Administrators and graduate-school admissions officers alike acknowledge the increasing significance of what has become the new buzzword for aspiring MBA students, "an international perspective."
The increased appetite of business recruiters for such skills has led to a greater emphasis on study abroad and languages for undergraduate programs, and international experience is an increasingly more significant factor in graduate school admissions.
"Business is very global, so to build on that many see the benefits of international experience," said Tom Fitch, assistant dean for Commerce Career Services. "I think you're going to see more employees seeing that at some point in their career."
Darden School Director of Admissions Everette W. Fortner said while the school would not penalize applicants who lack study abroad or international experience, they need to demonstrate a global outlook.
"We don't exclude students for not having any international exposure, but we do need some demonstration of an outwardly view of things rather than a parochial view," Fortner said. "They need to demonstrate worldly view."
The University has responded to this by encouraging study abroad among Commerce students.
While eight years ago Commerce undergrads found it difficult to study abroad without missing out on the core requirements of the third year and the crucial employer recruiting season in the fall of the fourth year, the school now encourages study abroad in the spring of the third year.
"I think we provide a great deal of support and encouragement for students who want to do it," Commerce Dean for Student Services Rebecca Leonard said. "We've made it very easy for students to go abroad."
Of the 322 students who graduated with Bachelors degrees from the Commerce School in 2005, 104 studied abroad, representing a 32 percent participation rate, Leonard said. That rate exceeds many peer schools like Georgia Tech, which has a 21 percent rate of students studying abroad or Indiana with a 16 percent rate.
Opportunities for students range from spending the spring semester in popular programs arranged by the Commerce School such as Copenhagen or Paris, or spending the summer on a program the student chooses, such as Oxford, England or Valencia, Spain.
Commerce School students, like their peers in the College, also are required to demonstrate at least second-year foreign language proficiency.
Still, Fortner said, admissions officers are likely to look positively on studying abroad for reasons other then the international element.
"It would be looked on very positively because it shows how people deal with a situation out of their comfort zone," Fortner said.
For students who are particularly directed in their career plans, in addition to securing relevant internships and other experiences, there may even be the opportunity to go directly from the undergraduate program to an MBA.
"In the next couple of years we would like to have a couple of direct admits, because we believe that employers are demanding more intellectual and demonstrated leaders," Fortner said.
Traditionally, students who want an MBA find that they need several years of work experience before applying.
"I think a lot of students think in their first or second year that they're going to go directly in to graduate school, because [MBA programs] are like most graduate schools," Leonard said. "But then they realize that is not realistic."
Students typically bring an average of four to six years of post-undergraduate work experience to the MBA program, Fortner said.
The typical MBA aspirant would be best advised to assemble an array of experience that includes work, a strong undergraduate record and international study, most administrators say.
"To be productive in any good MBA program, much of the interaction that takes place in the program is going to be based on real life experience and that will only come from work experience," Fitch said.
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