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Earn a MBA in Half the Time at USF
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A new USF program could put professionals looking to trim the amount of time it takes to earn a MBA on the fast track. |
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For working professionals aspiring to earn a master's degree in business management but who can't afford a two-year commitment to school, the University of San Francisco's new intensive MBA may be the answer.
The yearlong course of condensed study is scheduled to launch in May. The curriculum is geared toward professionals who already have at least two years work experience and who earned an undergraduate business degree in college.
The program is divided into a summer fast track, plus two standard semesters of classes beginning in the fall. Commencing with the five-day-a-week fast track, classes build on students' business background and on-the-job experience, preparing them to be integrated into the MBA's regular coursework in a dozen weeks.
"What we've decided to do is recognize that these students already have much of the academic training that they would get in the first year of an MBA program," said Mike Duffy, dean of the School of Business and Management.
The Intensive One-Year MBA is meant to respond to U.S. and worldwide demand for more efficient graduate degree programs, Duffy said.
The fast track's eight core classes, including business analytics, leadership, marketing, investing, and others are completed during the May to July term. In addition, three experiential, or "explorer," components introduce students to Bay Area business innovators, challenge them to probe their career values and goals, and require them to think globally as a result of study tours outside the United States.
"The fast track 'explorer' module is designed to take the students into the business community and to bring the business community to the students on campus," Duffy said.
Throughout the program, students explore the worlds of high tech, biotech, and entrepreneurial philanthropy by meeting founders and innovators. While meeting with CEOs and venture capitalists are key elements to networking and understanding the business world, they aren't the only perspectives USF's business students are exposed to, Duffy said.
One set of activities in the "explorer" module, for example, introduces students to the U.S. Hispanic market by examining San Francisco's Mission district - exposing them to existing businesses that design products and services for Hispanic customers, and educating them about those living on less than $5 a day.
In the second component of the intensive MBA, students join the rest of USF's MBA graduate students during the regular academic year, running from August until the following May. During those two semesters, the MBA's width and breadth of courses will be open to intensive MBA students, including venture capital, entrepreneurship, advanced leadership, and international business. To graduate, intensive MBA students must complete 48 units, 32 being electives.
For more information on the Intensive One-Year MBA and other business course options visit: http://www.usfca.edu/sobam/mba/mba.html. 
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