Innovation and Entrepreneurship

BUSINESS

In the US, the most popular graduate degree in business is the MBA, a Master’s in Business Administration. The MBA is a broad degree, and students study many aspects of business including accounting, finance, marketing, human resources, operations, and various approaches to management. MBA degrees can be full or part-time, and many students have executive or other significant business experience before starting their studies. A business undergraduate degree is usually not required, although some programs may require coursework in Economics.

There are some programs that offer Ph.D’s in management. These degrees are more research oriented than the MBA, and they take 5 years while the MBA can be 1-3 years. Graduates of a Ph.D. program are well-prepared for a teaching career at the university level or within a business school, as well as returning to the business or consulting world like MBA graduates. Top Ph.D business programs include Harvard, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, and London Business School (according to the Guardian, 2012). These schools also offer some of the top MBA programs in the US.

Students seeking admission to either an MBA or a Ph.D program must take a special test called the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test). The GMAT is a standardized test that includes verbal, quantitative, reasoning, and writing questions. This test, along with the resume, interview, and academic transcripts, is part of an application used to asses whether the applicant has the right skills to tackle broad coursework, from statistics to entrepreneurship.

Those who do successfully complete a business graduate degree program can take a position in a university, a company, or in consulting. A business professor can make up to $100,000, while consulting and executives can make more in a given year based on the profits of their enterprises.