As an executive MBA student and full-time working professional, Regina Korossy didn’t have to try hard to figure out how her time in class would complement her demands at work.
The 2006 graduate of Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management was often graded on marketing and financial plans she designed for her company as part of required assignments for the program. EMBA degrees are designed for senior professionals who often have seven or more years of industry experience.
“You look at your firm through the lens of the discipline you just studied. And you create a financial plan. You create a marketing plan. You create a cultural assessment,” she says.
Classes in the EMBA program start off with students looking at case studies and using other resources to sharpen their business skills, but once they’ve mastered enough of the material, they act like internal consultants for their employers, Korossy says. They can take strategic plans hashed out in class and bring them back to their boss.
Learn [which professionals benefit the most from an EMBA.]
“I know I used them within my firm,” says Korossy, who now works for Graziadio as the regional director of executive programs and adjunct faculty. “I was able to bring them right back to my CEO the next day, and we would implement them.” About three months after she graduated school, she was promoted to senior vice president of operations for her employer, she says.
A career boost is usually the top benefit of getting an executive MBA. Dozens of business schools offer the degree, but programs vary when it comes to curriculum, class size and career resources. Here are three things prospective EMBA students can consider when deciding which program is best for them.
— Curriculum: Many programs incorporate statistics, accounting and other standard business classes into their classes for executives, but some have their own nuances.
At University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business, about 25 percent of the EMBA curriculum looks at innovation and entrepreneurship, says Shelbi Brookshire, senior director of EMBA recruiting at the school.
Pepperdine has, in some ways, dismissed of traditional methods that show how well students are absorbing the material. There are no tests, quizzes or exams, says Korossy.
“Tests are just not — we don’t believe — a good assessment of their learning,” she says.
Choose [between an executive MBA and other types of business degrees.]
Most programs take about two years to complete and require students to come to campus about once a month. In between, students might work on assignments individually or in groups. In some instances, though, they may be required to participate in school activities virtually.
“You have distance learning twice a week,” says Brett Twitty, director of admissions for the executive format at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Students log in remotely in addition to meeting in-person once a month over three days.
— Travel: Learning about how businesses work abroad is a key component of many EMBA programs. Many school take on a hands-on approach.
“Today’s business leaders, tomorrow’s business leaders need to be fluent in sort of international and global business and concepts,” says Twitty. Darden’s executive MBA program, like many others, requires students to go abroad for part of the program. EMBA students at Darden travel to China, though students in their global executive MBA program have more required trips.
Maryland’s Smith students have the option of taking a class on international business or heading overseas to learn about business practices, says Brookshire, who’s also a graduate of the EMBA program. Trips are usually a jam-packed seven to 10 days. They include “typically, at minimum, two visits per day to a corporation and meetings with their senior leadership,” she says.
Get [international experience with a global EMBA.]
— Professional support: At one time it was common for employers to foot the bill for an employee’s executive MBA degree, and it was assumed that students would stay at their current company after graduation, experts say.
A career development office wasn’t needed in the way it would be for traditional MBA programs, which are often geared toward career-changers and well-staffed with people who work on recruitment of MBAs.
“Executive programs have struggled with how to provide career resources to their students,” says Brookshire.
Some schools don’t offer any resources to students, experts say, while others have a career services professional for EMBAs as well as class advisers or executive coaches that can help students with school or work concerns.
Brookshire encourages prospective students to ask what kind of career resources are offered. At Smith, she says, executive MBA students have access to these services.
Darden also offers career support for its EMBA students, and that made it a draw for Jennifer Scheurich, who will graduate from its executive MBA program in May. She encourages prospective students to get a feel for who their classmates may be. The type of students a program serves can be one of its most distinguishing factors, she says. On a school visit, she says, “make sure you like the people who are around you.”
Twitty encourages students to ask an admissions officer what their peers may be like if they attend that school.
“They’ll probably be your strongest professional network going forward,” he says.
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Determine Which EMBA Program Is a Fit For Professional Goals originally appeared on usnews.com
