May 2nd, 2010 | 
Author: Here’s yet another reason why women aren’t lining up for MBAs: According to the Harvard Business Review, women make about $4,600 less per year than men do post-MBA. Apparently the pay gap is widening, even after making adjustments for giving birth and aspiring towards goals of varying levels.
This “demoralizing research” (as it’s been referred to) has been compiled into “Women in Management: Delusions of Progress,” a study by Catalyst’s Nancy Carter and Christine Silva.
Below are a few of the findings from Carter and Silva’s research:
- Unequal pay isn’t an occurrence that just “happens” over time; rather salary differentials start with the very first jobs and progressively widen.
- Women generally leave their first jobs earlier than men leave theirs, and the predominant reason why women leave is for management reasons—a bad manager in particular.
- If women were not expected to divulge how much they were (under)paid at their last jobs, then they probably wouldn’t receive lower wages for their next job.
For more information on women and pay, visit the HBR special report on Women and the Workplace Pay Gap.
Related Accepted.com Resources:
- Women MBA Applicants
- GMAC Reports Record-Breaking Number of Women GMAT Test-takers
- Reflecting Back on 1970s Women’s Colleges
- The MBA Value Proposition for Women, chat transcript
- The MBA Value Proposition for Women Internationally, chat transcript
- The MBA Value Proposition for Women of Color, chat transcript
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GMAC (the Graduate Management Admission Council) released a press release this week about the incredible jump in GMAT volume in Asia over the last five years. Below you’ll find a summary of GMAC’s recent statistics:
- 265,613 – The number of total GMAT exams taken globally in 2009.
- 200,503 – The number of total GMAT exams taken globally in 2005.
- 801,504 – The number of total score reports generated in 2009.
- 50,000 – The number of score reports sent to Asian schools in 2009.
- 15,000 – The number of score reports sent to Asian schools in 2005.
- 55,367 – The number of Indian and Chinese citizens who took the GMAT in 2009 (out of the total 79,096 Asian students).
- 30,633 – The number of Indian students who took the GMAT in 2009.
- 13,544 – The number of Indians who took the GMAT in 2005.
- 4,750 – The number of MBA programs and other business-related programs that require the GMAT.
GMAT-Related Accepted.com Resources:
- The GMAT in MBA Admissions: Fact and Fiction
- Navigating the MBA Maze
- 3 Tips to Reduce GMAT Text Anxiety
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With the job market as bad as it is, that family business is starting to look more and more appealing to many undergraduate business school students and graduates, reports a BusinessWeek article last week entitled “Family Inc.: The New B-School Job Choice.”
Many undergraduate business students head to school in order to expand their post-grad job options—that usually means ruling out working for mom and pop. However, a growing number of students are opting out of the grueling Wall Street or Corporate America job search and are opting in to the family business.
Some schools offer programs, forums, and courses in family business; such options are receiving a jump in enrollment. Popular topics in this area include developing a personal leadership plan, drafting a succession plan, and working together with parents to avoid conflict. The classes provide the perfect opportunity for students to reflect on whether returning to the family business is what they really want to do.
Most family business programs or courses also delve deeply into innovation and entrepreneurship. “The second generation joining the family business better well be entrepreneurs if the business is to continue to succeed,” explains Frank Hoy, co-author of Entrepreneurial Family Firms, a family business textbook. Students who return to the family business holding business degrees are not expected to work passively for their parents, but to initiate innovation and to propel the family business forward.
Job-Related Accepted.com Blog Posts:
- Good News for MBAs: Job Opportunities Abound!
- B-School Students See Light at the End of the Job Market Tunnel
- Passionate Optimism: It’s Nice, but Will it Land You a Job?
- GMAC: MBA Employers Express Job Market Optimism
- The Make-Your-Own-Job Solution
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The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) has taken greater measures to secure GMAT test-taking, implementing biometric palm-vein technology to prevent cheating, reports a Financial Times article, “Helping hand for GMAT security.”
Dave Wilson, CEO of GMAC, explains that when he joined GMAC in 1995, one of his first tasks was to crack down on cheaters who would take advantage of time differences— for example test-takers on the east coast would provide answers for the west coast test-takers. Of course, providing answers 15 years ago was a lot more simple when tests were still being administered via paper and pencil and all test questions were identical and in the same order.
GMAC significantly reduced cheating by switching to computer-adaptive tests. These new tests use algorithms to provide questions based on how well you’ve answered earlier questions. Now you only have a one in 35,000 chance of sitting the same test as another test-taker.
Once the cheating obstacle of paper-based tests was removed, another ring of cheats sprung up, this time led by Lu Xu. Xu and a few friends were creating fake IDs and sitting for exams by posing as candidates. These applicants would pay Xu and his team a fee of about $5,000 to take the GMAT for them. (Xu and four of his friends have been caught and sentenced; a fifth participant in the ring is still out there. 600 tests were administered before Xu and his team were caught.)
In 2006 GMAC partnered with Pearson Vue (of the Pearson Group that owns the Financial Times) for test distribution. Along with this switch came a more technologically savvy method of corroborating identities: digital fingerprinting. Since then, palm vein scans have replaced fingerprinting.
According to Wilson, the PalmSecure reader—a device that reads the blood veins in a palm when the palm is raised to a sensor—is more accurate than fingerprinting, as well as less invasive.
Every time that a GMAT test-taker enters the test room his or her palm vein pattern must match the pattern taken at initial check-in. Further security measures include the taking of a digital signature and photograph at check-in and the use of real-time recording and audio/video monitoring.
Related Accepted.com Blog Posts:
- More B-Schools Accepting GRE in Lieu of GMAT
- GMAT or GRE: Which is Best for You?
- Record GMAT Registration Volume in 2009
- Business-Like Approach to GMAT Math
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Students nowadays may be more optimistic about their economic future than previous generations, but this optimism seems to only translate to themselves. According to a Kaplan survey, 52% of pre-law students feel “very confident” that they will find a legal job post-graduation, as reported by Business Wire. However, perhaps due to their competitive nature, of the 330 pre-law students surveyed, only 16% feel “very confident” in their peers’ job prospects.
These students are well aware of the economic downturn, as 39% cite the recession as a stimulus in their decision to apply to law school. Additionally, more and more students are attending law school with no intention of pursuing careers in law.
Law school candidates also emphasize the importance of a high LSAT score; when asked to choose between submitting a perfect 4.0 GPA, a perfect 180 on the LSAT, or a letter of recommendation from a Supreme Court justice in their application, 80% would choose the perfect LSAT score.
All the participants in the survey were Kaplan students who took the LSAT in February 2010.
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