From across the U.S. to New Jersey: Rutgers MBA is a risk worth taking

Students who come from out-of-state to earn a Rutgers MBA are attracted by unique dual degree programs as well as the chance of transitioning to a life and career in the New York metropolitan area.

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Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick

Mar 03, 2022, 09:35 ET

NEWARK, N.J., March 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- When Bryce Kanter, a native of Oregon who started his career at a small biotech in Washington State, decided to attend Rutgers Business School for his MBA, he joked with his family and friends that he was going to study abroad.

"It was definitely a little intimidating," he said, "but it was a risk worth taking."

For Kanter, the bet paid off. He made a career change to the business side of the pharmaceutical industry after completing a dual degree program at Rutgers that gave him an MBA and a Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences.

The following stories describe the experiences of former and current out-of-state Rutgers MBA students and why the program turned out to be the best choice for them.

Marsha Fils went all in when she picked Rutgers Business School for her MBA, relocating from Long Island, and buying a home in Newark even before she'd been accepted. Fils intended to immerse herself in the full-time, in-person program, figuring that was the best opportunity for networking.

When the COVID-19 pandemic upended her plans, Fils had to get inventive. "I draw energy from being around other people, so being virtual was going to be tough for me," said Fils, who enrolled in the fall of 2020.

When Fironica Lao hit "a ceiling" five years into her work as an animal technician in a large research laboratory in Northern California, she considered going back to school to jumpstart her career.

"I wanted to continue in science," Lao said, "but I didn't want to be a veterinarian and I didn't want to do the science research for a Ph.D."

Experience as a project manager had given her a taste for business so she spoke to colleagues who had completed MBAs. She investigated programs and eventually visited Rutgers Business School in Newark to learn more about a dual degree program.

"There are fewer than a handful of schools with dual degree programs that combine science and business, Rutgers is one of them," she said.

Read about how the program led to Lao's new career.

Inspired? Find out more about how a Rutgers MBA can help your career. Attend an online MBA Admissions Open House on Saturday, March 19 from 9 a.m. to noon or connect to an online MBA Information Session on Wednesday, April 6, at 6 p.m.

Midway through his first year in the Rutgers Full Time MBA Program, Thomas Parker is realizing some of the advantages of having relocated to the East Coast to earn his MBA.

A native of Wisconsin, Parker was living in Chicago and working as a language consultant and German translator when he decided he wanted to put his people skills to use in a new field: marketing.

"I knew I wanted to go to business school. I knew I wanted to be in the New York City area," Parker said. "Rutgers really checked off all the boxes for reputation, location and the strengths I was interested in."