Three business schools offering MBAs to save the world

Earning a Master of Business Administration (MBA) is increasingly important to climb the ranks and drive change in the corporate world. While it may not directly “save the world,” this popular advanced degree is essential in sparking meaningful transformations for the people and planet. This is because it’s an all-encompassing year spent exploring how to drive economic growth by creating jobs, generating income, and fostering innovation, all of which contribute to the overall prosperity and well-being of a nation.

It only takes one year to complete an MBA at the Penn State Smeal College of Business at University Park, Pa. Source: Penn State Smeal College of Business

Penn State Smeal College of Business

An MBA typically requires two years to complete, but the Penn State Smeal College of Business offers a streamlined, STEM-designated program that can be completed in only one year. Divided into two semesters at Penn State’s University Park campus, the first two seven-week modules of core coursework are completed in the fall. The remaining coursework is finished in the spring, culminating in graduation in May.

The MBA is part of Smeal’s suite of residential master’s degrees, each taking 12 months or less to complete while offering in-demand skills and real-world, experiential learning that makes an immediate impact. These degrees include the Master of Accounting, Master’s in Business Analytics, Master of Finance, Master’s in Real Estate Analysis & Development and Master of Supply Chain Management, which is consistently ranked as one of the top graduate supply chain programs in the U.S. by Gartner, Inc. All programs are STEM-designated, do not require a GMAT score, and offer the opportunity to travel abroad on a global immersion trip in the spring.

At Smeal, students have the ability to earn two master’s degrees in two years and add specializations, “Stacking my degrees has opened so many doors for me,” said Sofie Lutfy, who earned her MBA along with a graduate certificate in management consulting.

Upon graduation, graduates join the nation’s largest alumni networking community. With more than 92,000 fellow Smeal alumni and over 760,000 Penn State graduates worldwide, they join a community who are ready to open doors, offer advice and cheer each other on at every career stage.

The Chicago Booth Full-Time MBA is also known as the world’s most flexible full-time master of business administration programme. Source: University of Chicago Booth School of Business

University of Chicago Booth School of Business

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business offers a Full-Time MBA that empowers bold thinkers to thrive. The programme of choice for ambitious, intellectually curious professionals follows the university’s educational philosophy: The Chicago Approach. Here, through rigorous inquiry, you learn how to turn any business challenge into an opportunity. As you master the fundamentals of business — accounting, economics, psychology, sociology, and statistics — you will learn how to think for yourself, challenge the status quo, and ground discoveries in data.

The Full-Time MBA is also “the world’s most flexible full-time master of business administration programme.” In 21 months, you’ll take three to four courses per quarter that include lab courses and hands-on learning experiences. There’s freedom to tailor your MBA experience by taking specific courses and earning MBA concentrations that signal to future employers that you have deep knowledge of a particular field, along with relevant analytical skills and tools. MBA concentrations include Analytic Finance, Behaviour Science, Econometrics and Statistics, Healthcare, Strategic Management and more.

However you shape your MBA, you’ll have an unparalleled community of innovative peers and a lifetime of professional support. “Boothies support other Boothies, and it’s just a cycle that keeps going, and then the rest kind of falls into place after that,” says graduate Maya Shaposhnik Cadena. Many of these bonds are built during LEAD, one of the first experiential MBA leadership development courses at a major business school. It’s a great way to network and make friends. Guest speakers, alumni, and industry leaders engage with students on campus too.

Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley

One thing that Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley has to offer is an MBA schedule that could fit anyone’s time. Be it on the weekdays or weekends, students will earn the same life-changing MBA degree here.

As the second-oldest business school in the US, the school also offers a flex option which is primarily based on online learning. This allows students to learn from anywhere and at any time though they can choose to attend elective courses in person. Whether you’re looking to advance within your organisation, make a career change, fulfil a personal goal, or start a business, Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley, provides an MBA experience that will get you there – on a schedule that best fits your life.

The Berkeley Haas Alumni Network is a community of more than 40,000 alumni all around the world. Composed of lifelong learners, friends, and colleagues, students here take advantage of the network by strengthening relationships, building partnerships, and advancing a career with professional resources from employees already in the field.

“Haas exposed me to a lot of different industries and gave me different skills,” says graduate Dominic Bea, now Vice President at Guggenheim Partners. “This exposure opened up the possibilities of what rewarding work would be. What does it mean to be fulfilled in investment banking, or consulting, or operations? It helped me see how I’d fit into these different industries in a meaningful way.”

*Some of the institutions featured in this article are commercial partners of Study International