Shape Your Destiny: An MBA Program for Tomorrow’s Leaders

Achieve your career aspirations with an MBA program that adapts to your needs. Gain a comprehensive understanding of business administration, fostered by faculty with a wealth of knowledge and experience. With a multitude of concentrations and program formats available, you can earn your degree on your terms, choosing from part-time or full-time options to best suit your needs and lifestyle. Ultimately, our MBA students become problem solvers, critical thinkers, and leaders who understand contemporary technology, behave ethically, and thrive in diverse business environments around the globe.

Online MBA Curriculum

La Verne’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) provides a strong foundation in the main areas of business administration, as well as a broad exposure to contemporary management skills. Emphasis is on the development of competencies necessary to manage in a critical, rational, and effective manner within today’s complex global environment.

The program does not require substantial work experience and is not limited to students with undergraduate degrees in business. Applicants with bachelor’s degrees in other fields also are welcome.

The foundation courses are designed to assist students without a previous business education. Specifically designed courses in accounting, economics, finance, management, marketing, and statistics provide students with any needed prerequisite knowledge and tools necessary to study the field of business at the graduate level. If required, these courses should be among the first ones completed in the program. Determination of needed prerequisite knowledge will be based on a review of each student’s unique combination of undergraduate coursework and any relevant work experience.

The core courses develop a solid understanding of the role of the professional manager within organizations and the responsibilities held within the firm and society in our global economy. The program’s concentrations allow students to develop a professional focus or a specialization that is most relevant to their career goals.

Students can select a set of courses or a concentration that addresses each student’s individual career needs. Courses can be selected from any of the scheduled elective graduate business courses (500-level BUS listing, other than foundation courses, or from courses in other disciplines) with the approval of the student’s academic advisor.

Students who possess the prerequisite business knowledge may complete the program with a total of 36 units (or 12 courses). The Career MBA Program consists of:

1. Core courses: 8 courses (24 units)
2. Concentration or focus area: 3 courses (9 units)
3. Graduate Business Seminar: 1 course (3 semester hours)

Review the curriculum for a full picture of the structure and expectations.

The Benefits of La Verne’s Online MBA Program

The online format creates a pathway to acquire this advanced credential around your existing obligations:

• La Verne uses an asynchronous format for all online courses, with most classes taught by esteemed on-ground instructors.
• Rigorous curriculum challenges you to do your best through projects and weekly assignments and opens up opportunities for collaboration via Blackboard with your instructors and classmates.
• If you want to connect with others face-to-face, you have the option to take courses at campuses that offer the program, including the La Verne Campus and Bakersfield, Burbank, Irvine, Ontario, Santa Clarita, and Naval Base Ventura County regional campuses.
• Online students have access to on-campus support services via phone and video conferencing meetings, including financial aid counseling, academic advising, the library, the Career Center, the Academic Success Center, the Sara and Michael Abraham Center for Veteran Student Success, and other programs.

Outcomes

Our program provides a strong foundation in the traditional areas of business administration, the relationships among the various functional business disciplines, and a broad exposure to the contemporary skills of management. Graduates leave the University of La Verne with:

• Working Knowledge of Business Administration. Program graduates will be able to demonstrate a working knowledge of key theories in business functions, including accounting, economics, finance, information technology, management, marketing, and operations.
• Application to Business. Program graduates will be able to successfully and creatively apply their business knowledge and quantitative skills to resolve current real-world business problems and opportunities.
• Professional Communication. Program graduates will be able to successfully produce and deliver persuasive business communications.
• Ethical and Cultural Awareness in Business. Program graduates will develop an awareness of ethical implications and cultural differences in decision-making in a global environment.

Careers with an MBA Degree

Projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicate demand for management jobs will increase 7 percent from 2018 to 2028 across a range of industries. Behind this trend, businesses will require more than 700,000 new higher-level jobs in expanding existing or forming new organizations.

In the business world, a bachelor’s degree gets you through the door, and with experience and certifications, you move up from an entry-level role. Yet, an MBA is often needed to continue this trajectory, and based on research from the BLS, an advanced degree comes with a significant wage premium, particularly in the following sectors:

• financial services and management;
• logistics and distribution;
• market research;
• sales and marketing;
• accounting;
• general operations; and
• human resources.