A disappointing student experience with lots of room for improvement.

Experience during the program

I am a current Part-Time student at Schulich's MBA. Schulich was the only school that I applied to because I knew that out of the traditional top Ontario business schools (Schulich, Rotman, Queen's, Ivey), they'd be the only ones to consider me due to my lack of work experience at the time.

As such, my perspective is as a young student who joined Schulich to learn while also strengthening my network. While there were some good aspects of the Schulich student experience, there is lots of room for improvement.

The Good:

1. Admissions team was super helpful in preparing me for my applications. I also remember attending an admissions event, and by attending the event, the application fee was waived.

2. Location of the downtown campus is perfect. Facilities at both York and Nadal are excellent.

3. When I first started at Schulich, the entrepeneurship classes and opportunities were really disappointing, but I have noticed the school getting better in this area. Still lots room for improvement, but they're headed in the right direction, and I'm excited to see how they progress.

The Mediocre:

1. York/Schulich's online experience.

I'm not referring to COVID-19 initiated online learning via Zoom (which I wasn't a fan of, but it was a new challenge for all involved) - I'm referring to Schulich's and York's websites. In general, York's website is difficult to navigate (i.e finding grades, financial information, enrolling in courses), and I find that a lot of links on Schulich's website are broken (404 or 500).

Additionally, there's so many student portals to go through for learning purposes. Canvas (most frequently used), York Moodle, and the CMD have all been used by my classes for homework purposes, and overall it's an annoying learning experience. I was also introduced to a few more portals during orientation week, but I thankfully haven't needed to use them, and I've forgotten their names.

The data breach that York went through was also not a positive experience.

2. Slow, unresponsive admin who sometimes were unhelpful and/or gave wrong direction.

3. Mediocre course curriculums / professors for most (~2/3rds) of my classes. A lot of subjects and topics interest me, but in most of my classes I find myself unengaged. Whether it's due to the courses or the professors, it's hard to say, but I found that my usual enthusiasm for such topics is not there during most of my classes. Some keep me engaged, but most don't.

4. York University is a commuter school. The fact that Go Buses don't operate on campus anymore is asinine and a terrible experience for students who commute to and from school. While all of my classes are downtown, I sometimes need to go to the main campus, and I find the commuting experience to be inconvenient.

5. The alumni network portal isn't good. I've reached out to several alumni to no avail. Alumni clearly don't check the portal, or maybe they've unsubscribed to notifications. Regardless, while I don't know what to expect, I do believe that Schulich needs to improve the relationship between students and alumni.

The disappointing:

A huge concern of mine is that Schulich's international rankings are falling fast, and from my experience here, I'm not surprised.

Most consider the best part of an MBA to be the networking that one gains from the program. In this area, I have the biggest disappointment. While all of my classmates are nice, and while some are extremely gifted (strategic thinking, leadership, presentations) I am disappointed by the overall quality of my peers.

As one of the younger students of the program (when I first started), I expected to learn a lot and be amazed at my peers' skills. However, through classroom discussions and group projects, I learned that I should not expect that.

I was always under the impression that Schulich was one of the better business schools in Canada, so I expected a lot from me peers. I want to be the least experienced/knowledgeable person in my class, but I feel like I'm far from it. I thought that I'd be proud to one day say that I have a Schulich MBA, but right now I don't feel that way.

I've even had a professor state that the value of MBAs are diminishing, and if one's MBA is not from a top school (Harvard, INSEAD, etc), it's probably not worth it. Here, I disagree with the professor because everyone's experience is unique to themselves, but I wanted to share this information to showcase that there are even Schulich employees who don't fully value a Schulich MBA.

I don't think that I had really high expectations entering the program. I had never expected the MBA to change my life, professionally or personally. I just wanted to learn - from coursework, from professors, and from peers.

I hope that Schulich improves. I want to be proud. But right now, I'm disappointed.

Overall BSchool experience (2.0)
Schools contribution (2.0)
Classmates rating (2.0)

Strengths of the program:

Location
Facilities
Admissions Team

Best fit at this program:

Marketing
Entrepreneurship

Can be improved:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Alumni Network
Career opportunities provided by school
Brand/Ranking