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Today's fragile economy may be driving students not just to consider MBA programs, but also to pay closer attention to master’s degrees in management education.
GMAC's 2009 Application Trends survey found that 78 percent of Master of Accounting programs tracked an increase in application volume this year. That's more than the 69 percent of MBA programs that saw applications rise this year and also higher than the 65 percent of accounting programs that experienced an uptick in applications in 2008.
Some 68 percent of Master of Finance programs enjoyed an increase in 2009 application volume, a strong showing but down slightly from the 73 percent of such programs that saw increases last year.
In 2009, 63 percent of Master of Management programs and 53 percent of other graduate management master's also saw increases in application volume.
"Specialized master's are an important part of a business school's portfolio," says Michael J. Page, dean of business and the McCallum Graduate School at Bentley College. Bentley's portfolio of specialized master's programs, Page says, includes a core group of what he characterizes as bedrock offerings—programs that are likely to last the longest over time, albeit with regular innovations. In addition, he says, there are "niche master's that will always appeal to slightly smaller target markets … and meet a demand that we see at the moment."
An appeal apart from an MBA
Specialized master's degrees tend to attract younger students with less work experience than typical MBA programs. Across their diverse curricula, specialized master's programs offer options for focused study in areas that MBA programs may only touch on—or may not cover at all. Students interested in corporate technical positions rather than management may stand to gain more from the specialized knowledge they will get in master's programs vs. MBA-level training.
Specialized master's programs that might look similar in title from institution to institution may differ greatly in execution. The specialized programs that Bentley College offers, for example—accountancy, finance, taxation, financial planning, human factors in information design, marketing analytics, information technology—include some specialized programs that are fairly standard fare at many schools as well as some unique to Bentley's vision of a specialized master's.
Schools tend to tailor their own mix of specialized master's programs, developing them to meet the needs of regional industries or local students. David W. Blackwell, associate dean for graduate programs and the James W. Aston/RepublicBank Professor of Finance at the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, notes that the school's specialized master's programs in human resource management, real estate, and information systems draw students from regional, national, and international markets, but that its other specialized programs target a more local audience. "We're largely serving our own undergraduates and helping them get an advanced degree," he says.
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