Experience during the program

Students at Foster are all-in, ready to get involved and help improve the experience for themselves and for future classes. Foster met all my expectations for finding a job that would provide an ROI in 2 years. I also appreciate knowing professors and all classmates personally. The large support systems ensures everyone gets a job.
The areas I felt Foster was lacking compared to my expectations was the diversity of the student body and the number of funded events. However, I would highly recommend Foster to anyone who is attracted to the culture and the Seattle area and ready to commit to the community.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Career opportunities provided by school
Location
Culture & Student Support
Admissions Team

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Finance
Marketing
Tech
Entrepreneurship
Management

Can be improved:

Student body, diversity
Brand/Ranking
Facilities

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Experience during the program

1. Admission team is great. Class is well balanced and diverse. Love my classmates!
2. Career center has great relationships with companies in Seattle. Very easy to find contacts with Amazon or Microsoft.
3. Growth mindset. School always seeks feedback from students and makes improvements and adjustments to be better.
4. Professors are great. Smart, fun, interesting, caring.
5. Many opportunities to learn by doing, to take leadership roles in student organizations
6. Seattle is amazing!
7. Faculty, Career management and second years are extremely approachable and supportive. Everybody is interested in your success and ready to contribute.
8. Highlights of the first quarter: Bay area Tech trek, trip to Whistler, Canada

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (4.0)

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Career opportunities provided by school
Location

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Finance
Marketing
Tech
Entrepreneurship

Can be improved:

Brand/Ranking

Read More

Experience during the program

This program has far exceeded my expectations from the intellectual stimulation, opportunities to grow, and strong alumni network that is always willing to give you a moment of their time. The finance professors at this school are exceptional and I would argue some of the best within any MBA program, and yes they are that good. The small class size shouldn't deter you from this program because it gives us a little chip on our shoulder to prove we deserve to be ranked among the top business schools. The tech environment within Seattle is rapidly growing, and the opportunities are endless within the region with Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Tableau, and many other tech firms finding homes within the PNW. Don't let the rain scare you, this city is booming and this program is on the rise.

About professors, classes and curriculum

Thomas Gilbert and Lance Young will make you like finance, and not only that they will give you tools to approach business challenges in new and unique ways that help you identify and hone in on the key business problem. Truly life changing professors that I've experienced so far.

About job placement process

If you want to work in a growing tech environment the Seattle is the place to be, and Foster is the strongest network here that will help you create a vibrant future within Seattle.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Alumni Network
Location

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Finance
Marketing
Entrepreneurship

Can be improved:

Brand/Ranking
Facilities

Read More

Experience during the program

Favorite Aspects:
- Students: The community at Foster is truly collaborative and tight-knit. Given the small class size (~130), you really get to know and learn from your classmates. The admissions team does a wonderful job curating a diverse and vibrant class. Be prepared to contribute - the small class size means everyone participates, be it in clubs or in the classroom.

- Opportunities: Foster's network within Seattle is fantastic. The opportunities with local employers rival those from any other school. While we're known for sending a lot of the class into tech (Microsoft, Amazon, etc.), a large portion goes into consulting, finance, and marketing roles as well. If the Pacific Northwest is where you want to be post-MBA, there is no better option than Foster.

Room for improvement:
- Ranking/Reputation: Foster has moved up the rankings quickly over the last 5 or so years. The school is benefiting from Seattle's growth and is able to attract a lot of talent to the program. The program seems to have stalled out around the 20-30 rank range however, despite the efforts of the program office and students to move up.

- Space: All of Foster's programs are in the same building. This means team meeting rooms, classroom space, and large meeting areas are often shared between MBA students, undergrads, and other masters students. A scene that plays out often is MBAs kicking undergrads out of the "MBA only" team rooms on the third floor. PACCAR Hall is a beautiful and modern space, but this also draws crowds. The space issue is a minor thing, but at times it gets annoying.

About professors, classes and curriculum

Several core classes stand above the others for their quality. For example, Professor Gilbert's core finance class has changed a lot of people's minds about the subject and inspired them to pursue careers in finance. And Professor Hillier's Quantitative Methods class has equipped students with valuable, practical modeling tools that can be immediately applied in an internship or full-time role.

About job placement process

Final thoughts:

The school is on the rise and will likely continue to grow in popularity. Career management invests a lot of time and resources into every student for a very personalized experience. Recruiting for opportunities outside of Seattle and the Bay Area will be more difficult as the school's brand doesn't as strongly the further east you go. Best way to see if you'd like Foster is to come visit. We love to host perspective students!

Some examples (not all!) of companies that recruit and offer internships/full time roles for Foster students:

-Tech (PM roles): Microsoft, Amazon, Google, VMWare, Zynga
-Consulting: Deloitte, PwC, Accenture, Alvarez and Marsal. To a lesser extent (not-target but still have opportunities): McKinsey and BCG. Plus a lot of local firms (Point B, Slalom, 2A, Revel, etc.).
-Finance/Marketing/Strategy/Other: Nordstrom, T-Mobile, Starbucks, Goldman Sachs, Nike

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Career opportunities provided by school
Culture & Student Support

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Finance
Tech
Entrepreneurship

Can be improved:

Brand/Ranking

Read More

Experience during the program

Program has great quality of professors, facilities, and while I was in school Foster leap-frogged UCLA Anderson by getting ranked 19 (Full-time ranking) overall in Bloomberg's most recent ranking. This is encouraging and lets me know I am spending my time in a program that will grow their brand equity even after I have become and Alum.

I would suggest future applicants consider their opportunity costs of attending a top ranked program with no income vis-à-vis what a highly ranked evening program can provide. Where at all possible I would highly recommend Foster's because even though it is an "evening program", one still gets a robust amount of exposure through the added year to cover a "full-time's worth" of curriculum.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Location
Brand/Ranking
Facilities

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Finance
Tech

Can be improved:

Student body, diversity
Specialization in a particular area (e.g. Finance, Consulting, Healthcare, etc)

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Experience during the program

Foster has a unique strength being in the Seattle area, which opens opportunities at companies like Amazon that only top 5 business schools can offer outside of the area. Combined with a collaborative and personal student experience, Foster is a terrific school on the rise. Further, the entrepreneurial classes are world class, such as angel investing (where you actually have real money from the UW endowment to invest) and software entrepreneurship (a class mixed with computer science and design grad students taught by one of the leading VCs in the city).

When applying make sure you emphasize why you're unique and how you have the self determination and drive to make an impact.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Alumni Network
Career opportunities provided by school
Culture & Student Support

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Tech
Entrepreneurship

Can be improved:

Brand/Ranking

Read More

Experience during the program

The professors, especially for 1st year Evening students, are top-notch and very passionate about teaching. They know their material very well and are very enthusiastic to teaching both the theory and real-world applications in class. Most of our learning comes from a combination of lecture, HBR case studies, and team projects.

It is also worth noting that Foster is a strong research-oriented school. Therefore, it is not surprising to see a very significant number of faculty at the Foster School are senior editors in their respective research journals and collaborate with other professors in the top ranked programs.

Overall, the program is exceeding my expectations. I expected UW to have strong fundamentals in teaching theory, but I was pleasantly surprised about the level of engagement in terms of cases, team projects, and general coursework.

About professors, classes and curriculum

Your first year will be very tough, both in terms of adjusting to balancing your new life with school-work on top of your full-time job. The second aspect is the sheer amount of material coming your way and you have to absorb it quickly or else you can easily fall behind. That said, all of the hard work you will endure pays off and you will be able to apply it on your job immediately, which is something we can benefit that the FT students cannot.

About job placement process

Although it is labeled as an "Evening", don't let the "Evening" label fool you. The program is designed to be as close to the Full-Time experience as much as possible, with the one difference is that most students are already employed full-time with a higher percentage of career-enhancers rather than career-seekers. That said, there are a significant number of students who are looking for new and exciting roles, and the Evening and FT programs share the same career services and recruiting network.

The amount of time you will spend doing coursework per class is on par with the full-time students, if not even more challenging because most of us are juggling full-time work and school concurrently. Be prepared to treat this as a "Full-Time Plus" program and not a "Part-Time" program. The evening program has a 1/2 to 2/3 course load compared to FT students, but add in your day job in there and you will see how that quickly adds up.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Brand/Ranking
Culture & Student Support

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Tech
Entrepreneurship
Management

Can be improved:

Alumni Network
Specialization in a particular area (e.g. Finance, Consulting, Healthcare, etc)
Meeting rooms are hard to get (compete with FT)

Read More