Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Transform yourself as a leader in business and in life as you learn to solve consequential business challenges that demonstrate your value and improve the world.

Learning to work with diverse groups and individuals in a global context is as important to your earning potential and career advancement as your core business acumen. Clark University offers a close-knit MBA program within a small world-renowned liberal arts university. Here, we provide exceptional opportunities for working in a collaborative learning environment with colleagues and professors on consequential management solutions.

Our globally experienced faculty of scholar-practitioners do more than impart core competencies in accounting, management, marketing, finance, and analytics. They also address the legal, political, ethical, social, and environmental responsibilities of management in their teaching and research. As a result, you graduate from Clark University with the toolkit and vision you need to create immediate, lasting, and socially responsible value for local and global organizations.

Why Clark University

Earn your MBA from a globally ranked and accredited university—Clark University has been named a Princeton Review “Best Business School,” a U.S. News & World Report “Best Part-time MBA,” and is among the elite 5% of business schools to receive AASCB accreditation.

Jump-start your degree with potential course and internship waivers for relevant professional experience with our Professional Track MBA.

Customize your area of expertise with one of seven concentrations—accounting, expanded accounting (CPA preparation), finance, management, information management and business analytics, marketing, or social change and sustainability.

Develop the cross-sector skill set you need to help organizations tap into emerging markets.

Join a close-knit learning community representing 90+ countries and 150 nonprofit and business partners around the world.

Pursue the degree on your own terms with options for part-time, full-time, online, on campus, and accelerated study.

Program Overview

Clark’s MBA allows you to complete the program at your own pace by choosing either full- or part-time enrollment status and beginning in either January or September. A choice of seven distinct concentrations allows you to tailor your experience to fit your needs and interests.

We value your professional work experience. Students with sufficient experience as a manager in a professional position may be eligible for up to two course waivers, allowing mid-level professionals to advance quickly.

Accounting
Expanded Accounting (offers specified courses that prepare you for the CPA exam)
Finance
Management
Information Management and Business Analytics
Marketing
Social Change and Sustainability

The ability to develop innovative solutions to complex management challenges
An understanding of the cultural, economic, environmental, and political factors shaping management today
Insight into how to solve real-world problems in a global context
Competencies to help your company tap into emerging markets

Business in Society
International Management
Sustainability Consulting Projects
Creating Effective Organizations: Leadership
Strategic Decision Making

Enrollment: Prospective students may request entry into the Professional MBA by designating interest when filling out their application. Enrollment in the Professional MBA is reviewed/approved by the Graduate Admissions Review Committee.
Course Waivers: Students are waived from the experiential learning requirements and, at most, one additional core course unit if they have 3+ years of upper level or advanced experience in a core subject area. Core course waivers are granted by the Graduate Admissions Review Committee. You may or may not be granted a core course waiver. 13.5-14.5 total units are required to complete the professional MBA program.
Internships: Your internship is waived in the Professional Track MBA.
PLEASE NOTE: Your internship is waived; however, if you decide you would like to do an internship, you will be required to use Optional Practical Training (OPT). You will not be allowed to use Curricular Practical Training (CPT), nor will you be allowed to switch to the Traditional MBA in order to complete an internship as part of your program.

Requirements

15.5 course units

11.5 core course units
4 electives
Completion of a professional internship

Course Catalog

Through our emphasis on experiential learning, Clark’s MBA program gives you the opportunity to begin making meaningful change at the local and regional level before you’ve earned your degree. Students in the required experiential learning course work together to address business issues of consequence in for-profit or nonprofit organizations based locally or globally.

Your professional internship gives you real-world experience and insight into how today’s business leaders address pressing everyday challenges. Clark MBA students frequently make valuable contributions to their internship employer’s success, and they continue to draw on these experiential learning opportunities for the rest of their careers.

Our close-knit community within a liberal arts university provides a unique environment in which to thrive. Your fellow students share a dedicated commitment to leading businesses down the path of social responsibility, giving you invaluable, diverse perspectives on current global business challenges and opportunities.

Join Graduate School of Management student organizations.
Attend guest speaker lectures, panel discussions, and departmental events with executives from corporations around the world.
Take advantage of customized advising support and career training workshops for our business students.
Undertake group projects benefitting our urban community.
Become a member of the multi-university Women in Business group.

GSOM-Skills-You-Learn

Clark’s research programs are distinguished by their focus on addressing critical societal issues, seeking answers to fundamental questions that often extend across disciplines, and recasting conventional research questions in new and exciting ways. The research performed by faculty and students associated with our MBA program is no different. Our community investigates topics that include accountability, ethical management practices, and environmental responsibility, bringing their findings to bear on our curriculum.

Sample Projects

Supporting consumer choices around sustainable consumption
Managing workplace diversity
Protecting employee rights
Motivating employees’ sustainability practices
Enhancing links between universities and their communities

Raja-radiant-sport — As co-founder of a nonprofit athletic organization in India, Raja Venkatachalam, MBA ’16, brings people of all backgrounds together. Read More

The MBA program allows you to translate your business acumen into a meaningful career opportunity. Upon graduation, you will be positioned to become a leader who can make sound decisions based on contemporary, global management practices and drawing on a set of interdisciplinary skills sought by forward-thinking organizations worldwide.

“Not only did my courses at Clark make me proficient and ready for my career, but GSOM is also a close-knit community where everyone knows everyone. That’s what I loved about the school.”
— Karan Gangwani, MBA ’16

Career Outcomes

Director, Finance Effectiveness
PwC
Operations Officer
World Bank
Climate Corps Fellow
Environmental Defense Fund
Program Associate
Advocates for Human Potential
Executive Director
Ernst & Young

Faculty Research Areas

Zhihong Wang

Assistant Professor

Cultural behaviors, global effects

Professor Wang conducts behavioral research in management control systems, the impact of cultural values on financial reporting systems, business ethics and fraud, and accounting professionals' decision-making.

Inshik Seol

Associate Professor

Seek and you shall find

Professor Seol studies audit judgment, environmental auditing, and accounting education.

Sitikantha Parida

Assistant Professor

Setting prices, realizing value

Professor Parida focuses his research on empirical asset pricing, mutual funds, and behavioral finance.

Steve Ng

Associate Professor

Investing in knowledge

Professor Ng has held senior positions at many financial firms, and studies wealth management, capital markets, portfolio management, and investment strategies. He is a principal at Woodland Investment Consulting.

Xiao Zhong

Visiting Assistant Professor

Gaining a glimpse of the unknown

Professor Zhong focuses on exploring new computational and intelligent methodologies to predict the unknown, and developing efficient stationarity tests in time series, with applications to business and others.

Zhenyang (David) Tang

Assistant Professor

Information as a catalyst for action

Professor Tang studies empirical corporate finance, market efficiency, and insider trading.

Jing Zhang

Professor

Systems of knowledge in the world of big data

Professor Zhang dedicates her research to examining management information systems, including interorganizational knowledge sharing and networking.

Will O’Brien

Associate Professor

Adopting an entrepreneurial – and environmentally responsible – mindset

Will is an experienced executive, entrepreneur, consultant, teacher, and attorney. His research interests include business sustainability and environmental stewardship.

Tom Murphy

Lecturer

A better way to market

Tom is a consultant to global companies, helping improve business plans and investments across global markets. He designed the unique "Sustainability Marketing" course for GSOM.

Laura Graves

Professor

Exploring why we work – and how we can work better

Professor Graves studies work-life balance, how organizations encourage diversity, and how business leaders engage with socially responsible activities.

Donna Gallo

Assistant Professor

Running a tight ship

Professor Gallo teaches courses related to business policy, international management, and real estate; her research focuses on effective decision-making and business strategy.

John Dobson

Associate Professor

Helping small businesses grow through data

Professor Dobson studies how home-based entrepreneurs use information systems to improve livelihoods and incomes, including the impact of entrepreneurial education and social networks on small-business performance.

Keith Coulter

Professor

Professor Coulter studies consumer behavior and marketing strategies to determine how and why we’re persuaded to make purchases.

Mary-Ellen Boyle

Associate Professor

Managing social – and structural – change

How does social change intersect with education, corporate citizenship, university-community partnerships, and the arts – and how can organizations manage effectively in a constantly shifting marketplace?

Barbara Bigelow

Professor

Applying management principles to healthcare

Professor Bigelow studies strategic management in healthcare organizations and the use of dialogue in the classroom. She serves as associate dean of the Graduate School of Management.

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Why Clark University

Program Overview

MBA Concentrations

Skills for Success

Sample Courses

Professional Track

Opportunities Abound