Professional MBA

Classes begin April 1. Apply by February 1 for early consideration and scholarship opportunities.

Join the #2 Ranked MBA Program in California

Leveraging a learning environment that is both collaborative and collegial, the Professional MBA Program builds general management skills and provides the knowledge needed to help reach your career goals, whether you want to advance into management, change careers or industries, or launch a business. Concentrate in finance, marketing, business analytics, entrepreneurship or international management by taking advanced courses.

(Ranked #2 in California for best online program - College Choice)

US News St Mary's College Ranking

What You'll Learn

The Saint Mary's of California MBA Program is designed to prepare business professionals for advancement into leadership roles. Every student participates in experiential learning. By applying knowledge gained in the classroom to real-world business challenges, you prepare for situations you will face as a professional and demonstrate your leadership potential to employers.

Analyze business information, understand business functional areas, and be a responsible leader
Concepts and principles that underlie corporate financial statements
Micro- and macro-economics concepts and analytical techniques used in managing businesses
Statistics, sampling, and statistical inference, and linear regression models
The legal framework for business and to significant legal issues involved in the conduct of business.
Issues, concepts, and models used in analyzing marketing choices and managing marketing activities
International business environment and the strategic choices facing companies with international business operations
Ethical and Social Aspects of Business
A framework for formulating corporate objectives, assessing market opportunities, developing long-range strategies
Creativity thinking, sharpen idea generation process and learn to stimulate creativity in more meaningful and manageable ways

Curriculum

Foundation Courses: You will gain the basic knowledge and skills needed to be successful in advanced graduate business courses. You must meet the requirements for all seven foundation courses; however, you may qualify to have these courses waived based on previous academic work.

Financial Accounting
Managerial Accounting
Managerial Economics
Quantitative Methods
Operations Management
Management Communication
Legal Aspects of Business

Core Courses: You will develop your ability to analyze business information, understand business functional areas, and be a responsible leader. You must meet the requirements for all eight courses. However, if you have taken similar post-graduate courses in another MBA program, you may qualify for transfer credits equaling up to eight quarter-units (typically two courses).

Organizational Behavior and Management
Managerial Finance
Marketing Management
International Business
Ethical and Social Aspects of Business
Doing Business in World Regions (Note: Required travel course)
Global Business Strategy
Managing Creativity and Innovation

Concentration Courses: You can earn a general management degree by completing three courses from any of the concentrations or you can tailor your MBA to your career goal by selecting a concentration in finance, marketing, business analytics, international management or entrepreneurship.

Admissions Requirements

To qualify for admission, you must demonstrate the ability to handle the academic rigor of the program and maintain a letter "B" average.

Professional work experience:

Professional work experience is preferred, and there are no minimum years of work experience required.

Academic preparation:

Applicants for admission to the Professional MBA program must hold a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent from an accredited college or university.
Applicants with an undergraduate major or minor in a quantitative major are not required to take the GMAT or GRE if their GPA is at least 2.8.
Applicants without a major/minor concentration in a quantitative major are not required to take the GMAT or GRE if their GPA is at least a 3.0.

Required Documentation:

Online Graduate Application
Non-refundable $50 Application Fee
Personal Statement
Official transcripts of colleges or universities with a degree conferred
Resume
Official GMAT or GRE scores (dependent on GPA). The GMAT code is: 3HX-9C-97. The GRE code is: 8798.

International Applicants:

Review International Applicants website for additional documentation requirements

Course Description

You must successfully complete the requirements for 18 courses, including a global trip, and two professional development workshops to earn your MBA. There are seven foundation courses, eight core courses, and three concentration courses. Based on your academic background, you may be able to waive up to seven foundation course and transfer credit for up to two graduate-level core courses, giving you a head start toward earning your MBA.

Foundation Courses:

ACCTG 301: Financial Accounting
This course focuses on the concepts and principles that underlie corporate financial statements prepared for external users, including the balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement.

ACCTG 302: Managerial Accounting
This course examines the internal use of accounting as a management tool. Emphasis is on cost concepts and analysis of cost variances. Topics include cost-volume-profit analysis, process, and activity-based costing, cost allocation, budgeting and performance measures.
Prerequisite: 301

ECON 303: Managerial Economics
You will learn micro- and macroeconomics concepts and analytical techniques used in managing businesses. Topics include consumer behavior, production and cost, market structures and market failure, fiscal and monetary policy, and international trade and finance.

OPS 304: Quantitative Methods
This course introduces analytical methods for data analysis to support managerial decisions. Topics include basic statistics, sampling and statistical inference, and linear regression models.

OPS 305: Operations Management
This course focuses on quantitative and qualitative models for managing operations. Topics include decision models, forecasting techniques and time series analysis, process analysis, waiting line management, linear programming, statistical control, aggregate planning, supply chain management, and project management.
Prerequisite: 304

MKT 306: Management Communication
This course is designed to evaluate and sharpen your business writing and speaking skills. You will be introduced to argumentation as an advanced form of communication that is crucial for effective managerial performance. The emphasis is on the manager’s use of language as a tool to identify issues, solve problems and communicate policy.

ORB 307: Legal Aspects of Business
You will be introduced to the legal framework for business and to significant legal issues involved in the conduct of business. Topics include the legal system, forms of business, corporation in law, shareholders’ rights and liabilities, intellectual property, competitive torts and unfair competition, antitrust law, contract law and negotiation, and areas of conduct in which law shapes managerial behavior.

Core Courses:

ORB 311: Organizational Behavior and Management
You will gain an understanding of how managerial and organizational processes work based on the behavioral sciences. You will use this information to analyze workplace behavior to improve motivation and commitment, leadership, job satisfaction, group and team dynamics, and organizational design.

FIN 312: Managerial Finance
You will learn basic corporate finance concepts that influence decision-making strategies in areas of investment, financing and dividend policy. Topics include asset valuation, risk analysis, financial statement analysis, financial planning, capital budgeting, asset management, short- and long-term financing, cost of capital, and capital structure.
Prerequisite: 301, 302 and 304

MKT 313: Marketing Management
This course provides an overview of the issues, concepts, and models used in analyzing marketing choices and managing marketing activities. Topics include market measurement and segmentation, consumer and organizational buying behavior, marketing mix analysis and management, marketing research, product management, marketing strategy, and public policy and ethical considerations in marketing.
Prerequisite: 304

MGT 314: International Business
This course focuses on the international business environment and the strategic choices facing companies with international business operations. Topics include the structure and competitive dynamics of international industries, trade and trade theory, forms of transnational and multinational business, global competition and global strategies, balance of local demands and global integration, culture and government roles in international business, international financial and currency markets, and management issues in multinational firms.
Prerequisite: 303

ORB 315: Ethical and Social Aspects of Business
This course examines the relationship between business and its social setting. Topics include non-market environments of business, issues of ethics and social responsibility in market systems, relation between social trends and politics, comparative market systems, regulation and externalities, and corporate governance issues.

MGT 317: Global Business Strategy
This integrative course provides a framework for formulating corporate objectives, assessing market opportunities, developing long-range strategies, and coordinating the activities of the total business enterprise. You will apply this framework—as well as the knowledge and skills gained from previous courses—as you develop, analyze, and implement business unit and corporation strategy.
Prerequisites: 301-313

GMAN 319: Doing Business in World Regions
This experiential international immersion course features a study trip to key countries with economic significance. The objective of the course is to learn about a selected country’s dynamic cultural, economic, and business environment through hands-on learning such as lectures by the world-class hosting university faculty, company visits, and interactions with local managers. Through this course, students will raise awareness about broader social, cultural, political, economic, business and strategic factors when evaluating companies and organizations in visiting countries. This course has two components; the on-campus pre-travel and post-travel classes, and the 8-9 day overseas trip, which is taken during the quarter breaks. Past destinations include China, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Spain.
Prerequisites: 303 and 305

MGT 320: Managing Creativity and Innovation
In this course, students develop their creativity thinking, sharpen their idea generation process, and learn to stimulate creativity in more meaningful and manageable ways. Students will also gain a better understanding of the appropriate context to cultivate and implement creativity in the workplace. The purpose of the course is to help students acquire skills to form novel, useful and fresh solutions to new and unfamiliar problems.

Concentration Courses:

Finance Concentration
Prerequisites: 301-305 and 312

FIN 321: Advanced Financial Management
You will continue your study of corporate finance topics that were introduced in Managerial Finance. Special attention will be placed on leasing and mergers and acquisitions, with an emphasis on techniques of valuation.

FIN 322: Investments and Financial Markets
This course is designed to provide an overview of the financial markets and investment vehicles available to the financial manager. Topics include the banking system, bank and non-bank financial institutions, and the market behavior of financial intermediaries. The emphasis of the course is on portfolio optimization and the analysis of a variety of financial instruments, including equity, debt, and options.

FIN 323: International Finance
This course explores the issues and financial techniques that are important for firms with international operations. Topics include the foreign exchange markets, and the management of transaction, operating, interest rate and translation exposures. The course also focuses on international sources of capital, the cost of capital and capital budgeting in an international context, political risk, and import/export financing.

Business Analytics Concentration
Prerequisites: 301-305 and 312

OPS 331: Programming for Analytics
This course prepares students to build well-designed code modules that follow basic programming concepts and logic flow. It covers the fundamental concepts of computer programming using a standard programming language such as Python. Topics include data structures, control structures, data input/output, object-oriented programming, exception handling, and debugging. Concepts and methods introduced in the course are illustrated with simple data analysis examples

OPS 332: Advanced Data Analysis
This course is designed to equip students with advanced techniques for data analysis, forecasting and decision-making, applying them through case studies, and projects. It builds on the Data Analysis course. Topics include Logistic Regression, Non-linear Regression, Time Series Analysis, Nonparametric Methods, Bayesian Probability Updating, and Decision Analysis. This course involves extensive use of Excel and an introduction to the statistical software R.

OPS 333: Data Visualization and Story Telling
This course prepares students to create compelling narratives to effectively transmit the results of their analysis. Students learn various techniques and tools to present analytical results visually, communicate information clearly, and articulate the business insights revealed by analytics effectively. Topics will include data visualization software packages (e.g. Tableau) to present data dynamically, visual querying linked multi-dimensional visualization, dashboards, geographical information system (GIS), animation, personalization, and actionable alerts.

Marketing Concentration
Prerequisites: 301-305 and 313

MKT 341: Marketing Research
This course explores both quantitative and qualitative approaches to understanding markets and customers. Topics include the use of secondary information and databases, interviews and focus groups, and survey research and test marketing. The course emphasizes using marketing research in new product development.

MKT 342: Advanced Topics in Marketing
This course will introduce advanced techniques in marketing, both analytical tools and decision-making frameworks, as well as emerging issues both from academic research and corporate practice such as online consumer behavior, marketing in social networks or marketing in non-profit settings. By its very nature, the content of this course will be flexible to reflect the latest thought and practice.

MKT 343: International Marketing
This course deals with the distinctive issues and problems involved in the marketing of goods and services in foreign or international markets. Topics include the evaluation of foreign market opportunities; market entry strategies; social, political and cultural considerations in international marketing; international product design issues; and marketing mix strategies.

International Management Concentration
Prerequisites: 301-305 and 314

FIN 323: International Finance
This course explores the issues and financial techniques that are important for firms with international operations. Topics include the foreign exchange markets, and the management of transaction, operating, interest rate and translation exposures. The course also focuses on international sources of capital, the cost of capital and capital budgeting in an international context, political risk, and import/export financing.

MKT 343: International Marketing
This course deals with the distinctive issues and problems involved in the marketing of goods and services in foreign or international markets. Topics include the evaluation of foreign market opportunities; market entry strategies; social, political and cultural considerations in international marketing; international product design issues; and marketing mix strategies.

MGT 352: Social Entrepreneurship From a Global Perspective
This course will provide concepts, analytical perspectives, skills and experiences to provide innovative and entrepreneurial solutions at the intersection of non-profit organizations, public services, and businesses, to tackle social problems and environmental challenges we face both in our local communities and at a global level. The focus will be on existing and emerging business models in social ventures approaches to growth and partnership options between and among the business, non-profit and social sectors.

Entrepreneurship Concentration
Prerequisites: 301-305

MGT 351: Strategic Entrepreneurship
This integrative course will introduce a strategic approach to entrepreneurship by providing an understanding of how to formulate and implement startup and growth strategies. The main focus will be on helping you differentiate between an idea and an opportunity, increasing your awareness of the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship, as well as developing your skills in problem-solving with inadequate information and in decision making under uncertainty. The course will also include the topics of market assessment, developing the business plan, forming and leading the executive team, managing rapid growth with limited resources, and exit/harvest strategies for new ventures.

MGT 352: Social Entrepreneurship From a Global Perspective
This course will provide concepts, analytical perspectives, skills and experiences to provide innovative and entrepreneurial solutions at the intersection of non-profit organizations, public services, and businesses, to tackle social problems and environmental challenges we face both in our local communities and at a global level. The focus will be on existing and emerging business models in social ventures approaches to growth and partnership options between and among the business, non-profit and social sectors.

FIN 354: Financing New Ventures
This course augments the Managerial Finance course in the Professional MBA program. The critical issues in financing new ventures and social enterprises are examined. Additionally, the course addresses the differences between entrepreneurial finance and conventional administrative or corporate finance. The process of crafting financial and fund-raising strategies and the critical variables involved, including identifying financial life cycles of new ventures, a financial strategy framework, and investor and donor preferences, are explored.

Concentrations

You can earn a general management degree by completing three courses from any of the concentrations or you can tailor your MBA to your career goal by selecting a concentration in finance, marketing, business analytics, international management or entrepreneurship.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

This concentration will provide enrolled participants exposure to both the fundamentals of business and the practical aspects of identifying, evaluating, and moving business ideas forward through the stages of new venture formation, financing, startup and growth in both for-profit and non-profit organizations.

How it works: