Simulated business is booming for M.B.A. students

Philadelphia Inquirer, The, April, 2007 by Harold Brubaker Inquirer Staff Writer

It's a banner year for "first annual" competitions for business students.

Microsoft Corp. came to the Wharton School in February for its first case competition at the university in West Philadelphia.

Rowan University in Glassboro is holding its first business-plan competition tomorrow, with $8,500 at stake for the top three teams.

And yesterday morning, a team of four Wharton graduate students went to the Top of the Tower in the Bell Atlantic Tower to pick up the $10,000 first prize in the Association for Corporate Growth's first Philadelphia Cup business-case competition.

"It just seems like every time you turn around, there's a case competition for something," said Kristi Aiello, director of Wharton's M.B.A. program office, which assists students with extracurricular activities.

Aiello and other administrators and professors at area business schools attributed ...