Virginia Tech MBA Program Named One of Top 15 in Country

Virginia Tech’s Evening MBA program moved up three places to No. 14 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 ranking of the best part-time MBA programs. The Northern Virginia-based program also retained its place as the top-ranked program in Virginia and now ranks as the top public university part-time MBA in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

The report assessed more than 300 part-time MBA programs across the country on factors such as student quality and years of professional experience, peer reputation, and the ratio of part-time to full-time students.

“This year marks the fifth consecutive year that the Evening program has featured in the top 20 programs nationwide,” said Dana K. Hansson, director of MBA programs. “We believe the faculty expertise and high level of flexibility we offer are key factors in continuing to attract high quality students from a range of industries to our program.”

The Evening MBA program allows students to choose how many courses they will take each semester, how long they will take to complete their degree, and whether they will specialize their degree in one of nine topic areas. Students also immediatly benefit from Virginia Tech's extensive alumni network in the D.C. metro area. Beyond typical networking events, alumni share their expertise with current students by acting as mentors and joining classes as guest speakers.

The program is one of three MBA program options offered by the Pamplin College of Business. With many shared courses and faculty, the Executive and Professional MBA program options offer a similar academic experience to the Evening program, but with alternate formats and locations to better serve a range of students in the D.C. metro area and throughout Virginia.

“What we did at Virginia Tech a few years ago was to say that we really want to focus on the working professional — someone who wants to enhance their career or make a change in the direction of their career, but not at the expense of continuing to be a business professional,” says Pamplin Dean Robert Sumichrast. That allows those students to come into the classroom, he adds, “and use what they’ve learned as part of the experience of the MBA program.”

This commitment to serving part-time students contributed to Virginia Tech’s highest ever overall score in the ranking. Another contributing factor was a strong appraisal by other part-time MBA programs.

“We’re particularly proud of the peer assessment score this year given the high quality of other programs in the nation,” said Dr. Parviz Ghandforoush, associate dean for graduate programs in Pamplin. “In part, we believe the high peer rating is due to our commitment to offering cutting-edge courses in areas like innovation and entrepreneurship, machine learning/AI, and cybersecurity that aren’t available to students in more traditional MBA programs.”