Though she grew up in Thailand and earned her undergraduate degree there, MSU graduate student Nuch Benjarpornbanyat, decided to move to the United States and earn her master's degree from the Eli Broad College of Business.
"It has become one of the wonderful experiences in my life," she said. "I feel like they listen to my comments equally even though I'm an international student."
Attracted to the strong academic programs and the financial aid she received, Benjarpornbanyat also said she was pleased with the atmosphere for women.
"I feel like in the program, they don't have discrimination," she said.
Benjarpornbanyat is one of the many women successfully recruited to MSU's graduate business school, which will have its highest number of women students in the program this upcoming school year.
In an anticipated class of 100 students, 30 percent will be women, said Esmeralda Cardenal, the business school's director of admissions. In 2003, about 28 percent of the 97-person class was female, a jump from the 23 percent rate among 107 students in 2002.
Cardenal credited some of this success to additional efforts in the business school to recruit women, including a mentoring program that pairs up students with similar backgrounds and an annual Women in Business Conference.
"Women in particular like (the mentoring) program," Cardenal said. "We like to have a mentor we can go to, to have someone to ask questions to."
Women also might like MSU's comparatively smaller program and lower cost, Cardenal said.
"Cost is really an issue for a majority of the women," she said. "They are, perhaps, less interested in taking a huge risk in terms of paying for business school."
Estimated tuition expenses only for the Masters of Business Administration program in the 2004-05 school year are $16,200 for in-state students and $22,700 for out-of-state students, according to the school's Web site.
Additionally, Cardenal said the business school has broadened its focus and improved additional programs, some that may be of more interest to women, while still maintaining its nationally top-ranked supply chain management school.
The 1997 Economic Census showed about 27 percent of Michigan businesses were owned by women, but earned only 3.7 percent of the sales. Still, Michigan was ranked 10th among the states for the largest number of women-owned businesses.
An MBA helps a woman in her career, said Michael Rogers, vice president of communication for the Small Business Association of Michigan.
"Many of these women receiving their MBA, the stereotype is that they're going to work for IBM or a corporation," Rogers said. "A lot of them may branch out and start their own businesses."
Rogers said 43 percent of the self-employed people in Michigan are women.
An MBA also helps develop specific, high-marketable skills, Rogers said.
Supply chain management senior Jessica Boyk said she considered MSU's graduate school, but decided to accept a job offer after her December graduation. Boyk said she will eventually go back and earn her master's degree and will look closely at what each school offers.
"I do look at the rankings of the school," she said. "I look at the professors, and I look at the graduates that come out of there."
