Mississippi State University’s College of Business celebrated the 60th anniversary of its Master of Business Administration program last week.
MBAs were not common six decades ago, according to Angelia Knight, the director of MSU’s MBA program, and said the anniversary is significant.
“MBA programs were not as prevalent in the late 50s and early 60s,” Knight said. “Mississippi State had a vision that that kind of business knowledge would be needed by engineers and forestry majors.”
Even though the focus of this program was to allow engineers and forestry majors to obtain leadership positions, only business majors could be admitted into the program initially.
Since the program started, there has not been many changes. Besides updating to the modern world, the only major changes have been entry requirements and program availability.
Before 2014, students could begin working on an MBA in January, June, or August. Since there was a high demand for undergraduate professors, the program went to a single starting date each year to allow more faculty to teach lower-level courses.
The festivities for the anniversary week started with information tables on Monday and Wednesday. The focus was to inform the public and recruit future students.
Last Tuesday, Meet an MBA Night occurred in the McCool building, and was a trivia night of MBA knowledge. Thursday was Faculty Appreciation Day, where each faculty member received a gift for their hard work in the program. On Friday, there was an open house for prospective students. On Saturday, the program hosted a Homecoming Breakfast. MBA students, faculty and alumni were invited to enjoy bacon and eggs while reconnecting and mingling.
MSU’s MBA is a one-year, intensive program. This degree is a hands-on program, rather than a theoretical one.
All majors and bachelor’s degrees are accepted into the program. Knight explained one of the advantages of this program is it “gives the opportunity for students who are in majors other than business to get really good foundations in business knowledge.”
Each applicant is required to submit an application with a resume, statement of purpose, three recommendations and GMAT or GRE scores. A 3.0 GPA is preferred for the program. Applicants must also attend a panel interview with a non-Power Point presentation.
Once admitted into the program, students must attend Springboard Week. This is a week full of seminars on conflict resolution, career management, etiquette, personal branding and more. While there, students must give two presentations: one group and one individual presentation.
There are many skills students can get out of the program, according to Graduate Assistant Zachary Boyles. Boyles said he has learned “how to ask questions and give value to a company.”
The classes are small, with less than 30 students per graduating class. These students will have every class together and will be assigned specific groups to work with. There is a 97 percent employment rate for students who go through this program.
In addition to the MBA program’s 60th anniversary, the department also celebrates 20 years for its online program.