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Other Joint Degrees

MBA/MA Latin American Studies

The Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies draws upon renowned Vanderbilt faculty from the Departments of Anthropology, Economics, Art and Art History, History, Political Science, Sociology, and Spanish and Portuguese to offer a broad-based, interdisciplinary education, promoting study abroad in Latin America and Spain.

In this three-year (six-semester) program, students receive an MBA and an MA in Latin American Studies. Students spend their first year at Owen and their second year at the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies (CLAIS). Year three is divided between Owen courses and the Latin American Studies thesis. As with other joint professional and graduate degrees, the number of hours required to earn the MBA credential is reduced from 61 to 49 hours because Owen will give credit for 12 hours of course work from Vanderbilt Graduate School, which houses the CLAIS.

Applicants to the Vanderbilt MBA/MA Latin American Studies program must apply to each school separately and be granted admission to both schools. If both schools accept a candidate, they will issue a joint letter of admission to the program.

Students must demonstrate reading and speaking competence in either Spanish or Portuguese.

MBA/MDIV (Divinity)

Owen and the Vanderbilt Divinity School sit side by side on the northeast corner of campus. Both schools are among the nation’s top schools in their respective fields. A joint degree from these schools prepares students for management and ministry of a church or for management work in social services or pastoral care.

By combining study in management with study in divinity, a student can earn both the MBA and MDIV degrees in a total of four years—eight semesters—instead of the five years normally required to complete the two degrees consecutively.

MBA/MDIV students must apply separately to the Divinity School and to Owen and be granted admission by both schools. Rejection by either school does not negate acceptance by the other school, but this acceptance is to the regular degree program, not the joint-degree program.

It is recommended that students begin their joint program at the Divinity school given the tuition arrangements in both schools. As with other joint professional and graduate degrees, the number of hours required to earn the MBA credential is reduced from 61 to 49 hours because Owen will give credit for 12 hours of course work from the Divinity School.

MBA/PhD

The Owen faculty recently approved two new joint MBA/PhD programs—one with the Medical School, the other with the School of Engineering.

  • The Medical School joint degree includes programs currently administered through the Office of Biomedical Research Education and Training (BRET) within the School of Medicine. This includes both traditional biomedical sciences degrees and the recently established PhD in Biomedical Informatics.
  • The second program is offered through the School of Engineering.

Ideally, students would apply to the joint degree program at the outset of their PhD studies. However, students can apply to enroll in the joint program after their first or second year of PhD study. It is important to note that PhD scholarship aid provided by the partner school is not assured for the semesters of MBA enrollment.

As with other joint professional and graduate degrees, the number of hours required to earn the MBA credential is reduced from 61 to 49 hours because Owen will give credit for 12 hours of course work from these partner schools. It is this double-counting of credit hours that permits students to complete both degrees by the end of the third year following the start of core courses at Owen.

Students must complete all first-semester (mods one and two) core requirements in the fall of their entering year at Owen. These requirements include microeconomics, finance, marketing, accounting, operations, statistics, leadership, strategy, and communications.  (Exemptions in a few of these courses are possible based on past course work.) The remaining requirements for the degree include four hours of core courses (macroeconomics and strategy) and 12 credit hours of Concentration electives. These requirements can be taken in the spring semester following enrollment at Owen or in subsequent years.

Because MBA/PhD students have fewer credit hour requirements to earn the MBA degree than traditional MBA students, they must meet the course work requirements of the partner program in which they are enrolled. Thus, Owen will not grant a degree to a student who does not finish his or her dissertation. If a student were to withdraw from the PhD program, Owen would require 61 hours of Owen coursework toward the MBA degree and payment of the equivalent of four full semesters of tuition.

Students are required to obtain the approval of the department chair of the relevant program in the School of Engineering or School of Medicine before being admitted as a student into this joint program. Applications for the PhD program in Engineering are handled through the Graduate School rather than the School of Engineering.