How WashU Olin Built A Truly Individualized MBA

In St. Louis, Missouri, Washington University’s Olin Business School has reshaped its MBA program around a simple idea – students should have the freedom to design their education in a way that fits them, and who they want to become.

Across the school, faculty leaders have helped build this model through a revamped curriculum design, many opportunities for experiential learning, and lots of industry engagement.

BUILDING FLEXIBILITY ON TOP OF FUNDAMENTALS

The evolution of Olin’s MBA curriculum has been years in the making, shaped by a combination of student feedback and a shifting business landscape.

With over his 15 years as a faculty member, Bank of America Professor Andrew Knight has seen firsthand these changes. Back when he served as Vice Dean for Programs in 2022, the school began rethinking how much room students had to tailor their degree and has been making steady changes since.

“There were a few things that fed into this,” Knight says. Students felt constrained by a long, required global immersion and limited elective space. Many were even petitioning to take more credits than required. “This is one of the priorities we had — revising their MBA curriculum,” Knight explains.

Now, the weight of core courses to electives has shifted, and MBAs can now take many more electives alongside a more condensed set of core required courses.

The introduction of new specializations became the centerpiece of the school’s overhaul. “This is what students across levels are really hungry for: the ability to customize and personalize their experiences,” says Knight.

Some of Olin’s specializations, like The Business of Health, are industry‑specific, while others are function‑based. Students can even stack multiple specializations and dive deep into multiple areas.

THE ENGINE BEHIND OLIN’S EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

A major part of what makes Olin’s individualized MBA so dynamic is the way students get to test their interests in the real world.

Knight says that a huge part of the MBA experience at Olin is experiential learning opportunities.

That’s where the Center for Experiential Learning (CEL) comes in, and Michael Wall, Professor of Practice in Marketing & Entrepreneurship and Academic Director of Experiential Learning and Curricular Advancement, knows this center through and through.

Wall has been involved in more than 200 projects since joining Olin in 2017, and he says the CEL is always buzzing with students and energy.

Wall describes the CEL as the engine that makes all of the unique experiential aspects of the program run efficiently.

“Students arrive with different levels of clarity,” he says. “Some know exactly what they want to focus on, some pivot, and some completely change direction. This center really helps students at those inflection points.”

Through the center, Olin MBAs get the chance to experience a day in the life of those that work in the positions they are interested in. “It’s a great learning experience, because the real world doesn’t always operate with the same structure or clarity that you find in a classroom,” says Wall.

One of the CEL’s biggest innovations is its ability to support even the most niche interests.

Historically, a topic like real estate required 20+ students to justify a course. Now, Wall says, the school can run an experiential course with just a few students – or even just one.

“That is the most exciting innovation. We now have a construct within the CEL to serve even a single individual student, while still maintaining academic rigor.”

The secret for success is having a deeply engaged alumni network and industry network.

EXPANDING PATHWAYS IN PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

Another layer of Olin’s personalized MBA experience comes through the school’s work in private enterprise – an area guided by Koch Family Professor of Practice in Family Enterprise and Center Director, Peter Boumgarden.

“The Koch Center was set up in 2016,” Boumgarden shares. “It was opened with the realization that we know very little about closely held firms or family firms.” Considering that 60–70% of U.S. GDP comes from these businesses, he says, the opportunity for student engagement was enormous.

Back in 2021, the center expanded its focus to include employee ownership, founder‑led firms, family offices, and philanthropy. “We moved from a family businesses center to a family enterprise center, which for us means philanthropy investment in business.”

With many Olin students interested in private equity or buying and growing small businesses, the Koch Center has developed fellowship opportunities, courses, and community partnerships to support those paths.

One of the center’s signature innovations is its fellowship program, which brings together students with different goals. Their fellows are future family‑business owners, aspiring acquirers, as well as those interested in investment funds. Fellows are introduced to mentors who have been in similar places in the past, offering these students their personal insights and guidance.

Boumgarden says that at the Koch Center, they encourage their students to broaden their definition of success.

“We think that though there are great things about venture capital and private equity, there’s other ways to think about success in the world of businesses,” he explains. “At the Koch Center, we believe that there are many ways in which a business can be a source of financial good and social good.”

DON’T MISS MEET WASHINGTON OLIN’S MBA CLASS OF 2026

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