In these tough times, lots of workers are stuck in a bind: They need an M.B.A. to boost their career, but they can't afford the cost or the time out of the work force.
The solution? Many are turning to programs that let them earn a degree in half the time, often at a fraction of the cost.
Consider Marco André. He knew if he wanted to achieve his dream of managing companies and working in different countries, he'd need to get an M.B.A. But taking two years away from his career for a traditional program was too big a sacrifice. So, Mr. André, a product-management director for a technology company in Portugal, opted for ESADE's one-year program in Barcelona.
His M.B.A. brought him the change he wanted: After graduating last April, he landed a job as a market-planning manager for Procter & Gamble Co. in Madrid. "At a certain point, the extra length just doesn't add value," says Mr. André. "You can learn everything perfectly well in a shorter time span. Nowadays, the opportunity cost of two years is just too high."
Accelerated M.B.A. programs, which take between 10 and 15 months to complete, have been around for decades and are the norm in Europe. Although these programs are much less common in the U.S., they're growing increasingly attractive especially among older students, who are becoming less willing to spend two years out of the work force.
More and more students are opting to attend one-year MBA programs, rather than the typical two-year program. While these can be more stressful, student Alli Johnson finds they offer rewards. Diana Middleton reports.
These programs have rarely been evaluated by outsiders, in part because they're still less ubiquitous than their two-year counterparts. About 90 accredited schools world-wide offer the accelerated M.B.A., and many of them only recently added the option.
But the degree's growing popularity and reach led The Wall Street Journal to take its first close look at accelerated M.B.A. programs. To measure these programs' quality, and student and alumni satisfaction with them, the Journal, with the help of research firm Management Research Group and survey technicians Critical Insights, surveyed the current graduating classes and alumni who graduated two years earlier at 48 schools. We looked only at schools that have graduated four or more classes with 12 or more students. We eliminated schools where students had little or no work experience. Responses came in from 1,361 recent grads and 735 alumni. We asked students about everything from the programs' flexibility to career services. And we pressed alumni on issues like the usefulness of the training in their careers and whether their degree protected them in the recession.
European Edge
The result is the Journal's first-ever ranking of accelerated M.B.A. programs. The ranking comprises nine European schools, five in the U.S. and one in Latin America. Some smaller, lesser-known schools along with bigger schools that haven't been offering a fast-track degree long enough might be noticeably absent for now. But as the degree gains ground, more entrants are sure to be evaluated.
At the top of the list are three European schools with a strong tradition of delivering respected degree programs.
At No. 1: IE Business School in Madrid, praised by students and alumni for the diversity of its student body and networking opportunities. From Switzerland, IMD's rigorous leadership-oriented 11-month program came in
at No. 2. The U.K.'s Cranfield School of Management, with its teamwork-focused atmosphere, is
No. 3. Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and Babson College's F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business both in the U.S. round out the top five.
Frank Brown, the dean of INSEAD, a business school with campuses in France and Singapore, discusses the advantages of taking an accelerated MBA program. He also tells WSJ's Diana Middleton what he believes are the benefits of attending an international school.
These schools stood out by delivering a strong curriculum and cramming in a healthy dose of international exposure. The best schools also cultivate relationships with local and global companies, giving students the chance to work on real-world projects.
At IE, students and alumni say the program's intensity lent itself to constant engagement in their course work, as well as close bonds with their classmates. They say they benefited from IE's additional programs, such as the Venture Lab, a competition that awards student entrepreneurs capital to launch a business. At IMD, the course work had the rhythm of a real job, students said real, that is, if 100-hour workweeks are the norm.
Spanning the Globe
The driving factor for pursuing a fast-track M.B.A. among those surveyed was the ability to re-enter the work force faster more than 82% of students put that at the top of their list. When it came to choosing a school, students and alumni cited reputation (92% said it was critical and 43% called it the most important consideration) and an international focus (74% said it was critical and 15% said it was at the top of their list) as the biggest criteria.
Indeed, almost all the schools offer plenty of chances to stretch internationally. At IMD, students recently traveled to South Africa for 12 days to meet with 20 companies to help get new ventures off the ground. Eighty percent of INSEAD's students spend time at the school's two campuses one in Fontainebleau, France, the other in Singapore. Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, requires its students to spend two weeks abroad doing mini-internships. Other schools, like IE, offer international seminars and exchange programs from Latin America to China.
