“Every time I have lunch with an Acton teacher, we don’t talk about the stock market; we talk about our passions. This is what makes Acton unique.” - Brandon Willard '06
BusinessWeek Focuses on How Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship Offers the Best of Both Worlds
05/25/2005
Austin,
Texas--The online version of the venerable BusinessWeek magazine featured a story today that illustrated how the Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship program graduates its
students into rewarding jobs, while giving them the actual skills necessary to run their own business.
Reporter Francesca Di Meglio noted that “if the Acton MBA
class of 2004 is an accurate indicator, then the class of 2005 has a decent future ahead of it,” supporting that statement with statistics on how the 2004 class found
high-paying jobs.
However, beyond the traditional MBA litmus test, Di Meglio interviewed recent graduates, who said Acton offered far more than just a job.
Jamie Matthews, a 2004 graduate of the program and real estate investor, told the magazine that “I’d rather learn from someone who has been there and done that,
instead of professors who have been in the classroom for 20 years.”
The article also highlighted the cohesive network that has emerged among Acton graduates as
well as with past students of Master Teacher Jeff Sandefer, who taught at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin for fifteen
years.
For example, she quoted a Microsoft product manager and former student of Sandefer’s, who said “he wanted to talk with any Acton student interested in
working at the tech goliath. He says he knew they would have the entrepreneurial spirit that the company is seeking.”
Matthews told the reporter there’s another
intangible he took from Acton: “I went there looking to find out what to do with my life, and I found those answers.”
That was by design, says
Sandefer.
“I believe our students are going to go out and change the world,” he told Di Meglio. “They are more than just customers, they are partners in
developing themselves.”
About Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship
The Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship, based in Austin, Texas, is in only its second year of
operations. The one-year program is taught by successful entrepreneurs and features intensive 80 to 90 hour work weeks, where students tackle real world problems and
even sell products door-to-door. The student-faculty ratio is lower than any MBA program in the country, allowing students to develop strong bonds with their
entrepreneur mentors. The Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship was rated by the Princeton Review as having the “Most Competitive” MBAs in the country and the third best
teachers in the nation.
For more information, media should contact Holt Hackney at press@actonmba.com, or 512-478-8858, Ext. 115.
