With a satellite campus in Center City, Philadelphia, the Villanova School of Business (VSB) at Villanova University specializes in part-time programs for working professionals, allowing them to enjoy the benefits of a full-time curriculum without leaving their job. In this vein, the school offers an accelerated, two-year, part-time Fast Track degree option, for which students meet twice a week, as well as the more customizable Flex Track degree option, which typically takes three years to complete and accommodates varying course loads.
One advantage of the accelerated option is the opportunity to partake in the school’s three-part capstone project, which includes the “Social Enterprise Consulting Practicum,” “Global Practicum,” and “Global Strategic Management” courses—each lasting 14 weeks. In the “Social Enterprise Consulting Practicum,” students work with local nonprofit organizations to identify strategies in such areas as branding, funding, and membership retention. Alternatively, the latter two courses entail working with a multinational corporation to gain firsthand experience analyzing market issues. VSB also hosts a variety of elective international immersion courses, through which students may travel abroad over winter break or during the summer.
Another option for professionals is Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management, whose two executive MBA programs focus on helping professionals gain their advanced business degrees while maintaining a career. Students can select the traditional executive MBA program, which features five residencies at Krannert and one abroad, or the IMM Global Executive MBA program, during which students are divided into cohorts and take part in residencies in each of the five IMM partner schools (including Krannert). Locations for the residencies include Brazil, the Netherlands, and Italy. Both of these executive MBA programs take place over the course of 19 months and include online learning modules in addition to in-person studies.
