After working in Finance in the Nonprofit sector, Breanna Spurley (Goizueta, ‘22) decided to pursue an MBA to build her technical skills and broaden her network. Ultimately, Breanna chose Emory University (Goizueta) to pivot in the management consulting industry. During this interview, Breanna spoke about her decision to pursue an MBA, why she chose Goizueta, and what makes Goizueta a unique place to get an MBA.
MBASchooled: What did you do before business school, and why did you choose to come to business school?
I’d say I had an “aha” moment before business school. Right out of undergrad, I moved from Georgia to New York to work at an investment bank. After two years, I realized that I had no true connection with the real world. I’d tutored and taught English in the past, so I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in the education space in the future. I guess the stars aligned in my favor and a finance job opened at an education and social services nonprofit in Harlem. At the nonprofit, I modeled the financial impacts of various strategic initiatives and oversaw a portfolio of $5.5M government grants.
I felt that I had fulfilled my growth potential in my particular role after 2.5 years. Throughout my career, I have learned skills and tasks that I love, dislike, or need to further develop. I was often the recipient of information and was typically tasked with stress testing against predetermined goals. This helped me realize what direction I wanted to take in my career. I now want to lead initiatives and build supportive teams to accomplish these tasks. An MBA will help me pivot towards my goals by providing me with more technical skills, networking resources, and relationship-building opportunities.
MBASchooled: Why did you choose to attend Emory?
I was between Emory and another similarly ranked school, Georgetown. I’d been in New York for 5 years and I knew that I wanted to be closer to my family, so Emory was already winning in terms of location! After attending several admissions events, I knew Goizueta was “the one”. I had gotten a little worn down by the constant hustle and considered skipping one of Goizueta’s last events in New York, but I decided to go at the last minute.
I was grabbing a glass of water when Heather Holland (Senior Associate Admissions Director) shouted my name from across the room. I was shocked that she’d remembered my name after meeting me over a month prior to the event. At that moment, I knew I was supposed to attend that event. Heather made me feel welcomed in a room filled with over 50 people. In my mind, she embodied every piece of the Goizueta community that I knew I wanted to be a part of.
MBASchooled: What was your decision process like? (When did you find out, were you considering other schools, when did you make your final decision?)
There were many factors I considered when deciding where to apply. I prioritized the top 20 ranked programs in the U.S. Before attending admissions events, I examined the social media presence of each program to identify programs that not only posted about their students and alumni but also about their staff and current events. I frequented school websites to compare the core and elective classes. When I began meeting the admissions staff, current students, and alumni, I made sure to speak with various individuals and noted common themes across each school. How strong was the alumni base? What was the student-professor relationship like? Were the schools’ missions integrated into my discussions without seeming like a generic advertisement? Are the school’s values aligned with my own? These questions guided my assessments of each institution.
I feared that I would miss the Emory admissions call because I was scheduled to be on a flight to Mexico City that Friday, March 13, 2020. Luckily, the admission office called a day early. As the world seemed to be ending around me as boarded my flight back to New York, I knew that I wanted to:
- Be closer to family
- Avoid any unnecessary living expenses. (Going to school from your childhood bedroom has its perks!)
I submitted my deposit a week later!
MBASchooled: What resources were most helpful to making your decision? Did you talk to any people that were especially helpful?
Friends who were currently enrolled in MBA programs or those who had recently graduated, and current students! Current students can tell you about the good, the bad, and the “I survived this class, but wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy.” That’s so valuable when choosing schools.
MBASchooled: Did you attend any virtual admitted students events? If so, what were those like? Were they helpful?
Emory reacted fairly quickly to COVID and held more admitted students events than I can count! We also had a weekend of events for admitted students. They went over everything from what your first semester course load looks like to what are the best restaurants, clubs, and parks near campus.
I found the events extremely helpful. I would say it was 90% run by current students, so a good bit of the “admissions fluff’” was cut out and I felt comfortable asking as many questions as I needed answered. The events were also a great way to meet some of my classmates months before the semester started!
MBASchooled: Oftentimes, the word “culture” gets thrown around when talking about MBA programs. Can you characterize the culture at Emory? Can you share an example of an experience that you think personifies what this means?
“Culture” is definitely a word that got put on my top 10 “figure out what this word means” list. Emory touts being a close-knit, interactive community and I can honestly say that it has lived up to all of my expectations. Because the program is so small (there are ~140 students in my class), I don’t have to fight for my professor’s time and my classmates are extremely supportive and will go out of their way to help. The small classes also act as a built-in accountability system, which is great. My finance professor’s daughter was facing health issues and he still made sure to give us over 20 hours of his time one weekend to ensure that we were prepared for the upcoming semester!
One of my favorite moments at Emory was getting a crash course in PowerPoint and data visualization from one of my classmates, Bonnie Schipper. We’d just wrapped up a case competition and I really liked the deck that Bonnie’s winning team had put together, so I reached out to her for some tips. She immediately offered to hold a one-hour zoom session and went over each detail of how she created her slides — down to how she edited photos and the importance of color and font. Keep in mind, this at 7pm on a Friday. Bonnie’s immediate willingness to help is something I’ve seen countless times throughout my time at Emory. Bonnie was also on the 2nd place team for the inaugural John R. Lewis Racial Justice Case Competition!
MBASchooled: Obviously, it’s a little more challenging to find out what a school or program is like as a result of COVID-19. What advice do you have, or what specific actions would you recommend admitted students take, to really get to know a school before selecting a school?
I highly encourage prospective and admitted students to talk to as many current students as they can. Many schools have a “Connect with an Ambassador ” program where you can input your interests and the admissions office will connect you with a current student with a similar profile. If there is no formal process like that at the schools you’re interested in, just ask the admissions officers to refer you to a student. From there, you can continue to meet different students and gain perspective on how they’ve managed school during the pandemic.
MBASchooled: What’s something you wish you knew more about before starting your MBA at Emory?
I knew about core teams, but I don’t think I was prepared for how much time I would spend with the same 5 people over the first semester. It pushed me to understand the fundamentals of a functioning team. The only way to prepare for your core experience is to remain completely engaged with your team and explore each interaction with an open mind and a lot of patience.
MBASchooled: Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give to recently admitted MBA students about how to make the best possible admissions decision?
Make sure you’re well-versed on the ins and outs of your program. You won’t know everything until you’re actually in the program, but make sure you’re keeping in touch with the people you spoke to during the admissions process — this includes applicants you met who may be attending other programs.
Continue to ask the hard questions you NEED answered. Don’t worry about bothering admissions or anyone else in the program. Ask, ask, ask… and ask some more! You don’t want to enter your program with any regrets.