LESN Satellite > Credit Options > Master's in Business Administration (MBA)

Lehigh University's MBA Program is designed for students who mean business - about their careers, about learning, and about contributing to the education of their classmates. For more than 50 years, Lehigh's MBA program has been developing leaders and has reinforced its commitment to academic excellence with its holistic and cohesive core curriculum and its niche based market driven concentrations.

The MBA core curriculum grew out of a faculty commitment to maintain excellence and relevance in graduate business education. By focusing on the business value chain and the way in which different functional areas come together to create a competitive advantage, students experience decision making from the perspective of the company as a whole. Most core courses are taught by faculty teams, and are designed to mirror business challenges and decision making in a dynamic and rapidly changing corporate environment. Industry field projects partner students with faculty members who have extensive teaching, research and business experience in their fields. These projects benefit the student and their corporate sponsors by giving each student exposure to a new area within their firm or with another corporate partner, and giving their companies involved an opportunity to pursue value-added projects.

Innovative Structure
The 36-credit program begins with a mandatory weekend orientation and ends with a capstone course that draws upon the student's knowledge acquired during the core curriculum experience. The capstone course, MBA-406 Integrative Experience, emphasizes strategic management issues and solutions. Student teams are assigned a comprehensive case analysis of a company undergoing change. These teams closely resemble cross-functional corporate teams where each person has a different and valuable set of knowledge, skills and experience. By combining the industry projects, high-level class discussions, case analyses, and a computer simulation competition, this course exposes students to rigorous theoretical analysis while providing hands-on, simulated real world business experiences.

The industry project experience provides alternative methods for students to apply the knowledge acquired in the core towards their elective credit hours. Students are encouraged to design industry projects with their own firms or with a corporate partner. Lehigh's faculty will work with the student and a company supervisor to select a project and explore a new or existing business opportunity

Accreditation
For more than 40 years, Lehigh has been accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the national accrediting body for degree programs in business administration and accounting. Less than one-third of U.S. business schools and only 10% of business school programs worldwide meet the rigorous standards of AACSB International accreditation.

Academic Standards
To receive a master's degree from the College of Business and Economics, a student must achieve a grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.0 in graduate courses taken at Lehigh. A student may not receive more than four grades of C plus or lower. Master's degree candidates have six years to complete all required courses.

GMAT Scores
All applicants are required to take the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) administered by Pearson-Vue unless they have previously earned a doctoral degree. The computer-based exam is given almost daily at local testing centers. A list of test centers and seat availability may be found at www.mba.com.

GMAT applications may be obtained by writing:
Pearson-Vue,
Attention: GMAT® Program
PO Box 581907
Minneapolis, MN 55401
Phone: 1-800-717-GMAT

Prerequisites
Lehigh's MBA program accepts students from all academic backgrounds and an undergraduate degree in business is not required. There are no prerequisite courses required for admission to the MBA program; however, MBA 402-Managing Financial and Physical Resources and MBA 403-Managing Information require prerequisites of GBUS 401-Financial Accounting and ECO 401-Statistics.

Additionally, an undergraduate course in Principles of Economics and proficiency in Microsoft Office® Suite, including Access, are necessary. You may enroll in these courses after your application to Lehigh's MBA program has been accepted.

Statistics courses taken the past 5 years and completed with a B or higher may be used to waive the statistics requirement. Students who have taken a statistics courses more than 5 years ago, or have not earned a B or higher, must successfully complete a proficiency examination.

All students who have taken financial accounting at the undergraduate level in the last 5 years and earned a B or higher must pass a proficiency exam prior to enrolling in MBA 402-Managing Financial and Physical Resources. The Graduate Programs Office recommends that all students enroll in GBUS 401-Financial Accounting if this prerequisite is needed.

Curriculum

Core Courses (21 credits)
The MBA core is a highly interactive process. Taught by faculty teams, the courses are specifically designed to mirror business problems and decision making in a dynamic and rapidly changing corporate environment.

MBA 401        Intro. to the Organization and its Environment (2)
MBA 402        Managing Financial and Physical Resources (4)
MBA 403        Managing Information (4)
MBA 404        Managing Products and Services (4)
MBA 405        Managing People (4)
MBA 406        Integrative Experience (3)

Electives
Students will take 15 credits in electives to complete the degree and may take up to six credits of electives before completing the core courses. Students may take courses in a variety of disciplinary areas or design a concentration to best suit their career goals. Students may also take up to six credit hours of electives outside the College of Business and Economics but within Lehigh University. All elective courses must be at the 400 level.

Academic contact: Corinn McBride, Director of Recruitment & Admissions, 610-758-3418, or
e-mail: com207@lehigh.edu

For more information, including current course offerings and tuition, please visit our web site at http://www.distance.lehigh.edu