For students with an MBA or other master's degree relevant to their field of specialization, the number of courses can be reduced by exemption from core knowledge requirements or through transfer credit. If you are offered admission to the program, the letter of admission will identify a faculty member within your area of specialization who has agreed to serve as your initial advisor when you enter the program. Quite a lot of flexibility exists in the program because it is small and can respond to interests of individual students. Specific knowledge requirements and examinations must be met, but there is flexibility in the particular courses chosen and the particular areas of knowledge to be emphasized. And, of course, students can pursue an individually tailored course of study if they gain admission under the program's interdisciplinary option.
Research is carried out while students are taking formal course work and during summers.
As research assistants students are involved with faculty in joint research activities and pursue their own research objectives under faculty supervision. These activities should be directed toward authoring or coauthoring papers presented at academic meetings and submitted to research publications by the time the student is ready for dissertation research. Ph.D. students are not formally required to teach, but some teaching experience is highly desirable for anyone expecting to pursue an academic career. Students serve initially as faculty research assistants, but also are called on to assist faculty members in teaching certain courses. Students are usually able to take advantage of opportunities to assume responsibility for teaching a full course, either in Vanderbilt's undergraduate programs, at nearby colleges and universities, and occasionally in elective courses in the Owen School's MBA program.