Master of Business Administration, M.B.A.

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Admission

Entrance into the M.B.A. program is open to all students holding a bachelor’s degree without regard to major. It is not necessary to have any previous business coursework to be admitted. Applicants should take the Graduate Management Admission Test at least two months prior to enrollment (scores more than five years old at the time of application are not normally accepted). An admission application form must be completed and submitted to the Office of Research and Graduate Studies, and official transcripts must be sent from all colleges and universities attended. The deadline for receipt of all materials, including GMAT score, is 30 days prior to registration for the semester in which the student desires to enroll.

The acceptance decision is based on a combination of undergraduate GPA and GMAT score. To be accepted, a candidate must have a minimum GMAT exam score of 420 and satisfy one of the following two admission formulae:

earn a value of at least 1000 using the formula (overall GPA x 200) + GMAT exam score
or earn a value of at least 1050 using the formula (upper-division GPA x 200) + GMAT exam score.

For purposes of this formula, “upper-division” is defined to be either the last 60 hours of undergraduate coursework (excluding freshman-level courses) or all junior/senior courses. Applicants with an overall GPA of 3.5 or higher from a U.S. post-secondary institution are exempt from the GMAT requirement; additionally, the GMAT may be waived by the M.B.A. director for applicants with significant managerial work experience. Exceptions are made on a case-by-case basis. A student whose native language is not English also must present a score of at least 213 on the computer-based Test of English as a Foreign Language or 550 on the paper-based test. Exceptions to these standards are considered on a case-by-case basis.

Program of Study

Each M.B.A. student’s degree plan is customized according to her/his background. Students lacking math or computer skills begin with one or more of the following undergraduate “prerequisite” courses: MGT 272, MTH 143 and MTH 220 (see the Undergraduate Bulletin for descriptions).

Graduate coursework is divided into two categories: leveling courses and a required core. Leveling courses are business courses covering the major business disciplines and would normally be found in an undergraduate business curriculum. Depending on the student’s background, some or all of the leveling courses may be waived by the M.B.A. director. For a course to be waived, the student must normally have completed comparable undergraduate or graduate business coursework from a regionally accredited university with grades of B or better within the last five years. The following undergraduate courses (or their equivalents) are required: ACC 231, ECO 232, FIN 333, MGT 370; MKT 351 (see the Undergraduate Bulletin for descriptions). The following courses, while not required, are helpful: ACC 232, CSC 340, ECO 231, MGT 371, 377.

All M.B.A. candidates are required to complete a 36-semester-hour core. These courses refine business knowledge by exploring business theories and applications and applying the knowledge to real-world situations. The core consists of:

ACCT 5311 - Accounting for Management Credit(s): 3
BCOM 5320 - Managerial Communication Credit(s): 3
BLAW 5347 - Transnational Business Law Credit(s): 3
ECON 5320 - Managerial Economics Credit(s): 3
FINC 5314 - Advanced Financial Management Credit(s): 3
BUSI 5350 - Executive Leadership Credit(s): 3
MGMT 5371 - Operations Management Credit(s): 3
MGMT 5317 - Strategic Management Credit(s): 3
MGMT 5381 - Information Systems in Organizations Credit(s): 3
MKTG 5313 - Marketing Management Credit(s): 3
and
Six semester hours of approved business electives

Note:

Each M.B.A. student must make a grade of “B” or better in the capstone MGMT 5317 course to satisfy the university comprehensive exam requirement. MGMT 5317 must be taken in the last semester of study, but may be taken simultaneously with other M.B.A. courses.