Academics
Vanderbilt offers the Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Science in Finance (MSF) as well as a doctoral program in finance, organization studies, and operations, and a joint degree in law (JD/MBA), nursing (MBA/MSN), engineering (MBA/ME), Latin American studies (MA/MBA), medicine (MBA/MD), and divinity studies (MBA/MDIV). MBA/PhD, MBA/BA, and MBA/BS are also offered. Other programs include 3-2 degrees with Vanderbilt University and Fisk University, interdisciplinary programs in law and moral leadership, and at the Center for Environmental Management Studies, cross-registration with Vanderbilt University Graduate School and Law School, work-study programs, foreign exchange with 13 countries, and internships for international students in their first summer after matriculation. The strongest areas of study are general management, finance, strategy, marketing, operations management, accounting, and human and organization performance. The most popular courses are Leadership, Management Consulting, Managing Processes for Improvement, Game Theory, Equities Markets, Negotiation, Corporate Value Management, Time-based Competition, Mergers and Acquisitions, Corporate Financial Policy, Financial Statement Analysis, Ethics in Business, Financial Accounting, Healthcare Immersion, Healthcare Entrepreneurship, Healthcare Finance, and Healthcare Industry Landscape. Regular programs bring distinguished speakers and visiting professors to campus. Prominent speakers visit for the student-run lecture series. Also, speakers are brought in to speak to clubs and class sessions.
Sixty-one total credits are required to complete the MBA, including 38 elective credits. Required courses include:
- Managing Your Career
- Managerial Accounting
- Managerial Economics
- Leading Teams and Organizations
- Managerial Statistics
- Leadership Communications
- Managerial Finance
- Marketing Management
- Operations Management
- Business in the World Economy
- Strategic Management
Required courses for the MSF include:
- Introduction to Accounting
- Financial Economics
- Microeconomics
- Econometrics
- Corporate Value Management Students may exempt out of required core courses in statistics, accounting, finance, managerial economics, and economics.
Business students may take relevant nonbusiness courses in other departments. The minimum time permitted to complete the master’s degree program attending full time is 3 semesters; maximum, 6 semesters.
There are 46 total full-time graduate business faculty, of whom 98% hold a doctorate; there are 28 part-time faculty, of whom 42% hold a doctorate. Faculty salaries are rated well above average for Category I institutions, based on the AAUP rating system. Average number of credit hours faculty teach is 10; average business class size is 28.