Five Things You Should Know When Applying to the Kellogg School of Management

The Kellogg School of Management's Round 2 deadline is a little more than a month away, but there's still plenty of time for you to craft a winning application. Continuing our series of admissions insights clipped from Veritas Prep's Annual Reports, our in-depth insider's guides to 15 of the world's top business schools, this week we look at a few factors that make Kellogg unique among top business schools. (Our Annual reports are absolutely free -- all you have to do is register to access all of them -- but we thought we'd share some snippets here to help get you started in your Kellogg research.)

To help you with your planning, our MBA admissions consultants have pulled together five things you really should know about Kellogg before you apply. Some are more obvious than others, but all are important things that mark the Kellogg experience:

• The Kellogg Culture. The emphasis on teamwork inside and outside of the classroom is the hallmark of the Kellogg experience, and is the foundation for the rest of the school’s approach. Student collaboration is the common attribute that ties everything together at Northwestern.


• Diversity of Coursework. Kellogg offers perhaps the most blended teaching approach of any of the top business schools, dividing its course styles into three nearly equal parts: case method, lectures, and team projects – all bolstered by the schools commitment to experiential learning. The classroom approach at Kellogg can often mirror the probing, theoretical approach of a top law school, as distinguished professors push MBA students to go beyond the rules of business by testing theories and assumptions. Classroom participation is one thing that all of Kellogg's class formats have in common.


• Experiential Learning. Many elite business schools offer their students the chance to study in the field and to get real world experience, but few incorporate the mantra of "learning by doing" to the extent that Kellogg does. From the number of students who participate in business plan competitions to unique opportunities to create and test new technologies, Kellogg allows every student to find a way to put their theoretical learning to the real world test. The school offers a nearly unparalleled variety of courses and labs that focus almost entirely on learning by doing.


• Leadership and Social Responsibility. As mentioned above, Kellogg puts a great deal of focus on leadership. This applies to the admissions process, but also to the coursework and educational experience as the school attempts to elevate good leaders to great ones. Specific leadership courses (Leadership in Organizations and Values and Crisis Decision Making) bring this approach to the curriculum, while a residence series brings in high-level executives as part of a speaking program to discuss leadership issues and concepts surrounding social responsibility. Additionally, the Business Leadership Club and the Kellogg Student Association rank among the most popular and important student groups at the school, and the Social Enterprise at Kellogg (SEEK) program was launched in 2005 to promote social development.


• Global Perspective. Like many top business schools, Kellogg boasts an increasingly global approach to its learning environment and coursework. A typical Kellogg class is composed of students from 40 different countries, and the school has focused coursework and experiential learning opportunities specific to the global landscape, such as the Global Lab, Global Initiatives in Management, and a requirement that every student take at least one course with a global focus.

Today's installment was clipped from our Kellogg Annual Report, one of 15 completely free guides to the world's top business schools, available on our site. If you're ready to start building your own application for Kellogg or other top MBA programs, call us at 1-800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today!