MBA programs are getting creative with their classes these days. Two recent trend pieces highlight schools’ new offerings that aren’t exactly traditional courses like accounting or stats.

First, the Financial Times spotlights the growing number of b-school classes on practicing philanthropy, which aim to teach future titans of industry how to give wisely. They teach how to measure the impact of one’s donation and smart practices like site visits to non-profits. At some point in their lives, most of these students will either be a corporate donor or an individual donor and my class teaches them how to do philanthropy effectively, says Boston University School of Management professor Kristen McCormack. Most general MBAs that I’ve taught marvel that there is this world out there that they never thought existed, and they are surprised by how hard it is to give away money.

Meanwhile, other b-schools are attempting to teach the ineffable skills of leadership. And according to US News and World Report, they’re adopting some creative strategies. UVA’s Darden School of Business is using the performing arts to train future managers, with a course called “Leadership and Theatre: Ethics, Innovations and Creativity.” Instructor Ed Freeman explains actors have to know themselves before they can persuade anyone to believe in their characters. “I think being authentic, knowing who you are and working on trying to be more in touch with your emotions, that’s what leadership’s about,” he says.

More reasons to get excited about business school!

We like to take the occasional Friday here at the MGMAT blog to spotlight interesting paths taken by MBAs. Today: Gilt Groupe, which is bringing sample sales”long an urban fashion institution”to online shoppers.

The Wall Street Journal recently profiled the up-and-coming online retailer. Here’s how Gilt Groupe works: Upon registration, members receive a daily email announcing the afternoon’s deals on luxury brands. Labels like Christian Louboutin and Marc Jacobs are regularly discounted up to 70 percent. Last year this clever scheme brought in $170 million in revenue, and the company is currently valued at $400 million. And Gilt Groupe might not exist if founders Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson hadn’t chosen to get MBAs. The two met as classmates at Harvard Business School, where they laid the foundations for Gilt. They launched the company with merchandise from designer Zac Posen”whom they had advised while still in business school. Back then, he was an emerging brand that was starting to gain a lot of visibility, but didn’t have a business plan in place or a way to finance the brand’s growth; we helped him take a look at that, says Maybank.

It’s a great example of how the networks you build as an MBA candidate can really make a concrete difference to your career.

The prospect of returning to school for an MBA can be a bit daunting, especially after a few years in the workforce. Once you get in, you might want to get a head start on your classes. Or maybe you’re considering applying, but you aren’t sure about the classroom experience”what it’s like, whether you feel prepared, if it’s something you really want to do. Fortunately, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, you can get a taste of the b-school curriculum ahead of time.

Many schools essentially offer entire classes online: lecture notes, classroom handouts, assignments. For example, MIT is a big participant in the OpenCourseWare program, an international consortium of schools that post course materials online, completely free of charge. So you can take a closer look at many of the Sloan School of Management’s offerings before you ever even make a campus visit. They’ve got bits and pieces of an impressive number of classes online, including:

• Economic Analysis for Business Decisions
• Optimization Methods
• Introduction to Financial and Managerial Accounting

Columbia has some seminars posted, and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business posts interesting videos of speakers and panel discussions at their YouTube channel. You’ll have to sort through commencement videos and the like, but it’s worth investing some time to see GE’s Jeff Immelt talking about leadership.

Even if you’ve already been admitted to your school of choice, you might want to brush up on your fundamentals before arriving on campus. You wouldn’t want to be ill-equipped for the dreaded cold call. There are a number of classes that will help lay a firm foundation for your first year coursework. Carnegie Mellon has a stats class, and Berkeley has audio of both micro and macro economics courses available.

Then there’s the just-plain-interesting. Yale University has made Professor Ben Polack’s Intro to Game Theory available here. (Follow it up with Sloan’s Game Theory for Managers.) You can even download lectures onto your iPod, but be careful not to get distracted by backward induction and evolutionary stability”we wouldn’t want you to walk into traffic. Johns Hopkins has a class on occupational health, while Tufts offers one on multilateral negotiation.

And that’s just the beginning of the intriguing b-school resources. Next week we’ll round up great podcasts for prospective and incoming b-school students.

Plenty of prospective MBAs don’t want to give up their jobs to go back to school. So what if the promotion you want requires an MBA?

Part-time programs have long been a popular solution to this dilemma. But the Wall Street Journal points to another, digital-age option: hybrid programs, blending limited class time with extensive online work. One Johnson & Johnson employee used Babson’s Fast Track MBA to land a plum gig overseas without having to take time off of work for school. Universities like the programs because they’re cheaper to run”if students aren’t on campus, they don’t need campus services.

But there are downsides. Students don’t spend as much quality time with their classmates, so there’s less opportunity to network. “There just isn’t enough team building or interpretation of emotional quotients,” says one dean, explaining why many business schools don’t launch hybrid programs. And career changers might want to think twice, because they typically don’t provide the same level of counseling.

Ultimately, traditional rules for choosing a b-school apply: Students have to go with the program that suits their needs best.

There are lots of factors to consider when choosing an MBA program, from curriculum to size. But with more b-schools opening their doors across the globe, there’s another thing to think about: location.

The Economist reports MBA programs”especially abroad”are placing more and more emphasis on their location. Cass Business School trumpets its location in London’s Financial District. SDA Bocconi points to its home in Milan and talks up its connections to the luxury goods sector. Other programs suggest there’s inherent value for future leaders in experiencing another business culture.

For European students, that foreign business culture might be the United States. According to this bit from MBA Channel, multiple European schools have recently taken the big step of opening American campuses. Spain’s IESE Business School just opened a branch in New York City. France’s SKEMA is currently working on its US location, which will specifically target Europeans who want to study in America. For European students America is a dream, says Alice Guilhon, SKEMA’s dean. And an outpost in the US will boost SKEMA’s prestige, as well: To be well-known in America is leverage for the visibility of the school in the world.

But as the Economist points out, location could soon become completely irrelevant. Young people have grown up interacting and building relationships online, and modern technology threatens to make distance an obsolete obstacle. In 20 or even 10 years, students might not need to cross an ocean to learn international practices.

Even so, Skype can’t replace eating gelato in front of the Duomo or strolling through Hyde Park.

The recession has unleashed a wave of articles about the job market for MBAs. First came the bad news that hiring was down, then we saw articles explaining how it’s getting better again. We also saw MBAs expanding their career goals, from casinos to health care.

Now, US News reports that 2010 grads are faring better than the class of 2009. This is good news: with hiring more or less back on track, it looks like b-school graduates are out to get a job in what they want, not what they can find.

The Financial Times reports that because students are finding more jobs than last year, they are holding out for what they specialized in. Rob Weiler, the director of the career services center at UCLA Anderson School of Management, says, “The students have learned to expect the worst after all they’ve gone through, but from what I’ve seen most are ploughing ahead and are optimistic that they will get what they want. There’s not a ton of people settling.”

The takeaway? Go after what you trained for. Things are looking up!

MBAs are famously high earners, but a new breed of grads is getting serious about doing well by doing good. According to this article at Business Week, there are more opportunities than ever for b-school students who want to make a difference. While socially conscious MBAs once toiled away at non-profits, making a fraction of their classmates’ salaries, today’s grads are betting they can turn a profit tackling society’s ills. “Today’s problems are massive”and they represent tomorrow’s opportunities,” says John Woolard, Haas MBA and CEO of BrightSource Energy, which builds solar-power plants. Companies cited in the article are taking on big issues like recycling, childhood obesity, and affordable higher education.

But while the new possibilities for a big payday are certainly appealing, money isn’t grads’ number one concern. Many say they just want to contribute to a cause they’re passionate about. “If you believe in something, you go for it because it makes you happy,” says Ron Gonen, who burned through his savings and strained his credit cards to launch his business, RecycleBank.

We’re always quick to point out the multitude of options offered by an MBA. Isn’t it nice to know saving the world is among them?

We’ve heard a lot of bad news about the job market recently “ articles have been popping up about the difficulties MBAs are having finding jobs (though that may be starting to change) and more MBAs are exploring alternate careers. With all this news, should you still go to business school?

This CNN article gives several major reasons, from employers who expect an MBA, to how an MBA can show your dedication to the field. Elizabeth Freedman, author of “The MBA Student’s Job-Seeking Bible” and “Work 101: Learning the Ropes of the Workplace Without Hanging Yourself,” writes that “Having an MBA — as opposed to just a bachelor’s degree in business “ is sort of like traveling someplace by plane instead of taking the train. With either business degree, you may eventually wind up at your final ‘destination’ “ but the MBA will get you there faster.”

Overall, the article makes a good case for why you should still elect to go to business school.

Job prospects for MBAs are picking up thanks in large part to the diligent efforts of business schools’ career offices, according to this Wall Street Journal article.

Career services officers at MBA programs nationwide have been working extra hard this year. HBS, for example, boosted their recruiting budget 50 percent and engaged employers more actively at conferences in Shanghai and Paris. The school also started a fellowship to cover students’ travel costs for interviews. The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business tripled its employer development staff. Stanford started an online forum allowing career services to act as a matchmaker between students and potential employers. “We are almost able to act like an eHarmony between students, alumni and companies,” says the director of the school’s career management center.

The numbers suggest that all that work is paying off: At the end of the year, 85 percent of Harvard grads had offers, along with 80 percent at Booth. Meanwhile, at Stanford, job postings for students were up 70 percent over last year. Heartening statistics, to say the least. They’re also a good argument for picking a school with solid career counseling.

With the national number of GMAT test-takers rising to 267,000 last year, India is clearly a big source of b-school applicants. We wrote about the GMAC’s new office in the country a couple of months ago, but that’s not the only US-based institution looking to India for expansion. According to this article, several American business schools hope to build campuses on the subcontinent.

Why now? Historically, foreign schools haven’t been allowed to operate in India. Instead, they’ve had to partner with native institutions. But the Indian parliament is currently considering a bill that would open the country’s educational system to outsiders. American institutions including Duke’s Fuqua School of Business are marshalling forces to open new Indian outposts as soon ASAP if the legislation goes through. They’re talking to local officials, shopping for land, and drawing up building schematics.

The bill comes in response to ever-increasing demand for spots at the nation’s top universities and business schools. Application rates are simply too high for existing schools to accommodate, and many students don’t want to go abroad. The numbers are staggering. One figure estimates India will need 600 more universities and 35,000 more colleges over the next 12 years. India has 14 million enrolled students; the Parthenon Group, an educational consulting firm, estimates economic growth will boost that number to 22 million by 2014. “The volume of students looking for education is just unbelievable,” says Eileen Peacock, VP for the Asia office of the Association to Advance Collegiate Studies of Business.

Lots of details aren’t clear yet, like the tuition and fees schools could charge and how the admissions process will work. Plus, universities will have to cough up an $11 million fee to enter the country. And there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to attract Indian students in large enough numbers, especially the less well-known institutions. But they’ve certainly got plenty of demand to work with.