Hofstra University’s Frank G. Zarb School of Business Online MBA Program

Hofstra University is a private university located in Hempstead, New York. And while MBA students at some online programs never need to know where their schools really are beyond their virtual urls, students of Frank G. Zarb School of Business online MBA program are invited to gather three times a year. Referred to as residencies, students gather on-campus at the start of the program during orientation period, and at the end of it, for three days leading up to graduation.

“The residencies are currently optional, but we are considering making them mandatory,” Dr. Kaushik Sengupta, director of the online MBA program, says. “Students can also choose to do a global practicum in the middle of the course, between the first and second year.”
Those who choose to join the optional global practicum go on a 12-day cultural immersion trip to several selected countries, where the team visits companies and gets to speak with various business leaders. In previous years, students have visited Brazil, Argentina, Dubai, India, and South Korea.

The two-year online MBA program takes in students once a year in September, and first launched in 2011. To date, they have 113 alums and an acceptance rate of 55%t, and 45 students were enrolled to the program in Fall 2018. In the 2017 academic year, the school received 65 applications, they accepted 44, and 24 students were enrolled, showing clear growth of the program.
Students in the program can choose a concentration in Strategic Business Management, Strategic Healthcare Management, Finance, or Accounting, and the school estimates total tuition and fees for the 2018 – 2019 academic year to be $62,845. This sets Hofstra University among the more expensive programs with a total…

Hofstra University is a private university located in Hempstead, New York. And while MBA students at some online programs never need to know where their schools really are beyond their virtual urls, students of Frank G. Zarb School of Business online MBA program are invited to gather three times a year. Referred to as residencies, students gather on-campus at the start of the program during orientation period, and at the end of it, for three days leading up to graduation.

“The residencies are currently optional, but we are considering making them mandatory,” Dr. Kaushik Sengupta, director of the online MBA program, says. “Students can also choose to do a global practicum in the middle of the course, between the first and second year.”
Those who choose to join the optional global practicum go on a 12-day cultural immersion trip to several selected countries, where the team visits companies and gets to speak with various business leaders. In previous years, students have visited Brazil, Argentina, Dubai, India, and South Korea.

The two-year online MBA program takes in students once a year in September, and first launched in 2011. To date, they have 113 alums and an acceptance rate of 55%t, and 45 students were enrolled to the program in Fall 2018. In the 2017 academic year, the school received 65 applications, they accepted 44, and 24 students were enrolled, showing clear growth of the program.
Students in the program can choose a concentration in Strategic Business Management, Strategic Healthcare Management, Finance, or Accounting, and the school estimates total tuition and fees for the 2018 – 2019 academic year to be $62,845. This sets Hofstra University among the more expensive programs with a total program cost of $125,690.

TEST SCORES NOT REQUIRED, WORK EXPERIENCE IS
The school is one of the few that accepts students into the program without a submission of either GMAT or GRE. However, Dr. Sengupta makes it clear that they are looking for individuals with work experience.

Students in their current student body range in age from 23 to 51, with every single one of their students graduating with their degrees within the two-year time frame. Their success can be in part attributed to the fact that Dr. Sengupta and his team look out for students with at least three years of work experience, he shared that students who joined the school last year had between four and 26 years of work experience.

At the moment, the school has no international students, and students with five or more years of work experience, with a resume clearly showing that they’ve been taking on increasing responsibilities, can have their test score submissions waived. Other than that, Dr. Sengupta says they’re looking at applications to understand why students are interested in the program and where they’re looking to go, in part through admissions interviews which they conduct over the phone.

“Most of our students are mid to senior-level management, who have an average of 12 years experience,” Dr. Sengupta says. “We’ve been strong on the healthcare industry, with many of our students already working as doctors and nurses.”

BEYOND SCHOOL
Once a part of the Hofstra online MBA program, Dr. Sengupta and his team work to ensure the success of students through curriculum design, alumni engagement, and other methods.

Classes are kept small with a maximum of 25 students, and a cohort structure that fosters enhanced networking relationships among students.

The Graduate Business Career Center helps to connect students with industry opportunities to turn dreams into realities. The Center also help students with resume review, mock interviews, one-on-one career coaching appointments, employer information sessions, executive speakers, career development webinars, and corporate site visits.

To top things off, students in the program can also take part in a Career Leadership Assessment that is followed up with individualized executive coaching to facilitate career progression.

To keep the school curriculum relevant, Dr. Sengupta says that several alums sit on the advisory board of the departments, and they are also invited to the orientation sessions to talk to the students about the program.

The school shared that every student in the online MBA program at Hofstra University were employed at graduation, with an average pre-program salary of $117,500 and a post-program salary average of $149,794.

“Our students come to us driven and ambitious, and we help them get to where they want to be,” Dr. Sengupta says.