The online MBA at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business is centered around customizability.
“At Kelley, we begin by appreciating that every student in our online MBA program is unique, so we offer a curriculum that is highly customizable to meet their needs, while also providing them with the core knowledge and expertise each of them needs to be successful,” Ramesh Venkataraman, Associate Dean for Information and Instructional Technologies and Chair of Kelley Direct MBA & MS Programs, says.
Online Curriculum With In-Person Opportunities
The Kelley OMBA core and elective coursework can be completed fully online. Typically, students take two years to complete the program.
The three terms of integrated core courses are spread out over the two-year timeframe.
“Business fundamentals and elective courses are completed throughout the two years, and students may choose to participate in an immersion course whenever it best fits their schedule,” Venkataraman says. “The beauty of our program is that electives and immersions are offered throughout the year and align with the schedules of working professionals.”
The Kelley learning experience is bolstered by two Kelley Connect Weeks, one in the first year and one in the second year.
The first-year Kelley Connect Week is an intensive seven-day, in-person experience where students work in a team to develop a solution to a business challenge facing a real company.
The second-year Kelley Connect Week is also a case competition, this time with a global business focus. There is also ample opportunity for networking and career development – students round out their experience and touch base with career coaches to ensure they’re on the right track to reach their professional goals.
“Kelley Connect Week gives students the opportunity to gain confidence by solving the case with their team, comfort with their peers and faculty at the Kelley School, and control over their career by participating in group sessions and one-on-one coaching with Graduate Career Services,” Venkataraman says.
Customization Options
Customization is key to the Kelley OMBA. “We are committed to allowing each student to personalize their MBA degree, with 50% elective courses, including the opportunity to take advantage of global and domestic hands-on immersion courses,” Venkataraman says.
In addition to building critical analytical and strategic thinking capabilities, students can choose to develop a deep specialization within one of seven offered majors, including business analytics, digital technology management, entrepreneurship and corporate innovation, finance, marketing, strategy and leadership, and supply chain and operations.
Experiential Opportunities
Kelley offers its OMBAs a number of experiential learning opportunities.
Students can choose to participate in a domestic or global immersion course (once it is deemed safe to travel again by authorities) as part of the Global, Experiential, and Professional Course requirement.
Domestic immersion courses focus on specific career paths, such as advertising, business analytics, or consulting, and include online content and residencies. Through the residency-component, (in a typical year) students visit US cities that are aligned with their chosen career path and provide consulting services to a company, presenting their findings and recommendations to management virtually and on-site. Some cities include New York City for advertising and Silicon Valley for STEM-focused entrepreneurship.
The global immersion courses offer students the training to apply consulting frameworks required to solve high-level, multi-faceted business problems. Through global immersions, students present strategic recommendations with actionable steps to improve real businesses while leveraging the local community. Global immersion destinations have included Vietnam, Greece, and South Africa and these courses will resume once authorities deem it safe to travel once more.
Career Opportunities
According to Venkataraman, about half of Kelley’s students say they want to change jobs either during or after their MBA.
Kelley officials work closely with business students to help them achieve their professional goals.
“We spend a great deal of time thinking about how to best provide career and professional development to our online MBA students,” Venkataraman says. “Our Graduate Career Services team has accumulated a lot of specialized knowledge about our online students, their employment situations, and their professional goals.”
Companies like Bain, Amazon, FedEx, Toyota, and American Express are some key companies hiring Kelley Direct MBAs.
With a network of 120,000 alumni, Kelley OMBAs are part of the Kelley family from start to finish.
“Our students become part of our culture of collaboration and appreciate that they are part of a school that is committed to their success, long after getting their degree,” Venkataraman says.