EMBA Classes Move To Afternoon Start To Accommodate Travelers And Corporate Sponsors
Penn State's Smeal College of Business Executive MBA Program is moving the start time of its Friday classes by more than three hours to better accommodate students traveling from outside the Philadelphia area, as well as corporate sponsors.
EMBA Classes Move To Afternoon Start To Accommodate Travelers And Corporate Sponsors
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (October 22, 2007) – Penn State's Smeal College of Business Executive MBA Program is moving the start time of its Friday classes by more than three hours to better accommodate students traveling from outside the Philadelphia area, as well as corporate sponsors.
Executive MBA classes are held on Fridays and Saturdays on alternating weekends in Philadelphia, and, effective September 2008, Friday classes begin at 1:30 p.m. instead of 10:15 a.m. The move was made after consulting with current students and the program's corporate partners. The change will impact the incoming class only, which is scheduled to start in August 2008 and graduate in May 2010.
"Our EMBA program continues to grow in size and competitiveness. In addition to a number of students from Philadelphia, New York, and D.C., the program attracts students from New England, the Carolinas, and the Midwest," said Jake Ray, managing director of the Smeal EMBA program. "Starting later in the day allows those students additional travel time, while giving students closer to Philadelphia the opportunity to meet in the morning with their EMBA teams or tend to work responsibilities. It is a win for all students."
The change was implemented without affecting the professors, the course load, or the curriculum of the program, according to Dennis Sheehan, associate dean for MBA programs.
"It's important to us that the EMBA students attending on weekends in Philadelphia receive the same world-class education and degree as the internationally ranked Smeal MBA Program offered on Penn State's University Park campus," Sheehan said. "We ensure our EMBA students get a first-rate education by having our faculty from University Park go to Philadelphia to teach every class."
And the MBA faculty members don't just travel to Philadelphia for class, they spend the weekend with the students in residence.
"Being an EMBA student at Smeal means being able to develop a personal relationship with your professors, who collectively have been ranked one of the top ten MBA faculties in the country," said Sheehan, referring to recent rankings from The Princeton Review.
About the Penn State Smeal College of Business EMBA
Penn State's internationally ranked Smeal College of Business offers an Executive MBA program in Philadelphia that attracts students from across the Mid-Atlantic region. The 21-month program is taught on alternate weekends and features personalized executive coaching, intensive communication training, and top faculty from Penn State's University Park campus. Classes start in August.
For more, visit www.smeal.psu.edu/execmba or contact Jake Ray, managing director, at jakeray@psu.edu or 866-999-3622.
REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu.
Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the Center for Digital Transformation, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.
