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If you are considering going to business school, read Lynn Cook's take on the future of the traditional M.B.A. program before making a decision.

CAREERS
By: Lynn Cook, Management Bureau Chief, WSJ
June 21, 2018

For years the deans running prestigious business schools had coveted spots in the academy. But today many M.B.A. programs are on shakier financial ground than ever as student applications are dropping, and dozens of business schools–including elite programs at Yale, Northwestern and Berkeley–are struggling to find leaders.

The dean job used to be more straightforward: administer the business school, entice alums to donate money and find corporate partners to hire newly minted M.B.A. grads. Now deans are tasked with reinventing business education. That’s because many millennials are rethinking the value of traditional M.B.A. programs, which can cost $200,000 at top-tier schools and take two years of full time attendance.

The search for new deans is the latest in a string of issues that loom over traditional M.B.A. programs. Deans are responsible for making programs as flexible as students want them to be, launching part-time programs, a host of online classes and offering specialized certifications that focus on hot areas, such as data analytics and artificial intelligence.

As Edward Snyder, who’s in his last year running Yale University’s School of Management, put it: “The expectations of the various constituencies you serve have all dialed up, and it keeps getting a little more difficult to meet those expectations.”

Reach me at lynn.cook@wsj.com or Twitter: @LynnJCook ...