MBA applicants can get carried away with rankings. In this series, we profile amazing programs at business schools that are typically ranked outside the top 15.
Arizona State University, the largest public university in the United States, is home to the W.P. Carey School of Business. Despite its extensive global network of more than 90,000 alumni, Carey boasts a small, tight-knit MBA program—with an incoming class size numbering just 67 students in 2014 (and only 74 in 2013). Throughout the four quarters of their first year, students are exposed to a core general management curriculum that incorporates hands-on and experiential learning opportunities. Notable within Carey’s core course sequence is a business plan lab, taken in the fall of the first year, which culminates in a business plan competition in January. Through this offering, students learn entrepreneurial and general management skills applicable to a broad range of professional interests.
Starting in the second half of the first year, students can customize their curriculum to fulfill up to two (of ten possible) areas of professional specialization. The Carey curriculum also offers the option of selecting from among ten areas of emphasis, designed to allow students to explore a given field more broadly. Students can also combine an MBA with one several other degree offerings from the university in a dual-degree program. In addition, Carey boasts an internationally diverse class and strong global opportunities, including international elective courses with destinations all over the world.
