Frequently Asked Questions

An MBA gives a candidate the opportunity to grow in their chosen field.  This degree doesn’t prepare a student for a specific job.  It expands your professional possibilities in any field or industry.  With an MBA a student can take the passion they had for the subject they studied in their undergraduate degree and turn it into a career.  PLU MBA’s are leaders in their chosen field, innovators and can expect higher salaries than those without a Masters degree.  Candidates also join a larger community of MBA professionals who are always willing to support students just starting out in their professional career.

The Business Administration and Management Science and Quantitative Methods (MSQM) tracks of the MBA include the same core courses and both focus on strategy and innovation.  The MSQM track adds the opportunity to add a focus in analytics.

The Management Science and Quantitative Methods track of the MBA is STEM designated.

There are no prerequisite courses required to be successful in the MBA.  The subject knowledge students need will be covered in each class.  For example, in BMBA 511 “Accounting for Decision Making”, students will start the term learning about the fundamentals of financial accounting before moving on to strategy and decision making. Those students who have an undergraduate degree in Business might experience those fundamentals as a bit of a needed review before moving to new material while those without prior Business courses would be experiencing new material from the first day of class.  Our goal is student success and providing them everything they need to succeed.

Experiential diversity is an important part of our classroom environment.  Whether an applicant has five years, ten years or no formal work experience at all we appreciate the value of every perspective. We welcome all applicants regardless of prior experience.

Yes!  We have many students who are working full-time while completing their degree.  We recommend that those students complete their degree over the course of two years.  That would require them to complete two classes per term which brings them to campus just two evenings per week.  This timeline also allows them to really concentrate on the classes they’re taking and get the most out of the MBA experience.

One of the best parts of the MBA at PLU is flexibility.  We want to make sure our students can work their degree into their already busy lives.  Students can complete their degree in as little as nine months or slow things down a little and complete in 16, 21, or even 48 months.  The majority of our students complete their degree in one or two years.

No, the MBA does not require a thesis.  Each class within the program will require discipline specific final projects and papers.

No, students are working through their MBA at different speeds.  As a result each class will be made up of students who are in different parts of their MBA journey.  One of the best parts about the MBA is the opportunity to interact and work with a wide variety of colleagues with different academic and professional backgrounds.

All but two MBA classes are held strictly on-campus in the classroom.  The only exceptions are BMBA 504 and 526 in the Management Science & Quantitative Methods track which are held online and predominantly asynchronous.

The international experience is part of BMBA 509 “Global Business Perspectives ”. The destinations for these faculty-led experiences change from one year to another.  The announcement of the destination of upcoming programs will take place in March of the previous year.