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Graduate MBA-MSE

MBA/MSE PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Please complete an application through the Katz School of Business.

As detailed below, the joint program requires students to take:

  • 39 of 48 required credits for an MBA degree – These include: a) the required MBA core of 27 credits; b) 3 credits for the MBA professional and technical development program which is required of all students; c) 7.5 credits of electives; and d) 1.5 credits for the interdisciplinary project course.
  • An additional 9 credits from the student’s MS in Engineering program will be carefully chosen by the student’s MBA and MS advisers to complement his/her educational and professional objectives and will count towards completion of the MBA degree.
  • 25.5 credits of graduate-level coursework in Engineering. An MS Engineering professional degree, taken independently, requires 30 credits. In this instance, 3 credits taken at KGSB as part of the MBA degree and 1.5 credits of the Integrated Project course would be counted towards the MS Engineering degree, to meet the 30-credit requirement. Details are discussed in Section (4) below.
  • The required coursework may include an industry project carried out under the joint supervision of Business and Engineering faculty that enables the student to apply the skills learned in the classroom to a real-life situation. For full-time students, the project will, as far as possible, take the form of a summer internship with a company (in the summer after completion of the first year in the program). This project will be worth three credits, 1.5 each toward the MBA and MS Engineering degree requirements.
  • This dual degree program is consistent with the University’s regulations governing graduate programs under the section, “Two Independent Degree Programs Simultaneously,” in the graduate studies bulletin, which permits a transfer of up to one third of the total number of credits toward a professional Master's program from another Master's degree program (i.e., in this case 9 out of 48 credits are transferred from Engineering courses to the MBA degree and at least 3 out of the 30 credits for the MS Engineering professional degree are transferred from completed MBA courses. More details of the credits transferred are provided in Section (4) below. In certain cases, an additional three credits of MBA coursework may be transferred.

The full-time option can be completed in two academic years, whereas the part time option may typically require a period of four to five years.

The course requirements in the Katz Graduate School of Business and the various Swanson School of Engineering academic departments include both core courses and electives. The core courses in the Katz Graduate School of Business cover such areas as Accounting, Finance, Managerial Economics, Marketing, Human Resource Management, Business Statistics, Information Systems, Decision Technology, and Corporate Strategy. A rich variety of Business and Engineering electives are available to suit individual needs. The detailed curriculum for the full time program is shown below.

Curriculum and Proforma Schedule:

Full Time Program

Courses in Business:

39 credits minimum (Core 27; Technical Workshops 3; Project 1.5*; Electives 7.5)

Courses in Engineering:

25.5 credits minimum (Core; Project 1.5*; Electives)

Total: 64.5 credits (minimum)

[*The project course earns a total of 3 credits, 1.5 each in Business and Engineering.]

The following table shows a sample course schedule over the duration of the program for the full-time option (subject to change depending on the actual schedule of course offerings at KGSB and the Swanson School of Engineering Department of interest). This represents the minimum number of credits that the student may take; students can elect to take an additional 7.5 credits of electives at either School up to a total of 72 credits for the program:

Term Business Core/Required Engineering Core/Required Katz Crs. Engr. Crs. Term Credits
August (before Fall term) 2-week transition module        
Fall 1 Statistics 1 3 Accounting 3 Finance or Marketing 2 3 Engineering Core 1 Engineering Core 2 9 6 15
Spring 1 Information Systems 3 Decision Technologies 1.5 Marketing or Finance 2 3 Elective 3 Engineering Core 3 Engineering Core 4 10.5 6 16.5
Fall 2 or Spring 2 Integrated Project (1.5 credits each in Business and Engineering) 3 1.5* 1.5 3
Fall 2 Economics 3 Organizational Behav. 3 Electives 3 Engineering Elective 1 Engineering Elective 2 4 9 6 15
Spring 2 Strategic Management 3 Elective 1.5 Distributed req. 5 1.5 Technical Workshops 3 Engineering Elective 4 4 Engineering Elective 5 4 9 6 15
Total     39 25.5 64.5

Notes:

  1. Statistics and an Integrated Project will be counted towards the 30 credit Engineering degree requirement.
  2. Students must take both Finance and Marketing during the first two terms in the order of their preference.
  3. Students will complete the Integrated Project during either the second Fall or Spring term.
  4. Three Engineering electives will be counted towards the 48 credit MBA requirement.
  5. Student can choose one of Managerial Accounting, 1.5 credits; Human Resources, 1.5 credits; or Global Macroeconomics 1.5 credits.

Part Time Program

The current part-time MBA program requires a minimum of 52.5 credits, of which 34.5 are in the core courses. The credit requirements in the part-time MBA/MS programs will be as follows:

Courses in Business:

43.5 credits minimum (Core 34.5; Project 1.5*; Electives 7.5)

Listed under Engineering:

25.5 credits minimum (Core; Project 1.5*; Electives)

Total: 69 credits (minimum)

Note that a total of nine credits of Engineering MS courses will be used to satisfy the MBA requirements; a total of 4.5 credits of KGSB courses will be used to satisfy the MS requirements.

ADMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS

Students will meet the admissions criteria of both MBA and MS Engineering programs. The only change from the current criteria is that the Swanson School of Engineering departments will accept GMAT scores in lieu of GRE scores as long as applicants have undergraduate degrees in Engineering or the ‘hard’ sciences, including mathematics and statistics.

Applications to the joint degree program from students already registered in either the MBA or the MS Engineering program will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

The quality of students admitted to the program will be commensurate with the strategic objective of both KGSB and Swanson School of Engineering to enhance the quality of the student bodies in their MBA and MS programs respectively. That is, the quality of students admitted to this program should be better than the average for the MBA and MS Engineering programs.

Students accepted into the program will be expected to complete both degrees concurrently and pay the full fee. Courses will be scheduled in such a manner as to preclude students from receiving one degree before the other.

This program is only for those students seeking a professional MS Engineering degree. Students interested in the research MS Engineering degree track will not be admitted. Further, because of the high credit demands, students in the program will not be able to hold either research or teaching assistant positions.

Model MS Programs – School of Engineering/Electrical*

Department Fall - 1 Spring - 1 Fall - 2 Spring - 2
Electrical Statistics (KGSB)
EE Elective 1
EE Elective 2

EE Elective 3
EE Elective 4

EE Elective 5
EE Elective 6 		EE Elective 7
EE Elective 8

* Plus 3 credit Integrated Project course

Application: http://www.katz.pitt.edu/mba_admissions.html (select dual degree program)

GMAT: http://www.mba.com

Contact:

Clifford McCormick

Sandy Weisberg

Scholarships from $3000 through full tuition are available.

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