The Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky offers both a part-time Professional Evening MBA designed for the needs of local professionals and a full-time One Year Accelerated MBA. Many students in our survey identified the accelerated pace of the full-time program as a major attraction. It’s “a quick program that offers a more intense learning experience along with the opportunity to work with executives at some of the largest world corporations” through “Project Connect, a partnership between the university and industry to provide practical education via projects” with regional businesses.
Students in both programs appreciate that Gatton “is recognized [as] the best graduate business school in the state,” which “is very helpful in getting a job.” “Good professors” and the “relatively low” tuition is also appealing, of course. The Gatton curriculum “is broken into modules such as new product development, mergers and acquisitions, supply chain management, and financial analysis,” and “all tools and skills (finance, accounting, ops) are taught around the basis of these modules.” The program “stays on top of the latest trends and technologies in business,” another plus. This “very structured” program requires “a lot of group work.” “The whole program is team-based, which is going to be helpful in the future,” one student writes.
The Professional Evening MBA emphasizes a foundation in economics, finance, marketing, management, accounting, and information systems. Cross-functional teams of five are created and work with companies on projects in each of the three areas of emphasis. This is complemented by professors who are generally “very good and have a fairly structured teaching style” and blend “theory and real-world experience.” In recent years the school “has added many faculty with real-world experience and shaped the program and skill sets you learn around executives’ requests for incoming employees. It is amazing how tailored this program is to real work experience.” Part-timers appreciate how “the professors understand that their students are also working professionals and have other lives besides the classroom.” As a result, “the course load has not been unbearable, but it keeps you busy.”