The International Classroom

Even in the age of e-mail, fax, video conferencing, and satellite technology, nothing quite gets you there like, well, getting there. The most streamlined ideas and strategies can all but disintegrate over crossed telephone wires and the vast cyberspace between your New York office and your Parisian clients. Sure, choosing the right school to get your MBA and hitting the ground running are important moves, but some graduate students set their sites well beyond known boundaries.

Diversity is fast becoming the key to success for MBA students. Ask yourself these questions: Is my knowledge of the business world limited to one region? Could I benefit from expanding my network to include members of burgeoning and sustainable markets? Do my professional strategies progress in direct parallel to my personal growth? More and more MBA seekers are supplementing higher education with study abroad to maximize their access to choice positions as viable assets in the global market.

Summer graduate study programs—like those offered in by Iowa University's School of Business in markets such as Ireland, Italy, Brazil, and Denmark—are designed to ready MBA graduates to compete and deliver within foreign business arenas and cultures that they would otherwise know very little about. In many cases, students can enroll for a month-long study session that provides weekly tutorial intensive to the region, while promoting weekend travel opportunities which allow students to create a more extensive contact list.

Study abroad programs that are even shorter in length exist for those students who are unable to visit another country for an extended period of time. For example, the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management offers studies abroad which are taught during breaks from the regular MBA school year—winter/summer off-weeks and intersession. Courses can be taken in exciting markets like China, India, and Vienna for two to six weeks per session. Marketing strategies in emerging economies, sustainable business practices, international business ethics, and free trade are just some of the topics covered during these abbreviated programs in which an MBA student can earn four to eight credit hours depending on duration.

For those seeking total immersion in a foreign business culture, many universities invite students to stay for a year or more, completing an MBA study program entirely abroad. France, Sweden, Japan, and Thailand are just a few of the destinations offered by Hawaii Pacific University's Center for Graduate Studies. Filter your studies through a wide range of concentrations—finance, information systems, management, economics, HR management, international business, or marketing—and discover the enormous advantages that come with a first-hand international education.