YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Obtaining a Masters of Business Administration remains a great way to boost your career, differentiate yourself from the competition, build a network or specialize in high-demand skills.
Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa., offers an MBA, for example, with an artificial intelligence specialization, according to Robert Badowski, chairman of Westminster’s School of Business, director of the MBA program and an associate professor.
Taught by an instructor who works for Google, Westminster’s AI specialization MBA will allow companies delving into the world of OpenAI, Claude and Anthropic to hire someone with the skills to help them navigate how to use that technology. Concerns about the ethics of using AI in business, how to keep proprietary information from becoming public and the technology’s effects on staffing are some of the topics covered in the specialized course.
“It’s a brand new world out there with AI,” Badowski says. “Some employers encourage you to use AI and some say we don’t want you to use AI at all.”
Whether it is viewed as a positive or negative for the business, having a manager on staff specializing in AI makes a difference in knowing the latest implications.
But AI specialization is not the only way an MBA may provide a career boost. It could benefit a new graduate seeking more training before entering the workforce, a manager looking to get ahead in their career or someone making a mid-career change.
“We see folks in traditional business positions looking to advance,” says Patrick J. Bateman, director of the MBA program at Williamson College of Business Administration at Youngstown State University and distinguished professor of management. “We also see a large group of folks who may not have a business undergraduate degree but have found themselves taking on more traditional responsibilities within their technical function.”
For instance, Bateman says it could be an engineer being asked to take on a managerial role in the firm, a nurse who will be leading the team during their shift or a computer scientist whose job is changing.
“Next step, evolution,” Bateman says. “It’s that focus on development of change, no matter where our students are looking to go.”
Even though many colleges and universities have moved their classes online including Slippery Rock University, Jeananne Nicholls, marketing professor and co-director of that university’s MBA program, says SRU strives to create an online community for MBA students.
“We look at it as the program isn’t really something you just attend, but you’re really joining a professional community and that community lasts beyond the degree,” Nicholls says.
And student demographics cover a wide range. Nicholls recalls a retiree who wanted to finish his MBA who was recently part of that community. She says that man’s knowledge contributed to class discussion groups.
“Most people recognize book learning isn’t just from books,” Nicholls says, adding it can come from the experiences of classmates. “They are learning from each other and I think that’s the community we’re trying to create.”
The MBA programs at YSU, SRU and Westminster are all online.
YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY
Bateman says YSU’s MBA program values professional knowledge and helps students advance.
“Many of our students are already employed, but they’re looking to move into that next position with greater leadership or decision-making responsibilities,” Bateman says, adding the program also helps local businesses retain employees, while developing their skills.
Getting an MBA does not necessarily mean someone got their undergraduate degree in business, says Bateman.
“When we designed the program, we designed for there to be several different admission pathways, so opportunities to pursue the MBA can be open to a broad range of people.”
Getting into the program is based on a combination of professional experience, undergraduate degree and GPA, rarely requiring a standardized test score.
A 30-credit hour program, consisting of 10 seven-week accelerated courses, YSU’s MBA students take eight core business foundation courses, including finance, marketing, operations, leadership and business analytics and two in their area of specialization. Specializations are organizational leadership, marketing, healthcare management, human resources or a general MBA.
The MBA program recommends working professionals do one course at a time, which equates to 18 months, although it can be completed in 12. Because the program is fully online and asynchronous, Bateman says students from across the country may enroll.
“As somebody who teaches courses in the program, I’ll receive emails from students around the clock,” Bateman says, “mostly nights and weekends and very reflective of our students.”
At $473 per credit, Ohio residents can obtain their MBA for about $14,190, and only $14,340 for out-of-state students, according to Bateman. Additionally, he says the program is Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business [AACSB] accredited, a rigorous external review of the school’s mission, faculty qualifications, curriculum and learning outcomes. This ensures the value of the program, while being online allows flexibility, Bateman says.
Students are admitted six times a year with classes starting in August, October, January, March, May and July. They are also given a plan for what to take to complete the degree in 12 months or 18 months.
“We’re able to clearly communicate that pathway to success from the beginning,” Bateman says. “If you stick to this and if you’re successful in the courses, you’ll be able to graduate on time.”
And students pay per course, not up front, giving them a chance to step out of the program if necessary and return.
Bateman believes breaking down the program into accelerated seven-week courses means students can apply the specific knowledge and skills to their careers quickly.
“The combination of online format combined with the accelerated courses, we’ve heard a lot of positive things from students about how valuable that can be,” Bateman says. “They can actually get what they’re looking for, what they’re looking to learn in a fairly short manner.”
SLIPPERY ROCK
Slippery Rock’s 30 credit hours, 10-course MBA is based on a ROCK framework, says Nicholls, referring to an acronym for Real world application, Outcome focus, Career readiness and Knowledge in action.
Students can further choose a 36-hour track or two additional courses to concentrate on human resources, marketing, finance or accounting.
Nicholls says there is also a master’s project, a way for students to pursue a business focus they are passionate about and obtain credit. For example, Nicholls says students interested in learning about marketing research worked with a company to set up a survey.
Open to those with a 3.0 GPA, the MBA program also considers how long it has been since someone was in school, their professional career and possibly GMAT scores for someone who has not had previous business courses.
“We try to differentiate ourselves by saying we really create a community,” Nicholls says. “We take the human into consideration and want it to be more of a transformative experience.”
Instead of studying theory, Nicholls says the courses are more hands-on, something students can learn today and apply to their workplace tomorrow.
“We’ve created different ways that students can come together and share information,” Nicholls says. “Lots of times we have group projects where students get to know each other.”
The majority of Slippery Rock’s MBA and undergraduate students are from a 100-mile radius of the campus located in Butler County. And when they are done, Nicholls says the majority of them tend to continue to work within that same radius.
Although classes are online, at the beginning of the year, MBA students are invited to campus for a kick off event, giving them a chance to meet each other and faculty members.
“I’m a marketing professor, so I really took it seriously about how important those relationships and relationship management is,” Nicholls says, adding she felt it was important for relationship building to be reflected in the MBA program.
Costing between $19,000 in state vs. $25,000 out of state, students can earn their MBA within 12 months going full time and taking four courses in a semester, which are broken up into two eight-week sessions.
“But students also take courses part-time because they have lives outside of academia, so most students can finish the degree in one to two years,” Nicholls says.
At Slippery Rock, she sees a mix of MBA applicants including those with 25-year careers and those still taking undergraduate classes. A four+ program allows undergraduate students in their senior year to begin taking graduate level courses at undergraduate prices. Nicholls says the program helps start the conversation about coming back to finish their MBA.
WESTMINSTER COLLEGE
Westminster College offers a 10-class MBA, with seven core classes and three that allow for specialization. In addition to the AI for managers specialization, Westminster offers concentrations in management, business analytics, healthcare administration and sustainability.
“Our program is built for working adults,” says Badowski, adding the program is all online and asynchronous. “Students can live their lives and have a job, have a family and those kinds of things, and then also attend classes.”
Westminster’s program starts at six different times throughout the year – two sessions each starting in the fall, spring and summer. Badowski says students can push through it in a year or take two years or longer if they choose.
“People can work at their own pace,” Badowski says. “Whenever they have free time. The classes are eight weeks long each, so they’re manageable.”
Additionally, instead of quizzes, the Westminster MBA classes revolve around applying what they learn to papers, videos or other applied activities.
“I like to say you learn it today and you can use it tomorrow in their jobs,” Badowski says.
The program seeks professors who are all experts in their fields, Badowski says, not just those with qualified schooling.
“We’re looking for professors who actually have the academic chops, but also who have worked in that particular field, so students can interact with them and find out more about their fields.”
An MBA at Westminster costs $500 per each of the 30 credit hours. With fees and textbook subscriptions, the overall cost is between $16,000 to $17,000, he says.
To make obtaining an MBA more affordable, Badowski says Westminster’s business school recently added a three plus one program. Undergraduate students obtain their degree in three years and spend the fourth year taking classes for their master’s degree.
“It’s actually cheaper to do that than it is a four-year traditional degree, so we’ve gotten a lot of traction out of that,” he says.
Whether to start the MBA right away or go into the workforce first to return later differs from person to person. Badowski says some want to stay an extra year for athletic reasons, while others already have jobs and have seen the benefit of getting their MBA.
He feels having at least some work experience is valuable and helps the concepts taught in the program make more sense. Also, Badowski says some companies still offer the benefits of helping employees offset the cost of an MBA.
