Full Time MBA

Founded as the University of North Carolina’s Department of Commerce in 1919, the Kenan-Flagler Business School is one of the oldest continuously running dedicated business and management education departments in the US. The school was given its current name in 1991, in recognition of philanthropists and scions of entrepreneurial families Mary Lily Kenan Flagler and Henry Morrison Flagler. The Kenan-Flagler Business School’s philosophy revolves around the core values of excellence, leadership, community, integrity and teamwork, which serves to outline the type of empathetic, grounded business leaders the school aims to produce. This goes beyond financial returns, either for the school or for graduates, with the former stating: “We define ROI as the results our graduates drive, both in the organizations they lead and in the communities they serve.”

The Kenan-Flagler full-time MBA program is the practical realization of this ethos; a two-year traditional course that combines cutting-edge leadership training with almost a century of experience in the wider meaning and duties of business. Admissions are competitive, largely because of the draw of North Carolina as a student environment. That said, the process is simple; work experience is not required, though candidates with two or more years of experience do have an advantage, and there’s only one essay question to answer. All applicants can attend a non-mandatory open interview on campus, and shortlisted candidates are then invited to a formal interview. Fees per year are US$49,060 for residents of North Carolina, and US$64,182 for those from outside the state.

Academically, the Kenan-Flagler full-time MBA follows a normal path, with core subjects and electives combining to give students both a solid grounding in business principles and the freedom to tailor the course to suit their career objectives. However, the school also offers numerous opportunities for practical and project-based learning, including the STAR and working languages program, which helps students improve their global outlook and language skills through international consulting projects – something many schools in the English-speaking world tend to overlook. There’s also an MBA exchange program and a ‘doing business in’ programme, allowing students to study at one of Kenan-Flagler’s partner schools around the world for a short or long-term period.

Given this international outlook, it’s no wonder Kenan-Flagler MBA graduates are in serious demand from companies around the world. The average post-graduation salary is US$111,922, with an average sign-on bonus of US$24,441. What’s more, there are now over 4,000 Kenan-Flagler graduates working at Fortune 500 companies, with 800 having reached the c-suite and 200 currently serving as company CEOs – impressive figures for a school of this size and scale. Of course, this becomes less surprising when one considers that the companies that have hired recent Kenan-Flagler graduates include Johnson & Johnson, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, Cisco and PepsiCo.