The Rise of the 4+1 MBA
Credit: Boston Globe / Boston Globe / Getty Images- 4+1 MBA programs allow students to finish their MBA in just a year after their bachelor’s.
- That usually means taking MBA courses during their senior year.
- MBAs have traditionally been marketed to more experienced professionals, but 4+1 MBA programs provide a pathway for students to get their bachelor’s degree and MBA in five years.
- Business schools have been looking to engage younger audiences in recent years, including through master’s in management degrees.
Master of business administration (MBA) programs have traditionally been geared toward students with years of work experience, but that might be changing.
While a growing number of business schools are focusing their online MBA degrees on working professionals looking to pivot to a new career, another contingent of business schools is gearing their degrees toward younger students.
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4+1 MBA programs have been on the rise in recent years, with schools from across the business education landscape debuting their own versions of the programs.
These programs are sometimes aimed at students outside of the traditional scope of business education: The University of South Carolina last year announced a 4+1 MBA pathway for engineering and computing students.
It’s a departure from the norm for MBAs, which have long been geared toward students with several years of work experience. It’s also a departure from the broader trend of business schools marketing their MBA programs toward working professionals with flexible, online options.
But it’s also another example of a separate trend in business education as schools look to new audiences to expand their graduate enrollment.
How 4+1 MBA Programs Work
MBA 4+1 programs are typically broken down into two main components: a four-year bachelor’s degree and an accelerated one-year MBA.
That MBA program is accelerated because students take graduate-level coursework during their senior year. Binghamton University, for instance, allows students to finish their first full year’s worth of MBA coursework during their final year of undergraduate coursework.
Some programs, like Empire State University and the University of Texas Permian Basin, offer fully online 4+1 programs.
Learn more about flexible online business degrees here:
A 4+1 program confers the same MBA as a standalone program, but eliminates any potential work experience requirements that usually serve as a prerequisite for the degree. That means younger students have a direct pathway to the potentially lucrative degree.
Fast-tracked pathways to MBA programs are another fast-growing trend in business education. Major business schools, including the University of Arizona, have announced one-year MBA programs in recent years in response to growing student demand.
Business Schools Look to Younger Students
4+1 programs aren’t the only way business schools are opening their doors to younger students.
Master’s in management (MiM) degrees, which are geared toward young professionals who didn’t major in business during their undergraduate degree, have been on the rise across business education.
The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School is among the latest major business schools to announce an MiM degree.
Carey Associate Professor Haiyang Yang, who was involved with the development of the degree, emphasized that the MiM is for students of all backgrounds in a previous emailed statement.
“We are offering an MiM program because we are able to help young professionals with diverse backgrounds develop the business expertise they need to achieve career success,” Yang said.