University of Kentucky - Gatton College of Business and Economics

The Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky offers both a part-time Professional Evening MBA designed for the needs of local professionals and a full-time One Year Accelerated MBA. Many students in our survey identified the accelerated pace of the full-time program as a major attraction. It’s “a quick program that offers a more intense learning experience along with the opportunity to work with executives at some of the largest world corporations” through “Project Connect, a partnership between the university and industry to provide practical education via projects” with regional businesses.

Students in both programs appreciate that Gatton “is recognized [as] the best graduate business school in the state,” which “is very helpful in getting a job.” “Good professors” and the “relatively low” tuition is also appealing, of course. The Gatton curriculum “is broken into modules such as new product development, mergers and acquisitions, supply chain management, and financial analysis,” and “all tools and skills (finance, accounting, ops) are taught around the basis of these modules.” The program “stays on top of the latest trends and technologies in business,” another plus. This “very structured” program requires “a lot of group work.” “The whole program is team-based, which is going to be helpful in the future,” one student writes.

The Professional Evening MBA emphasizes a foundation in economics, finance, marketing, management, accounting, and information systems. Cross-functional teams of five are created and work with companies on projects in each of the three areas of emphasis. This is complemented by professors who are generally “very good and have a fairly structured teaching style” and blend “theory and real-world experience.” In recent years the school “has added many faculty with real-world experience and shaped the program and skill sets you learn around executives’ requests for incoming employees. It is amazing how tailored this program is to real work experience.” Part-timers appreciate how “the professors understand that their students are also working professionals and have other lives besides the classroom.” As a result, “the course load has not been unbearable, but it keeps you busy.”

MBA students have access to comprehensive career services through Gatton College’s Graham Office of Career Management, including a career development course, which is required for one-year students and optional for part-time students. They also host events such as a large, two-day career fair each semester, employer information sessions, and campus interviews. To help students prepare for these events, Career Management offers individualized coaching sessions on topics including: resume writing, job searching, networking, interviewing, salary negotiating, etiquette, and more.

Last year the average salary for a Gatton graduate was $56,980. Employers hiring Gatton MBAs include Aldi, Alltech, BB&T, Brown-Forman, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Fifth Third, Humana, Lexmark, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Schneider Electric, Toyota, Wright- Patterson Air Force Base, CGI, GE, Target, Tempur-Sealy, Trane, UPS, 3M, Hitachi, Ashland, and LG&E.

For full-time MBAs, “Life at UK is focused on school rather than extracurricular activi- ties, largely because of the length and intensity of the program.” Cramming two years’ worth of learning into eleven months doesn’t leave a lot of time for extracurriculars or socializing. Full-timers generally live in “nice…well-priced” housing located “relatively close” to campus, “which is nice considering we are all working with companies [on Project Connect projects] and we have to meet daily.” The MBA group forms “a very strong community.” On days we have class, nearly all students arrive forty-five minutes to an hour early to socialize and visit” in the “dedicated MBA lounge...Professors will stop by as well.” When time permits, students enjoy getting out and about in Lexington, an “exciting” and “excellent city” with “plenty to do.”

Gatton full-timers don’t have “as much work experience as [students at] some schools,” but they are “hard workers and add a certain competitive edge in the classroom which I feel improves the overall experience. Outside of class, many of us commonly get together to socialize and even discuss business-related topics/concerns that arise in our work- places and in the economy.” The part-time student body includes a substantial number of “engineer-schooled and extremely goal-oriented” professionals.