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Katz Full-time MBA #41 in the U.S.

Master Your Move Forward

Designed to be completed as a cohort experience in only 18 months, our redesigned Signature MBA program provides you with time for a summer internship and includes an intensive integrated learning capstone experience during your final semester, while providing a path to rejoin the workforce four months earlier than a traditional two-year MBA program. Students will bring significant post-bachelor professional experience and a desire to advance or switch industries or professional field. The program begins in early August with coursework concluding 18 months later with an immersive capstone experience.

Accreditation

Image of the AACSB LogoAACSB International (AACSB), a global nonprofit association, connects educators, students, and businesses to achieve a common goal: to create the next generation of great leaders. Synonymous with the highest standards of excellence since 1916, AACSB provides quality assurance, business education intelligence, and learning and development services to over 1,700 member organizations and more than 900 accredited business schools worldwide.

Integrated Learning. Individualized. Accelerate Your Career

We provide a strong, broad foundation of business knowledge and we empower you to tailor a program that builds on your unique strengths, life experiences, and professional goals to accelerate your career through integrated learning.

Curriculum

BACC 2401 - FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
The major objective of this course is to help students understand the basic structure and substance of a firm’s reports from a user’s point of view. This includes what is (and what is not) included in the reports, how and when events affect the statements, and what can be inferred from these reports about the firm’s past activities, present position and the future prospects.
Academic Career: Graduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Grad LG/SU3 Basis
Course Requirements: Katz Grad School of Business students only.

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BECN 2401 - ECONOMIC ANALYSIS FOR MANAGERIAL DECISION: FIRMS AND MARKETS
Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
This course develops an understanding of how market-based economic systems reconciles the separate needs of consumers and producers, and provides an economic framework for managerial decisions. Topics include: pricing, output, and quality decisions; the impact of productivity improvements on costs; quality-cost tradeoffs; transactions costs as a determinant of the boundaries of the firm; market imperfection and the role of regulation.
Academic Career: Graduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Grad LG/SU3 Basis
Course Requirements: Katz Grad School of Business students only.

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BQOM 2401 - STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
This course provides students with a set of integrated statistical tools and methodologies useful in a managerial environment. The emphasis is on the use of real data for modeling and solving problems in the areas of marketing, finance, human resources and operations management. Topics covered include: data analysis and modeling, estimation, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, simple and multiple regression, analysis and design of experiments and statistical quality control.
Academic Career: Graduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Grad LG/SU3 Basis
Course Requirements: Katz Grad School of Business students only.

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BIND 2444 - MANAGEMENT SIMULATION CAPSTONE
Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
The Management Simulation Capstone course has students perform the role of an executive in a simulated competitive industry over numerous fiscal years in order to apply and demonstrate the academic and professional development skills acquired in other core courses. The course expects that students will develop and implement a strategic management process in a complex competitive environment using a range of business tools and skills to compete successfully against other talented management teams. This is accomplished through interpreting/analyzing market data and diagnosing the factors affecting a company’s prior-year performance; evaluating the strategies and actions of rival companies; identifying strategic actions with good prospects for improving company performance; and identifying promising ways to build competitive advantage, improve operating efficiency, and cope effectively with fluctuating exchange rates, tariffs, and other global market factors. Furthermore, this capstone course provides a platform for professional development as students develop their strengths, give and receive feedback, and communicate effectively to influence a wide range of stakeholders.
Academic Career: Graduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Grad LG/SNC Basis
Course Requirements: PREQ: BACC 2401 and BQOM 2401 and BFIN 2409 and BMKT 2409

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BQOM 2421 - DECISION TECHN IN MFG & OPER MGT
Minimum Credits: 2
Maximum Credits: 2
This course provides a foundation in the use of decision technologies for solving complex management problems in a variety of functional areas.
Academic Career: Graduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Grad LG/SNC Basis
Course Requirements: CREQ: BQOM 2401; PROG: Katz Graduate School of Business

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BFIN 2409 - FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 1
Minimum Credits: 2
Maximum Credits: 2
The main objective of this course is to gain understanding of the theory and practice of financial decision making. This course develops the tools and framework necessary to address the question what investment projects should be undertaken to maximize shareholder wealth? To examine this question, we will learn how to value an uncertain stream of cash flows and apply the concept of the time value of money in valuing bonds and equity. The course covers a number of market-based investment criteria and develops an entity valuation model, based on discounted cash flows (DCF) used for standard capital budgeting decisions. We will conclude with a short introduction to the concept of risk and return, resulting in the cost of capital. We will cover a case discussion on capital budgeting to put our framework in a more realistic environment.
Academic Career: Graduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Grad LG/SNC Basis
Course Requirements: CREQ: BACC 2401 or BQOM 2401; PROG: Joseph M. Katz Grad Sch Bus

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BMIS 2409 - INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Minimum Credits: 2
Maximum Credits: 2
.How does information technology enable the business? How does it provide business value? This course provides an overview of information technology and its application in a business. By simultaneously examining business cases and the capabilities of relevant technologies, students will develop an understanding of how information technology supports and enables business strategies, innovation, and improved business capabilities and processes.
Academic Career: Graduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Grad LG/SNC Basis
Course Requirements: Katz Grad School of Business students only.

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BMKT 2409 - MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Minimum Credits: 2
Maximum Credits: 2
This course examines the role of marketing in creating value for the firm. It helps students answer the central question of marketing strategy, what value to provide and to whom, using the tools of segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) of brands. The course shows how central aspects of marketing mix programs, product, place, pricing, and promotion, all follow from an effective STP program, and how marketing support functions such as marketing research, advertising, and new product development can support effective marketing decisions. Emerging trends in digital marketing, competition and globalization are examined. The course emphasizes experience-based learning to develop the necessary marketing knowledge and skills among students.
Academic Career: Graduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Grad LG/SNC Basis
Course Requirements: Katz Grad School of Business students only.

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BSPP 2409 - STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Minimum Credits: 2
Maximum Credits: 2
“Strategy” in the context of management, focuses on creating a harmonious relationship between separate units within an organization, and between a firm and its environment. The core strategic management course explores this classic concept of strategy and how it can be adapted to today’s changing and turbulent environments. While the course adopts the perspective of a general manager (e.g. Head of a strategic business unit), it provides critical insight to functional managers who must align their departments’ activities with the firm’s overall objectives and approach to creating and capturing value (i.e. Its competitive strategy).The strategic management course employs a multi-method pedagogy. Students learn a set of perspectives, conceptual frameworks, and tools – drawn from industrial organization economics and the behavioral sciences and sociology, with which to understand the opportunities and challenges involved in developing world-class capabilities for competing effectively in globally-linked economies. Through case studies, we explore how a firm’s competitive strategy shapes the way it engages customers, suppliers, competitors, and others comprising its value net. Through project assignments, we investigate how competitive advantage can be quantified using publicly available data. Together, the multiple modes of inquiry will provide insight into why competitive advantage is fundamental to a firm’s long-term success; how the various activities in a firm’s value chain can contribute to competitive advantage; and why, although industries support many competitive strategies, each firm tends to employ only one at a time.
Academic Career: Graduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Grad LG/SNC Basis
Course Requirements: PREQ: (BACC 2401 and BECN 2401) and (BFIN 2006 or BFIN 2409 or BMKT 2411 or BMKT 2409); PROG: Joseph M. Katz Grad Sch Bus

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BOAH 2409 - ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR: LEADERSHIP AND GROUP EFFECTIVENESS
Minimum Credits: 2
Maximum Credits: 2
The effective management of people is a critical component of organizational competitiveness. This course addresses problems and issues concerning leadership, interpersonal effectiveness, and challenges for managers in the 21st century. The student is prepared to manage himself or herself and others in a rapidly-changing global environment. Topics covered include leadership, teamwork, power, politics, and influence.
Academic Career: Graduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Grad LG/SNC Basis
Course Requirements: Katz Grad School of Business students only.

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BSEO 2401 - BUSINESS ETHICS & SOCIAL PERFORM
Minimum Credits: 2
Maximum Credits: 2
This course examines concepts, issues, and tools related to the management of ethics and social responsibility in business. Students learn how to recognize and respond to ethical problems, to understand their personal responsibilities as business managers, to evaluate various ethical frameworks, to apply a process of moral decision making to ethical problems, to grasp relationships between ethical behavior and organizational structure and processes and to manage the ethical and social problems and opportunities arising from dimensions of the business environment.
Academic Career: Graduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Grad LG/SU3 Basis
Course Requirements: Katz Grad School of Business students only.

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In addition to the MBA Core Curriculum, MBA students also complete “professional” coursework:

  • Quant Methods for Business
  • Programming for Business
  • Business Communications

The content of these courses is designed to accelerate a students’ academic and personal development as a business professional. The timing, delivery, and credit-load may vary by program (i.e. Accelerated v. Signature v. Part-Time MBA). Any credits earned count toward the minimum 45-credits required for the MBA degree.

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Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business

Pitt Business is deeply rooted in the business community and has an unbroken legacy of educating business leaders. Our students are introduced to influential alumni who are engaged, accessible, and far-reaching. Our alumni actively recruit our students for full-time positions and internships and can be found at leading companies in practically every industry, in nearly 90 countries, and in all 50 states. Pitt graduates are made up of business leaders, community champions, and do cutting-edge research.

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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

It was very clear to me that Katz was the perfect option for my education and future career. Great medical care strikes a balance between both business and medicine. My time at Katz allowed me to shadow and connect with UPMC doctors and get an inside look at the business side of medical startups.

Tom Cwalina

MBA '20

There was a great spirit of cooperation and camaraderie amongst my fellow students. I keep in touch with a number of my fellow Katz classmates to this day and we all agree that our time at Katz had a significant impact on our lives and careers.

Scott Frenz

MBA '02