Management, Rady School of
The Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Requirements for Admission
Students interested in pursuing the MBA degree program at UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management (RSM) must have earned a BA, or its equivalent, with training comparable to that provided by the University of California. A minimum scholastic average of 3.0 or better is required for course work completed in upper-division or prior graduate study. No specific undergraduate major or course work is required for admission, though preparation in quantitative methods (such as calculus and statistics) is strongly encouraged. Prior business course work is not necessary. Students who do not have adequate quantitative preparation at the time of admission will need to complete preparatory course work before matriculation.
The admissions committee assesses professional and organizational experience in terms of scope or level of responsibility, evidence of contribution or success, and evidence of career progression or of growth in responsibility. The full-time MBA does not require professional work experience; however, the school believes that some prior experience in organizations and teams is critical to effective learning in the MBA program. Most students in the full-time MBA class will have some post-undergraduate professional experience. FlexWeekend and FlexEvening MBA students are working professionals; no specific number of years of work experience is required.
Applicants must submit two letters of recommendation from individuals who can attest to their professional and leadership skills and to their potential for business leadership.
Applicants are required to submit the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores (verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing). (Indicate code #4836.) A minimum score of 550 on the paper/pencil version and a minimum score of 213 on the computer-based version of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is required of all international applicants whose native language is not English and whose undergraduate education was conducted in a language other than English. Students who score below 600 on the paper/pencil or 250 on the computer-based TOEFL examination are strongly encouraged to enroll in an English-as-a-second-language program before beginning graduate work. The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is also accepted with a minimum score of 7.
Interviews are required for admission to the MBA program. Interviews are by invitation after review of the completed application.
The full-time MBA is a two-year, full-time program. The FlexWeekend MBA is twenty-four months, including two summers, and is scheduled on alternate weekends to accommodate the needs of working professionals. The FlexEvening MBA is thirty months, including summers, and is scheduled two nights per week to accommodate the needs of working professionals.
The school’s MBA application is available online at the school’s website.
The MBA Curriculum
(ninety-two units)
The MBA curriculum (ninety-two units) is made up of a set of core disciplinary and skill-oriented courses with an emphasis on industry sectors, unstructured electives, and the Professional Seminar. The basic curriculum is the same for the full-time and Flex students.
Industry Sector Emphasis
The Rady School’s MBA is designed to allow students to develop depth in industry sectors of particular interest. Selection of an industry is not required. The program combines a solid core, an integrative course sequence focused on innovation, a strong elective curriculum, a commitment to leadership development, and an emphasis on cutting-edge industry sectors.
Core Curriculum
The core curriculum provides a comprehensive education in the fundamentals of business and management and lays a strong foundation for further study.
Electives
Students may choose from electives in the full range of business and management disciplines, including accounting, finance, management, marketing, operations and information technology, and strategy. In addition, students may, with approval, take graduate courses offered elsewhere on campus. Prospective students are advised to consult the RSM Office of Admissions for a list of planned elective courses.
Professional Seminar
The Professional Seminar is a one-credit course offered each quarter. The seminar brings business leaders and experts to campus to speak to students and provides workshops focused on professional and leadership development and on personal and career effectiveness. The seminar may be taken multiple times for credit.
Internships
Full-time MBA students are strongly encouraged to participate in internships during the summer between the two years of the academic program. Part-time internships are also available during the academic year. Internships are coordinated through MBA Career Connections, the school’s career center.
Executive Mentor Program
The Rady School’s Executive Mentor program matches small groups of MBA students with senior business executives. Mentors work directly with their groups, offering perspective, guidance, and expertise based on their deep experience in business. Mentors help guide MBA students as they map out areas for personal and professional development, gain understanding of career progression and the skills and abilities required for successful leadership, and seek feedback about opportunities and areas of concern.
Career Services
MBA Career Connections, the Rady School’s career center, provides students with expertise, guidance, and resources to successfully manage their careers. Services and resources of MBA Career Connections are available to all MBA students, with some limitations for those sponsored by their employers. For full-time MBA students, the center’s personalized approach to career management begins before the student’s first quarter and continues throughout the program. MBA Career Connections actively works to identify opportunities for students and to enable students to build strong professional networks.
Career services include career assessment, individual career coaching, career fairs, workshops, employer presentations and panels, internship and career employment listings, and on-campus interviews. Specialized MBA career workshops focus on resume writing, interviewing skills (including videotaped mock interviews), effective job search strategies, and job offer evaluation and negotiation.
The PhD in Management
The Rady School offers a PhD in management designed to prepare graduates for careers in academic research. Only students who intend to pursue a doctorate should apply; the department does not enroll students who seek a master’s degree as a terminal degree.
Students with undergraduate preparation in various areas of the social and physical sciences may apply to the program. Students who elect to specialize in management science and finance are required to have additional mathematical knowledge, such as advanced calculus and statistics.
To be considered for admission candidates must
- Hold an undergraduate degree from an accredited college or university.
- Complete the UC San Diego Application for Admission with application fee.
- Submit test scores from the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) or Graduate Record Examination (GRE) taken within five years of the date of application. Official Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam scores are required of applicants whose primary language is not English or who graduate from a university at which the language of instruction was not English.
- Submit two copies of official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended.
- Submit three letters of recommendations that speak to the candidate’s potential as a researcher.
- Submit a statement of purpose.
- Take “Mathematics for Economists” from the UC San Diego Department of Economics prior to the start of the first fall quarter.
Note: At the discretion of the Admissions Committee, personal interviews may be required.
Program instruction includes formal core and domain/methodology course work, directed study in close consultation with faculty in preparation for a research career, and individual research required for the student’s dissertation. The core curriculum consists of a mathematics review and two course sequences designed to ensure that students are educated in the fundamentals of economic and social sciences. Individual students may be required to take additional courses depending upon educational background. The domain/methodology course requirement helps the student acquire the deep domain knowledge and methodological skills required to conduct research in his or her areas of interest.
The main PhD requirements are that a student completes the core and elective course work, qualifying examinations, original research papers and presentations, a dissertation acceptable to the doctoral committee, and a final oral examination on the dissertation. Rather than a separate qualifying exam on each topic, students will be required to pass graduate course exams with a cumulative GPA of 3.6. If a student does not have the 3.6 (A–) average, the topic qualifying exams will be required.
PhD students must be in residence a total of six quarters, three of which must be spent in continuous residence at the Rady School on the San Diego campus. A minimum of three quarters of residency must pass between the date of formal advancement to candidacy and the date of the final examination.
Nonresident students who have failed to establish California residency after the first year will be responsible for their own tuition.
Normative time (defined as that period of time in which students under normal circumstances are expected to complete their doctoral program) is four to five years, based on the student’s background and progress. The maximum length of time that a student may remain a precandidate for the PhD degree is three years. Total university support cannot exceed six years. Total registered time at UC San Diego cannot exceed seven years.
A detailed description of the PhD program is available on the Internet at http://management.ucsd.edu/phd/ or by contacting the PhD program coordinator at radyphd@ucsd.edu. Residence and other campuswide regulations are described in the graduate studies section of this catalog.
The Accounting Minor
The Rady School of Management’s accounting minor is designed to provide students a breadth of understanding of accounting theory, practices, and applications. The minor will appeal to students who envision careers in the accounting profession. Because of accounting’s broad application, these careers would span across public accounting firms, corporate accounting departments, and governmental, nonprofit, and nongovernmental organizations. For many students, this will be their first step in achieving a Certificate in Public Accounting, CPA.
Accounting Minor Requirements
The accounting minor will consist of seven courses that cover the key accounting principles, processes, and applications. Required courses include two lower-division courses and five upper-division courses:
Lower-Division Courses
MGT 4. Financial Accounting or Econ 4. Financial Accounting
MGT 5. Managerial Accounting
Upper-Division Courses
MGT 131A. Intermediate Accounting A
MGT 131B. Intermediate Accounting B
MGT 132. Auditing
MGT 135. Federal Taxation—Companies
MGT 136. Advanced Accounting
In order to count toward the minor, all courses must be taken for a letter grade and students must earn a C– or better in each course. Lower-division transfer credits for courses that are clearly equivalent in scope and content to lower-division courses required for the accounting minor will be accepted from regionally accredited United States institutions and from foreign institutions recognized by the Rady School of Management.
CPA Accounting Requirements
A student who completes nine Rady accounting courses (the seven courses required for the minor plus two electives for a total of thirty-six quarter units) will have met the accounting portion of the educational requirement for their CPA .
The Business Minor
The Rady School of Management’s business minor is designed to provide students the breadth of understanding of business theory and a depth of ability with business practices and applications. This minor will appeal to students who envision careers that require an understanding of the basic principles and practices of business. Because of business’s broad application, UC San Diego students with a minor in business will be well prepared to assume entry and intermediate positions in the business functions of a vast number large and small for-profit companies, governmental agencies, nonprofit organizations, and nongovernmental entities. Additionally, graduates pursuing careers not directly related to formal business functions, but still impacted by business practices, will bring a much-valued perspective to their initial employment.
Business Minor Requirements
To fulfill the requirements of the business minor, students must take five required courses and two electives. The required courses are
MGT 16. Personal Ethics at Work or MGT 166: Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility
MGT 45. Principles of Accounting (This course is designed for non-accounting minors. Students who have taken both ECON 4/MGT 4 and MGT 5 may substitute those for this requirement.)
MGT 103. Product Marketing and Management
MGT 181. Enterprise Finance
MGT 112. Global Business Strategy
Acceptable elective courses are
MGT 12. Personal Financial Management
MGT 16. Personal Ethics at Work (if MGT 166 taken for the core requirement)
MGT 105. Product Promotion and Brand Management
MGT 106. Sales and Sales Management
MGT 111. Introduction to Technology Business Start-up Process (summer only)
MGT 121A. Innovation to Market A
MGT 121B. Innovation to Market B
MGT 164. Organizational Leadership
MGT 166. Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility (if MGT 16 taken for the core requirement)
MGT 172. Business Project Management
MGT 174. Supply Chain Management
MGT 183. Financial Investments
MGT 184. Money and Banking
MGT 198. Directed Group Study
MGT 199. Independent Research Project
AIP 197. Internship (with departmental approval)
BISP 194. Introduction to Biotech (with departmental approval, when topics apply)
COMM 106F. Cultural Industries: The Film Industry
COMM 106I. Cultural Industries: Internet Industry
COMM 109D. Mass Communication: Advertising and Society
COMM 110G. Language, Literacy, and Communication: Communication in Organizations
COMM 162. Advanced Studies in Cultural Industries
ENG 100A. Principles of Team Engineering
ENG 100B. Engineering Leadership
ENG 201. Venture Mechanics
ENG 202. Enterprise Dynamics
ENG 203. Applied Innovation
MATH 193A. Actuarial Mathematics
MATH 194. Mathematics of Finance
PSYC 178. Organizational Psychology
SOCI 121. Economy and Society
SOCI 132. Gender and Work
SOCI 140FL. Law and the Workplace
SOCI 148E. Inequality and Jobs
All courses taken for the business minor must be taken for taken for a letter grade. Students must earn at least a C– in each course used for the minor. Lower-division transfer credits for courses that are clearly equivalent in scope and content to lower-division Rady School courses required for the business minor will be accepted from regionally accredited United States institutions and from foreign institutions recognized by the Rady School of Management. Upper-division courses applied toward the business minor will not count toward major requirements for another department.
Specializations
While not a formal requirement, if students choose to, they can take electives in the same functional area and thus have a “miniconcentration.” These miniconcentrations include the following:
- Entrepreneurship: MGT 121A, MGT 121B, ENG 201, ENG 202, ENG 203, BISP 194 (by department approval)
- Finance: MGT 183, MGT 184, MGT 12, MATH 193A, MATH 194
- Marketing: MGT 105, MGT 106, COMM 106I, COMM 109D
- Organizational Behavior: MGT 164, ENG 100A, SOCI 148E, SOCI 140F, SOCI 121, SOC 132, COMM 106F, COMM 103F, PSYC 178
- Operations: MGT 174, MGT 172, COMM 162, ENG 100B