Fordham’s EMBA Program Gains Another Cohort

Fordham’s Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) is hot.

For the first time in the history of the Graduate School of Business Administration, there will be four EMBA cohorts running concurrently this spring semester. There are 106 students enrolled in the program, a figure that represents a 135 percent increase since the first EMBA cohort graduated in 2005.

"The strong growth can be attributed to a variety of factors including our strategic recruitment efforts, a yearly increase in student and alumni referrals to our program as well as our rankings in The Wall Street Journal,” said Francis Petit, Ed.D., assistant dean and director of executive programs at GBA. In 2008, the Journal ranked the program 25th in overall excellence compared to similar programs around the world. The newspaper also ranked the program in the top 20 with respect to return on investment among American programs.

The EMBA is an intensive 22-month program that continues to grow in popularity.

“Prospective students are very attracted to Fordham's EMBA Program and our EMBA community," Petit added. “We have been told that we offer a unique, hands-on and personable admissions experience compared to our competitors. We get to know our candidates and the journeys' they have traveled and they get to know what we and our program are all about," he added.

The newest class of 2011 is the second cohort for Fordham Westchester. They are a diverse bunch consisting of 22 students with backgrounds in areas such as finance, pharmaceuticals, real estate, health care, higher education and government.

Cohort Statistics
Number of Executives in Cohort: 22
Mean Age: 33
Mean Years of Work Experience: 11
Percent Male: 68
Percent Female: 32
Percent Full Financial Sponsorship: 20
Percent Partial Financial Sponsorship: 35
Percent Self Sponsored: 45
Mean Salary: $115,000

Titles Represented in Cohort: senior vice president, senior environmental specialist, senior auditor, assistant vice president, operations analyst.

Organizations Represented in Cohort: Credit Suisse, GAMCO Asset Management, Inc., Thomson Reuters, Toll Brothers, Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities, Con Edison, Yeshiva University and the Westchester County Medical Center.

Academic Institutions Represented in Cohort: Cornell, Brandeis, Lafayette, Villanova, Fordham, LaSalle, Binghamton, Lehman, University of Connecticut and Oklahoma. One student in the cohort was a member of the UCONN Men’s Division I NCAA Basketball Championship Squad.

Eighteen percent of the students in this new cohort were born outside of the United States and hail from Albania, Honduras, Peru and Sweden.

-Gina Vergel