All The STEM Programs At Major U.S. Business Schools

University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business

MBA/Master of Science in Business Analytics Dual Degree

The first year in the Notre Dame Mendoza dual-degree program focuses primarily on MBA core courses, including an introduction to business analytics in the spring, to provide a foundation for students’ internship experience. In the second year, they complete MSBA and MBA required courses such as Data Storytelling, Machine Learning and Spreadsheet Decision Modeling, and select from a wide range of elective offerings to suit their career objectives. Each of four semesters consists of two seven-week modules, separated by a one-week inter-term intensively focused on developing and applying analytics skills. In four semesters, with 68 credits, students earn two degrees “and discover everything you’ve ever wanted to know about business and analytics.”

Iowa State University Ivy College of Business

MBA in Business Analytics, Information Systems, or Finance

The Ivy College offers a STEM MBA in Business Analytics, Information Systems, and Finance. The school’s full-time MBA is built around 10 core courses (30 credits) and six electives (18 credits), with core courses offered on the school’s Ames, Iowa campus in the Gerdin Business Building, home of the Ivy College of Business. Electives are offered in Ames, Des Moines, and online. Students may customize their MBA experience with optional specializations and international study tours, and they have access to “comprehensive and personalized academic and career services” and “faculty engaged in leading-edge research” who are “committed to teaching excellence.” Ivy has been especially successful of late in appealing to women graduate hopefuls.

Purdue University Krannert School of Management

MBA in Business Analytics and Information Management, Finance, Global Supply Chain Management, or Marketing

Purdue’s Krannert School launch a STEM-designated MBA degree option last fall, with four options for specializations: business analytics and information management, finance, global supply chain management, or marketing. The 60-credit-hour, four-semester STEM-designated MBA is based on statistics, computer applications, and data analysis, along with core business classes. “We believe this new degree option will be a perfect fit at Purdue, which is renowned for its excellence in STEM-related fields,” Greg Beaver, executive director of Krannert’s MBA, Master of Science and doctorate programs, said in 2019. “The four concentration areas give students the chance to personalize their degree by taking courses that are aligned with their career aspirations. They also will be able to gain valuable practical experience through collaborative opportunities with the Purdue Foundry, Discovery Park, and other campus incubators and innovation centers.”

University of Virginia Darden School of Business

MBA Specialization in Management Science 

The Virginia Darden management science specialization “will build on the required Darden core curriculum, offering students the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of quantitative and analytical skills and capabilities.” Students must complete 12 credit hours of selected courses with a quantitative and analytical focus. Courses are available in a range of academic areas, including Accounting, Economics, Finance, Quantitative Analysis, and Technology and Operations. Forty elective courses currently taught at the school will satisfy the requirement.

University of Alabama Manderson Graduate School of Business

The STEM Path to the MBA

Launched in Fall 2011, the STEM Path to the MBA allows high-achieving undergraduate students majoring in STEM disciplines to complete coursework to earn an MBA from the Manderson School in only one calendar year beyond the completion of an undergraduate degree. When the program launched — five years ahead of Wisconsin — Alabama Manderson was ranked 78th by U.S. News. “We began graduating students in 2016 (we’re a five-year program) and this year we moved up to 41st in the U.S. News rankings,” Robert Morgan, program director, tells Poets&Quants. “We recruit incoming freshmen who hold at least a 28 ACT (our average is 32.1) and 3.5 high school GPA (our average is 4.17), who are intending to major in a STEM discipline. STEM for us includes engineering, computer science, math, life sciences, physical sciences, and all of the healthcare professions. Students, beginning in the fall of their freshman year, take a 1.5-credit-hour STEM Business Honors course each semester that they are undergrads, where we introduce them to the various business disciplines and do lots of small group innovation projects and presentations. They typically formally apply to the MBA in the fall of their junior year, take their first MBA courses during the summer between their junior and senior years, and then do the bulk of their MBA studies during the 12 months after graduating undergrad.”

Case Western University Weatherhead School of Management

MBA STEM Track

One of the newest STEM MBA options is Case Western’s offering, announced in September 2019. It promises graduates they will “benefit from Weatherhead’s comprehensive MBA approach while developing specific knowledge essential for a career in leadership.” The STEM MBA was designed with “a strong management core and STEM MBA electives offered in Corporate Finance, Business Analytics and Operations. Courses include Quantitative Risk Modeling, Advanced Marketing Analytics, Six Sigma and Quality Management Predictive Modeling and Artificial Intelligence.” Case Western’s STEM MBA is just the latest STEM business program offered at the Cleveland, Ohio school; earlier this year it added a STEM track in Accounting to go with already established tracks in Business Analytics, Finance, and Operations Research & Supply Chain degree programs.

College of William & Mary Raymond A. Mason School of Business

MBA/MSBA Dual Degree

This course of study allows students to merge the business acumen and leadership from the MBA curriculum with the highly technical skills from the MSBA to solve complex problems in today’s workplace. Candidates must apply to the MBA and MSBA programs separately to pursue the dual degree.

University of Tennessee-Knoxville Haslam College of Business

MS-Business Analytics (MSBA); Dual MBA/MSBA; Dual MBA/MS Engineering

The curriculum at the MS in Business Analytics at the Haslam College “emphasizes small cohorts, career coaching, and team building to reflect real-world business dynamics,” according to the school. Students learn to use advanced analytical techniques, develop skills in R, SQL, and Python, and maximize learning through professional case studies and presentations. The 62-credit MBA/MSBA “brings the full power of mathematical, statistical, and computer-based models to the world of business, developing graduates who can successfully bridge the sizable gap that currently exists between the practical aspects of business and the analytical capabilities enabled by information systems,” the school says. “The analytic skills taught encompass four overlapping areas: business intelligence, data mining, process optimization and applied statistics.” In the 60-credit, MBA/MS Engineering, grads learn “to take a leading management role in companies that must react quickly to a dynamic market where forces of competition require rapid changes via short cycles in design, manufacturing and product development.”