Coles MBA

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The Coles MBA program is made up of three course groupings – business foundation courses, core courses, and elective courses – for a total of 36 to 39 semester credit hours of graduate course work. All students complete 18 credit hours of prescribed core courses and 18 credit hours of elective courses. Some students, typically those without a bachelor’s degree in business, will have to complete up to three additional credit hours of foundation courses. Applicants admitted to the MBA program are advised in their acceptance letters which foundation requirements, if any, must be satisfied.

Foundation Requirements

Foundation requirements are the knowledge and skills of a broad set of business disciplines including accounting, finance, and statistics and math. Academic preparation in these disciplines is necessary prior to advanced study in business. A bachelor’s degree in business or accounting typically satisfies all foundation requirements. As an alternative, the Coles College of Business offers three one credit-hour self-paced, Internet driven courses (for a maximum of three credit hours) that collectively satisfy these necessary courses. The course(s) required are determined for each student based on a thorough analysis of college transcripts showing prior academic course work. This table summarizes the business foundation requirements and options for satisfying them.

Foundation requirements are satisfied by successfully completing …	… or by completing undergraduate course(s) with a grade of “C” or higher in …	… which is the KSU equivalent of …
GBA 6101 - Accounting Foundations, 1 credit hour	Financial accounting and managerial accounting	ACCT 2100 and ACCT 2200
GBA 6102 - Finance Foundations, 1 credit hour	Finance principles	FIN 3100
GBA 6103 - Statistics and Math Foundations, 1 credit hour	Inferential statistics and algebra	ECON 2300 and MATH 1101

NOTES:

Undergraduate courses used to satisfy the foundation courses must be from an institution accredited in a manner acceptable to the Coles College of Business;
Foundation requirements must be satisfied at the beginning of the MBA program, typically within the first semester of study;
GBA 6101, 6102, and 6103 are offered in a self-directed online format, facilitated by full-time faculty.
Enrollment in 8000-level graduate courses is restricted, based on foundations required, until foundation requirements are met;
GBA 6101, 6102, and 6103 cannot be used to satisfy any portion of the core or elective requirements or to meet the 36-credit-hour minimum degree requirement;
Admission to the MBA, MAcc, or WebMBA program is required to enroll in these courses;
Students who are preparing to sit for the CPA exam and who do not have an undergraduate or advanced degree in business may choose to take the equivalent undergraduate business courses in order to meet the 24-hour minimum requirement of courses in business required by the CPA. (For undergraduate course numbers, see column three in the table above.)

Core Requirements (21 Credit Hours)

Core requirements are the knowledge and skills of the common body of business that, collectively, are essential to managing and leading organizations. Core requirements are satisfied by:

(a) Completing the following 6 courses: (See notes 2 and 3 below)

(b) Completing the following course:

MGT 8999 - Strategic Management: An Integrative, Capstone Experience

Notes:

The course not taken to satisfy the core may be taken to satisfy an elective requirement.
MBA students planning to take 8000-level accounting courses as electives must first take ACCT 8000.
Based upon feedback from key executives and recruiters, it is recommended that both ACCT 8000 and FIN 8020 be taken by all MBA students.

NOTE: MGT 8999 is to be taken near or in the final semester of study. Fifteen credit hours of core courses and at least nine credit hours of elective courses must be completed prior to taking this capstone course. All students must request permission to register for MGT 8999. For permission to enroll, visit the Graduate Business Office web site at http://coles.kennesaw.edu/mba-options/career-growth-mba/advising/. Complete and submit the Request for MGT 8999 form before priority registration begins for the semester in which enrollment is planned.

Elective Requirements (15 Credit Hours)

Elective requirements are the knowledge and skills of a generalized cross-section of business areas or of a more narrowly defined area of study. Students will select and complete 15 credit hours of elective courses that best fit their professional and personal goals. Any 8000-level elective (i.e., non-core) courses offeredin the Coles College of Business may be selected.

Possible areas of study include, but are not limited to, accounting, business information systems, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, general management, human resource management, international business, marketing, and operations management.

The following parameters apply to MBA students who wish to take 8000-level accounting courses as their MBA electives: (See the Master of Accounting section of this catalog for more details.)

Must complete ACCT 8000;
Must complete undergraduate accounting prerequisite courses for each 8000-level course;
May take ACCT 8990 as an MBA elective after completion of 12 hours (four 8000-level graduate courses) including ACCT 8100 and ACCT 8400;
May not use ACCT 8990 to satisfy MGT 8999.

Four of the electives (12 credit hours) may be any 8000-level course included in KSU’s MBA Program.

One of the electives (3 credit hours) must be an international course from the list below:

Notes:

Students are advised to consider elective options early in their graduate studies and to make considered and deliberate choices. Academic advisors, faculty members, professional colleagues, mentors, and others are helpful resources to consider when choosing electives. Students are also encouraged to be flexible in their choices of electives due to evolving professional interests, course availability, or other influences that may emerge during the graduate experience.

A maximum of one business-relevant three-credit-hour course may be taken in a Kennesaw State University graduate program outside of the Coles College of Business with written permission from the director of the program and from the academic coordinator of the Coles College graduate programs.

Program Total (36 Credit Hours)

(12 graduate courses)

Program Total (39 Credit Hours)

(12 graduate courses, three business foundation courses)