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As business schools seek to diversify their classes, there's a lot more focus on attracting students who didn't major in business as undergraduates and working adults who want to change careers.
But to be truly effective in recruiting these students, we need to understand their situation, what motivates them—and what leads them to enroll in graduate management education.
Rachel Edgington, GMAC Director of Market Research and Analysis, shared some insights about this group at GMAC's Annual Industry Conference in San Diego. In the first of three planned research studies, GMAC conducted interviews and focus groups with 90 US citizens with nonbusiness educational backgrounds. (Studies of Asian and European citizens are planned.) About half were undergraduates and half were MBA students who had graduated in the past four years.
Nontraditionals were divided broadly into four major psychographic segments, Edgington said:
- Artists, aspiring actors, dancers, writers, and architects.
- Society, those interested in helping or studying people as a group or culture through work in government, research, the law, or academics.
- People, those interested in helping or studying people as individuals, through work as teachers, social workers, or counselors
- Science/Technology, doctors, engineers, and other smart people who seek to apply their skills in helping help or study people, society, or organizations
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