Under resourced & poorly run – good enough ONLY for your first job post-MBA IB/consulting role

Experience during the program

Overall: Johnson is as good as any T10 program for banking, in the T20 range for consulting and not strong in much else (including tech). The MBA experience feels like a vocational training program, heavy on workload / low on fun. Classmate quality varies drastically with way too many weak students (ex-uber driver types). Academics are uninspiring, mostly junior professors with few exciting electives. The administration is just awful and underfunded. Few resources are dedicated to the core full time MBA program, the focus is Cornell Tech and new standalone masters programs. Alumni affairs don't exist once you graduate, near zero events, zero emails and zero networking facilitation. The career mgt center is a collection of glorified admins who schedule company campus visits and can't be bothered to do more. There’s a feeling of ‘we don’t need to improve because we’re Ivy’ mindset that is holding the sleepy school back.

If you want the bare essentials of an MBA program without the full on 2 year MBA experience and without a lifelong dedicated alumni network, that's Johnson.

About professors, classes and curriculum

Administration: The worst part of Johnson is the administration. There are two insolvable issues: 1) it's hard to get good administrators to live in Ithaca and 2) unlike all T15 programs the MBA isn't independent, it's the weakest program in the large College of Business (includes Nolan Hotel and Dyson undergrad). It's hard to hire strong leaders for the MBA program because they'll be trapped in middle management in the College of Business. This results in an administration that is several notches below peers in quality with less resources. It's been internally assumed that the College of Business will help run the MBA program, instead of having staff at the actual program - that doesn't work. The end result is few and low quality administrators directly in charge of the program. Dean Nelson (academia) and Dean Pascarella (IB industry) run the program. Pascarella is the best administrator at Johnson and wants the program to improve, the rest are junior staff that add little value and have been there forever. You have people running centers that do as little as possible and shove their work on second year students instead. The school even feels there's no need to benchmark vs better programs, because you're at an 'Ivy League MBA!' Being an 'Ivy League MBA' is an excuse for not doing more beyond the bare basics, but sadly that's Johnson.

Student Run School: The school counters its bad and tiny administration with pushing their work on students. Johnson students run the school. There are times where this is good, like IB that has a big pipeline and recurring placement to good jobs. There are times that this is bad, like tech jobs that needs administrative oversight and support to grow. The administration does so little that it almost seems they aren't in the picture. The slim administration fails in areas where the school is suppose be active but isn't, and where students can't be free labor such as: alumni affairs, any career that second years aren't part of, marketing / branding the school, using Cornell Tech more than for weekend classes, big school social events, digital media/content, niche jobs (non-IB/consulting roles), etc....If the school can't dump it on its students, it doesn't get done. Example - a group of recent alums formed a group (JRAC) to push the school to change, but they're ignored because change means work/resources!

Alumni Network: Responsive but not proactive. As a student, alums at the banks and consulting firms respond to calls (as with every decent school). Marketing and corporate finance have supportive alums, but there aren’t many tech PM alums (Johnson places to FP&A tech roles, NOT PM roles). Once you graduate, the alumni network is a BIG FAT ZERO. Near zero alumni events, inactive regional clubs and an apathetic alumni affairs office that neuters any potential network. With a big effort on your part, the school can get you a good first job, BUT there's ZERO support after, especially from the tepid alumni network. Weak alumni network examples- the school has an annual dinner (Big Red Bash) in New York City that has to be heavily subsidized by Johnson because alums aren't interested in paying to support the school; Johnson just had its 75th anniversary and donations were vastly lower than expected. If you ever get let go from your job, expect ZERO help from the Johnson network.

Career Services: Admins who schedule company campus visits. They can't even be bothered for a resume review or outreach to Cornellians at firms you want to work at. Imagine asking someone from CMC to reach out to a few alums at your dream firm who don't reply to you, the CMC will think you're crazy to ask them to do anything proactive. Zero support as an alumni.

Brand: The school doesn’t know what it wants to be. Johnson fell into the ‘best IB school after Stern’ profile and can't figure out its next step. Consulting is very region specific and behind all T15 programs. Johnson keeps pushing the parent’s Ivy brand, but the MBA has a feeling of no direction and no brand outside Cornell. A tech pivot failed and the school is stuck in the rut. Aside from the parent university and being a 'Stern reject backup school', Johnson has no brand.

Community: Wandavision, if you’re not drinking the Kool Aid you’re on the outs. On the surface everyone (from admin to students to professors) is ”happy enough” with the school because it's an 'Ivy League MBA', but behind closed doors everyone complains about the program: how poorly it's run, how it lacks direction, has zero brand, can't market itself and how the students have a very large quality spectrum, etc...These complaints go unanswered because the administration doesn't want to or care to improve.

Admissions: Nice people, but completely outclassed by other schools. There isn't a personal touch in admissions, they over promise what Johnson can do and are very disorganized. Like adopting new IT systems during the busiest application time.

About job placement process

Classes: Very weak, the first year core is decent but there are no good electives in year two and few options. No wonder students push to study abroad. There's nothing more miserable than year 2 at Johnson with few and low quality electives. Sure you can do Big Red Ventures in year two, but that's run by a local with no real experience and no one there goes into venture. All these big red programs are just smoke and mirrors that don't accomplish anything.

Students: Varies in quality with too many at the bottom. Most are accounting career switchers looking to IB. There are zero front office IB types who pick Johnson for their MBA, nor many top performing Cornell undergraduates. Johnson feels like everyone’s safety school. There isn’t much passion with the program, everyone is just biding their time. Scholarships are random and a point of hot contention; weak students from bottom undergrads with mediocre work experience (customer support, financial advisor, FP&A, etc..) get full rides (Park) and while stronger ones who fully bought the school's sales pitch get zero and end up disenfranchised. There's zero money for international students. Scholarships leave a lot of unhappy students, who become unhappy alumni and don't donate / support the school.

Overall BSchool experience (1.0)
Schools contribution (1.0)
Classmates rating (1.0)

Strengths of the program:

Specialization in a particular area (e.g. Finance, Consulting, Healthcare, etc)
Parent University

Best fit at this program:

Finance

Can be improved:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Student body, diversity
Alumni Network
Career opportunities provided by school
Location
Brand/Ranking
Culture & Student Support
Facilities
Admissions Team