MBA Program Curriculum

MBA Program Curriculum 

The Master of Business Administration (MBA) program curriculum at Loyola University New Orleans requires 36 to 39 credit hours with flexibility to customize your degree depending on your background, professional goals, and choice of course delivery. Our degree program course listing (DPCL) lists the course requirements for our full-time, part-time, online, and on-campus MBA programs. These tracks require 3-6 credits of foundational coursework, 18 credits of functional core coursework, 9 elective credits, and 6 credit hours to complete a dynamic capstone. Global MBA Curriculum can be found here.

Foundation Courses, 3-6 credits  

Foundation coursework sets the tone for your MBA experience at Loyola, reflecting our mission as a Jesuit institution to create a holistic education centered on social justice and academic rigor. These courses introduce students to the core principles and decision-making skills required in today’s modern business world. Foundation courses must be taken at the start of the MBA program.  

Applied Business Mathematics (3 credits): This course introduces students to fundamental concepts covering statistics, finance, economics, and spreadsheet usage in business applications. All students are required to take this course in their first semester enrolled. AACSB-accredited Business and STEM undergraduate graduates with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher are exempt from Applied Business Mathematics. 

Ethics and Social Justice (3 credits): Students are introduced to issues related to ethical behavior, social justice, and Jesuit values, applying them to real business cases and dilemmas. All students are strongly encouraged to take Ethics and Social Justice within their first year in the program to gain an introduction to ethical decision-making at the core of all aspects of business acumen.

 

Core Courses, 18 Credits 

In conjunction with the MBA foundation courses, students will take 6 functional core courses covering topics relevant to business leaders across industries and occupations. Topics covered in the functional core include strategic communication, financial and managerial accounting, organizational leadership, financial management, strategic marketing, and managerial economics and statistics. Functional core coursework will challenge MBA students to explore their interests and aptitudes in business and prepare them as multi-faceted leaders with a broad range of business skills. Functional core courses should be completed before students complete the dynamic capstone and are required prerequisites for BA 750 – Competitive Strategy.

 

Elective Courses, 9 credits

All MBA students are required to take 9 credit hours in elective courses. Electives provide greater flexibility for students to explore new interests or increase marketability in their chosen professional fields.

Dynamic Capstone, 6 credits 

Loyola’s dynamic capstone provides a unique opportunity for MBA students to put what they’ve learned during their elective and core coursework into practice through an experiential consulting practicum and final capstone course. Students can choose from practicum options designed to reflect the current business landscape and provide participants with meaningful connections working with real business leaders in nonprofits, startups, or multinational companies. The capstone culminates with BA 750 Competitive Strategy, where students will demonstrate their mastery of business philosophy, theory, application, and practice through a collaborative project and case analysis. 

Past consulting practicum options have included:

  • Non-Profit Consulting Practicum – A live, consulting experience with a non-profit institution, allowing students to apply their functional core acquired skills to a real-world scenario while living the mission of the university and giving back to the local community.
  • IdeaCorps MBA Consulting Challenge – An entrepreneurial-focused competition where students help advance startups through various stages of development, experiencing what it is like to be part of a founding team and guide decision-making in an early-stage company.
  • Global Practicum – A global immersion project in which a student will be required to incorporate all knowledge gained in the MBA program to address a current issue within a multinational company.