Graduate school admissions officers realize that MBA students have a lot on their plates long before the first day of class. That's why many universities are implementing assistance strategies for their busy students—especially the ones juggling family concerns on top of day-to-day responsibilities. Providing on-campus childcare—or community referrals for daycares and pre-schools—is one way that MBA programs can become more attractive to recruits and create a stress-free environment that is conducive to academic success.
The University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business offers a list of recommendations, split into “Day Care Centers” and “Schools.” In addition to contact information for each, the site provides tips for early enrollment, suggesting magnet schools for parents who have missed the deadline. There is also a link to the Indiana Department of Education for statistics on public and private education.
In response to criticism from its student body about the university's lack of school-funded childcare, Yale University is taking measures to make its campus more family friendly, according to Yale Graduate School Dean Jon Butler.
“We're in the process of developing new facilities that graduate students could use, and we're hoping that an announcement will be made about a new child-care center shortly,” Butler said. “The university is very interested in expanding its child-care opportunities, which would include opportunities for graduate school students.”
It's not just the associated financial and time constraints that scare some parents away from graduate school. There is the sometimes not-so-vague insinuation in higher education that women who decide to have children before leaving graduate school have compromised their own shot at success. A study performed by Mary Ann Mason, dean of the graduate division at the University of California at Berkeley, shows that female academics who have babies within five years of earning a PhD are significantly less likely to get tenure than women without children.
With female enrollment numbers steadily on the rise in recent years, the best graduate schools are doing all they can to incorporate family services into their list of school features. Having a family should not be an inhibiting factor when considering graduate school; in fact, academic institutions can benefit from the dedication and emotional fortitude inherent in parents.
