by the pandemic. Personal development also counts.”

So, what should pre-medical students do? 

As limitations exist, so do opportunities. Showcase your adaptability by making the best of challenging times. We recommend considering the following experiences if you are not able to find in-person shadowing or clinical roles.

• Contact current or retired physicians in your network, or access your university’s alumni network, to interview them and learn more about their specialties, experience, and advice for aspiring physicians.

• Leverage your university network, including current and retired professors and alumni, to look for in-person or virtual research opportunities.

• Pursue virtual shadowing opportunities.

• Engage in volunteer work to demonstrate your commitment to serving others and working with diverse populations.

• Consider study abroad and summer programs that provide shadowing or clinical experiences.

Continuing to pursue learning and development opportunities, even in less-than-ideal circumstances, will still prompt meaningful evolutions in your perspective and will help convince the admission committee of your commitment to the study of medicine.  

Harvard Round Two Action Expected Wednesday

Late last week, the HBS Director of Admissions announced that on Wednesday, February 2nd at 12:00pm EST, all Round Two applicants or those Round One applicants who received “Further Consideration” will receive an update via the Application Status page. At this time applicants will either receive an invitation to interview or will be released from the process.

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Top 10 Tips for the MBA Behavioral Interview 

MBA Interviews: When the Interview Requires More than an Interview

Trends in Law: Recruiting and Retaining Legal Professionals Named Key Challenge for Firms in 2022

The Thomson Reuters 2022 Report on the State of the Legal Market names the recruiting and retention of legal and professional staff as the biggest challenge for law firms in 2022. Financially, law firms have rebounded from the early days of the pandemic; in 2021 firms saw a four percent increase in growth, compared to 2020, and a one percent increase from 2019 (a more realistic comparison after the drop in demand due to the pandemic). However, law firms are facing challenges similar to those seen within the broader job market, and are not immune to the effects of the great resignation. In a 2021 survey of 55 U.S. law firms by Thomson Reuters and the Georgetown Law Center, executives named talent-related issues—lawyer recruitment and retention, poaching of staff by competitors, and increasing associate salaries—as the top three greatest risks to firm profitability in 2022. For reference, in 2020, talent-related risks did not even appear within the top five. 

As expected, associate compensation, across the market, has been increasing rapidly. At the close of November 2021, there was an 11.3 percent increase (as a rolling 12-month average) across market segments and, within the Am Law 100 elite firms, compensation increased by more than 15 percent. But firms continue to see record levels of turnover. This means that for all of the compensation outlays, the total growth in lawyer headcount is minimal (1.5 percent growth). And at the end of November 2021, across the market, turnover reached 23.2 percent (on a rolling 12-month basis), which is significantly higher than the pre-pandemic 2019 rate (18.7 percent). Among the Am Law 100 firms, turnover was slightly higher (23.7 percent) and among the Am Law 200 and mid-size firms slightly lower (22.1 and 22.0 percent, respectively). 

Associates’ attitudes towards work and life are clearly changing. In The American Lawyer’s 2021 Mid-level Associates Survey, which included nearly 4,000 respondents from 77 Am Law 200 firms, 27 percent said they would leave their firm for higher compensation and 60 percent said they would consider leaving their firm for an improved work-life balance. These results are likely related to a year of particularly long working hours as demand for legal services grew, in addition to the blurring between work and life due to the pandemic. The report notes that the push-back to long working hours was more apparent among younger associates, and that middle-aged lawyers (aged 40 to 60) were comfortable working 10 percent longer hours. 

In response, firms should look beyond increasing compensation to improve associate retention. Below are initiatives that some firms are exploring to curb turnover: 

• Offering more interesting or high-profile work, mentoring, and/or faster promotion sequencing

• Updating compensation metrics, moving away from billable hours, to a task and quality-oriented system

• Providing wellness, counseling, and stress-management programs

• Offering social, recreational, and team-building activities to promote a collaborative and close-knit office culture

While these activities and initiatives may start to improve associates’ firm loyalty, the Thomson Reuters report calls out a need for more meaningful change to improve retention, saying “Achieving that goal will require firms to reimagine their structures and operations in the post-pandemic world to provide the real “glue” that we know is necessary to bind people to organizations—feelings of value and meaning in their work, feeling appreciated and recognized, having opportunities for growth and personal satisfaction, and believing that they are making a contribution to something larger than themselves.“

Find the full report here: 2022 State of Legal Market Report

U.S. News’ Best Online MBA Ranking Released with Three-Way Tie for First

Yesterday, the U.S. News & World Report released its rankings for the best online MBA programs of 2022. In a three-way tie, Indiana University’s Kelley, University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler, and University of Southern California’s Marshall all took the number one spot.  

UNC’s Kenan-Flagler received the top ranking for the second year in a row, sharing the 2021 accolade with Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business (ranked fourth in 2022), while Indiana increased two spots from last year and USC increased three spots. 

Indiana’s Kelley also ranked highest for Best Online Finance MBA and Best Online General Management MBA.  

U.S. News & World Report Top 10 Online MBA Programs 

MBA Curriculums Expand to Include Content in Environmental and Social Conscientiousness

Sustainability. Social enterprise. Impact investing. These words may have been in the course titles of fringe electives a decade ago, but today they are quickly becoming mainstream components of leading business school curriculums. This is well-evidenced by the Financial Times Responsible Business Education awards, which celebrate the best “examples of work by business schools seeking to focus on people and planet alongside profit” in three categories: academic research, teaching cases, and alumni change makers. There is an emerging trend for business schools to think and teach about outcomes and values beyond profit maximization. 

A recent New York Times article on Environmental, Social, and Governance’s (ESG) increasing role in business education and the workforce noted that the incorporation of ESG topics within the MBA is being driven by student and employer demand. At Yale’s School of Management, sustainability is integrated into required core courses such as microeconomics, accounting, and corporate finance, while Duke’s Fuqua School of Business has added a new core course titled Business and Common Purpose. At University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton, there are more than 50 undergraduate and graduate courses related to social impact, and at Harvard Business School, an elective course on social enterprise had 600 matriculants (a sizable increase from 251 in 2012). 

In the past, there was a sense that MBA students who wanted to go into ESG could not command the same salaries as those following more traditional—consulting or finance—career paths. A study, not yet published, by the Yale School of Management including more than 2,000 students across 29 business schools, found that over half (51 percent) of students would accept a lower salary to work for an environmentally responsible company, an uptick of seven percentage points from five years ago. Students’ preferences are obviously changing, and so is the market. 

According to McKinsey, global sustainable investment grew by about 68 percent between 2014 and 2019, reaching over $30 trillion. This has created a number of new job opportunities, and the demand in the market has put upward pressure on ESG-related salaries. Further, the relative “newness” of the field also creates an appealing opportunity in terms of career growth, with relatively few people standing in front with seniority. MBA graduates can advance quickly. Recruiters tell the New York Times that filling experienced-hire and senior roles in sustainability is challenging; this may also benefit MBA graduates by providing them with early access to more senior positions. 

There also appears to be a growing need for ESG skills across industries. “There’s this tension for any student who wants to pursue sustainability, which is, ‘I have massive debt, but I also want to do good,’” said Bethany Patten, the Senior Associate Director of the Sustainability Center at M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management. However, she points out that jobs at banks and investment firms that require sustainability skill sets, as well as finance, are offering salaries that are generally on par with typical finance salaries. 

The opportunity for ESG roles in the marketplace is ripe, and many students are interested in pursuing them, but the number of graduates who take purely ESG roles directly out of an MBA program remains relatively low. At Wharton, just 1.8 percent of graduates went into social impact work. At Stanford, the proportion was higher at 19 percent. But Dr. Costis Maglaras, Dean of Columbia Business School thinks these numbers will continue to increase. “Over the last two decades if you ask yourself, ‘What is the thing that really transformed businesses?’ It’s been technology, data, analytics. If you were to ask what will transform businesses in the future, I believe it’s going to be climate change.”

Trends in Medical Education: Online Learning

During the Harvard Medical School Office for External Education’s 2021 IMPACT Symposium, Adrienne Torda, the Associate Dean of Education and Innovation at the University of New South Wales, stated that “Digital teaching and learning are here to stay,” And most attendees, leaders in medical education agreed. The covid-19 pandemic has accelerated a movement towards online learning and technology that they expect will only grow in significance. 

Suzanne Rose, MD, MSEd, and Senior Vice Dean for Medical Education at Penn Medicine, called out technology’s impact on the delivery of medical education and patient care as one of the top five trends in medical education, noting that it can provide more interactive experiences for students that will aid in content delivery and retention. One area she is exploring is the use of shortened lectures on key topics followed by team-based learning experiences and/or small group discussions. Medhub also describes a shift to a more proactive engagement between students and technology that is “... aimed at more effectively engaging students, assessing them against measurable outcomes, and responding to individual learner needs.” 

In addition to collaborative learning, the role of Virtual Reality (VR), as well as augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and artificial intelligence (AI) are expected to grow. These tools can enhance training experiences for students as they develop an array of necessary, but difficult skills. Medhub says, “Case studies with online simulations, designed to build skills as diverse as having difficult patient conversations to making complex diagnoses, are becoming increasingly sophisticated. They are effective tools in medical education and we can expect enhancements to keep learners engaged, offer real-time feedback, identify areas of weakness, and even foster some healthy competition with performance comparisons to colleagues and leaderboards.” 

Many schools are already implementing these measures. University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, for example, takes advantage of AR, VR, and MR to train students on treating trauma patients. At the Gordon Center for Simulation and Innovation, students get the experience of working with stroke, heart attack, or gunshot victims, in addition to practicing cardiac procedures on Harvey, a mannequin who can simulate nearly any cardiac event. Students can wear VR headsets to get a visual of Harvey’s underlying anatomy.

While there is no doubt that many aspects of medical education must still be experienced using in-person training and experiences, technology will only grow in importance within medical education. 

Technology Growth Expected to Drive MBA Hiring

The 2022 hiring outlook for MBA graduates is strong. After the early stages of the pandemic caused demand to falter for 2020 graduates, both hiring and salaries have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. The QS Global Employer Survey 2022, which included over 5,000 MBA employers from 40 countries, found that 70 percent of US employers expect to hire more graduates within their organization in the next year.

Technology firms, which have shown consistent growth throughout the pandemic, are expected to drive demand for MBA graduates. Technology recruiters' interest in hiring MBAs has grown over time according to the 2021 GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey, with the number of technology recruiters planning to hire MBAs climbing from 80 percent in 2019 to 96 percent in 2021. Similarly, the QS Global Employer Survey found that just over 50 percent of US companies offered MBA graduates roles in IT and technology, in both 2020 and 2021, compared to 27 percent receiving those functional roles globally (2021). 

Amazon reported that in 2021 they increased MBA hires by 20 percent due to growth in demand for their products and services. Speaking to BusinessBecause, an Amazon spokesperson explained that the company hires were based on demand and that, “We work with business teams across Amazon to determine their need for student talent each hiring season.” The spokesperson also noted that they expect hiring to continue to increase in 2022. Other large employers of MBAs in technology include Google, Microsoft, and Apple. 

Consulting will also continue to play a large role in MBA hires. With the US management consulting market size projected to grow by 4.1 percent in 2022, demand for MBAs from consulting firms is expected to remain high. GMAC’s Corporate Recruiters Survey found that 95 percent of consulting recruiters plan to hire MBAs. And, In 2021, 46 percent of those recruiters said that they expected to increase their MBA hires, compared to just 21 percent in 2020. McKinsey, BCG, and Bain have historically employed the largest number of MBA graduates and will likely continue to do so. 

As companies throughout the US struggle with hiring and retaining the skilled workforce that they need, MBA graduates are well positioned to thrive. Economists are speculating that omicron could continue to impact the overall employment rate, pointing out that, across industries, quit rates have remained high, but hiring rates remain even higher. “Workers being able to quit their jobs to take better ones is a very good thing and signals an economy with healthy dynamism,” said Economic Policy Institute President, Heidi Shierholz. “A high quit rate combined with strong job growth is absolutely something to celebrate.”  

Related blogs:

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Our Ways of Working are Changing. How should MBAs Prepare?

Elite Law Schools Provide Best Return on Investment

A Wall Street Journal analysis of federal student loan debt recently showed that elite law programs can offer the best return on investment to graduates. Among the top 20, the debt-to-income ratio averaged out to 1.0, which means that graduates were making a salary just two years out of school equal to what they had accrued in debt; the range in debt to income ratio among this elite group spanned from 0.7 at Stanford  to 1.36 at Georgetown University. 

Of note, this analysis only includes the salary and student loan debt for students who took out federal student loans and does not include private loans. The analysis reviewed the federal student loan debt accrued in 2015 and 2016 compared to the graduate’s salary two years later. 

*17 schools ranked within the top 20 were included in the Wall Street Journal analysis; Yale, Duke and Cornell were not included

More broadly, however, the Wall Street Journal found that most law degrees, excluding those from elite programs, have decreased in value over time as inflation has outpaced salary, all while tuition prices have risen dramatically. The article notes that between 1985 and 2019, adjusting for inflation, the average annual tuition for a private law school has nearly tripled according to advocacy group, Law School Transparency. And, within this context, salaries have not jumped as significantly.

According to the National Association for Law Placement, starting law salaries generally fall within two clusters: $45,000-$75,000 for public service and small firm attorneys and around $190,000 for attorneys at large firms. And, according to a Law School Transparency analysis using American Bar Association data, more than half of the entry-level jobs at the large and high-paying firms go to graduates of the top 20 ranked law programs.

Prospective law students should take into account a law program’s cost as well as the expected median salary for graduates during the school selection process. Additionally, for those students who hope to go into public service or work for a smaller firm, it may be beneficial to compare the costs and outcomes for various public and private law school options, as well as debt repayment plans that may be available for different career tracks. Similarly, those hoping to obtain a place at a large and high-paying firm should look at placement outcomes at law schools of interest to best position themselves for success. 

Related blogs:

15-Year Law School Experience Study Shows Changes in Student Demographics and Debt, Consistency in Student Satisfaction with Legal Education

ABA Report Calls for Action to Help Young Lawyers Struggling with Student Loans

Our Ways of Working are Changing. How should MBAs Prepare?

The “Great Resignation,” a high rate of employees leaving their jobs month-over-month, emerged as one of the key stories in 2021. Many initially hypothesized that the mass exodus was driven by empowered employees seeking greater mental well-being and flexibility. But the truth may be a bit more nuanced. Experts are now suggesting that many are leaving their employers out of necessity due to covid-related child-care woes and health concerns. Others are simply transitioning to new jobs with higher pay or flexibility. Either way, the trend shows that employee needs and priorities are changing and that the workplace must adapt. 

To help prospective and current MBA students better understand this new and dynamic environment, Carrington Crisp, an educational consultancy and research firm, partnered with the Executive MBA Council (EMBAC) and the Working Professional Task Force to research the changing nature of work and learning. After interviewing 100 employers across the globe, the consultancy found five trends. 

• Increasing demands for flexibility: Among employers, 44 percent agree that the flexible working options offered during the pandemic are here to stay.

• Commitment to lifelong learning: Most employers, 86 percent, agree that employees will need to take part in continuing education initiatives to maintain relevancy throughout their careers. 

• Digital transformation: Continuing education activities will transition online for many organizations as budgets remain stable or decrease. Approximately 80 percent of respondents also expect that management and executive development will include online learning elements. 

• A focus on skills (new and old): Most employers recognize that leadership and communication skills will only gain in importance as employees manage increasingly diverse groups across generations and geographies. But employers also named newer skills such as digital transformation, artificial intelligence, operational efficiency, data analytics, and data-based decision making as critical. 

• Fast application of learning: Employees will be expected to apply their new knowledge to their environment quickly. 

Business schools will need to evolve too. Below, representatives from MBA programs discuss content they believe will soon be an essential part of a general management education. 

• People Analytics and Human Resources: Susan Fournier, Dean of Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, noted that there may be a greater emphasis than ever before on the role of HR in defining the “social architecture” of a company, and facilitating flexibility and other strategies that promote employee retention. Similarly, Charlie Tharp, an HR Management professor at Questrom, points to the key role that people analytics will play for businesses in the future. The world, he noted, is shifting from defining value in terms of physical assets to human capital (skills and abilities). As such, the role of HR and people analytics capabilities will grow in strategic importance.

• “Out of the Box” Management: MIT’s Sloan School of Management is teaching students to meet the moment through a speaker series, which started in 2020; the 2021 theme is “Building a Better World of Work.” MIT Professor Erin Kelly describes this moment in history as bringing an opportunity to managers to think more meaningfully about supporting employees in individualized ways—extending efforts beyond generalized workplace wellness initiatives and managing employees in ways that promotes sustainability, as well as physical and mental wellbeing.

• Leadership in Uncertain Times: Professor of Management at Boston College, Jerry Kane, notes that disruptions are inevitable, even looking beyond the pandemic, and that business schools must train students to navigate and lead through ambiguity, making decisions and moving forward with intention despite uncertainty. For example, he points out that employees are valuing flexibility more than ever and companies that aren’t willing to reconsider the old ways of doing things and make changes will lose out in the battle for talent. 

Incoming 2021 Medical School Class Largest and Most Diverse Ever

The incoming 2021 class of medical students is the largest and the most diverse ever. Compared to 2020, the number of self-identified Black or African American first-year medical students grew by 21 percent, the number of Asian students increased by 8.3 percent, and Hispanic/Latino students increased by 7.1 percent. While the majority of matriculants are White (51.5 percent), there were increasing proportions of Asian (26.5 percent), Hispanic/Latino (12.7 percent) and Black or African American (11.3 percent) students. Women continue to make up the majority of the entering class at 55.5 percent, and of total medical school enrollment at 52.5 percent.

The large class comes at the end of a record-setting year for application submissions, with a 17.8 percent increase. In particular, there was an increase in the number of diverse candidates submitting applications, which was driven by a 41 percent increase in Black or African American candidates and a 25 percent increase in Hispanic/Latino applicants. Last year marked the first year that white candidates did not make up the majority of applicants at 49.7 percent; the next largest proportions of applicants were Asian (25.0 percent), Black or African American (11.7 percent) and Hispanic/Latino (11.7 percent).

The AAMC does not believe that the surge in applicants is expected to continue, and they note that the current year is trending closer to pre-pandemic levels. While there are many hypotheses regarding last year’s surge, many suggest that it was a confluence of factors including lowered application costs due to virtual interviews and expanded MCAT assistance, a dearth of available “gap year” experiences, and an increased awareness of social inequities related to health outcomes and access to health care. While many have considered the unlikely celebrity of Anthony Fauci and how he could have inspired more young people to consider medicine, there is now a real sense among the medical community that the pandemic and its key players did indeed prompt more applications, even from those initially “on the fence.”

Related blogs:

Long-Term Study of Medical School Demographics Shows “Persistent Failure” to Improve Diversity

Surge in Medical School Applications Attributed to the “Fauci Effect” and Virtual Interviews

Medical Schools Called to Increase Diversity as Pandemic Highlights Racial Disparities in Healthcare

MBA Programs Position Graduates Well to Repay Student Debt

A Wall Street Journal analysis of federal student loan showed that graduates of almost 98 percent of MBA programs in the US made more money in salary within two years than they had accrued in debt for their degree. At the most prestigious of programs, such as Harvard Business School and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, over half of graduates were able to repay their federal loans within two years of graduation.

It is important to note that this analysis only includes the salary and student loan debt for students who took out federal student loans. Many students also take out private loans at lower interest rates. Harvard’s Managing Director of MBA Admissions, Chad Losee, confirmed that over half of Harvard’s 2020 graduates (56 percent) graduated with debt, and that the average was $79,000 in combined federal and private loans. 

The high rate of return on investment for MBA programs may be attributed to the fact that many MBA students come into the program with work experience, which drives up the starting salaries they are offered at graduation. Additionally, many who work in high-paying industries such as finance and consulting tend to gravitate towards the degree, and return to those or other high-paying industries. 

Tuition costs and potential debt load, as well as possible starting salaries and cost-of living post-degree may be easy to overlook at first, but they are important to consider during the school selection process. 

Related blogs: Student Loan Forgiveness Receives New Attention Under the Biden Administration

University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business Unveils Free, Pre-MBA Quantitative Readiness Course Online

Last month, the part-time MBA program at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business released a new “pathway to entry” for prospective students. Students may now opt to participate in a free, online pre-MBA Quantitative Readiness course and submit a final exam score of 80 percent or higher in lieu of GRE or GMAT scores. 

The Quantitative Readiness course is estimated to take between 20 and 30 hours to complete, and includes six self-paced modules covering various statistical techniques and applications. Each module includes practice questions and a quiz, followed by a three-hour final exam encompassing all modules. The course description states that the material is presented in such a way that students who spend the requisite time studying will be able to pass the course. 

In an interview with Poets & Quants, Patricia Russo, Managing Director of Part-Time MBA programs at Ross, said that the initial impetus behind the program was to drive applicant diversity by introducing a new mechanism to showcase readiness, one that may appeal to those with less traditional quantitative backgrounds. So far, with almost 200 enrollees in the first month, student feedback has shown that the program is meaningful. In addition to creating an alternative to standardized tests, it has provided students with the chance to refresh their quantitative skills and increase their confidence prior to entering an MBA program. It also gives them a chance to “test drive the rigor of an MBA”. Furthermore, as the program is an entryway to part-time programs where most students work in parallel, Russo notes that the act of taking the course provides prospective students visibility into the day-to-day work of juggling MBA coursework with their work and personal lives.

There is no current plan to extend the entryway to full-time applicants at Ross, but many part-time MBA program administrators from other universities have reached out with interest in the course. 

The University of California, Davis to Pilot Innovative Tuition Deferment Plan for Online MBA Students

Last month, the UC Davis Graduate School of Management announced that it will pilot an interest-free, deferred tuition plan available to all future online MBA program applicants. The school, which was the first within the University of California system to offer an online MBA program, will be the first MBA program ever to offer a deferred tuition payment option. 

Within the pilot, admitted online MBA students will pay the first half of their tuition fees (approximately $50,000 of the total $105,480) as per usual. However, after the first 36 hours of credits are accrued, all tuition payments will be deferred. The second half of the tuition is not due until students have graduated or withdrawn from the program, and have a job and income totaling at least $3,334 per month (approximately $40,000 annually). Students will then pay approximately 10 percent of their gross income monthly until the second tuition payment is completed. The school notes that the exact time for payment fulfillment will vary depending on the graduate’s salary. Generally, they expect students to take about five years to pay off the sum, but acknowledge that it will be longer for those who go into lower-salaried careers. In addition to the tuition deferment, the program is innovative in key ways: 1) the payments are interest-free, meaning that students will never pay more than the total tuition figure, and 2) if a student loses their job, or drops below $3,334 monthly, they are able to discontinue payments until they are again earning at that level. 

Hanumantha R. Unnava, Dean of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, told Poets & Quants that he believes this tuition deferment plan will drive the pool of applicants upwards by a magnitude of 20 percent, as many prospective students are interested in obtaining an online MBA without going into significant and immediate debt. The program’s administrator EdAid, based in London, agrees, and also claims the program will improve completion rates, drive access and diversity, and increase the revenue from each entering cohort.

Debt among MBA graduates has been well documented. However, the high debt carried by graduates of online MBA programs is not as well publicized. A 2019 article in Poets & Quants noted that “the average debt burden for graduates of at least 16 online MBA programs, in fact, is $50,000 or more.” The same article also said that for many schools, the average debt is well over that $50,000. For Pepperdine’s online MBA, the average debt for students came out to just over $96,000—slightly more than the total cost of the program— with 81 percent of graduates carrying debt. Pepperdine responded by saying that in a 2016 survey, three-fourths of respondents said that their online MBA equated to a promotion or salary raise. At least seven online programs, in 2019, had an average student debt over $65,000. 

The innovative deferred tuition plan may create a new model for online MBA pricing, and perhaps a consideration for other schools looking to attenuate the rising costs of MBA tuition. “I think there is going to be a widespread adoption of this model in higher education, and we are so delighted that we are the first school to do it,” Dean Unnava said.

National Bar Exam Results Remain Stable, but Early State-Level Reports Show Declining Pass Rates

An article published last week on Law.com proclaims that the early results for the July 2021 multi-state bar exam were “less drama-filled than the exam itself” with the national mean scaled score falling only slightly compared to 2019. The national mean score, 140.4, was released last Wednesday by The National Conference of Bar Examiners and showed a decrease of just 0.7 from the pre-pandemic July 2019 national mean of 141.1 (the last time a full national group took the test). This year’s mean was also generally on-par with 2020, when due to the ongoing pandemic, the test was administered on three different dates with reported mean scores of: 141.6, 142.7, and 137.2. And, the mean score fared better than in 2018 when the mean was 139.5. 

While all states administered a bar exam in July, due to the pandemic, 24 jurisdictions offered the test in-person and 29 offered it via full-length online exam. Online test-takers reported an experience riddled with technical difficulties. For some, the remote-testing software crashed and forced a computer restart costing them valuable time—ranging from a few minutes to an hour and a half—and causing significant added stress.  

And, despite the similar mean-score comparisons at the national-level, an article from Reuters suggests that the early state-level pass rates are emerging as “ominous” indicators. Just nine states have published results, but eight of them are reporting lower pass rates than in 2020. While the number of test-takers in each state has been relatively small, Iowa’s pass rate decreased by 12 percentage points this year (71 percent passed in July), New Mexico’s decreased by 18 percentage points (71 percent), and Nebraska’s decreased by 17 percentage points (72 percent). In North Carolina, the overall pass rate dropped from 83 percent in 2020 to 75 percent this year, despite the passing score being decreased by 2 percentage points in response to the online test’s technical problems. South Dakota, at this point, is the only state to increase its pass rate (+ 3 percentage points year-over-year) to 73 percent. 

Five out of the nine reporting states gave full, in-person exams both this year and last, and four out of five of them reported drops in pass-rates. This suggests that not all of the blame can be put upon the online test. University of Iowa law professor Derek Muller, speaking to Reuters, points to pandemic fatigue and learning loss related to law schools’ move to online and hybrid learning. “That’s showing in the results now. That’s just speculation, so I think we’re going to want to see more about it. But that’s something law schools should be looking really hard at,” he said. 

While the National Conference of Bar Examiners has already said that the bar exam will no longer be available in an online format and will return to in-person testing only, it will be interesting to see the pass results for other jurisdictions. Law schools may find it necessary to provide additional support to students.