Business Students make up 29% of Class of 2018 at Cambridge Judge

Students with an educational background in Business/Accounting/Finance make up 29% of the Class of 2018-19 that got underway in September at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School.

Engineers come next at 27% followed by those with Social & Political Sciences/Languages background at 24%. Science students form 13% followed by the Arts at 7%.

The Class has 206 students in total, representing 51 nationalities. They come from industries as diverse as technology, healthcare and the not-for-profit sectors. The average GMAT score is 693 and the average age 29.

With more than 50 nationalities represented, it is expected to be an exciting year of teamwork and collaboration. With an average of six years’ work experience across the board and a good gender balance in the form of 36% female and 74% male, the cohort brings in a wealth of experience, a wide variety of perspective and a huge amount of cultural context.

Asked about why he enrolled for the Cambridge MBA and his career goals, Slaven Stekovic from Croatia said, “Before coming to Cambridge, I did my PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine and launched a few startups. Now I want to improve my business skills and to understand how big corporations work. One of the main reasons why I am here is to have access to a large network.”

China-born Zhuo’er Wang has a background in the corporate beauty industry in the US. “The most exciting part of the program for me will be to explore industries and passions that I haven’t been able to experience before.

While 46% of the students have Industry background, 25% come from Finance followed closely by Consulting at 24%, NGO/Not-for-Profit/Public Sector/Research/Education 5%.

“This is the first time I have taken myself out of the US environment in an academic sense. I feel very settled already and I feel that the Cambridge MBA really allows you to discover those other aspects of yourself that you’ve never even thought about.”

Most of the students feel that the diversity in the class will lead to their imbibing much of the learning from interaction with classmates. This, in turn, would enrich their business education and produce leaders with a breadth of understanding.

Jon Elder, who started in large corporate banking covering strategy and management in the US, said, “I am keeping an open mind and see myself returning to the strategy management sector, with a focus on how I might position businesses better for the future. I intend to learn about business and myself at the same time over the coming year.”

Andrew Ramsay from New Zealand, a structural engineer who migrated to the FinTech sector as a Product Manager with a London-based startup, hopes to return to the entrepreneurial world, most probably a startup.

“My aim is to meet people that challenge me in a way that directs me where I want to be – ideally my challenge is to make an impact in the world in a positive way,” he says.

Lucy Phelan from the United Kingdom has a background in data science across the Management Consultancy Sector. At present, she is very specific with her MBA journey targeting new product development and strategic development and planning to return to the data technology sector on completion.

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“Previously I was very much a data and technology person working alongside the strategists providing data to back up their ideas. I would like to move up and be the person who comes up with the ideas in the first place,” she says.

While 46% of the students have Industry background, 25% come from Finance followed closely by Consulting at 24%, NGO/Not-for-Profit/Public Sector/Research/Education 5%.

As far as nationalities are concerned, the majority of 33 students are from the United States followed by India (19), the UK (15), Japan (13), China (12), Canada (11), Thailand (7), South Africa (7), Indonesia (6), Malaysia (6), Australia (5), Mexico (5), Brazil (4), Russia (4), France (3), Chile (3), Germany (2), Italy (2), Mongolia (2), Turkey (2), Colombia (2), Poland (2), Sweden (1), Czech Republic (1), Ukraine (1), Portugal (1), Austria (1), Pakistan (1), Kenya (1), Cameroon (1), Nigeria (1), Argentina (1), Paraguay (1).