Greatest Opportunity for Women

The culture of MBA programs has long been mostly a boys' club, but that's slowly changing--if programs like those at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst are any indication. Home to the Isenberg School of Management, this college is ranked No. 3 by The Princeton Review in the Greatest Opportunity for Women category. The ranking took into account factors like the percentage of students and faculty who are female, as well as students' testaments to a supportive culture for female students. "When I got my MBA [years] ago, there was only one woman in my MBA program," says Eric Berkowitz, associate dean of professional programs at Isenberg. "At our school, when we see an application from a strong woman applicant, we aggressively try to recruit her."

While many women are still hitting glass ceilings in corporate America, entrepreneurship offers them unlimited potential, and MBA programs are helping to hone their skills before they set out on their own. "A lot of bright, highly capable, motivated women are having access to capital and starting businesses and being quite successful at it," says Berkowitz. "That's what's motivating many of them to be entrepreneurs. They're getting the business skills in MBA programs."

Pre-med undergraduate student Jameelia Abdullah, 27, realized that her interest lay more in the business arena, so she applied to the UMass, Amherst MBA program. "It taught me how to think on a different level and work with teams," she says. During her schooling in 2005, she created jewelry with her family as a hobby and attended craft shows to sell her wares. Fast-forward to 2006: Abdullah's business, M&M Links, successfully launched its first storefront in Amherst, Massachusetts, and has opened a second store in nearby Northampton. Abdullah, who co-founded the business with her family, has used every bit of her MBA training in her day-to-day business life--from learning how to work with people who have different ideas to being more confident in her business abilities.

A notable 50 percent of her MBA class was female, and Abdullah appreciated not being the only woman in the group. "I really felt very comfortable," she says. "The program made it very comfortable for all of us. There was never any bias toward males or females--the professors looked at us all as MBA students who were all going for the same goal."

The versatility of her MBA has not only given her the knowledge to run M&M Links, but has also helped the company grow sales more than 200 percent year over year; the company is expecting seven-figure sales this year. M&M Links has even expanded into website development and business consulting in addition to jewelry and accessories retailing. "You can go into so many different industries with an MBA," Abdullah says. "It definitely helps you to be a more analytical thinker. It gives you better insight into business for somebody like me with no business background. I didn't even know what a cash-flow statement was until I walked in the first day."