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

University of Michigan Ross School of Business

Business Analytics Track in Full-Time MBA; Specialization in Management Science

Michigan Ross’ STEM track “represents a significant move within the Full-Time MBA curriculum … allowing students interested in pursuing quantitative management and business analytics roles across many industries to participate in a formal program.” As Scott DeRue, former dean of Michigan Ross, said when the school added the STEM track in 2020: “Business analytics has become essential in helping organizations make strategic business decisions.”

University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management

Management Science MBA

The Carlson School’s Management Science MBA “is a full-time MBA degree that covers traditional management topics across business disciplines while developing students’ capabilities in a specific set of skills, including statistical modeling, analytics, programming, forecasting, and operations research. The Management Science MBA allows students to better understand business organizational performance by developing data-driven decision-making skills grounded in the foundational business topics of the Full-time MBA curriculum.

“Management Science MBA students will complete the existing full-time MBA core curriculum and Enterprise programs alongside traditional full-time MBA students and have access to the same student advising, career coaching, and clubs.”

MIT Sloan School of Management

Entire Full-Time MBA Program; Sloan Fellows MBA; Sloan Executive MBA; Leaders for Global Operations Dual-Degree Program

STEM makes sense at few schools more than MIT, where fully a third — 33% — of Class of 2021 MBA students carried undergraduate engineering degrees, and another 11% have math and science bachelor’s degrees. Nearly 20% have work backgrounds in tech, with another 10% coming from either the energy or industrial sectors. In the LGO program, MIT students can earn an MBA and a master’s degree in engineering in two years. They develop management expertise and technical abilities as joint students in the MIT School of Engineering and the MIT Sloan School of Management. The school partners with elite companies to provide research fellowships and place graduates in high-tech roles. Students finish with a master’s degree in engineering and an MBA.

MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics

Master of Applied Science in Supply Chain Management

MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics offers a Supply Chain Management master’s program in two formats — a 10-month, fully residential option, and a hybrid online + on-campus blended option. All incoming students are initially enrolled for the MASc-SCM degree.

New York University Stern School of Business

Entire Full-Time MBA; 1-Year Andre Koo Technology & Entrepreneurship MBA

“This has clearly become an important issue for international students as they are looking at MBA programs and potential higher-education opportunities,” said JP Eggers, NYU Stern’s vice dean for MBA programs and academic director of the Andre Koo Technology and Entrepreneurship MBA, which like the full-time MBA is STEM-designated. Eggers, speaking in early 2020, noted the rush to STEM among Stern’s peers. “Three or four years ago, nobody was talking about this and now everyone is talking about it. We’ve certainly had a number of students who’ve asked about the designation; many have mentioned that they were specifically happy when the Tech MBA was designated as a STEM program. There’s no good way to run a case control analysis where we could tell what would have happened in terms of interest or applications or whatever if it hadn’t been designated.

“So it’s hard to tell, but to me that is a secondary part of this. It’s really around doing the most we can for our students.”

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School

Entire MBA, Evening MBA, Executive MBA, and MBA@UNC programs

The University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School established a STEM pathway in its full-time MBA back in early 2020, offering students a concentration in business analytics and management science. In February 2021, UNC announced a bigger STEM plunge: All MBA students in all four programs — Full-Time MBA, Evening MBA, Weekend Executive MBA and online MBA@UNC — will henceforth graduate with a STEM-designated degree.

“This change reflects the analytical rigor of our MBA programs, which have long developed business leaders and today — more than ever before — need to be ready to apply their analytics skills to make data-driven strategic decisions,” said Brad Staats, associate dean of MBA programs and professor of operations and faculty director of UNC’s Center for the Business of Health.

University of Northern Iowa College of Business

Master of Accounting

“If you’re looking for a way to enhance your accounting degree, a Master of Accounting degree may be the perfect fit. The UNI MAcc program emphasizes applied accounting research skills, communication skills, problem-solving and other skills and knowledge required to be a successful in the fields of public accounting, business and government. Completion of the UNI MAcc program also satisfies Iowa’s 150-hour requirement for CPA licensure.”

Also STEM at Northern Iowa:

• Business Analytics major

University of North Texas Ryan College of Business

MBA with Business Analytics Concentration

Launched in fall 2019, the MBA with a Business Analytics concentration is designed to provide an extensive base of knowledge of managerial responsibilities. It has an 18-hour core, with 12 hours of required courses and six hours of electives. The program “is designed for students who desire a more general management background than an MS in Business Analytics, which has more of a specialization and focus in the field.” Career opportunities after completion of the MBA program through the Department of Information Technology and decision sciences are “abundant.” An MBA with a concentration in Business Analytics supports growth and development from two perspectives, the school says: “One, if you have an established career path, the concentration provides you the opportunity to gain the broader, more general perspective necessary for promotion to leading managerial positions. Two, if you are preparing for the business world, the combination of an undergraduate degree with an MBA concentration in Business Analytics provides an excellent foundation for additional career opportunities.”

Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management

Entire Full-Time MBA (1Y & 2Y); Evening & Weekend MBA; MMM; MBAi

In 2019, Kellogg established a STEM Management Science major that focuses on “the application of analytical techniques, tools, and models across the school’s academic disciplines,” according to the major’s webpage. The newest addition to the Kellogg MBA curriculum will explore a variety of topics, including how to use big data efficiently to understand capital markets and how to apply analytical techniques to solve business problems. “Students,” the webpage reads, “will deepen expertise across disciplines by learning techniques that can be applied to the analysis of problems of business organization and performance.”

Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business

5 Majors In Full-Time MBA: Business Analytics, Corporate Finance, Digital Marketing & Marketing Analytics, Investments, and Supply Chain & Operations Management

Of nine available majors in the Mendoza full-time MBA, five are STEM-designated.

Ohio State Fisher College of Business

Entire MBA Program

Even before certifying its full-time MBA as a STEM program, the Fisher College was like the vast majority of smaller U.S. B-schools in offering some pathway to a STEM degree, with Master of Accounting and Specialized Master in Finance degrees carrying the designation. Ohio State Fisher Dean Anil Makhija sees the move to STEM as simply the latest evolution in business education. It is a step forward for small and large programs alike, not a final destination.

“We see this as part of the disruption that is taking place in graduate education,” Makhija told P&Q. “And this means that the programs that we are offering already have to be retaught often and improved. And so this is part of that continuous improvement process. The full-time MBA program has been going through a very detailed redesign process and beyond toward, shall I say, the very advanced stages of redesign. It’s a perspective that we are taking, as a college, in all our programs.

“This is the transformation that is taking place in business — what I would call digital transformation. There is much more opportunity now to use quantitative skills to address business problems. So this fits in the bigger picture and fits in perfectly for this program.”