MBA/Juris Doctor (JD) Joint Program

Overview

The MBA degree offered through the College of Business paired with the JD degree from the School of Law prepares students for a myriad of professional opportunities through a rigorous academic curriculum with practical experience in business. Students benefit from an interdisciplinary learning environment while completing two degrees simultaneously with fewer credits than if each degree were completed separately. Students seeking admission to the combined programs must apply to and be admitted separately by both the College of Business and the School of Law. The first year is devoted strictly to law courses. Once admitted to the MBA program, Law students may begin working on the MBA degree during the summer prior to their first year of law school or they may begin classes the summer following their first year of law school.

Eligibility for Admission

Students entering the MBA program will need to show evidence that they have completed at least one statistics course in their undergraduate degree. Students without such a class may complete instead a non-credit statistics tutorial offered by the college for a fee.

MBA Core

All MBA students will complete three core courses that address business processes and skills fundamental to Creighton’s Jesuit and values-based mission. Creighton’s MBA program emphasizes how business leaders apply sound and coherent ethical principles to serve its stakeholders and society for the common good. To support this emphasis, all MBA students complete the following courses:

• MBA 771* Leadership and Organizational Behavior
• MBA 775* Business Policy and Managerial Action
• MBA 776* Business, Ethics, and Society

* MBA courses eligible for transfer into the JD program

MBA Plan of Study

All MBA students will work with the Graduate Business Programs office to develop a plan of study reflecting the students’ academic and work backgrounds, business competencies, and career goals. Plans of Study will consist of courses from the Functional Core and/or from an extensive list of Concentration courses. The relative emphasis of a student’s plan of study in each of these areas will depend on each student’s academic and business background.

Functional Core

Students who are new to the study of business because they hold neither an undergraduate degree in business nor have extensive business work experience may be required to take some or all of the functional core classes. Taking these classes and the core MBA courses will lead to a general competency in most areas of business. Students who hold undergraduate business degrees or have extensive business experience may elect to take one or more of these courses with the approval of the Associate Dean for Graduate Business Program’s office or may elect to move directly to concentration courses.

• MBA 701* Financial Reporting for MBA’s
• MBA 711* Managerial Finance
• MBA 741* Economic Analysis for Managers
• MBA 761* Marketing Management
• ITM 731* Information Systems Management

Concentration

All MBA students will complete the balance of their 33 hours from concentration courses available in all of the functional areas. These business courses cover advanced topics in all areas of business including accounting, finance, economics, information technology, marketing, and management. To ensure appropriate breadth and depth:

• Students must take one course in each of three of five functional areas (accounting, finance, economics, information technology,and marketing);
• Students may take a maximum of three courses beyond MBA 771in the management/leadership area; and
• Students may take a maximum of four courses in a given functional area.

Concentration Courses

Tier 2 courses are advanced courses in each functional area of business. These courses may be taken by students with undergraduate degrees in business or students who have completed the Functional Core courses and would like additional courses in an area.

• MBA 702* Advanced Accounting
• MBA 712* Advanced Managerial Finance
• MBA 742* Seminar in Applied Managerial Economics
• MBA 765* Marketing Information for Executives
• ITM 736* Managing Information Resources
• ITM 788* Business Information Analysis and Process Design

Depending on the number of credit hours to be completed with concentration courses, students may wish to focus on particular business areas by taking multiple courses in a single area. For example, students who wish to focus on the study of investments may take courses in our MSAPM program and our finance area such as:

• MBA 715 Investment Value and Theory
• MBA 719 Current Issues in Finance
• MBA 719 Institutional Investing

Students who wish to focus on the study of information technology management may take courses in our MS-ITM program such as:

• ITM 734 Human Factors in Information Systems
• ITM 735 Information Systems Projects and Risk Management
• ITM 782 Data Base Management Systems

Students who wish to focus on the study of accounting may take advanced accounting courses such as:

• MBA 717 Accounting Seminar - Corporate Governance
• MBA 717 Current Issues in Accounting
• MBA 739 Tax Theory and Business Decisions

Students who wish to focus on the study of leadership may take advanced leadership courses such as:

• MBA 779 Personal Leadership Development
• MBA 779 Business Consulting
• MBA 779 Managing for Innovation and Excellence
• MBA 779 Leadership Through the Hollywood Lens

The above focus areas illustrate how students may tailorthe courses in their curriculum to fit their backgrounds,competencies, and career goals. Students are encouraged todiscuss these and other focus areas with the Dean’s office.Law students may transfer in a maximum of six hoursof the following LAW courses toward six of the 33 totalhours required for the MBA degree, provided a grade of “B” or better is earned in each course:

• LAW 307 Administrative Law (3)
• LAW 326 Business Planning (3)
• LAW 332 Corporate Finance (3)
• LAW 339 Copyrights (2)
• LAW 346 Employment Discrimination (3)
• LAW 351 Estate and Gift Taxation (3)
• LAW 353 Estate Planning (2)
• LAW 371 Insurance (3)
• LAW 373 Intl. Business Trans. (3)
• LAW 381 Labor Law (3)
• LAW 385 Mortgages (3)
• LAW 407 Oil and Gas Law (2)
• LAW 411 Negotiable Instruments (3)
• LAW 413 Patent Law (3)
• LAW 436 Securities Regulation (3)
• LAW 437 Securities Practice Seminar (2)
• LAW 442 Taxation of Bus Enterprises (4)