The latest episode of Business Casual, hosted by John Byrne, Maria Wich-Vila, and Caroline Diarte Edwards, dives into a captivating exploration of the incoming MBA Class of 2027. This annual “Meet the MBA Class” feature highlights the diverse backgrounds and aspirations of students embarking on their MBA journeys worldwide. From chemical engineering and art history to algorithm development and entrepreneurship, the breadth of experiences showcased reflects the dynamic landscape of modern business education.

One of the primary takeaways from the discussion is the incredible diversity that business schools attract. As Caroline points out, the profiles of these students demonstrate that non-traditional backgrounds can be a significant advantage in MBA admissions. While investment bankers and consultants are staples in many programs, this feature emphasizes the value of varied perspectives—be it from a White House staffer, a professional ice skater, or an algorithm developer. Schools seek to enrich their classrooms with individuals who bring unique insights and life experiences, broadening the collective learning environment.

For MBA applicants, the episode offers an encouraging reminder: your distinctive path could be your greatest asset. As Caroline notes, non-traditional backgrounds are nothing to shy away from; they are, in fact, highly sought-after by top schools looking to foster diverse, vibrant learning communities. So, whether you’re transitioning from a career in DC Comics or climbing the corporate ladder, your journey could be the very story that sets you apart in the MBA admissions process.

Episode Transcript

Note: This transcript was generated by AI and may contain minor inaccuracies.

[00:00:06] – John

Well, hello, everyone. This is John Byrne with Poets & Quants. You are listening to business Casual, our weekly podcast with my co-host, Maria Wigvilla and Caroline DiArte Edwards. As you well know by now, Maria is the founder of Application Lab. If you need help with your applications going forward, this is a great platform platform to use. Meantime, Caroline, of course, is a co founder of Fortuna Admissions, one of the leading MBA admissions consulting firms that has a a super group of former MBA admission Officials who now help applicants. We just ran one of my favorite stories of the year, and I want to share it with you. It’s our Meet the Class story. In this case, it’s the incoming MBA class of 2027. These folks are showing up on campuses all over the world as we speak. If you want to know who is actually getting an MBA these days, this is a great story to look at because we have profiles of these students and their backgrounds and what they hope to achieve with an MBA degree. As you can expect, they’re representatives from the world’s best business schools. They studied everything from chemical engineering to Asian studies to art history as undergrads.

[00:01:38] – John

They’ve worked for companies as different as McKinsey, DC comics, Marvel, and the White House. They’ve gained experience in algorithm, development, entrepreneurship, and even beer brewing. Of course, you have a few lawyers, physicians, and aspiring lawmakers mixed into the group. What it does represent is an incredibly diverse array of people who are getting the degree. It gives you a sense of how enriching an MBA experience might be because you’re going to come into contact with people who share one thing with you, your aspiration to lead a successful and meaningful professional life. But you’re also going to meet people who are very unlike you. These people are going to open your eyes to other possibilities in your own life and enrich your life by sharing their life experiences with you. These profiles, and this is how we pick these people, we go to the schools and we ask them to nominate a group of incoming students who would be willing to tell us more about themselves. Then we pick from them our representative students from each of the top schools. Of course, there’s Harvard and Wharton and Yale and Michigan and MIT and London Business School, and NCI, and IMD, but also from the IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata.

[00:03:10] – John

You have a rich array of people from all over the world attending schools from all over the world who share their stories. I mean, Caroline, who pops out to you? I mean, some of these stories are amazing. I have to say that I think some of the students are nominated and brought to our attention by schools in part because they are amazing. So on some level, maybe this isn’t the totally representative group of MBAs. These are people who have great stories.

[00:03:43] – Caroline

For sure. It is Not exactly. The list is not representative of the composition of a typical classroom. However, you definitely have plenty of people at business school who do have very diverse backgrounds. I think that perhaps the investment bankers and consultants the world are somewhat underrepresented on this list. But nevertheless, it’s really a great way of showcasing the diversity of backgrounds that you do encounter at business school. And that is a wonderful way of enriching the classroom and bringing together different experiences. And I think also the value of your list is that it shows candidates that you don’t have to have a typical pre-MBA background to be able to stand out and get into business school. In fact, quite to the contrary, it can be an advantage to have done something very different. And I think, unfortunately, candidates sometimes underestimate their chances if they’re coming from a nontraditional background because they think that if they haven’t worked at McKinsey or Goldman Sachs, then they haven’t got the right credentials to get into a top school. But actually, the schools have plenty of candidates from typical theater firms, and they are looking to complement that with people who’ve done some very different, pursued very different careers and have quite different perspectives to bring to the classroom.

[00:05:05] – Caroline

I think you have a wonderful array of backgrounds here, and it’s fascinating to delve into these stories. So of course, I couldn’t help myself, but first of all, look at the INCIED profile.

[00:05:17] – John

I knew you would do that.

[00:05:20] – Caroline

Would hate to disappoint you, John. The INCIED contribution is from Armani Fancy. It looks like she’s She’s probably a dual national from Arman and the UK. She is a professional ice skater. In fact, she was a professional skater with Team GB. That’s very impressive. She won the TV show, Dancing on Ice, in both the UK and Germany.

[00:05:47] – John

Hey, that’s something.

[00:05:49] – Caroline

Yeah. But she also comes from a family business background. So that’s what she’s been working in before. She went to business school and she plans to to return to family business or start her own company, post MBA. I found it really interesting to read what she loves about INSEAD. So she talks about how she can just look around the table when she’s working a team and she sees she can get input on the stock market in India, the economy in Colombia, the influence of tech on finance in America. So that just incredible diversity of perspectives that you get in a very international program like INCIED. That is absolutely fascinating and from which you can learn so much. And I found it interesting that she also talks about why she picked INCIED and that she found that it had a really strong curriculum for decision making, and that she decided that’s going to be critical for her in her future career. I thought that was… She also, of course, talks about the benefits of doing a one-year program and the efficiency of that format rather than the two-year program. It looks like she is doing a lot of different things at the school and probably not getting a lot of sleep so far, judging by the number of things she’s involved in.

[00:07:10] – John

Now, I don’t know how much ice skating there is in Fontainebleau. Do the ponds and lakes freeze over there?

[00:07:19] – Caroline

It’s more a place that lends itself, I would say, to horse riding. There you go. It’s one of the horse riding capitals of Europe. I don’t remember much ice skating myself.

[00:07:31] – John

These profiles are really a lot of fun because we ask some interesting questions that result in entertaining answers, but also answers that can help you as an applicant. For example, We asked, Give us a fun fact about yourself. We asked that, Aside from the classmates and location, what was the key part of an MBA program that led you to choose a particular business school and why is it important to you? We We have customized questions for each of the schools. In the case of Chicago Booth, for example, we note that the Booth MBA is known for being highly data-driven. How does the program’s focus on quantitative analysis and decision-making appeal to you? How have you been able to leverage this approach in your career so far? We asked them, what course, club, or activity excites you the most at the school? What’s been your first impression of your classmates and alumni you’ve met so far? We We asked them to tell us your best story in your early impressions. What makes the city or town that your school is located in a great place to earn an MBA? We asked them to describe the biggest accomplishment in their career so far.

[00:08:47] – John

Then here’s the helpful part for a would-be applicant. What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into the school’s MBA program? There’s a lot of really cool stuff in here. All you got to do is dig through it. Or if you already have a target list of schools, what I would always do is go to the meet the Class for that particular school, and you’ll get the advice of a dozen or more of the latest students offering their counsel on how to get into the program because, of course, all these schools are very highly selective. One person who stood out to me, and this also shows great diversity University is Mariana at the Chicago Booth School of Business, who actually spent five years at the National Gallery of Art as a senior advisor to the Deputy Director. Sure enough, she’s going to Chicago because she had very little quantitative exposure, and she really wanted to beef up that part of her professional life, which makes a lot of sense to me. A fun fact about this woman, this is really cool. Over the summer, she and her fiancé left their lease in DC to expire in June and left their jobs to travel around the world before moving to Chicago for the fall semester.

[00:10:11] – John

The trip involved 26 flights, took them to 18 countries, from Japan to Montenegro to Portugal, before ending in Morocco with the school’s preorientation group trip. Pretty cool. I didn’t even think the National Gallery of Art would pay a salary high enough to finance a summer of travel like that, but there it goes. Maria, do you have a favorite?

[00:10:38] – Speaker

I have a couple of people who jumped out at me. So following Caroline’s lead and choosing someone from my alma mater- Here comes Harvard. I mean, I got to represent. So Connor Elken from HBS. So speaking of fun facts, his The fun fact was I was headbutted by a shark while spear phishing in Florida. So in case anyone listening is curious, what’s a guaranteed way to get into Harvard business school? There’s the secret. Just go headbutt a shark and there’s guaranteed admission. So, yeah, I’m just kidding. But anyway, so what was interesting is that Connor is from the military, but within the military, he was actually involved with the Air Force Ventures, and they were doing investments and working alongside cutting edge AI and technology partners to try to introduce these technologies into the military, and specifically US cyber warfare. So what I think is interesting about this profile, and one of the One of the reasons I wanted to bring it up is that there are so many applicants from the military, and thankfully, many, many schools are military and veteran friendly. But sometimes because these military roles, they can often seem very similar on paper.

[00:11:58] – Speaker

Sometimes people will say, Well, how How can I tell if I’m going to be the one to get into, say, an HBS versus another school? This is where I tell people to try to find your resume twin, someone who before business school was doing something similar to you. I actually have in the past worked with someone who had a similar profile to Connor, who went to another one of the top three schools who was also working in the military, but on very cutting edge technologies and implementing those cutting edge technologies prior to business school. So that’s a good guidepost of the military itself is a great leadership training ground, but within it, there are also opportunities to not only be a people leader, but to also develop some really strong technology and forward-looking, venture-looking type of perspective. I thought that was really interesting. I would have found it interesting even if he weren’t going to HBS. And one of the other things that I liked about his profile is when he was asked, What was the moment that you thought HBS was the right moment for you? He cited two things. Number one, sitting in on the class for the first time and watching the case method in action.

[00:13:08] – Speaker

He said the energy in the classroom was palpable. I think anyone who has attended an HBS case discussion can vouch for that. The energy is definitely a big part of it. The discussion is really engaging. Everyone has to show up having read and prepared. It’s a level of preparation and discussion that is, I think, really just an exceptional part of the experience. Then the other thing he said was that everyone was just so kind to him. His wife was accompanying him, and everyone was so nice and kind. That’s also when he knew that it was a community that he wanted to be a part of. I think that There’s often a stereotype that all of these business schools are full of sharp, elbowed, competitive capitalists who go for the jugular and are very mean and cruel. That’s really not true. I mean, of course, there are Every school is going to have some people like that because humans are human. But for the most part, many of these business schools have incredibly kind cultures. I was thrilled to see him point out that aspect of the school as well.

[00:14:13] – John

Maria, I’m glad you mentioned that because I think you’re right. The stereotype is you have all these masters of the universe who are overtly ambitious, who are, in fact, greedy, who just want a lot of money, and that’s why they go into business school. I’ll tell you, that’s not true. It’s never been true. Yes, of course, you’re going to get a few Wall Streeters or hedge fund dudes or even some tech pros that may fall into that category, but they’re in a minority because they’ll get weeded out by admissions. What this story brings to life every year is that truth that the stereotype doesn’t apply. I found myself attracted to this one person at Darden who’s featured here who actually launched a comic book series with Marvel comics titled Magic. She was a writer for Marvel. Her name is Ashley Allen. Her fun fact wasn’t even that. She’s from Minnesota, but she was on the Danish National Lacrosse team. How that happened? I have no idea. She has a degree in economics and international studies from McAllister College. She’s gone to Darden, and you mentioned the case study. Obviously, Darden is a case study school, and that was a key attraction to her.

[00:15:42] – John

But here’s what I really like. We asked her, What are your early impressions of Charlottesville, which is where the University of Virginia is and where I live right now? Here’s what she says, I love it. Charlottesville has the tight-knit community of a small town with all the amenities of a larger city. My favorite thing so far is how integrated into nature Charlottesville is. There are hiking trails and walking paths scattered throughout the city and some even behind Darden’s campus. There are so many hidden gems in Charlottesville and around the surrounding cities that I can’t wait to explore with classmates on day trips. I can relate to that. That’s why I’m living here.

[00:16:28] – Caroline

I think she wrote that for you, John.

[00:16:30] – John

I know.

[00:16:32] – Speaker

He knows her audience. She’s not the only one here who knows her audience, John.

[00:16:36] – John

There you go. Now, Caroline, do you have another favorite who’s not attending NCI?

[00:16:43] – Caroline

I’ll have to look at NCI. Then I’ll jump to have a look at who was there from London Business School. Another amazing profile. So I’ll mention her. So this is Freya Twigdon. Looks like she’s a Brit. She was based in London. She went to the University of Edinburgh, where she studied politics, and she’s an entrepreneur. She had spent some time in Shanghai and learned about kombucha and started a drinks company when she got back to the UK. She has done a really good job at getting her kombucha into some major retailers. It was one of the top drinks at Wimbledon this year. That’s a fantastic achievement.

[00:17:31] – John

What happened to PIM? Pims.

[00:17:33] – Caroline

Yes, exactly. People are drinking less alcohol these days. She talks about the benefits of being in London. As a Brit, of course, I’m delighted to read that. So she talks about the wonderful ecosystem of innovators, entrepreneurs in the UK, and how London Business School is really embedded within that system. And what a fantastic resource that is. And so I know that sometimes for British candidates, it’s tempting to go overseas to do their MBA, to go to the US, or go to one of the other European schools to get some international experience during the MBA program. But I think she’s a great example of a Brit who has chosen, very deliberately, to stay in the UK because she sees the benefits that she has gained so far in her career. She also talks in her profile about building her company in London and how that was such a fantastic experience because there’s so many resources and mentors and being part of that ecosystem. She wants to continue to build on that. Lbs is a great platform to do that. It was great to read about a Brit who is really flourishing in London and embracing all that LBS has to offer.

[00:18:48] – John

Yeah, very true. Maria, do you have another favorite?

[00:18:52] – Speaker

Yeah, I was really drawn to the profile of Asta Gupta, who is a student at IIM Medbad, and she has a interesting profile. She was involved in the production of television shows prior to business school. And one of her claims to Fame is that she helped manage the Indian Idol TV show during the COVID pandemic. So as with any industry, the entertainment industry was really hit and challenged by COVID, right? Because you need an army of people to produce a television show, right? You need mic operators and camera operators and lighting operators. And so I can’t even imagine how difficult it must have been for her to have to manage all of these things. It’s hard enough to manage a show even under perfect conditions. But so I thought that one of the things I liked about that was that we talk a lot about these nontraditional applicants. And I think sometimes one of the things I say to folks who have these nontraditional backgrounds is like, look, it’s not just about what your industry is or what your title is. It’s about whether or not you had impact. And there is no It’s a question in my mind that this person, they weren’t working maybe at Goldman Sachs or whatever, but within that challenge that they were thrown into, they had to demonstrate exactly the raw materials of leadership and resourcefulness and creativity and management that, in fact, a top business school like IIM is looking for.

[00:20:20] – Speaker

I thought that that was a really interesting thing to highlight. As a side note, she also worked on a show called Sara Gama, Lil Champs. One of my former colleagues from Star TV back in the day when I worked on the Tata Sky project a very long time ago. One of my colleagues on that project is actually the CEO of Sara Gama. I don’t know if she ever interacted with him as part of that, but who knows? I might have a six degrees of separation with her. The other thing that I really liked about her profile is that another thing that schools are looking for is, who are you going to be when you come to our campus? How are you going to contribute to our community? I thought it was really, really clever how she’s bringing her media background to help IIM. She basically has partnered with the school, and they have started to bring attention to some of their current students. She successfully secured national media coverage for eight of her classmates across leading publications in India. I think that that’s a really creative way for her, because a lot of times people will say, Okay, if a school asks for a contribution to our campus, which a lot of schools ask that essay question directly.

[00:21:35] – Speaker

And even if a school doesn’t overtly ask that, it’s implicit, right? And so someone will say, well, I’m a management consultant, so I’m going to join the management consulting club. I’m an investment banker, so I’m going to join the banking club. And so I think sometimes the nontraditional candidates might say to themselves, well, shoot, what am I going to say? And this is a perfect example of someone who is saying, well, what can I do? I’m really good at media. So So how can I leverage that to benefit my community? And I thought that was just such a creative and resourceful thing for her to do, and I really admire it.

[00:22:07] – John

Absolutely. Caroline, just stepping back from the individual profiles, what do you think this says about who’s attracted to get the MBA? And what does it say about the degree itself and its value and its prestige in the world today?

[00:22:23] – Caroline

Well, I think it shows the incredible diversity of candidates and with such fascinating backgrounds from across the world. I think you’ve got a very global list here as well, which is great to see, because sometimes when the US media is looking at business schools, they tend to focus on the US business schools and graduates of those schools. And so it’s great to have such an internationally diverse group here. So I think that there are probably more candidates these days than there were 10 or 20 years ago with nontraditional backgrounds applying to business school. And I think that’s wonderful to see because it enriches the experience for everybody, including those more traditional candidates, to have those very different backgrounds and perspectives represented in the classroom. And It shows that the MBA as a degree is alive and kicking, right? They’re attracting incredibly talented. It’s extraordinary, the parts of many of these people that you’ve written about here and what they have accomplished at such an early stage in their careers. And so the fact that business schools all over the world are attracting the best and the brightest in their country is incredibly encouraging for the degree and for the future of those schools.

[00:23:45] – John

I’ll say something else, too, that I glean from this and what I gather from every campus I visit. My God, I’ve been to campuses all over the world. Every leading business school there is, I’ve been there. I’ve sat down with MBA students in bars over meals and in libraries and just walking the pathways of the campus. I got to tell you, it gives me hope for the future. I know we live in a world that’s incredibly uncertain, that’s highly polarized, particularly in the US. But when I talk to these people, these young people who are smart and ambitious in the right ways, it really gives me tremendous hope for the future. I tell a lot of the old guys around here in my book reading group that they become somewhat cynical, but they’re not exposed to all this raw talent and people who really want to make a difference in the world with their lives. That’s what I get from this. I get a sense of hope and a real positive vibe of what will come in the future. Not that we will not erase the challenges and all the problems that we have or solve them for goodness’ sake, but that there will be plenty of people out there who have the capability, the will, the determination, even the love to make a difference with their lives.

[00:25:14] – John

That is a beautiful thing. I invite you to have a read, okay? If you’re thinking about getting an MBA, this is a great story to just get your feet wet in because you’ll see who your classmates will likely be, and you’ll see how enriched that experience is going to be for you. Take a look. Meet the MBA class at 2027. His name of the story, Students Today, Leaders Tomorrow, Innovator as Always. This is John Byrne with Poets & Quants. Thanks for listening.