Arizona State / W.P. Carey

Faculty

Faculty members teach across 10 academic units and contribute to W.P. Carey’s 10 research centers and initiatives, which have missions ranging from fostering entrepreneurship to determining competitiveness.

Curriculum

Professors utilize a mix of teaching styles at W.P. Carey, from case studies to lectures, in-class workshops to learning labs. The academic year is broken into quarters, but the year kicks off with orientation in early August. Quarter One classes begin in mid-August and end in October. Quarter Two then runs from October to January, followed by Quarter Three through March.  When the fourth Quarter wraps up, students are required to complete an internship over the summer. There is also the option for a global elective.

To graduate, students must complete 60 credit hours.  About two-thirds of these are required courses, and the remaining third go towards electives.  The first half of the first year is comprised entirely of core courses, but by the third quarter, students may begin to take elective or concentration courses in addition to the required courses.   W.P. Carey offers eight concentrations, including business analytics, entrepreneurship, finance, health care management, information management, marketing, sports business and supply chain management, to support specific career paths and skill building. While 15 credits are required to complete each concentration, the manner in which these credits are earned via required courses and electives varies. For instance, business analytics requires four courses, but supply chain management comes with eight required courses.  W.P. Carey also offers MBA specializations, which only require 9 credits to complete.  The specializations are sports business, global business economics and sustainable enterprise.

Other MBA Degree Options

In addition to the full-time MBA program, W.P. Carey also offers a part-time MBA for working professionals, an online MBA and Executive MBA program.  The W. P. Carey Professional Flex MBA is part-time and is designed for those seeking to earn a degree while maintaining their careers.  Candidates for the Flex MBA tend to have 5 to 10 years of work experience.  An MBA through the Professional Flex program can be earned over the course of two to four years with a combination of online and classroom learning.  Classes are held on campus two nights a week.  The Online MBA lasts for 21 months with January or August start dates.  The courses are packaged in five-week sessions, and students may complete elective online or internationally.  As with the Flex MBA, candidates usually have 5 to 10 years of work experience.  Finally, the Executive MBA at W.P. Carey targets professionals with 10 to 20 years of work experience who have accumulated managerial work.  The Executive MBA runs for 21 months and classes take place every other Friday and Saturday, starting in August, on ASU’s campus.

Because the W.P. Carey School of Business is part of the larger ASU network, the school notes that any combination of concurrent degrees is possible.  The most popular choices include:

• MBA/Juris Doctor
• MBA/Master of Architecture
• MBA/Master of Science in Business Analytics
• MBA/Master of Legal Studies
• MBA/MD Mayo Clinic School of Medicine
• MBA/Master of Science in Information Management
• MBA/Master of Science in Finance

Concentrations at W.P. Carey

• Business Analytics
• Entrepreneurship
• Finance
• Health Care Management
• Information Management
• Marketing
• Sports Business
• Supply Chain Management

Degree Offerings at W.P. Carey

Full-time MBA
https://wpcarey.asu.edu/mba-programs/full-time

Part-time MBA
Professional Flex
https://wpcarey.asu.edu/mba-programs/part-time

Online
https://wpcarey.asu.edu/mba-programs/online

Executive
Executive MBA
https://wpcarey.asu.edu/mba-programs/executive

Custom Corporate
https://wpcarey.asu.edu/mba-programs/custom-corporate

Clubs, Conferences & Competitions

W.P. Carey students have a variety of opportunities to get involved with the school community.  The first is Camp Carey, a three-day retreat required of all first-year MBA students in between Orientation and the first day of class.  Once the academic year begins, students have the option to join professional or social clubs.  Finance, marketing and supply chain management are just some of the focal points of the professional clubs.  Socially, W.P. Carey members may take advantage of the Outdoors Club, golfing, Toastmasters and more.

During the year, students may also participate in some competitions, including Chevron Case Competition, Cisco Circular Economy Case Competition and the Toast Devils Annual Speech Competition.  The Chevron Case Competition deals with supply chain challenges, while the Cisco one invites teams of students to develop innovative solutions to market problems.  The latter is an interdisciplinary competition offering $2,800 in prizes and most recently sought to address the issue of sustainability in an increasingly tech-based world.

Campus Spaces

MBA students convene in the McCord building, located on the main Tempe campus. The four-story building also hosts MBA Administration and Career Management services for all students.  McCord Hall has 14 classrooms, 10 interview room, 58 team rooms, 65 open work stations and four lounges.  As all MBA students live off campus, this is the main hub for each class.

Professional clubs

• Entrepreneurship Society
• Graduate Business Information Management Association
• Graduate Finance Association
• Graduate Strategic Marketing Association
• Graduate Supply Chain Management Association
• MBA Cultural Association
• National Association of Women MBAs

Extracurricular or social clubs

• Golf Association
• Net Impact
• Partners Club
• The MBA Outdoors Club
• Toastmasters
• Volunteer Council

Career Services

W.P. Carey Career Services office provides many ways for students to develop professionally during their time at the school. These services include computer resources to determine an individual’s target firms, job coaching with members of the office staff, résumé and interview workshops, and an on-campus recruiting schedule.  In addition to general career fairs, W.P. Carey Career Services also sponsor industry-specific events.  For instance, they host Sports Business Career and Internship Fairs and Supply Chain Management Association Career Fairs in both September and January.

Career Statistics

By graduation, roughly 74% of the Class of 2017 had received job offers, and within three months of graduation that percentage rose to nearly 96.  The mean starting salary for W.P. Carey graduates was $98,633.

Thirty-six percent of the Class of 2017 joined the technology industry. The next most popular career choices were financial services and consumer products, both of which claimed 12% of graduates.  Manufacturing and consulting both saw 10% of the latest class.  Petroleum/energy took 5% of the class and the rest joined health care, retail, nonprofit, real estate and other industries.

W.P. Carey keeps with the general business school trend of placing a considerable percentage of its graduates in the region where the school is located.  In this case, 52% of the Class of 2017 found work in the Southwestern U.S.  The West was the second most popular location for graduates, with 25% of the class starting their careers there.  Nearly 9% headed South and 7% found jobs in the Midwest.

In regards to post-MBA function, supply chain led the pack, as nearly 54% of the Class of 2017 took on related roles.  Consulting and finance/accounting were a distant second, claiming about 10% each.

The Class Profile

W.P. Carey’s Class of 2019 is comprised of 109 students. Twenty-seven percent of W.P. Carey’s Class of 2019 pursued degrees in business; the same percentage studied engineering. Twenty-five percent had pursued social sciences/humanities in their undergraduate years and 13% had studied math/science. Finally, 7% earned bachelor’s degrees in economics. Overall, the average GPA for the class in undergrad was 3.51.

Upon matriculation at W.P. Carey, students averaged 29 years in age with over five years of full-time work experience. The average GMAT score of incoming students clocked in at 682; the average GRE was 311. In total, 34% of students in the Class of 2019 are international and 39% are women.

Application Procedures

W.P. Carey gives its applicants the choice of applying in one of four admissions rounds, which usually take place in December, February, April, and June. International applicants must apply by the third round. The application requirements for W.P. Carey include completing the school’s application forms and submitting essays, a résumé, contact information for at least one recommender, and the application fee ($70 domestic, $90 international). After submitting the online materials, applicants must provide their official transcripts and also report their GMAT/GRE and, when applicable, TOEFL/IELTS/PTE scores.

Application Checklist

• Application Form
• Essays
• Recommender(s)
• Résumé
• Application Fee ($70 domestic / $90 int’l)
• Official Transcripts for College/Graduate Work
• GMAT or GRE Score
• TOEFL/IELTS or PTE Scores

With the introduction of the Forward Focus MBA Scholarship, full-time MBA students need only worry about the cost of living and other expenses, as the scholarship covers all tuition costs for all full-time MBA students.

U.S. citizens and permanent residents can avail themselves of different loan programs, including the Federal Unsubsidized Loans and Federal Graduate PLUS Loans.  International students must seek private loans.