Students and members of the community talked with professors Wednesday night to see if Kent State University’s masters programs in business were right for them. 

The College of Business Administration hosted the Graduate Programs Information Night at the Kent State Student Center for both students and the public.

The speaker, Louise Ditchey, administrative director for the College of Business Administration, highlighted Kent State’s Master’s in Business Administration (MBA), Executive MBA, Exclusive MBA, Executive MBA for Healthcare Professionals, M.S. in Accounting, M.A. in Economics and the Ph.D. in Business Administration.

“Students need to look at a couple of different things,” Ditchey said. “They need to look at the curriculum to make sure it’s something they are interested in studying. They should look at the level of accreditation the school has and that there degree is a solid degree that is going to help them in their careers. They will want to look at faulty and specially research areas, and if it meshes with their interest areas, that’s another big plus.”

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accredits all of Kent State’s graduate business programs. Ditchey said only 700 schools in the world have this accreditation.

“They have a lot to offer, many different programs for anyone with different types of experience,” said Liz Carnahan, a senior English major. “You can do internships, along with different fields of expertise that can help you apply your career goals for a much brighter future.”

No matter what career a student is interested in, pursuing a degree in a graduate program at Kent State could improve a person’s marketability, said Felecia Urbanek, coordinator of graduate programs.

Urbanek also said the programs can expand a student’s applied business knowledge and problem solving skills, all of which can be applied in a variety of real-world business situations.

Ditchey said Kent State offers graduate assistantships, where students work for the school and in return are supported financially to help manage the cost to attend graduate school.

“There’s a lot of out-of-class experience that I found that I’m involved in now and even more that I’m finding out about that help you to expand your knowledge outside of the classroom,” said Craig Maas, a first year MBA graduate student. “I’m part of the (John) Molson case competition team, and we are going up to Canada for a week to compete against an international case competition.”

The deadline for domestic applicants, which include MS in Accounting, MA in Economics and part-time MBA, is Dec. 1.

For more information, contact the Graduate Studies Office at (330) 672-3012 or email at [email protected]. 

Contact Chelsea Graff at [email protected].