Annual Report 2006

Online: Bringing the Isenberg School to the World

The excellence at the Isenberg School reaches beyond the Amherst campus. The school offers a Professional MBA Program to 580 students online and to 255 students who attend classes at satellite campuses in Holyoke, Shrewsbury, and Pittsfield. The online initiative increases access to the Isenberg School’s top ranked programs and world renowned faculty. Online students hail from 50 states and 15 countries. The online program attracts professionals in medicine, financial services, and computer applications. Among the school’s online students, 115 are physicians.

Rx for Career Advancement: Physicians in the Online Program

For four years, the online program has partnered with the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE) in Tampa, Florida to offer an MBA degree with a focus on medical management. After completing a certificate program in medical management taught by the ACPE’s own faculty, physicians can leverage the certificate by completing the Isenberg School’s core Professional MBA curriculum online. That entitles them to a Professional MBA degree with a Focus in Medical Management.

“In shopping around for an MBA program, I discovered that UMass Amherst had a great reputation and that the program offered an outstanding dollar value,” observes Rick Flaksman (pictued above), a physician and medical director of the newborn intensive care unit at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. “The Isenberg professors have been remarkably accessible and the online threaded discussions with other students have offered a wealth of professional insights,” he continues. “Much of what I’ve learned in the program, I’ve been able to apply instantly at work.”

School Rating: National Recognition

The MBA program’s drawing power with outstanding students dovetails with its increased national recognition. In U.S. News & World Report’s 2007 survey, America’s Best Graduate Schools, the Isenberg School’s MBA program ranked fifth among the top 60 in the category, admissions rate, a measure of selectivity. In the 2007 edition of the Princeton Review’s annual survey of business schools, Best 282 Business Schools, the MBA program ranked 2nd in the category, Best Overall Academic Experience; 4th in the category, Best Professors; 5th in the category, Greatest Opportunity for Women; and 10th in the category, Toughest to Get into. As one of only seven programs with four or more top-ten rankings among the survey’s eleven categories, the Isenberg School shares company with Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, NYU, Northwestern, and UCAL Berkeley. The Isenberg School also won kudos from its peers during a reaccreditation process.

In December 2005, the school earned reaccreditation from AACSB International, the
nation’s premier accreditor of business schools. The school’s reaccreditation followed a thorough review that included formal self-evaluation by representatives from peer institutions. The Isenberg School first earned AACSB accreditation in 1963. It is one of 515 member AACSB-accredited institutions.