Double acts By Rebecca Knight Published: January 25 2010 00:01 | Last updated: January 25 2010 00:01
Life was already busy for Sam and Felicia Brownell, but when the couple enrolled in the Flex Track MBA at Villanova School of Business, a three-year programme for working professionals, their schedule became jampacked. The Delaware pair both work full time – Sam is a pharmaceuticals executive and Felicia is director of financial reporting at an asset manager in Philadelphia – and they have five children ranging in age from three to 16. “We joke that neither one of us wanted to be home with the kids while the other was in school,” says Felicia. While the Brownells take every class together, carving out time with each other outside of school is hard. They also admit they are very competitive. “I always say that in class he’s not my husband,” Felicia says. “He has a very different perspective, and we don’t always agree.” But they both maintain that business school has been a good experience in their relationship. “I have learned more about her,” says Sam. “In class, I see different facets of her personality and I appreciate her in a different light.” Not every couple is as lucky. Indeed, business school is notoriously hard on partnerships. From adjusting to a new city, to meeting people, to getting used to a schedule where the student is stretched between home activities and coursework, MBA programmes often create romantic casualties. “There’s going to be a huge amount of time sucked away from the person who is doing the MBA programme, so the spouse has to set expectations accordingly,” says Michael Cohan, head of MBAPrepAdvantage, an admissions consulting company. Few business schools keep up-to-date records about how many MBAs are married. But according to the Graduate Management Admission Council’s 2001 survey of business school students, 48 per cent of MBA students are married or in a domestic partnership. That is why business schools all over the world are working increasingly hard to appeal to students’ companions. Most MBA programmes have a dedicated social and professional programme for married students. At the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, a student-run family life committee, for instance, aims to include spouses in campus activities as much as possible.
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2010 Media Report Villanova School of Business