Master of Business Administration

Admission Requirements

  1. A four-year bachelor’s degree from a recognized college or university.
  2. An overall grade point average of at least 3.00 in the undergraduate degree program or of at least 3.25 for the last two years, or equivalent, of undergraduate work (based on 4.00 scale).
  3. Completion of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) with a score that equals or exceeds an overall total score of 500. In certain circumstances, applicants may request a waiver if they meet one of the following criteria:
    • A minimum of 3 years of professional full-time experience plus a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.25 from a recognized university.
    • A minimum of 8 years of professional full-time experience plus a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.0 from a recognized university.
      NOTE: A recognized school is one who either has a business school that has achieved AACSB accreditation or a top 100 university as ranked by U.S. News & World.
    • A minimum of 4 years of professional full-time experience plus a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.5 from a regionally accredited university.
      NOTE: A regionally accredited school must be recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
    • A prior graduate degree with a minimum of 3.0 cumulative GPA from a recognized university.
    • A valid GRE score from the past 5 years.
    • Students who are applying to the combined JD/MBA Program may submit LSAT scores for consideration.
  4. Satisfy the School of Graduate Studies’ English Language Proficiency requirements as published in the graduate catalog.
  5. Minimum competence in business math and statistics, accounting, economics, and finance. This competence is normally demonstrated by having a bachelor’s degree in business administration, previous equivalent course work in each of four subject areas, or by successful completion of self-paced boot camp courses on these topics from Ivy Software.

M.B.A. Prerequisite Competence

Applicants must demonstrate a minimum competence in business math and statistics, accounting, economics, and finance. Competence in these foundational topics can be demonstrated in three ways:

  1. Possessing a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with the grade point requirements stated above.
  2. Completion of equivalent course work in the four topics areas, with a grade of “B” (or the equivalent) or better in each course. The MBA Program Director will determine if previous course work meets the expectations for entering students.
  3. Successful completion of self-paced online boot camp courses on these topic areas from Ivy Software. Students can go directly to Ivy Software’s web site for registration information. Students must achieve a score of 70% or greater in each course in order to successfully complete the prerequisite requirement. Students will have a maximum of 2 attempts to successfully complete each course; students that fail to pass the boot camp course after 2 attempts will be required to complete an undergraduate course judged by the MBA Program Director to be equivalent to that subject, with a grade of “B” (or the equivalent) or better.

Ivy Software Boot Camp Course List

  1. Business Math and Statistics
  2. Financial Accounting
  3. Fundamentals of Economics
  4. Understanding Corporate Finance

Degree Requirements

Students seeking a Master’s degree at the University of North Dakota must satisfy all general requirements set forth by the School of Graduate Studies as well as particular requirements set forth by the Master of Business Administration Program.

The M.B.A. degree program is an interdisciplinary program taught by the faculty in several departments within the Nistler College of Business and Public Administration. The M.B.A. Program Director is responsible for coordinating all aspects of the program. Business courses carrying graduate credit status from the Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Marketing, Political Science and Public Administration, and the School of Entrepreneurship and Management are described elsewhere in the graduate catalog. The M.B.A. degree program requirements are:

  1. A minimum of 34 semester credits of academic work. The program includes 34 credit hours of required core course credits. An optional 9 credit hour defined concentration (Business Analytics, Government & Business,  International, Aviation Management, and General Business) may also be added to the degree program.
  2. The 34 required core course credits are organized into 4 modules: Executive Management, Business Analytics, Financial and Economic Analysis, and Strategy.
  3. At least one-half of the credits must be at or above the 500-level. A maximum of one-fourth (usually 9 semester credits) of the credit hours required may be transferred from another institution.
  4. The requirement of the final examinations for the M.B.A. degree is satisfied by the successful completion of MGMT 585 Advanced Strategic Management. MGMT 585 Advanced Strategic Management has the following prerequisites which MUST be completed prior to enrollment:
    1. ACCT 502 Financial Reporting & Decision Making,
    2. MRKT 510 Strategic Market Planning,
    3. And six (6) additional M.B.A. credits.

The M.B.A. curriculum includes the following required courses:

Executive Management Module
MGMT 505Organization Leadership and Ethics2
MGMT 515Advanced Managerial Theory3
BADM 500The Successful MBA--Executive Skills2
Business Analytics Module
ISBA 510Business Intelligence3
ECON 506Econometrics3
MGMT 501Quantitative Analysis for Management Decisions3
Financial and Economic Analysis Module
ACCT 502Financial Reporting and Decision Making3
ACCT 509Accounting Information for Decision and Control3
FIN 501Managerial Finance3
Strategy Module
MRKT 510Strategic Market Planning3
MGMT 545Strategic Supply Chain Management3
MGMT 585Advanced Strategic Management3
Total Credits34
Optional Concentration (additional 9 credits) Business Analytics, Government & Business, International, Aviation Management, General Business
Total Credits with Optional Concentration, 43 Credits

M.B.A. students can choose among the following optional concentrations:

General Concentration
Students can choose 9 credit hours for the General Concentration chosen from courses offered at the 300-, 400- and 500-level in the areas of Accounting, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Information Systems and Business Communications, Marketing, Management, and Political Science & Public Administration, as well as other fields within the NCoBPA and across UND. MBA students taking courses at the 300- and 400-level for graduate credit are expected to perform at a higher level, both in the quality and quantity of work. All General Concentration courses must be approved by the M.B.A. Program Director prior to enrollment.
Business Analytics Concentration
Students can choose to focus on business analytics beyond the M.B.A. core business analytics module by choosing 9 credit hours from the following list of courses. Other courses may be substituted for those in the list below, but must be approved by the M.B.A Program Director prior to enrollment.
ECON 411Economic Forecasting3
ECON 510Time Series Methods Applications3
ECON 534Further Topics in Econometrics3
ECON 545Quantitative Methods for Impact Evaluation Causal Inference3
ISBA 330Database Management3
ISBA 430Database Analytics3
EFR 513Large Dataset Management and Analysis3
EFR 530Learning Analytics3
EFR 535Data Analytics and Visualization with R3
Government and Business Concentration
Students can choose to focus on government and business by choosing 9 credit hours from the following list of courses. No more than 3 credit hours total can be completed from POLS 580 and BADM 597. Other courses may be substituted for those in the list below, but must be approved by the M.B.A. Program Director prior to enrollment.
POLS 502Problems in State and Local Governments3
ECON 503Government and Business3
POLS 531Foundations of Public Administration3
POLS 532Public Policy3
POLS 533Administrative Ethics in the Public Sector3
POLS 535Public Organizations3
POLS 537Program Evaluation3
POLS 538Public Budgeting and Financial Administration3
POLS 580Administrative Internship1-3
BADM 597Graduate Cooperative Education1-3
International Concentration
The International Business concentration requires students to study abroad at a foreign college/university that has a formal course transfer agreement in place with UND. Students will complete the first and last semesters of their program of study at UND. Courses to be taken at the foreign college/university, and included in the program of study, must be approved by the M.B.A. Director prior to registration. Students are expected to take a workshop or course of study in cultural language studies from the foreign college/university.
Aviation Management Concentration
Students can choose to focus on aviation management by choosing 9 credit hours from the following list of courses. Other courses may be substituted for those in the list below, but must be approved by the M.B.A. Program Director prior to enrollment.
AVIT 502Aviation Economics3
AVIT 510Aviation Public Policy and Regulations3
AVIT 512Aviation Environmental Issues3
AVIT 513Aviation Safety Management Systems3
AVIT 514Aviation Management Theory3
AVIT 517Airline Labor Relations and Law3
AVIT 521Ethics in Aerospace3
AVIT 522UAS Management3
AVIT 523Aviation Safety Data Analysis3
AVIT 524Air Traffic Management3

Students who already have completed courses similar to those in the M.B.A. curriculum may be required to choose substitutes from the graduate credit offerings listed in this catalog. Substitutions require the prior approval of the M.B.A. Program Director and the Graduate Dean.

Final Examinations. The requirement of the final examinations for the M.B.A. degree is satisfied by the successful completion of MGMT 585 Advanced Strategic Management.