Tag: Poets & Quants



Poets & Quants 2022 MBA ranking puts Olin at #23.

Citing a major overhaul of the WashU Olin MBA and placing Olin’s program among “the most surprising moves up and down the list,” Poets & Quants ranked Olin #23 in its recent list of the top full-time MBA programs in the United States.

The new ranking shows continued momentum for WashU Olin’s program among the MBA ranking publications. Indeed, the Poets & Quants ranking reflects that momentum, as it is a composite of the five most influential lists of MBA programs.

Those include US News, the Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes and the Economist, which published its last ranking of MBA programs in 2022. The P&Q ranking was released on December 26.

Olin moved up six spots in the P&Q ranking, again reflecting the program’s strong employment statistics, its faculty research and teaching, its commitment to diversity and entrepreneurship and its focus on global business savvy.

The ranking’s value as a composite shows an overall trend of improvement across the board, moderating the volatility that can sometimes occur in rankings. P&Q cited Olin’s MBA overhaul, which included a focus on global business education and included additional flexibility in coursework and timing as well as the addition of a STEM designation.




Congratulations to Austin René Moulder, named this week to Poets & Quants’ list of the best and brightest MBA students.

Moulder, from Kansas City, Missouri, describes himself as a “proud 22-year-old Latino committed to advancing socioeconomic justice for disadvantaged communities by utilizing interdisciplinary solutions.”

Among other questions, P&Q asked him why he chose Olin Business School.

“I was raised in America’s Heartland. With all of the positive and negative connotations that accompany that statement, I believe that this region has incredible and untapped potential,” he replied.

“Washington University actively combats Midwestern brain drain by encouraging MBA students to stay in the region and build what I know to be an overlooked, yet beautifully rich and diverse part of our country. Their values-based, data-driven philosophy and approach to social impact comes to life in how they engage the greater St. Louis community.”

Well said!




Poets & Quants has named Olin Business School one of “10 Undergraduate Business Schools to Watch In 2022.”

“The best want to surround themselves with the best,” P&Q, the online news site about business schools, wrote in a February 26 article about Olin.

“They need to be exposed to new ideas, always looking to learn and never content with the way things are. That means finding people who share their values and commitment—and aren’t afraid to push them.

“The Olin Business School is one community that gathers the best-of-the-best.”

Last year, 100% of Olin students seeking a business internship landed one, the article notes. “Better still, the school placed 97.67% of 2020 grads, who pulled down starting average compensation of $82,339.”

In addition, Olin achieved gender parity with its incoming class this fall.

The piece includes an interview with Olin Dean Mark Taylor about his thoughts on what makes Olin a business school to watch.

“WashU Olin’s undergraduate program has always prioritized global experiences and fostered a culture that encourages study abroad and engagement with international businesses,” Taylor said.

“Indeed, up to now, more than 60% of Olin undergrads have engaged in a global experience. We’ve doubled down on that emphasis with a new global mindset degree requirement for undergraduates starting with the class of 2025. The degree requirement aligns with Olin’s determination to develop multicultural awareness, communication skills, and an appreciation of what it means to lead globally.”

Read the full P&Q article here.




Seth Carnahan

Poets & Quants has recognized Olin’s Seth Carnahan as a Best 40 Under 40 professor.

Carnahan, associate professor of strategy, is highlighted an April 29 article that notes Carnahan, 34, is an award-winning researcher and teacher. He “has spent his early career building a strong and robust research pipeline with more than 600 Goggle Scholar citations and multiple grants and awards to boot.”

Carnahan provided “a great experience for one of my first MBA courses at WashU” with lectures that were relevant, current and generated engaging class discussion, one nominator said. “I feel as though my point of view changed greatly with regard to business strategy after having taken his class.”

A professor inspired him

Carnahan told Poets & Quants that he has no other academics in his family and was inspired by his strategy professor during his undergraduate. She mentioned her research during class, and “I dug up some of her papers an read them,” he said. When he learned her job was to write papers and teach, Carnahan said he thought, “I want to do that, too.”

Carnahan’s current research is examining the “human side of firm strategy.” He explores how organizations can out-compete their competition for talent and how firms can increase the performance of employees they already have by “managing their people more effectively.”

When P&Q asked what Carnahan thinks makes him a standout professor, he replied: “Based on the feedback they give me, I think students appreciate the open, inclusive culture that I try to create in my class. I think they see my class as a safe place where they can experiment with ideas, take risks, make mistakes, and learn from each other.”

Read the full article here.




At the end of the year, I like to look back at our analytics to see which of our blog posts were the most popular with readers throughout the year. It’s an interesting exercise in reflection—particularly because the 2016-2017 year commemorated our Centennial, which we celebrated this March.

In 2016, we said goodbye to a beloved dean and welcomed a new one, celebrated a #1 ranking and kicked off our Centennial. What did 2017 have in store?

Take a look back at 2017 through our 10 most popular blog posts:


10. Managing the Millennial Wave

As a millennial, the enormous interest in learning about managing millennials (and my favorite, communicating with us—“Millennials, we’re just like you!”) is both fascinating and, I will say, a little amusing. But intergenerational communication and collaboration are important. And because millennials are increasingly entering the workforce, questions about retention, job satisfaction, and what makes us tick are (or should be) important to management.

Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior Andrew Knight presented his research on the topic in August—including some of the misconceptions about the oft-cited “narcissistic” and “entitled” generation.

Laura and Adam Stumpf

9. Stumpy’s Spirits: A grain to glass startup

Adam Stumpf, PMBA ’14, has defined a unique niche within the small-batch spirits category of the distilling industry. The ingredients for his brand, Stumpy’s Spirits, are sourced from the Illinois farm surrounding his craft distillery. And the farm has been in his family for eight generations.

Adam answered some of our questions about his PMBA experience, securing funding for his small-batch spirits venture, and the not-so-glamorous side of entrepreneurship.

8. Lacob Speaker Series opens with Cardinals v. Cubs

The Joseph S. Lacob Business of Sports Speaker Series provides students opportunities to network and interact with sports insiders working at all levels of industry. Kicking off the 2017 series (and Opening Day) was an exciting matchup of owners of baseball rivals the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs, Bill DeWitt III and Tom Ricketts.

7. Are you ready to fail? 

Raisaa dutifully chronicled her first year in the United States and as an MBA student at Olin—including the not-so-wonderful parts, in the form of internship and job rejections.

In “Are you ready to fail?” Raisaa perfectly captures the necessary grit and can-do attitude needed to survive a rigorous MBA program—or life, for that matter. As it landed on our list of most popular blog posts of 2017, our readers obviously felt the same.

6. Poets & Quants ranks Olin Undergrad Program #2

This time last year, we were celebrating Olin’s #1 undergraduate ranking in Poets & Quants. In 2017, Poets & Quants ranked Olin’s undergraduate program #2 nationally—second only to Wharton—after the ranking experienced an influx of participating institutions, from 50 in its inaugural year to 82 in 2017.

“We are very proud to be at the top of Poets & Quants’ undergraduate rankings for the second year in a row. It’s a testament to Olin’s academic excellence and student satisfaction, particularly in a much larger field of top business schools,” said Dean Mark Taylor.

5. Our lunch with Warren Buffett

What’s a trip to Omaha without a business lunch with Warren Buffett? A group of 20 students met the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway for lunch and an intimate Q&A session, where Buffett commented on the pressing issues of the day, from nuclear weapons to income inequality.

He also did not shy away from reflecting on his personal life, emphasizing the importance of family and true friendship: “You don’t feel bad about your life if you feel good about your family,” he told students.

4. Gear up for Meet the Firms on 9/13 and 9/19

Meet the Firms, Olin’s largest networking and recruiting event of the year, is always a topic of intense interest for students. The event offers students a chance to rub elbows with representatives from hundreds of national and global companies seeking interns and full-time employees.

Firms that attended this year’s event include Emerson, Equifax, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, RubinBrown LLP, Walmart, and World Wide Technology, among others.

3.  Olin welcomes new faculty

2017 was a record-breaking year for Olin faculty. We welcomed five tenure-track female professors, as well as a female visiting professor in economics from Carnegie Mellon.

In addition, the MBA Class of 2019 reported an uptick in gender equity, with 39 percent women.

Among the newcomers:

  • Ashley Hardin, assistant professor of organizational behavioral
  • Xing Huang, assistant professor of finance
  • Karam Kang, visiting professor of economics
  • Zhenyu Liao, postdoc for organizational behavior
  • Hannah Perfecto, assistant professor of marketing
  • Rachel Ruttan, assistant professor of organizational behavior
  • Sydney Scott, assistant professor of marketing

2. Richa’s story: From Bollywood to Olin MBA 

Bollywood star Richa Gangopadhyay is a recent alumna of the Olin Full-Time MBA Program. Richa walked away from fame and a five-year film career in India to pursue a career in business.

Richa shared her exceptional journey from suburban Indo-American girl to A-list actress to Olin with Poets & Quants in March, which we excerpted on the Olin Blog:

“There is something to be said about the Olin community. It’s incredibly close-knit and there’s just this sense of camaraderie among the students and the faculty that really appealed to me. It has a real eclectic blend of students from different backgrounds. It wasn’t just different professional backgrounds, but different thought leaders as well. For me, an appeal was being able to share my unique experiences in a business realm as a film actress. I have a really divergent perspective to share through the practical learning opportunities that I had.”

1. Fashion startup aims to ‘romp up’ men’s fashion

Wherever you land on the issue of rompers for men (and according to your social media feedback, many of you are decidedly against the trend), there was a lot of shared community pride surrounding the fact that Olin alumnus Daniel Webster-Clark, BSBA ’11 and MSF ’11, and three friends were the brains behind the fashion startup that “broke the internet.”

Daniel’s RompHim garnered attention from GQ, Vogue, and Buzzfeed—not to mention a lot of spirited feedback on #RompHim. He spoke to the Olin Blog about how RompHim came to be, making the move from finance to fashion, and life as an entrepreneur.


What big changes are in store for Olin next year? Instead of waiting for a roundup, I’d encourage you to follow and engage with the Olin community in real time on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn (and of course, submit to the Olin Blog). See you next year!