Jason Riddell

Originally, I had planned to graduate Northwestern in four years. But I finished in three, and the reason I did that was because of this program.

What separates the Kellogg MSMS from undergraduate work is how the coursework and business skills are drilled into you. You really become more business-ready for the workforce. So I was able to take the theoretical skills I learned in undergrad and apply them in a real-world way.

At Kellogg, I expected to learn a little bit more about business, about accounting, statistics — the number-crunching side of it. But the program has really provided me with more soft skills, too. One of the most important classes I’ve taken here is a leadership class, which has taught me how to manage people, how to lead teams — skills that you don’t encounter in undergrad. You have the experience of developing core competencies that aren’t hard skills, like accounting or data analytics, but that develop you as an individual and make you a stronger contributor.

With only 26 of us in our class, we’ve become a really close group. And I assumed that, coming in from all different backgrounds and different majors, we wouldn't mesh well. But we all have the same goal of wanting to build our business skill sets.