Academics
Uniting a top-notch business faculty with an intimate campus atmosphere, getting an MBA at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington’s Cameron School of Business is a “warm, rewarding experience.” This small public school offers several graduate business programs, including the popular Professional MBA, as well as a full-time International MBA (conferred in conjunction with partner universities overseas). For working professionals in the PMBA program, convenience is a key factor in their decision to attend UNCW. “The campus is conveniently located in the center of Wilmington” and all classes are held in the evenings or on the weekends. The school offers a “lock-step program where all students take the same classes together,” and the curriculum spans two years (twenty-one months if you were a business undergrad), with four courses per semester. While the course load is demanding (especially for those holding down a full-time job), “classes are...manageable” and professors are friendly, accessible, and “reasonable regarding student expectations.”
With a competent administrative team at the helm, “the MBA program is well-designed and run,” and many students say the “caliber of professors and course material has exceeded my expectations.” Group work is encouraged, and through assignments, “[students] to learn to work with all different types of people—just like the real work force.” Among many of the school’s special programs, the Learning Alliance is a sixt to nine-month project through which “students are put into groups and assigned a [regional] company” where they study and consult on business problems and opportunities. A student elaborates on the Learning Alliance: “Rather than just writing a marketing report based on a case study, an actual marketing project will be performed where students work with local businesses on their particular marketing needs.” On the flipside, students would like the curriculum to include a broader international perspective, while others would like to see more specialized course offerings, as well as “more freedom to choose classes within the program.”
UNCW students are impressed with the teaching staff, describing them as “highly educated with a lot of ‘hands-on’ work experience.” Drawing from a wide range of industries, Wilmington professors range “from economics teachers who have worked at the Fed for thirty years, to management teachers who have worked for large corporations in high positions globally, to significantly published authors and highly sought-after consultants.” In the classroom, they are on top of their game; “Professors of UNCW exhibit strong, experienced leadership in preparing, teaching, and guiding students through the business program.” Likewise, “the administration is very service-oriented and goes out of [its] way to make student administrative obstacles easy [to overcome].” “Affordability” is the cherry on top of the cake—here, in-state tuition runs less than 50 percent the price at comparable private schools.
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