The GSM's Full-Time MBA Program could best be characterized as a dumpster fire placed within a…read morefire-proof Ikea box. On the outside, it looks approachable, legitimate, and while not a Top 25 FT MBA Program, still reputable as UC Davis is objectively a good school. The program typically draws a small cohort of bright students from Sac and the Bay Area along with some very talented international students. Yet once you bypass the superficial protective outer layer, you realize the reality is a program rife with complacency, lack of accountability, and absolutely not worth the ROI.
A lot of GSM's flaws are not unique - they can be found in probably the vast majority of b-schools, even highly ranked ones. However, the main issue here is GSM's entire foundation is faulty and due to their lower ranking, there is no incentive to improve or be held accountable. If you are going to a FT MBA program seeking to change careers, unless you want to work in finance for Intel, Keysight, Anthem, or Kaiser, GSM is not going to have the pipelines, resources, or even basic will to help get you where you want to go. No one expects GSM to have T20 recruiting pipelines, but the reality is pretty sobering.
Staff and key administrators see these job hunt struggles every year. They are used to it. They ultimately do not care. GSM's FT MBA is barely clinging to the fringe of relevancy and its alumns are fragmented.
To use a popular boxing idiom - GSM punches below its already underwhelming weight and simply fails to even show up to the boxing ring, opting instead to eat Sbarro pizza at a regional mall and miss the fight altogether.
If you have more than $500 to your name, I guarantee that you have more money than GSM gets on average from each alumni class annually in terms of donations/gifts.
I'm now 5 years removed from graduation and while I'm proud of my career accomplishments, I feel GSM destabilized me more than it did successfully enable career transition or get me on the right track. I was trying to transition from multi-sector advertising/ marketing into more strategic product marketing. That is not a stretch or an unrealistic career transition. If anything it should be a layup as far as career services is concerned.
GSM's emphasis right now is on growing its MSBA program and launching its new MS in Management programs. MPAc will always be stable because of the demand for accountants. GSM's FT MBA is an afterthought and its main purpose is to enable the existence of the PT and Online MBA Programs.
Poets and Quants just honored GSM's Dean with Dean of the Year accompanied by a lengthy hero worship article highlighting how he's "leading a revolution." The FT MBA is not mentioned once - since the publication, the Dean, and anyone with half a brain knows GSM's FT MBA is fading into obscurity as the top schools further consolidate the majority of applicants and it's harder than ever to justify ROI from lower tier schools. Won't stop GSM from milking it for all it's worth though on the way down.
GSM has been proudly highlighting growing overall enrollment, while conveniently omitting how the FT MBA is falling in all major annual rankings. U.S. News and World Report is widely regarded as the definitive b-school ranking, and GSM's FT MBA fell out of its Top 50 several years ago, which is frankly embarrassing. Now GSM highlights 3rd tier rankings that either emphasize only public unis, aren't participated in by most of the top 20ish schools, or that prioritize student to faculty ratio, which GSM knows it can game due to its small cohort sizes. That Top 20 Public FT MBA from Bloomberg 23-24 they highlight? They just dropped 26 spots in the 24-25 edition. They'll keep featuring 23-24 though hoping no one notices. Grasping at straws.
I learned a lot and made some lifelong friends in the program. I think GSM's FT MBA cohorts are very smart and it was truly an honor to learn with them and from them over the course of those two academic years.
However - I cannot recommend their FT MBA Program for all the reasons stated above.
