Grossman School of Business

Updated 6/23/21

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Required talking points

• Themes & Concentrations

  • "Grossman is unique because it only has 1 major... but students pick from one of four concentrations (finance, marketing, accounting, and business analytics) and three themes (global business, sustainable business, and entrepreneurship)

  • This allows students to individualize their learning and craft a degree that is geared towards their interests

  • You can have more than one concentration or theme

  • Students have until the end of their sophomore year to decide on their concentration (i.e. major) and themes (the lens in which they view business) 

• Accreditation

  • GSB is accredited by AACSB and is the only AACSB-accredited program in VT. ​This accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in business education, because it is earned by fewer than 5% of business programs in the world!

• Rankings (pick at least one to highlight!)

  • In 2020, GSB received a top-tier ranking in the Positive Impact Rating for Business Schools. Top-tier schools are recognized for including sustainability and societal engagement in their mission and as a driving force for the school.

  • GSB graduate programs receive exceptional rankings, too! Our Sustainable Innovation MBA is the #1 ranked “Best Green MBA” for three years running.

  • US News & World Report - top 25% of Business Schools

• Ifshin/Kalkin Hall

  • ​Ifshin Hall was an $11 million project completely funded by alumni philanthropy. Alumni are directly contributing to the student experience!

• Internships & experiential learning

  • GSB has in-house, dedicated internship and career support for our students.

  • ​Over 95% of GSB students participate in at least one (and as many as five) internships

  • Wall Street Seminar

  • Case Competitions​ (feel free to expand on Case Competitions using the following details)

    • ​Case Competitions are programs similar to Mock Trial, Model-UN and DECA. They are a chance to showcase and
      apply your business skills to real world challenges.

    • Dean's Cup is an in-house Case Competition for first and second year students.

    • Family Enterprise Case Competition is hosted by UVM; last year it brought in over 25 different universities from over 20 countries

• GSB also has its own computer labs & tech team!

  • ​GSB provides high-quality tech support to our students. Kalkin and Ifshin Halls house computer labs with Bloomberg Terminals specifically for our students.  Courses like our Green Mountain Investment Fund course and Wall Street Seminar use these terminals for real-time market data.

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Additional optional talking points

• PEAKS (Professional Engagement & Knowledge Systems) - In 2020, GSB partnered with the Suitable app to launch PEAKS (Professional Engagement & Knowledge Systems).  PEAKS is a badging program that provides credentials to reward students for pursuing activities related to their areas of interest, professional development, and career goals.  These badges track a student’s involvement in extracurriculars, attendance at events, completion of internships, projects, and certain courses.  Using Suitable, students can show their badges to employers to demonstrate their areas of proficiency, and even post the badges to their LinkedIn profiles or use them to build their resumes.

• GSB Center for Student Success offers academic, career, and study abroad advising in-house. GSB students get a full-time professional advisors for their first two years. All first-year students meet with their GSB advisor in their first few weeks on campus to complete their “Bucket List” that includes their goals, interests, and hopes for achievement during their 4 years with us. After that, they are assigned to a faculty advisor who is working in their Concentration.

• Dress for Success Event: GSB Student Advisory Committee collected donations of business professional clothes. The Dress for Success Event was allowed all UVM students to purchase these clothes at a price of $5-30. The proceeds went back to GSB students, funding events like the GSB Finals Destress event held each finals week.

• Minors are optional/encouraged but not required for GSB students, starting with the entering class of 2020.

• For non-GSB students... Some courses in GSB are designated for just business students, but others are available to all UVM students.

• Alumni Network: We have very active alumni who are invested in our students’ success, with over 100 alumni visiting campus each year.  Just in the past few years, we have welcomed everyone from the GM at Paypal; to the Global Investment Chair at JP Morgan; to the co-founder of XBox; to a CEO of Nickelodeon.  In March 2021, GSB alum Steve Phelps, who is the current president of NASCAR, spoke to our students about important lessons in organizational leadership as NASCAR reckoned with racial issues within the organization and its fandom.

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AdvoCat Stories

• Experiential Learning in GSB

  • Since one of the talking points about GSB are examples of experiential learning, I like to add a personal story when mentioning case competitions! It is widely assumed that case competitions are only for GSB students, but as a CAS student I was able to participate in a case competition because of a personal project related to a case competition at UVM. I was working with a fellow student on a plastic bag ban on campus around the same time that Target was opening a store in Burlington. We were invited to a case competition at UVM with the task of creating the best way in which Target shoppers can be encouraged to use reusable bags at the new store (this was prior to the statewide bag ban). We came in second place! I like to include this story because case competitions seemed very intimidating and intense as someone not in GSB and knows little about business. But it shows that your personal interests can draw you to interdisciplinary experiences at UVM (even that have nothing to do with your major) that are beneficial and eye-opening! ~Charlotte Graf

• Internships

  • On my tour I talk about how my friend Max had an internship for the VT Lake Monsters in their marketing department and one of the things that he got to do in this position was run around the bases in the hot dog costume during dollar hot dog night. ~Grace Parker

• GSB Classes

  • For students who take the Wall Street Seminar, they go on a trip to Wall Street to present the work they've done over the semester. The people they present to each year are UVM alumni who work at Morgan Stanley and other large firms on Wall Street, so it shows how involved GSB alumni are and it's a good opportunity for real life practice and networking for students.  ~Darcy Eliot​

  • My sophomore year spring semester, I took a sustainable business strategies class with Professor Richard VandenBergh. This is one of my favorite classes to talk about! We were in charge of running an online simulation for the entirety of a semester. We were managing our own business in a team and competed each week about how well our company did against an online competitor. We would make decisions every single week in finance, research & development, marketing, accounting, pretty much everything. Then by the end of the week the simulation would run and we would be graded on how our results were compared to our competitors. We would compare return on assets, return on equity, profits & market cap. This simulation was HARD. But it is an awesome class I can talk about on interviews, cover letters etc. Companies are so impressed that as a student I have already had experiences "running" a business and making informed decision based of data. I have talked about this class multiple times and have had great reactions on interviews! Its just awesome that this was a required class so all students in the business school can use this to use whenever they need it. :) -Risa Repetto

• Alumni Network

  • Because of the really great connections GSB has with alumni, they give UVM students amazing internship/career opportunities. A top executive at Morgan Stanley (I think?) is a UVM alum and he directly sent GSB the intern application that usually was only sent to ivy leagues and a really good friend of mine was one of the finalists (idk if he got it tho).  ~Owen Doherty

  • GSB has a dean's speaker series with UVM GSB alumni that anyone can go to and they had an alumni who was working with Seed Investment companies. It was really cool because we got to meet her and have lunch with her as well which created this personal connection. It ended up that a friend of mine who also went to the event and met her there is actually using her as a mentor on a thesis project regarding investing in rural business. -Skyler Ayers​

  • I was giving a tour in Grossman one summer, and as we walked into the Ifshin Atrium, I began talking about how the building is entirely alumni funded, and how it got it's name from the Ifshin family. I continued to say that Adam Ifshin, the current CEO of his family run business, still comes and gives talks to our students. Out of nowhere on the second floor, Adam Ifshin says hello to my tour group and thanks me for mentioning the company. -Jacob Curtis

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For more information...

• 2021 Academic Unit Questionnaire

• 2020 Academic Unit Questionnaire