Professional MBA

 

“Being able to go to school and get my MBA at night, and then being able to put what I was learning into practice literally the next day, was the most important way to learn and understand how to manage and lead.”
           
– Heather Lafferty ’05
Executive Director and CEO
Habitat for Humanity Denver

The Professional MBA provides built-in flexibility for you to explore your interests, while still giving you a solid business foundation applicable to every industry or discipline. With 12 hours of electives, you can choose from 100+ electives to hone your skills and complete a specialization. Program highlights include:

• The downtown Denver location  provides access to business leaders and experiences. 

• Career and professional development opportunities are available every week through guest speakers, panel events, career fairs, and exclusive internship opportunities. 

• Flexibility and convenience built into the program that allows you to take classes in our downtown location or online.

• 14 specialization options  give you the power to shape your career development. Six of the options are available completely online.

Specializations require 12 hours of related coursework and can be added or changed throughout your program.

Accounting

Learn to interpret accounting information, tackle complex problems and communicate information to investors, creditors, managers and other organizational decision makers.

Bioinnovation and Entrepreneurship

Taking advantage of Colorado’s biocluster and a collaboration with faculty at the Anschutz Medical Campus, this offering is geared towards helping bioentrepreneurs achieve commercial success.

Business Analytics

This specialization trains you in forecasting, optimization, and simulation and how to construct and interpret models of big data.

Business Intelligence

Through hands-on learning, you'll work within MicroStrategy’s Business Intelligence Software, a leading software for business intelligence. This specialization may be completed completely online.

Business Strategy

You’ll gain the skills used to develop and implement business strategy, and you’ll have the leadership knowledge to help organizations effectively meet those objectives.

Commodities

Dive into topics like trading operations, investment management, and investment banking. Internships, field trips, guest speakers, and networking opportunities connect you to executives in commodities firms in agriculture, energy, minerals, and metals.

Entrepreneurship

Classes will get into the nitty-gritty of business plans, legal issues, venture capitalists, web development, and more. This specialization gives you access to dozens of networking opportunities including an annual business plan competition, internships, local entrepreneurs, and connections with new ventures.

Finance

You’ll have specialized skills in different financial function areas including corporate, investments, and financial institutions. You’ll be able to choose from a range of topics including forecasting, derivatives, risk management, and firm evaluation. This specialization may be completed completely online.

Information Systems

You’ll know how to analyze data and better manage business processes with technology. This specialization may be completed completely online.

International Business

Business crosses all boundaries including country borders, language barriers, and cultural differences. You’ll be able to apply your international business knowledge across disciplines.

Management

Concentrate your degree on becoming a more effective leader. You’ll develop key leadership skills including project management, negotiation, ethics, and sustainability. This specialization may be completed completely online.

Managing for Sustainability

You’ll learn how to build a strategy to reduce operating costs, open up new markets and revenue streams, increase customer loyalty, and improve financial performance. This specialization may be completed completely online.

Marketing

Learn how to build long-term relationships between a company and its customers. This specialization gives you skills in marketing strategy, digital marketing, marketing research, buyer behavior, and sales management.

Risk Management and Insurance

All businesses manage risk and 50% of the industry’s workforce is retiring in the next decade. With this huge need in talent, companies are looking for professionals capable in managing risk to enhance firm value. You’ll learn how to identify liabilities and mitigate risk in commercial settings and introduce insurance products for personal and commercial use. This specialization may be completed completely online. Member of the Global Center for Insurance Excellence. 

Take classes in a hybrid format (classroom and online) or complete your degree in a fully online curriculum. Your online courses are taught by the same professors and lecturers that teach on campus. All core MBA courses can be found online. We also offer hybrid courses in the evening for those working full-time.

Online is defined as an asynchronous course, meaning that there is no specific meeting day/time.  Hybrid is defined as a blend of in-person and online learning.  The in-person experience will typically be once a week, from 6:30-9:15 p.m., one evening within Monday-Thursday. There will be at least six in-person meetings during the 8-week session. The in-person experience is complemented with asynchronous content.

​While not all specializations can be completed online, many offer classes with online options. With careful planning, the following specializations can be completed fully online:

• Accounting
• Business Intelligence 
• Commodities
• Entrepreneurship
• Finance
• Information Systems
• Management
• Managing for Sustainability
• Marketing
• Risk Management and Insurance

Tuition

The cost of tuition for the Professional MBA is different for in-state and out-of-state students.

Residents of western states may qualify for in-state tuition if they are pursuing a Professional MBA. The Western Regional Graduate Program (WRGP) requires that students maintain current residency of WRGP state until degree completion.

Scholarships

Dual degree options for the Professional MBA include all Business School Master of Science degree programs excluding the MS Health Administration. We design a specific degree plan so you get through both programs as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. Master of Science programs available for dual degree options include:

If you are applying for two degrees through the CU Denver Business School, you will only need to submit one application. For more information about dual degree options and the application process, please contact BSchool.Admissions@ucdenver.edu.

Partner Dual Degree Programs

We have also partnered with other CU Denver departments to offer dual degree options for the following programs. You will need to apply to both programs separately and follow the admission requirements for each program.

• MD from the University of Colorado School of Medicine
• PharmD from the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
• MArch from the CU Denver College of Architecture and Planning
• MURP from the CU Denver College of Architecture and Planning
• MLA from the CU Denver College of Architecture and Planning
• MA Political Science from the CU Denver College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
• MS Bioengineering from the CU Denver College of Engineering, Design and Computing 
• Graduate School of Banking at Colorado

The Professional MBA degree admits students for a fall, spring, or summer start. Admissions are made on a rolling basis, meaning decisions are made as applications are completed.

These application deadlines provide timing guidance for applicants, but admission decisions for the Professional MBA program are made on a rolling basis and decision notifications are normally sent within 1-2 weeks of submitting a completed application.