A Look at the Midwest’s Best Accelerated MBAs
Finding the time to complete an MBA is of foremost concern to many students. Taking any time out of a work schedule to commit to earning the degree can seem like an unrealistic prospect for those already in the process of advancing in their careers. Luckily, accelerated programs are becoming more and more prevalent. Online, in person, and hybrid delivery methods are available at large at well-known business programs and at smaller, more affordable schools alike. Here is a look at the midwest region, which possesses a solid cross section of each of these accelerated program types.
The Top Midwest Accelerated MBA Programs
One of the forerunners of the accelerated MBA trend is available at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management. The program begins and ends in June. Students take three to five courses during the summer and then join the two-year MBA class in the fall to complete the elective portion of the degree.
Before enrolling, students must complete coursework in statistics, economics, marketing, and operations. These courses must have been completed within 10 years prior to application submission. Kellogg’s one-year MBA consists of 15.5 credits, and students may choose from one of seven majors: accounting; economics; finance; marketing; operations; strategy; and managing organizations. Graduates may also receive a General Management designation. Kellogg’s one-year program costs $98,720.
The University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business’ one-year program’s motto is “Get in, get out, get back to work.” Like Kellogg, Mendoza’s one-year students join with their two-year peers in the second portion of their studies. The program begins and ends in May. The school’s site emphasizes that one-year classes are closely aligned with the broader student population, and with an average class size of around 43, individual attention is a priority.
The program’s 46 credit hours encompasses an intensive nine week summer session, along with majors in business analytics, business leadership, consulting, corporate finance, innovation & entrepreneurship, investments, and marketing. Tuition is currently $75,768.
Western Illinois University College of Business and Technology in Macomb, IL is among the most affordable programs in the region at less than $15,000. A hybrid one-year MBA, the degree is comprised of 33 credits and begins and ends in the summer. Core courses include Corporate Financial Reporting and Analysis, Economics for Managers, Corporate Information Systems, and Decision Making for Global Markets. Majors are general management, business analytics, supply chain management, corporate security, accounting, international business, and information systems.
Applications to WIU’s hybrid MBA are accepted on a rolling basis.
University of Cincinnati Lindner College of Business has one of the fastest possible completion times—as little as nine months. Lindner’s MBA begins in the fall, consisting of 35-48 credits that break down into 10 foundation courses, 26 core classes, and 12 credits worth of electives. Students with recent undergraduate work in business administration or those with relevant work experience may waive the foundation course requirement. In state tuition is $20,958 and $28,796 for out of state students.
The accelerated MBA at the Dayton University School of Business Administration is a highly ranked program open to recent recipients of an undergrad business degree and those with eight or more years of work experience, preferably in senior or mid-level management positions. It can be completed in 12 months with 7.5 credits for the first three terms, 6 credits in the fourth term, and an optional 3 credits of electives in the fifth term.
The accelerated MBA at Dayton takes place online, with available concentrations in marketing and businessa analytics. Admissions decisions are on a rolling basis, and tuition is $41,422.50–$51,285, based upon the number of credits.
Northern Illinois University’s College of Business‘ 12 Month MBA is geared toward those in management positions who wish to advance or shift in their current careers. Applications for admission are due on December 10 for a January start date. The program consists of 48 credits though some of these may be waived based upon prior studies and experience.
Tuition for the one year program at Northern Illinois is $39,000.
The Accelerated MBA at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Liautaud Graduate School of Business consists of 26 core credits and 28 electives. Ranked among the top 25 percent of business schools in the country, Liataud offers a high quality education at a relatively affordable price: $13,900 for in-state students and $22,068 for non-Illinois residents. Among the available concentrations are accounting, business analytics, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, and real estate.
Walsh University in Canton, Ohio offers a one-year MBA in management, healthcare, or marketing. Boasting small classes and a flexible schedule, the Walsh MBA is offered online, consisting of 42 credits. Tuition is $705 per credit hour, or $29,610 for the one year MBA.
Walsh does not require a GMAT scores for admission, and students from non-business backgrounds are encouraged to apply. There are six intakes for the program per year.
An MBA from the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana is another great value at less than $20,000 per year. St. Francis offers both a generalized MBA and a specialty degree in Sustainability. Each degree is offered entirely online.
Want to Save Money? A Joint Account May Help, According to Notre Dame Research – Chicago News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
Not Everyone Benefited from Lower Interest Rates During the Great Recession – Kellogg Insight
New research from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management has emerged, examining mortgage-lender regulations during the Great Recession. Researchers Anthony DeFusco and John Mondragon, assistant professors of finance at the Kellogg School, found that FHA regulations actually made borrowing more difficult, particularly in a recession.
The duo notes that when access to loan refinancing was constrained by more stringent rules, the benefits of lower interest rates failed to reach those households who most needed it most. Namely those, due to the recession, suddenly had less savings and income.
Mondragon zeroed in on the impact that the policies have on people’s ability to refinance:
“The households who stand to benefit most from lower borrowing rates are the very ones that are being pushed out of the equation by these mechanisms.”
He adds, “Our research shows that imposing income or employment conditions effectively excludes those segments of society who would benefit most from lower interest rates. This could undermine the stimulating effects of monetary policy. Households suffer, recessions can last longer and, because many mortgages are federally insured, the U.S. taxpayer is ultimately left with a heftier bill to pick up.”
You can read more about the research here.
Love Connection: Joint Bank Accounts Prompt Romantic Partners to Spend More Wisely, Study Finds – Mendoza College of Business News
New research from Notre Dame University’s Mendoza College of Business reveals that partners who share joint accounts are less likely to spend wastefully due to the fear of having to justify these purchases. In their research paper, which consists of five studies, Mendoza’s Emily Garbinsky and University College London’s Joe Gladstone observe that partners will avoid purchase for pleasure in favor of more utilitarian purchases.
“We found that this spending pattern was not a one-time occurrence. People made these decisions over and over, which resulted in thousands of dollars spent. Our findings suggest pooling finances may be one simple way to spend money more responsibly,” Garbinsky remarks.
Garbinsky also notes that couples should not to let the need to justify spending go too far, which could lead to negative consequences.
You can read more about the joint checking accounts research here.
Keenan Center Fostering Students’ Startup Ideas – Fisher School of Business News
Best of Student Startup (BOSS), a competition presented by the Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship, provides teams of Ohio State students the opportunity to pitch new products, services or technologies to a panel of entrepreneurs and leaders. The event is a culmination of a semester-long workshop that fosters entrepreneurial ideas and processes.
Mik Treiber, a fourth-year accounting student shared his thoughts on the competition, saying:
“We knew BOSS was a great opportunity for teams to form executable business strategies. Before the competition, there was a lot still up in the air—competing features to build, growth strategies to act on, and future paths to take. BOSS motivated us to collect our thoughts and organize a plan our team (and hopefully those in the audience) could get behind.”
With 41 applicants, the competition also represents an opportunity to build community. “The BOSS competition is a great opportunity for students to get connected to the Ohio State and Columbus entrepreneurial ecosystem,” notes Jake Cohen, Program Director, Collaboration and Events for the Keenan Center.
“Our goal is to support student entrepreneurs and their business ventures at every stage of development,” Cohen adds.
You can read more about the startup competition here.
Improved Candidates, Working in Puerto Rico, and More – Chicago News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
Take 5: Tips for Widening — and Improving — Your Candidate Pool – Kellogg Insight
Northwestern Kellogg Associate Professor of Management and Organizations Lauren Rivera and Professor of Finance Paola Sapienza recently published new research that offers discrete advice on how to “widen the talent pool, whether by uncovering your own hiring biases or by turning your sights to often-overlooked candidates.”
1. Be Aware of Biases
According to the article, “Even when we set out to hire on the basis of merit, hidden biases can get in the way. Being aware of those can help us not only act more fairly, but also make the best business decisions.” For instance, “Hiring managers also tend to look for a sense of personal connection with an applicant — with upper-class interviewers generally preferring candidates with similar pedigrees, whether they realize it or not.”
2. Think Small Specialist
According to the article, the late professor of management and organizations Keith Murnighan “found evidence of a bias towards generalists over specialists because hiring managers tend to look for one employee at a time — rather than hire an entire team all at once — it’s hard for them to see exactly which specialists they need.”
Murnighan wrote, “Look at the interactions from a distance and say, ‘What is it that I need to change? What do I know that I’m too close to the process to really see?’”
3. Look to Local Talent
Professors Rivera and Sapienza encourage companies to focus on hiring local talent so “reps are able to build solid relationships with their accounts.” In other words, “firms whose success depends on establishing themselves as a “local” brand should consider the importance of thinking — and hiring — locally.”
4. Value Veterans
Many companies overlook veterans as viable candidates, which is a shame because the military “fosters collaboration, adaptability, leadership, selflessness, and many other qualities that make veterans invaluable in the business world. The article cites research from Kellogg finance professors Efraim Benmelech and Carola Frydman who found that “firms run by CEOs with military experience performed better under pressure than those run by other CEOs.” They also found that “CEOs with a military background were up to 70 percent less likely to engage in corporate fraud compared to their civilian-only peers.”
5. Consider the Ex-Offender
Another population that job searches tend to neglect is ex-offenders. According to the article, “Many employers are reluctant to hire people with criminal records, assuming that they possess fewer skills, are more likely to behave unethically in the workplace, or both.”
“Not only can doing so save money on turnover costs, but from a societal level, it also can help keep ex-offenders from going to jail again.
Research from professor of managerial economics and decision sciences Nicola Persico, finds that “ex-offenders who do get hired are no more likely to be fired than non-offenders — and are about 13 percent less likely to quit, resulting in lower turnover costs for the companies that hire them.”
You can read the rest of the article here.
Testing the Waters: How a Team of MBA Students Put Their Business Skills to Work in Puerto Rico – Mendoza Ideas & News
Notre Dame MBA candidate Corey Waldrep ’19 samples the result of a low-cost water filtration kit in Puerto Rico. On the right is dirty, debris-filled water and on the left is filtered water. (Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame)
Last month, Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business MBA students and former military veterans Tyler Shields, Luke Wilson, Dan Weathers, Corey Waldrep, and Robert (R.J.) Dulin, as well as advisor Andrew Wendelborn, traveled to Puerto Rico as part of nonprofit Waves for Water’s initiative to provide global access to clean water in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, whose 175 mph winds “destroyed more than 80 percent of the island’s power lines and left 3.4 million Americans in the dark” last September.
According to the article, the objectives of project were for “students to gather and utilize important demographic data; gain first-hand experience in working with an NGO partner to provide crisis support; learn a model for creating self-sustaining practices for local populations; and become immersed in best practices for working with indigent populations with dignity, equality and compassion.”
Shields writes, “A lot of what we did over there in Puerto Rico was so-called guerrilla humanitarianism. You don’t necessarily know where the need is or what the need is. You just know that there is a need.”
You can read more from the article here.
As Uber, Lyft Eye Public Offerings, Gies Professor Says Clock Could Work to Smaller Rival’s Advantage – Gies College of Business News
University of Illinois Gies College of Business Clinical Assistant Professor of Finance Rob Metzger took to the blog to offer his expertise drawn from 20 years in investment banking on whether Lyft or Uber should go public first.
According to the article, Uber’s $120 billion IPO is more likely to go public first in late 2019. But Lyft’s roughly $15 billion IPO could beat them to the punch in spring of 2019.
Metzger writes, “I think the Lyft team feels that, even though they’re significantly smaller, they believe that their financial metrics are better, their operating metrics are better, and they haven’t had some of the negative press that Uber has had.
“So [Lyft] may want to be out on the forefront to tell that story, as opposed to being in Uber’s shadow.”
Finding A Real Estate Career with a Chicago MBA
The number of MBAs who pursue a real estate career may not be as large as those in finance or consulting, but even still, some of the most prestigious business schools in the Chicago metro offer MBA programs that specialize in the field. Continue reading…
AI and God, from Google and Amazon – Chicago News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
Siri, Should I Believe in God? – Mendoza Business Magazine
Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business recently published an article that explores the shortcomings of AI-driven digital assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa when it comes to existential and religious questions.
According to the article, “the overwhelming majority of youth in the digital age prefer Google searches and even disembodied voices to get the information they need about virtually everything.”
The problem, according to administrative vice director at the Vatican observatory and philosophy of science expert Rev. Paul Mueller, S.J., is that “Siri, like a vanilla politician, wants to offend no one, will not challenge or provoke.”
“Siri will be coy regarding religious questions, to avoid the risk of giving offense. [Digital assistants] will at most promote generic niceness, and perhaps something akin to the modern liberal values that church and state should be separate and religion should be a private affair.”
David Hart, a Notre Dame philosophy of mind instructor, adds, “At this point I think that technology is altering habits of mind in a rather distressing way. If there’s a danger in computers, it’s not that they are going to become conscious, but that they’re forcing us to become unconscious.”
Check out the full article here.
Gies Alumni Named to Crain’s 20 in their 20s – Gies School of Business Blog
Crain recently named two Gies College of Business MBA alumni—Tiesta Tea co-founder Dan Klein and Amber Agriculture founder Lucas Frye—among its 2018 Crain’s Chicago Business 20 In Their 20s.
Klein writes, “We knew from the beginning that we could be successful with 20-somethings if we could demystify high-quality, loose-leaf tea. Instead of a Chinese green tea, we do a ‘Fruity Pebbles Slenderizer’ tea.” This approach has enabled Tiesta Tea to win over a “young, health-obsessed market.”
Lucas Frye’s startup Amber Agriculture offers a pellet-shaped device that helps farmers monitor moisture, on which he explains the entire “ag value chain is based.” The article explains how Frye’s device works: “Toss the pellet into an avalanche of grain, whether in a storage bin or on a barge, and it tracks moisture levels. When necessary, it triggers fans for aeration.”
Read the full article here.
UIC Business Scholar Alleia James says “Hola” to Spain this Summer – UIC Business Blog
UIC Business Scholar Alleia James writes about her upcoming study abroad experience as part of the “Business, International Relations and Spanish at the University of Deusto” program in Spain.
James’ attraction to Spain is rooted in the country’s “deep history and sophisticated culture,” but the study abroad program’s integrated “company visits to Mondragon Cooperative Society, Bilbao Stock Market, and IDOM Consulting” made it a no-brainer.
Financial support from the Honors College Study Abroad Scholarship, Honors College Sally and Kevin Desouza Family Scholarship, Financial Executives International Chicago Chapter Scholarship, UIC CHANCE Financial Assistance Scholarship, UISAVES Scholarship, as well as financial support via a GoFundMe campaign will facilitate James’ trip.
James writes, “I am super thrilled to travel to different parts of Europe and speak to as many locals as possible! I have dreamed of walking on cobblestone sidewalks, watching Spanish La Liga football in person, visiting Gaudí’s La Pedrera, and zipling in Comares. I can’t wait to take adventures and explore Spain with my study abroad group. I hope to make lifelong friends on this trip and become more independent.”
The full article can be found here.
What Chicago MBAs Can You Earn the Fastest?
Here’s a lesson everyone learns well before ever stepping foot into business school: time is money.
Some students want to complete their MBA coursework as quickly and efficiently as possible. That’s where accelerated MBA programs come into play: in only 12 months, those who earn an accelerated MBA reenter the job market ready to start their next career.
Accelerated programs— also known as One-Year MBA programs—are designed for students who have clear ideas for what they want to do after graduation, as well as those who already have a strong base in business.
While one-year MBA programs are popular in Europe, they are less common in the U.S. However, several top business schools in the Chicago metro feature accelerated MBA programs.
Let’s take a look:
University of Illinois at Chicago Accelerated MBA Program – Under 12 Months
The Liautaud Graduate School of Business Accelerated MBA launched in fall 2015 and was designed for recent graduates or students with limited work experience to develop knowledge of business principles and skills in three semesters of full-time study.
Students begin the program by taking core courses—financial accounting, corporate finance, marketing, microeconomics, operations management, and organizational behavior—before moving on to advanced electives. Core coursework is completed in a cohort during the fall and spring semesters. The final semester may be completed in the summer semester or in the subsequent fall semester. This degree can be completed in under one year by students who carry a heavy course load each semester.
Kellogg Accelerated MBA – 12 Months
The Northwestern Kellogg School of Management was the first top-tier business school to offer a One-Year MBA program, launching the program more than 50 years ago. The degree option was designed for students who have both a business-related degree and several years of work experience. Fun fact: Kellogg has increased the size of the accelerated program by nearly 20 percent over the past two years.
Kellogg’s Accelerated MBA allow students to bypass core classes. Required courses are taken in the summer, and elective courses taken in the fall, winter, and spring. Students take at least two summer courses in Leadership and Business Strategy, a Crisis Management half credit course right before the fall term, and then join second-year MBA students for the final 13 courses before earning their degree.
Notre Dame One Year MBA Program – 12 Months
Notre Dame University’s Mendoza College of Business’ One Year MBA, located just outside of Chicago on the border of Indiana, begins in May and ends the same month of the following year. The program starts with a 10-week summer session before students join classes with other MBA students in the fall and spring. Summer courses include leadership & organizational behavior, marketing management, and strategic essentials. Following the summer session classes, students declare a concentration in either business analytics, business leadership, consulting, corporate finance, innovation & entrepreneurship, investments, or marketing.
The immersive Mendoza College of Business’ One Year MBA includes international expeditions / Photo via morrisinn.nd.edu
Notre Dame’s One Year MBA also has an international immersion option. Between fall break and Christmas, one year students take a full schedule of MBA courses in partnership with Universidad Catholica in Chile. In addition to business courses in English, students will have the opportunity to learn or improve their Spanish language skills. These class feature numerous travel opportunities for students to explore the Andes region, including trips to Chile’s Atacama Desert, Machu Picchu in Peru, and multi-day trekking in Patagonia. Read more about Mendoza’s Global Opportunities here.
Northern Illinois University One Year MBA Program – 12 Months
Unlike most accelerated programs, NIU’s One-Year program accepts one cohort each winter. Classes begin in January and students finish coursework in 12 months by attending class just two evenings per week. Classes are further broken down into groups, which are expected to meet up at least once per week outside of normal classroom hours.
The program also includes a nine-day international trip, which is usually scheduled in March. These experiences generally include a combination of company visits, government briefings, and university lectures. Recent international immersions have had students visiting places like Lisbon and Barcelona.
Northern Illinois University Fast Trak MBA – 12 Months
NIU is also unique in that it offers two different MBA options that can be copleted in 12 months or less. The school’s Fast Trak MBA is a day-time, 12-month program with required international experiences in Bordeaux, France or Murcia, Spain. Students attend classes Monday through Friday during spring and fall semesters.
NIU’s Fast Trak MBA has all students enter and experience the program together and begins with a mandatory orientation session in mid-August for all students. The MBA program is broken up into five modules, with students taking between two and four courses during these five-to-eight week intensive class blocks. Students enrolled in the program also have the opportunity to earn a second Masters degree in International Management from IAE the Bordeaux University School of Management or a Master of International Management from the ENAE School of Business in Murcia, Spain.
For more information on Chicago MBA programs, click here.
