The hottest ticket around: but BU's dual-degree program isn't for the fainthearted - Update

University Business, April, 2002 by Tim Goral

It's no secret that most graduate business schools saw an increase in applications over the last year. After all, when jobs are scarce, many students head back to school hoping to emerge more marketable in an improved economy. In such circumstances, an application increase of 20 to 50 percent for any given MBA program is not unusual.

But 153 percent? That's the bump in application numbers that Boston University's School of Management recently reported for its Fail 2002 term. "The increase here is off the chart, compared to what we've seen anywhere else," admits the school's dean, Louis Lataif.

What makes BU's masters program the hottest ticket around? It's the intensified dual-degree MS*MBA program: an opportunity to get a master's degree in information systems and a master's in a business specialty other than information systems, in a seriously condensed timeframe. Dual-degree programs are, of course, nothing new (and this one is in its second year, says the dean). But what sets the BU program apart from others is its intensity--it isn't for the fainthearted.

"We're delivering MS*MBA as a very high-powered and intensive program for only the most ambitious students," explains Lataif. It takes the same 21-month period as a traditional MBA--and students still have 10 weeks to get that all-important summer internship. "But they have to take 18 credits a semester instead of 14 or 16," says Lataif. "And, in an intensive three-week period at the end of the second semester (before the summer internship), students take two courses around the clock for 15 consecutive days. They also take a 12-credit online course while they complete the internship."

Besides attracting such a large applicant pool, the program has caught the interest of corporations. "Recruiters are excited at the prospect of being able to hire a finance MBA who also happens to have a degree--not just a few courses--in information systems," says Lataif. "That's a highly attractive commodity."

Lataif expects BU's "next generation" MBA model will catch on at other schools. "Technology has so altered the way that business is organized and operated that, over time, any less than this won't be considered an adequate graduate business education."