The program is offered in three modules over several months for a total of eleven days. The cost of $6,750 covers everything except travel to and from the program.
So far, seventy-three people have completed the program since it was launched in 2006. Most were women who stepped out of the workforce to raise children, but there were also some men. All had very accomplished backgrounds and most already had MBAs. The average age of the students was forty-seven.
Dartmouth is not the only institution seeking to help professional women turned full-time moms reenter the workforce. Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts offers a weeklong program to help high-powered professionals turned moms ease back into the workforce. Harvard’s “A New Path” features refresher classes in accounting, finance, and strategy, as well provides guidance with career planning. It costs $5,000, but Harvard alumna pay only $3,500.
Pepperdine University in Malibu, California offers a morning MBA program aimed at stay-at-home moms who want to return to the workforce. The twenty-eight-month degree is estimated to cost more than $50,000.
It all sounds pretty steep for someone who has been unemployed and juggling the costs of raising children. When Pepperdine launched its morning MBA program in 2006, the b-school’s dean acknowledged the problem that moms have financing educational programs.
“Among the challenges this group of women face is the lack of corporate tuition reimbursement, which is commonly offered by many companies for their outstanding employees,” said Dean Linda Livingstone in a statement.
Other than traditional financial aid and scholarships, there is another way to address the cost—through corporate sponsorships. Tuck’s program has obtained sponsorships from companies such as Citigroup Inc., Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., Metlife Investments Ltd., and The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.—effectively reducing the amount of tuition students have to pay by half.
University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School teamed up with financial services giant UBS to offer a program called “UBS Career Comeback” for women re-entering the workforce. The program, which is highly selective, is offered at no charge to selected applicants through funding from UBS.
PREVIOUS PAGE
