The Carlson School is Buzzing—Even During Summer Break

Summer has traditionally been a quiet time at the Carlson School. Other than Part-Time MBA classes, camps, and maybe a few new student tours; our buildings have stood relatively empty over the break.

That is no longer the case. And the increased activity we see now is the byproduct of significant changes underfoot in business education.

The way today’s professionals consume education is quite different from a decade ago. While the MBA remains the core of the graduate business education experience, it is no longer the only option. More and more students (and employers) are looking for specialization and to meet that market demand, the Carlson School has launched several new degree types over the past two years.

This started with our Master’s in Business Analytics program which just began its third class. In a very short time we’ve seen this program grow from 24 to 40 to 83 students this June. Corporate demand for our graduates, who get to put their instruction to practice on real projects in our Analytics lab, has matched the impressive rise in enrollment.

A week after we welcomed our newest MSBA class, the first cohort in our new MS in Finance Program arrived on campus. This one-year program is designed for early career professionals to transition into or accelerate their careers in corporate finance, security analysis and portfolio management, investment and commercial banking, risk management, and more. The feedback I’ve heard from our faculty about the caliber of the students has been fantastic.

Finally, a third new program also started last month. However, its students will only be spending a weekend at the Carlson School this summer. Instead students in our Industry MBA program–a one-year program for current and past congressional staffers that provides them valuable business knowledge in the health care, energy, technology and finance industries–will be completing the bulk of their courses from their computers.

We aren’t done adding new programs with the Master of Science in Supply Chain Management soon to debut. In addition, we’ve been taking a close look at how we deliver our existing programs, and I have been thrilled with the innovation we’ve seen with online delivery that is allowing us to better serve professionals in Greater Minnesota and the surrounding region with the distance version of our part-time MBA, as well as how our we’re incorporating more and more experiential opportunities into our curriculum at both grad and undergraduate levels.

The world of business is ever-evolving and it is exciting to be leading the charge in being  responsive to the changing needs.