One-Year MBA Program Details

Program details about the Penn State Smeal College of Business One-Year MBA.

The Penn State Smeal One-Year MBA is a customizable, full-time residential program designed for current undergraduate students or working professionals with up to five years of experience who are pursuing early career leadership and management positions.

  • Program Structure: Begin the program in August to earn your MBA in 9 months at Penn State’s University Park campus.
  • Customizable: Your MBA from Smeal gives you ability to specialize with optional electives and build a custom learning plan with stackable credentials, making it possible to earn a sequential degree.
  • Experiential Learning: The program will expand your classroom learning through unique, hands-on experiences to further develop key business and leadership skills so you are prepared to make an immediate impact.
  • Global Perspective: Through core coursework and the opportunity to participate in a global immersion at an overseas destination, you will gain a unique global perspective critical for today’s leaders.
  • Student Success First: With a focus on early career leadership and dedicated graduate career services, we’re a business college that cares about your long-term success.
  • 740K+ Business Partners: The Penn State alumni network is our biggest asset, and with 90,000+ Smeal alumni and counting, we are everywhere in the world and always in your corner—ready to open doors, offer advice, and cheer you on.

Customize Your Lifelong Learning

At Smeal, we’re proud to offer a portfolio of graduate programs for every career stage and life circumstance. More importantly, we developed these programs to work with one another, which means you can customize your MBA experience to suit your aspirations.

Smeal One-Year MBA Electives

Deepen your knowledge and build expertise by opting to take electives in any of the following areas while you earn your MBA:

  • Accounting Foundations
  • Business Analytics
  • Business Architecture
  • Business Management Foundations
  • Business Sustainability Strategy
  • Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship
  • Management Consulting
  • Marketing Analytics
  • Negotiation and Influence
  • Real Estate Law and Valuation
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Supply Chain Risk Management
  • Taxation

Stacking Smeal Credentials

Smeal allows for more flexible, personalized education with the ability to stack degrees. One-Year MBA students may use eligible credits from their MBA toward a sequential master’s degree. Courses will be waived only after the student has applied and been accepted into the secondary program. MBA students can stack with the following Smeal master’s programs:

  • Accounting
  • Accounting Analytics
  • Business Analytics
  • Finance
  • Real Estate Analysis & Development
  • Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Online)
  • Marketing Analytics and Insights (Online)
  • Taxation (Online)