MBA Curriculum
Our MBA program is designed to be both flexible and accommodating for students with or without an existing business degree.
Completing the MBA Online
All MBA courses are available online at the University's in-state tuition rate, regardless of student location. For more information on completing the MBA through online courses, contact the Director of Graduate Studies at cobgrad@isu.edu.
Core I - 18 credits
The Core I courses of the program are designed to build a foundational understanding of business concepts in economics, accounting, management, marketing and finance. These courses are offered exclusively online and may be waived for students who have already completed the equivalent courses in their undergraduate studies.
Gain an understanding of the applied principles and techniques for analyzing micro and macroeconomics.
Students will study the major accounting concepts pertaining to the understanding of financial reports and how to use this information in managerial decision-making.
This course builds on the understanding and best practices in decision-making and problem solving as well as interpersonal relationships, communication and negotiation.
Analyze what forces produce change in business conditions and how to make market-driven decisions based on the analysis of those forces. Learn how to make marketing management decisions and build a marketing strategy.
Study the techniques and decision-making process behind operations and production planning, professional analysis, project planning and control, and quality control.
Study ways of allocating scarce resources and management finances both domestically and internationally.
Descriptive statistics, probability, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing including one and two sample z/t-tests, chi-square and ANOVA. Emphasis on statistical software to analyze data for business decision making.
Core II - 21 credits
Intro to Business Analytics
Survey course that includes topics from major areas of business use of data analytics: modeling, predictive analytics, and data mining. The course will also include discussion of data warehousing and data cleaning. Using software, students will be expected to do case work with data providing an executive summary with supporting statistical analyses for business decision making.
Quantitative Information for Business Decisions
Use financial and non-financial information to support business analysis and decision-making.
Managerial Decision Making and Negotiation
Develop the skills required to taking a systematic approach at decision-making and negotiation. These topics include full-cycle decision-making and implementation, collective deal making, and dispute resolution in dyads and with multiple parties.
Financial Management
Learn how to analyze a firm’s business decisions based on the financial aspects of these decisions. Topics emphasized include advanced capital budgeting, working capital management, modern portfolio theory, the cost of capital, and international corporate finance.
Marketing Management
Course focus is on the critical skills marketers need to successfully manage the marketing function in a customer-driven firm.
Business Policy and Strategy
Gain understanding in the strategic management of a firm, with emphasis on strategic direction, governance, external and internal analysis, strategy formulation, and implementation. Includes coverage of strategy and ethics and strategy in a global environment.
Applied Business Solutions
Student teams participate in applied business projects or manage a simulated company's operations. Focus is on enhancing broad-based skills developed in other MBA courses. This course must be taken in the last semester in which a student is enrolled.
Emphasis Options
In addition to building a deeper understanding of business, students also have the opportunity to specialize in a particular area of business. Each emphasis requires nine additional credits from the 5500 or 6600 level elective courses. This option allows students to choose three courses within their emphasis that are more closely related to their interests in that particular field. Emphasis areas include:
Accounting
Economics
Finance
Healthcare Administration
Marketing
Operations Management
Traditional(requires 9 credits of upper division courses)
Concurrent and Joint Degree Programs
Graduate students in the College of Business also have the opportunity to complete many of our graduate degrees concurrently giving students the chance to broaden their business skills and career outlook.
The MAcc program at ISU is known for producing students that are well prepared to take the Certified Public Accountants (CPA) exam. With a unique course structure, students are prepped on the four parts of the exam as they occur throughout the year, resulting in an average 88 percent pass rate among our students.
Adding the MAcc to your MBA degree will add less than a year or three terms (fall, spring and summer) to your studies. This credential will also prepare you for an expertise in accounting combined with the broader sense of business found in the MBA.
The new MHA program has been designed to follow the standards of CAHME, the main accrediting body for masters level healthcare administration programs. Our MHA is in the process of obtaining accreditation by CAHME.
In the MHA program, students will gain a deeper understanding of business aspects within the healthcare industry. Combining this degree with an MBA will require few additional courses totaling 60 credits and prepare students for a well-rounded understanding of the business world inside and outside of the healthcare industry, allowing for broader career opportunities and a competitive advantage in the career search.
Students enrolled in ISU’s PharmD program may combine their degree with an MBA with approximately one year of additional study. This program is essentially the traditional MBA degree program with the use of some PharmD courses to meet MBA requirements.
Combining a business background and degree with the PharmD allows students to gain an understanding of the business side of their profession.
Request More Information
Want to learn more about the MBA? Schedule a meeting with an advisor or fill out the form on this page to receive additional information.