Program Mission
In today's highly competitive, resource-scarce, Internet-time based world, project management has truly come into its own as an organizational discipline that must be in top form if organizations are to flourish. To meet this growing need, the College of Business and Industry and College of Engineering created the Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a concentration in Project Management. This interdisciplinary degree is a 32-hour program designed to help technically-oriented students move easily to a managerial role.

Program Overview
Students choosing this major take 18 hours of the traditional core MBA courses and 14 hours of courses relating specifically to project management. Courses will be taught in the evenings via two-way interactive video. Two-credit courses are taught in eight-week modules and meet once a week for four hours. Three-credit courses meet once a week for three hours and run sixteen weeks.

Prerequisites and Foundation Courses
In addition to the core course requirements mentioned above, students must complete the MBA foundation courses listed below, or the appropriate undergraduate pre-requisites. These courses may be taken before entering our program or while enrolled. If you do not have an undergraduate degree in business, you can streamline your program by substituting our online graduate level survey courses for the undergraduate prerequisites. Each survey course replaces one or more undergraduate prerequisite. A description of the survey courses can be found here.

Credit for prerequisite courses can also be obtained in other ways. A student may take these courses at a local community college or university or obtain credit through the College Level Examination Program (CLEP). Some prerequisite courses are available through College Independent Study (correspondence courses) at Mississippi State University.

Course Requirements

For a list of descriptions of all of these courses, click here.

Admission Requirements
Applicants for the MBA-PM Program should hold a bachelor's degree from a fully-recognized four-year institution of higher learning. Admission is based primarily on results of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), GPA over the last 60 semester hours of baccalaureate work, and past work experience.

Beginning in January, 2004, students with no career work experience will need to meet one of the following for regular admission to the MBA-PM program: either a GPA of 3.00 out of a possible 4.00 and a GMAT of 510 or higher; or a score of at least 1110 on the formula 200*(Last 60 hours GPA) + GMAT. Students with at least two years of full-time career experience may be admitted with a formula score of 1100. Although some exceptions to these standards may be granted based on the strength of other materials contained in the student's application, reasonable minimum levels of performance must be achieved in both the applicant's GPA and GMAT scores.

International applicants not holding degrees from U.S. institutions must submit with their applications a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) report, from a test administered within the last two years. A score of : Paper Based - 575; Computer Based - 233; Internet Based - 90 is required. An IELTS score of 6.5 may be substituted for the TOEFL.

Unclassified Admission
Unclassified admission is available for those desiring graduate-level study for purposes other than an advanced degree. A student may begin taking classes immediately as an unclassified student and may take up to nine graduate hours, which may be transferred into the MBA program.

Applicants opting for unclassified admission must have a minimum undergraduate grade-point average of 3.00 out of a possible 4.00. Along with good grades on any courses taken, the above admission requirements must be met (including completion of the GMAT with a 510 or higher) before full admission into the program.

Transfer Credit
Up to six hours of graduate transfer credits may be accepted toward fulfilling the requirements for the master's degree, provided the credits have been earned in a recognized institution and are considered applicable to the student's graduate program. These credits are considered part of the student's program and must adhere to the six-year time limit restriction. Please note, however, "C" grades are not acceptable, nor are extension credits from other institutions.

Contact
Students planning to pursue an MBA in Project Management or desiring more information about the program should contact the Office of Graduate Studies in Business.

College of Business and Industry

Policies and Procedures