One-year MBA options

Recently we talked about the Kellogg 1Y program – but we didn’t exactly explain what it is. So here’s some backstory to fill in the gaps, in case we piqued your interest in this quick-I-want-to-be-done-with-it MBA option.

First though, let’s start with the basics. The Kellogg two-year MBA is the standard full-time MBA degree that everyone thinks of when they think about getting an MBA. It’s geared for people in their mid- to late-20s, maybe early 30s, who are often trying to switch to a whole different career, or maybe to use the MBA to jumpstart some entrepreneurial ambitions. Pretty standard stuff.

The Kellogg 1Y is the same exact degree as that standard two-year Kellogg MBA, and nearly the same curriculum, and it’s designed for people who are about the same age (though this may be shifting to slightly younger folks in the coming years.) The main difference is, it’s for those who either majored in a business-y discipline in college, or who have significant work experience in, say, finance, for whom much of the first-year core curriculum would be a little repetitive. 1Ys don’t get to skip all those basic classes entirely, but they go through an accelerated version of them during an early-start summer session, and then in the Fall, they  jump quickly into the electives and specialized classes that most people don’t get to indulge in until the second year of bschool. They graduate one year later. There is no opportunity for a traditional internship. Thus, this is not the best program for anyone looking to make a radical career shift.

Kellogg 1Y is not a part-time MBA. It’s not an Executive MBA. It’s much closer to the regular two-year experience, in that it’s 100% on campus, fully immersive, and intense. You would participate in student clubs and activities, just like any other full-time student. You just go on a whirlwind tour of bschool, and get spit out into the world again at breakneck pace.

There are only a handful of MBA programs like this at top U.S. bschools. One that is comparable to Kellogg 1Y is the Columbia J-Term, except that you get through 1Y faster, at 12 months total instead of the 16 months required for the J-Term. Kellogg 1Y is even more comparable to the Cornell Accelerated MBA (except that obviously Kellogg is higher-ranked than Cornell). All three of these programs are best for those looking to advance their existing career, and for entrepreneurs.

All these programs result in the “MBA” degree – there won’t be anything on your diploma that indicates which flavor of education you pursued at the given school. All are competitive, with average GMATs and GPAs in the same universe as the schools’ two-year tracks. These are just ways for the schools to segment their markets and package up their products in different ways for different consumers. That’s it.

As far as we know, these three are the only U.S. schools which such an offering. Of course, the LBS and INSEAD and ISB MBAs all leverage a similar shorter-format model, though they prefer somewhat older students (comparatively speaking) than these U.S. programs, and in some cases, they may provide more opportunities for an internship.

If you know what you want to do with your career — and you’ve already started doing it — then any of these programs might be a good choice. The Cornell and Kellogg fast-track options are only open to you if you’ve already got a baseline knowledge of econ, stats, etc. If you’re coming to bschool without that foundation, then Columbia J-Term (or one of the Asian or European MBAs) is your best bet.

Questions on any of this? Want to know if your profile might be a good fit for one or the other? Feel free to post in the comments, or send us an email and we’ll let you know what we think.