Who's Doing Online MBA Programs Will Surprise You

Christal Desmarais had a dream in college. Her heart was set on working in marketing. Sure enough, she landed a dream job with a tech firm. It was a big step – and there’d be no stopping her.

That’s what she thought, at least. 

Fast forward two months. Without warning, Desmarais was moved into technical support – the department where everyone was miserable. It was a devastating wakeup call – and she admits that her first instinct was to “run for the hills back home for safety.” Then Desmarais realized something: This was an opportunity, even if it wasn’t a passion. Rather than griping or tuning out, she talked to her peers and took notes. She drafted a 10-point plan to make her co-workers’ lives easier – and then went out and executed it. The reward? Her employer made her a team leader to before her first year was up. 

40 TOP STUDENTS FROM NEARLY 20 TOP ONLINE PROGRAMS

“I was a young women working in the male-dominated mobile application software industry in 2002 and I was able to do something that was meaningful and stood out,” reminisces. “I was provided opportunities from that point that allowed me to foster my career through trust and creativity. I had made a mark on the company, but also on myself. I learned the valuable lesson of listening before you act.”  

Two years ago, Desmarais made a similar leap of faith: she enrolled in the online MBA program at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business. Now, this Dell program manager’s career has come full circle. Coming into the program, Desmarais worried that a virtual platform might be confusing and isolating. Soon enough, she discovered that the faculty followed the same playbook that she used at her first job. “I was very surprised immediately on how responsive the professors were in reaching out and helping students via chat, email and even telephone calls. Weekly classroom chats with video helped to create a rapport with the professors similar to that of being in a physical classroom setting.”

Desmarais is just one of the 40 students profiled by Poets&Quants in our inaugural “Best & Brightest Online MBAs,” which spotlights top graduates from the Class of 2018. These students represent 19 of the highest-ranked online MBA programs, including perennial leaders like Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper School), Indiana University (Kelley School), University of Florida (Hough), and University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler). The students, who range in age from 25 to 57, were selected by their schools based on areas like ““strong academic performance, critical and consistent contributions, striking personal narrative, and innate potential.”

Who made this year’s Best & Brightest? The list includes sales executives, engineers, finance ninjas, strategy consultants, physicians, and actresses. And their employers represent business royalty: Tesla, Amazon, JP Morgan, Microsoft, Hershey, and Grant Thornton. They were united by a curiosity about business – and a desire to use what they learn to move ahead and make their companies and communities better. In the process, these MBAs developed a camaraderie to last a lifetime. 

U.S. CONGRESSWOMAN HIGHLIGHTES THIS YEAR’S TOP STUDENTS

“Maybe it was the common hunger we all had for knowledge, or maybe it was the diversity of backgrounds and professions, but I’ve been able to cultivate lifelong connections and friendships with some truly amazing people,” says Indiana University’s Matt Dodaro. “To this day, rarely a week goes by where I’m not calling, texting, or even visiting a former classmate. It’s actually become a running joke with many of my former classmates that if they’re ever in Chicago, they’ll “always have a place to stay” and that “drinks are on me!” 

The most recognizable name on the Best & Brightest list is a U.S. Congresswoman – Kyrsten Sinema, who represents Arizona’s 9th District and earned her MBA from Arizona State. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The University of Maryland’s Jason Young was appointed by President Obama to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services in 2012, where his 38 member team led the public affairs efforts on behalf of the Affordable Care Act. Want responsibility? Rochester Institute of Technology’s Kenneth McCray oversees channel sales and operations for McAfee in the Americas. When you look out into the Nashville skyline and become smitten with Bridgestone’s 30-story glass headquarters, think of Drexel University’s Albert Acevedo. He was responsible for its design and construction. 

It wasn’t always an easy path for this year’s class. Life happened while they were balancing their work and family commitments. Megan Broccard earned three promotions during her two years at Auburn – and got engaged to a member of her virtual study group besides. The University of Nebraska’s Kevin Flint had his first baby in the middle of his studies. How is this for serendipity? “My oldest son and I both started our coursework at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill at the same time,” jokes Gordon Groh, an orthopedic surgeon.

IMMEDIATELY APPLIED WHAT THEY LEARNED AT WORK

Chances are, father and son enjoyed quite different experiences. For many, the online format acts as the Netflix of Education, providing a flexibility to study where, when, and how they wanted. “I sat in on classes from a beach in Maui, hotels across the country, airplanes and airports, boats, planes, coffee shops, and everywhere in between,” explains Carnegie Mellon’s Grant Small. “As long as there was access to internet, I could be in class.”

At the same time, Small adds, he was able to quickly apply what he learned to his job at Nike – something he couldn’t do if he would’ve moved his family from Portland to Pittsburgh for the full-time program. “Each class that I took had some form of relevancy for the work that I was doing. Not only that, but whenever I was struggling with a course…I could come back to work and connect with someone to see how Nike was doing things. Doing that always helped make what I was learning more concrete and real.”

Despite the online format, the 2018 Best & Brightest were hardly a lot who just played lectures and collaborated together in Google Hangout. Instead, says Indiana’s Dodaro, the online program pulled him away from the monitor and made him experience what he learned at ground level. 

ONLINE PROGRAM TAKES INDIANA MBA AROUND THE WORLD

“I had opportunities to work onsite with companies small and large – from a family-owned ice cream shop in the Midwest all the way to one of the leading remittance companies in Asia,” he elaborates. “I was able to partner with marketing executives at Starwood Hotels to create campaigns aimed at the female traveler. In Cincinnati, I worked alongside Proctor & Gamble’s innovation team to develop strategies that would better position their core business with an increasingly-connected world. However, the most memorable course took place just 200 miles off the coast of Florida during a truly ground-breaking week in Havana, Cuba. With a long history of suppressing private enterprises, my fellow classmates and I had the rare opportunity to support eight private businesses and their quests for economic prosperity.”

This combination of flexibility, rigor, and experience is why every member of this year’s Best & Brightest would gladly do their online MBA program over again. “I got an incredible amount of professional development, fulfillment, and fun out of the program,” asserts Arizona State’s Christopher Ott, a U.S. Marine reserve officer and manager at Amazon. “I’ve kept growing professionally. I have been promoted during my time in the program and that is something I would have missed had I done a full-time program.” 

Who are the 40 Best & Brightest Online MBAs? Where did they study and where will they work? What were the biggest surprises in an online program and what do they hope to achieve after graduation? Click on the link below to see in-depth profiles of some of the world’s most gifted business students. 

Profiles: Best & Brightest Online MBAs (Class Of 2018)