MBA Specializations

Students may specialize their MBA studies by aligning 12 of their 15 elective credits with a specialization area.  Specializations are available in finance, marketing, health systems leadership, international business and economics and are described further below. 

Finance Specialization

This specialization is an excellent path for professionals who want to grow within or transition into the finance sector or a finance-focused role.  Students in the MBA and Online MBA may specialize in Finance.  Graduate-level courses with the FINA subject code are eligible.  Finance offerings regularly include but are not limited to:

FINA 6200 Advanced Financial Management
FINA 6081 Investment Banking
FINA 6111 Investments
FINA 6140 International Financial Management
FINA 6165 Fixed Income Markets and Securities
FINA 6175 Fintech: Foundations and Applications

Health Systems Leadership

The Health Systems Leadership Specialization provides a unique curriculum combining health care and business courses to prepare students for leadership, administrative, and executive roles across complex health systems.  The Health Systems Leadership specialization may be fulfilled by completing 12 credits from the course options below.  Students in the MBA and Online MBA may specialize in Health Systems Leadership.

HEAL 6009, Health Care Systems: Managing Populations and Access
HEAL 6007, Ethics, Policy, and Health Care Advocacy
HEAL 6835, Health Care Informatics, Technology and Professional Issues
HEAL 6830, Quality Improvement Science in Health Care
HEAL 6837, Workforce Solutions: Culture, People and Processes

International Business Specialization

The International Business specialization integrates the MBA Strategic Management Introduction course (MBA 6110) and therefore may be completed through 9 MBA elective credits.  International students may substitute the travel abroad requirement for an advisor-approved course.  Courses include:

MBA 6110, Strategic Management Introduction
INBU 5951/6951 OR GSM Travel Abroad Experience
6 credits from:
FINA 6140, International Financial Management
MARK 6140, Global Marketing Strategy
One Political Science graduate course may be substituted (as approved by the GSM).

Marketing Specialization

The difference between firms that succeed and those that don't is often found in how effectively they market themselves.  The Marketing specialization enables students to pursue diverse areas of learning and skill development within the marketing discipline.  Graduate-level courses with the MARK subject code are eligible.  Marketing offerings regularly include but are not limited to:

MARK 6110 Consumer Behavior
MARK 6140 Global Marketing Strategy
MARK 6160 Marketing Research
MARK 6165 Marketing Analytics
MARK 6136 Sales Management
MARK 6200 Marketing for Management Decision Making

Economics Specialization

Students with prior learning in intermediate macroeconomics and intermediate microeconomics are well-prepared to pursue this quantitative specialization.  Specialization courses include:

ECON 6560, Applied Econometrics
ECON 6561, Applied Time-Series Econometrics and Forecasting
3 skills courses: ECON 6114, R Programming; ECON 6116, SQL and ECON 6118, Python Programming
3 credits of graduate ECON elective chosen with the direction of the MSAE Program Director.

Sport Business

The Sport Business specialization is available to students pursuing the JD/MBA.

MBA 6110, Strategic Management Introduction
LAW 7106, Amateur Sports Law
LAW 7303, Professional Sports Law
LAW 7955, Workshop: Adv. Legal Research
And a sports law workshop, i.e. LAW 7842, LAW 7786, LAW 7821

Course descriptions can be found in the Graduate Bulletin.