Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Academics

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lally School of Management and Technology offers numerous graduate business programs with a strong focus on technology and close ties to the Northeast business community. For hard-working students, Lally’s MBA is fast-paced and efficient: taking a full course load, required credit hours can be completed in a mere twelve months. Those who want to tailor their degree or make a career change can pursue a specialization module in addition to core courses, but they’ll still have a diploma within seventeen to twenty-four months. (Currently, the school offers optional specializations in entrepreneurship, finance, information systems, marketing, and new product development, business analytics, and supply chain management.) For local professionals, Lally also offers a flexible full-time MBA. In addition, the school operates numerous master ’s programs in related business fields, such as an MS in Quantitative Finance and Risk Analytics, an MS in Business Analyltics, an MS in Supply Chain, and an MS in Technology Commercialization and Entrepreneurship. These specialized programs “raise the level of the MBA program by exposing MBA students to other advanced disciplines and specializations so that MBA students, upon graduation, are already familiar with working with field specialists such as financial engineers.”“The faculty is fantastic” at Rensselaer, and “small class sizes help [students] take advantage of their experience and research.” While “professors and classes get an A-plus,” students say Rensselaer ’s “administration gets a C-plus.” Overseen by “a multi-layer bureaucracy,” there can be plenty of red tape. Fortunately, the personnel at the business school are approachable and friendly. “The administrators understand the issues that students have and are very patient and understanding, and go above and beyond to help students.”