Introduction

In 1997, Wagner College instituted the “Wagner Plan for the Practical Liberal Arts”  undergraduate program.  It has been a great success given that the College won the Hesburgh Award for Undergraduate Education curriculum innovation and faculty involvement for this new curriculum.  The rationale for the program argued that students needed reading,  writing,  and analytical abilities integrated and learning community based learning has a foundation for practical application in the so-called “real world." The practical application is accomplished through internships.

Some years ago, Fortune Magazine polled Fortune 500 CEOs  as to what they liked about recent MBAs who had been hired by their firms and what they most disliked about them and their abilities.  While lauding the students’ technical abilities (accounting,  statistics,  MIS,  etc.)  they most complained about glaring weaknesses demonstrated in their lack of ability to write clearly, present orally, and think analytically.  This was coupled with an almost universal wish from the CEO’s surveyed that students be less competitive and more collaborative with one another.

This Accelerated MBA program uses aspects of the undergraduate Wagner Plan and applies it to a fulltime MBA program.  It also mandates extensive work to address the four areas of weakness the Fortune CEO’s  emphasized in their survey responses.

Program Characteristics

• This is a lock-step cohort based program with 16-24 students.  These students are organized into a learning community that will last for the duration of the Program.
• A student will complete the program in 12 months.  For example:  a student who graduates May,  2008 with a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration and is admitted to the fulltime MBA program will take five courses during Summer, 2008,  4 courses Fall,  2008, 1 course Winter 2008/2009  and six courses Spring 2009 and will graduate with an MBA at the May, 2009 Commencement.
• All courses in the program will be taught by highly qualified and experienced faculty.
• Courses each term are grouped around a theme and two of them are integrated much the way that first year learning communities are for the undergraduates.
• In addition to courses designated as team taught each term,  all faculty teaching in the program will meet on a regular basis to ensure proper coordination between courses.  Every effort will be made to ensure that students not have papers and exams due in multiple courses at the same time except where unavoidable.  In addition so-called “in-basket” and other exercises will be coordinated across the courses.

The Wagner Personalization