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Student Experience

Student Experience

Foster MBAs blend experience and professionalism with creativity and enthusiasm. They present a diverse profile, with varied backgrounds as nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs, engineers, bankers, technology specialists, and healthcare professionals.

This close-knit group of peers develops knowledge and skills through working with award-winning faculty, but also through teaching and learning from one another. They practice and prove their talents through a wide range of experiential learning opportunities in Seattle and around the world.

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Culture and values
The Business Community
The Seattle Experience

Highlights

Small class, big impact

Our program is small by design so that each student has an opportunity to make an impact. Students get more time with faculty and get to know their peers better in a series of small group interactions. They also have the opportunity to create programs and take on leadership roles, tailoring their education to their needs.

Entrepreneurship

In a city known for innovation, the UW Arthur W. Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship provides Foster MBAs with knowledge and skills, internships and fellowships, business competitions, accelerator funds, expert mentors, and connections in the Seattle entrepreneurial community.

Exceptional career preparation

Over 80 senior executives participate in our Mentor Program and more than 500 executives visit campus each year to speak with Foster MBA students. Our dedicated MBA Career Management team provides extensive programming and highly personalized career coaching. The result? Foster is consistently among the top schools for job placement.

The Foster network

We’re an engaged community. Students share their knowledge, experiences, and professional network; tutor and mentor each other. Alumni judge case competitions, meet with students over coffee, speak at events on campus, and host interns and student consultants.

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Culture and values

Discover an empowering MBA culture

The spirit of the Northwest region permeates the Foster MBA Program—it’s a diverse mix of entrepreneurial thinkers, innovative problem-solvers, egalitarian team players, and motivated professionals who thrive in a flexible environment. Here students don’t ask what you drive, they ask what drives you.

Connect with an experienced, diverse class

Foster MBA students are chosen for what they can contribute to the class and to future employers. Foster MBAs bring a strong blend of work experience, professionalism, creativity, and enthusiasm. Here, students build teams that transcend cultural viewpoints and gain a deeper perspective from an open exchange of ideas.

Impact in the community

Many students want to make a difference, so Foster maintains close ties to local and global non-profits, which offer numerous opportunities to sharpen business skills while effecting positive change. New students looking to use their education for social or environmental good will find an abundance of resources at their fingertips.

Work hard and play hard too

Earning an MBA in a rigorous program takes discipline, focus and great time management skills. But there’s still time for fun. Foster MBAs take networking and teambuilding seriously, building future career opportunities during a guided climb of Mount Rainier, or fitting in a project discussion between charity board meetings. Many students choose Seattle for its active lifestyle, taking time between classes to run, kayak, attend the theater, play soccer, and enjoy the company of new friends.

Foster’s small class size and focus on team-based work really appealed to me. At Foster, students have the ability to contribute to the school culture, leadership, and student experience; we really have a sense of ownership at Foster.
Jessica HatzMBA 2021
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Connections to the business community

Access a thriving economy. The Northwest is known for innovators and big thinkers—Amazon, Microsoft, PACCAR, Starbucks, Costco, Nordstrom—and is an incubation site for start-ups bound to be the next big thing. Regardless of the company size or sector, you can find Foster MBA graduates at the center of the action. Check out Foster MBA hiring firms in the Northwest and beyond.

Global opportunities abound in Seattle

Seattle’s Pacific Rim location offers an ideal setting to explore international business issues. Washington is headquarters for nine Fortune 500 firms and home to hundreds of diverse multinational companies—from biomedical to technology, financial services, retail, and international trade. As the closest major U.S. port to Asia, Seattle is a vibrant international community that continues to be an economic powerhouse.

Meet influential leaders

You’ll find activities, speakers, forums, events, and seminars that enrich your connections to businesses and the community. Meet some of the 200 business executives and representatives from MBA employers who provide advice and direction through Foster School’s 10 advisory boards.

Gain a leader’s view on business from CEOs and senior executives who participate in the Foster MBA Mentor program.

Leverage alumni connections

The Foster Business School has nearly 9,300 MBA alumni around the globe, with nearly 4,700 in the Seattle area alone. Across the entire Foster School of Business, alumni now number nearly 48,000 worldwide!

Many Foster alumni have become the presidents, CEOs, chairpersons, managing partners or directors of leading national and international organizations. Alumni know the way to grow the School’s reputation is to help other graduates succeed:

  • After demonstrating the quality of the program at work, graduates encourage their companies to hire other Foster MBA interns and graduates.
  • Alumni contribute to the curriculum by returning as guest speakers to share their real world experience, or by hosting applied strategy consulting projects at their companies.
  • Alumni spend one-on-one time with MBA students through mentoring, social networking, and providing access to career opportunities.
  • Alumni lend their time and talents by judging or coaching entrepreneurship and business case competitions, or even serving on career advisory boards.
  • As alums attain higher levels of success and influence, they cement Foster’s strong reputation.
Through its mentor program, alumni network, and recruiting events, Foster maintains an ongoing relationship with thousands of business professionals in the Seattle area alone. It is clear that Seattle’s business leaders want Foster students to succeed, and this notion of support has been evidenced in every professional interaction I’ve had since starting at Foster.
Molly EnglishMBA 2017

Connect with Foster MBA alumni

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The Seattle experience

A stunning city with exceptional career opportunities, Seattle may be famous for coffee, software, and rain, but once you visit, you’ll find the real attributes that lure MBA students from around the world: innovative, global companies with strong growth potential; abundant resources for entrepreneurs; the University of Washington’s international reputation; and engaged alumni who open doors for new Foster MBAs in the Northwest and around the world.

Experience the Northwest quality of life

With a mild climate, a strong dedication to the arts, and a natural environment that attracts students from around the world, Seattle has been named one of the most livable cities in the United States. Seattle combines the amenities of a big city—a diverse population, exciting nightlife, and a prosperous business sector—with family-oriented neighborhoods, cozy coffee shops, and an abundance of outdoor recreation.

Enjoy a cosmopolitan lifestyle

Pick from hundreds of activities happening around Seattle each week: live music and theater, film festivals, triathlons, gallery exhibits, lectures, and sporting events, to name a few. The “Emerald City” is also a magnet for bright minds: according to the most recent census, Seattle has the highest percentage of college graduates of any major U.S. city.

Professional sports

Seattle is home to several major professional teams including the Seahawks (football), Mariners (baseball), Sounders FC (men’s soccer), Storm (women’s basketball), Reign (women’s soccer), and Seawolves (Rugby). Seattle residents are very passionate about their local teams; Seahawks fans have even set world records for loudest crowd roar at an outdoor stadium.

Stay active

Seattle is a gateway to the Pacific and the Cascade Mountains. You can kayak Lake Washington from campus, take a ferry to a nearby island, or drive 45 minutes to a mountain ski and snowboard area. Take a cycling trip on the Burke Gilman trail or join the prestigious club of climbers to summit 14,410-foot Mt. Rainier. An athletic campus, the University of Washington includes a modern recreation facility, waterfront activities center, running trails, court sports, and the thrill of rooting for the University of Washington Huskies. Seattle has long summer days with low humidity and less annual rainfall than New York City or Washington D.C.

Choose a distinctive neighborhood

Whether you want the hip, urban Capitol Hill scene, family-friendly Ballard, or the University District’s convenience to campus, you can find a neighborhood that fits your lifestyle. The city has an extensive public transit system that provides access to the University of Washington from most neighborhoods. For families, the Seattle area provides many choices of public and private schools and a variety of housing options.

Foster’s location in Seattle is a big draw, and it’s been a big strength since I’ve been here. You can network here; you can work on live projects with major tech companies. Seattle is the city of cloud computing — the city of AR and VR. In some respects, the Seattle ecosystem surpasses the Bay Area. It’s a really well-positioned city and very welcoming.
Pallavi SharmaMBA 2018
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