3 Differentiators of the Executive MBA

If there’s one thing that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us, it’s that people are placing higher value on more flexible and hybrid models of learning and working.

In the MBA world, the EMBA degree offers a flexible, part-time model of business education for seasoned business leaders and managers.

Bill Kooser, Director of Fortuna Admissions and former Associate Dean of the University of Chicago’s Booth School, recently discussed key differences between the traditional MBA degree and the EMBA.

PART-TIME LEARNING

One of the key benefits of the EMBA is the part-time format that it provides.

“It is organized so that students – already mid-career, seasoned professionals – can continue to work while they pursue the degree,” Kooser writes. “In most cases, classes are taught on weekends – either Friday and Saturday or, in some cases, Saturday and Sunday.”

Often, EMBA programs are customizable to fit the working lives of business professionals.

“These are programs that are designed so that working professionals can fit them into their lives, so you’re not going to go on campus during the day four or five days a week,” Michael Desiderio, executive director of the Executive MBA Council, tells US News. “There’s a myriad of formats: everything from meeting monthly for three immersive days to meeting biweekly for one or two days.”

AVERAGE AGE: 38

EMBA students tend to be older when compared to traditional MBA students. This is due to the fact that the EMBA is designed for those in management or leadership positions.

“Executive MBA programs typically have an average age of 38, with some 14 years of working life behind them,” Kooser writes. “The greater experience of the students provides a richness and a diversity of experience that can’t be matched in a traditional program. Students often learn as much from one another as they do from the faculty.”

DIRECT WORKPLACE APPLICATIONS

Since EMBA students are often working as well, they are able to apply their learnings from an EMBA directly into the workplace

“Because you are going back and forth between classroom and workplace during the course of your EMBA, you get to apply those new skills and tools immediately,” Kooser writes. “So by Monday you can put into place something you learned the Saturday before in class. It’s immensely gratifying to practice what you’re learning in real time.”

Sources: Fortuna Admissions, US News