In their second year, students select from elective courses in areas such as technology strategies, e-commerce and financial information management. They learn to speak each other's language. The program also requires the equivalent of two years of full-time work experience, but the average is four years. You'll need to be proficient in business calculus, spreadsheet applications and communication skills, too. The University of Maryland's large techno-MBA program has so closely intertwined its standard MBA courses with technology that every student gets a solid grounding in both business and technology.
Letters of recommendation are important.
It's given me a much broader business perspective in my understanding of technical projects. We take liberal arts undergraduates with no work experience and turn them into great managers. The first year consists of lock-step MBA courses such as finance, economics, management and marketing. The handful of students who are chosen to take part in the systems consulting concentration are put through the boot camp, then assigned internships that place them in positions of responsibility at various firms. In their second year, students are required to produce a project case study based on their work experience.