The Carlson School participates in national case competitions every year and has a successful history. Take a look at case competitions that Carlson competed in last year and start thinking about competing in one or more this year.
A case competition is an event where student teams compete with one another to come up with the best solution to a business problem. Students are given the opportunity to prepare, analyze, and present recommendations for the case to a panel of judges, usually high-ranking business leaders. Most case competitions are intercollegiate events where Carlson students compete with students from other universities.
The scope of case competitions vary from marketing, supply chain and operations, entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, business plan development, and other disciplines.
Like academic scope, the competition formats vary as well. Some of the more frequent formats are periods of 24 hours to solve and present a case, multiple weeks to solve a case and do a live presentation of the solution, executive summary and business plan presentations, or online submissions.
Some competitions are specifically for first-year MBAs or full-time MBAs, and some are open to all MBA students. Competitions will be advertised to students through the Academic Affairs & Student Engagement Team's weekly newsletter.
Most competitions require a registration fee. For pre-approved requests, the MBA Program Office will provide partial funding for registration, travel, and accommodation expenses. Students are eligible for reimbursement of up to $400.00. Additionally, all team members will need to complete a debrief of the competition.
The MBA Student Affairs team provides funding to reimbursement students who travel to case competitions to help cover accommodations and travel. Case Competitions that require travel will be eligible for funding with the limit being set depending on the competition. Case Competition teams will meet with student affairs to discuss funding.