The United States’ Pacific Northwest region, which is beginning to be known as the Silicon Forest because of its burgeoning community of high technology and semiconductor companies, is also home to some quality, accredited business administration degree programs in Oregon. Oregon’s pristine natural resources coupled with its citizenry’s penchant for technology and environmental protection have helped to create many business opportunities for those who are prepared with the right set of skills. Specific technical knowledge is required for many of the new employment positions generated within the state’s information technology and renewable energy sectors, but skilled business leaders are still needed to market products, manage operations and keep track of finances for these promising ventures. Here are some of the academic training grounds for Oregon’s future business leaders.
Oregon State University
College of Business
Oregon State University’s (OSU) College of Business helps to prepare socially conscious business leaders who are able to make positive impacts to their local communities while managing global business ventures. At OSU, students can pursue their educational goals through any number of the college’s undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs. The comprehensive academic programs offered by OSU include a diverse set of concentration areas and some distinctive applied learning concepts such as their entrepreneurship, family business support, professional consulting and study abroad programs. Each academic degree program at OSU is centered around the college’s shared values of scholastic excellence and close collaboration among its students, faculty, alumni and industry partners.
MBA
OSU’s traditional Master of Business Administration (MBA) option is anything but conventional with its seven concentration area options and flexible program delivery choices. The program’s core curriculum instructs students on advanced, management business topics, and students are expected to have foundational knowledge of the common business disciplines like marketing, finance and economics gained through undergraduate degrees in business or a related areas. The program seeks to develop students who are competent leaders through its curriculum of applied foundational business topics, advanced management coursework and unique specializations. The concentration areas reflect growing trends in industry, and they include Business Analytics, Clean Technology, Commercialization, Executive Leadership, Global Operations, Marketing and Wealth Management. Course work is delivered in both online and hybrid formats. Students are able to take what they learn in the classrooms and apply them to real company projects through innovative learning concepts like the school’s Business Solution Group and Close to the Customer Project. The Business Solution Group provides local businesses with business analysis and system engineering services conducted by faculty led student groups. The Close to the Customer Project similarly meets the professional consulting needs of local firms with faculty and student teams that conduct market research.
PhD in Business Administration
The OSU doctoral program for business administration allows students to specialize in either an Accounting or Innovation/Commercialization track. The highly structured programs are led by accomplished faculty who remain immersed in the latest industry research topics. They bring real world and academic experience into their classrooms, and students benefit by their expert guidance on research paper topic selection. The OSU Ph.D. in Business Administration includes several seminar courses that instruct students on various research methods, research publication and professional development. Since most students who pursue doctoral degrees in business administration do so to enter academia as professors, the OSU doctoral program includes seminars on teaching methods and affords students ample opportunities to actually teach on business areas of interests. The professional development coursework, teaching opportunities and available graduate assistantships give doctoral students valuable instruction and work experience needed to launch their new careers.
Accreditations
- AACSB International
Contact
200 Bexell Hall
Corvallis, Oregon 97331
(541) 737-5510
osumba@bus.oregonstate.edu
http://business.oregonstate.edu/mba/
http://business.oregonstate.edu/phd
Portland State University
School of Business Administration
Portland State University’s (PSU) School of Business Administration is the largest in the state and is located within one of the state’s most densely populated urban areas. PSU has leveraged its size and strategic location to build partnerships with area businesses that provide unique experiential learning opportunities for its student body. PSU offers both undergraduate and graduate business degree programs in a variety of flexible formats including day, evening, weekend and online classes. The PSU School of Business is consistently recognized for its graduate school programs, and its MBA program was ranked first in its class for incorporating tenets of environmental stewardship.
Undergraduate Major: Management and Leadership
PSU offers seven undergraduate business degree majors, six certificate programs and four minors for non-business students. The academic major options include accounting, advertising management, human resource management, finance, marketing, management and leadership as well as supply and logistics management. The management and leadership and the supply chain logistics management concentrations are offered online as well as in traditional classroom settings. While the PSU School of Business does not have a general Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree program, its Management and Leadership concentration is similar to that traditional business major. Undergraduate business students who enroll as Management and Leadership majors have a number of options available to them. For instance, they can join the school’s Honors Track program to gain more advanced training, access to important professional network and mentorship opportunities as well as targeted career workshops. These students can also choose to enroll in the cohort style, Summit Track for a highly structured path to graduation.
MBA
The PSU MBA which is consistently ranked highly by publications such as U.S. News and World Reports and the Princeton Review is offered in both full and part-time formats. While the degree program is led by accomplished faculty with industry experience, it is mostly the unique curriculum that causes a stir among the scholastic reviewers. The goal of the program is to prepare culturally aware business leaders who are well versed in the issues faced by modern companies operating in the global economy and who can integrate and apply concepts from all the major business disciplines. Besides the core courses in business disciplines like marketing, finance, accounting, economics, operations management, students can customize their degree by taking 16 credit hours of elective courses. The PSU MBA program emphasizes applied learning with a global perspective which is one reason all PSU MBA students are required to take a faculty led, 10 to 14 day study tour abroad.
Accreditations
- AACSB International
Contact
School of Business Administration
631 SW Harrison St.
Portland, OR 97201
(800) 879-5088
info@sba.pdx.edu
gradadmissions@sba.pdx.edu
https://www.pdx.edu/sba/bachelors-degree-in-business-management-leadership
https://www.pdx.edu/sba/the-portland-mba
University of Oregon
Charles H. Lundquist College of Business
The Charles H. Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon (UO) administers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral business degree programs. The college’s motto of “learn by doing” is at the center of activities for its five academic business departments that are accounting, decision sciences, finance, management and marketing. Along with its experiential learning opportunities, the college values scholastic excellence within a multidisciplinary business context and service to the surrounding Oregon community through special initiatives led by teams of students and UO faculty. Its successful model has allowed the college to develop promising business professionals since 1884.
BS in Business Administration
Students at UO’s business school have a choice to pursue either a bachelor of science (BS) or a bachelor of arts (BA) degree in business administration. Although both degree options are similar for several courses needed for graduation, the BS in Business Administration inherently has a more analytical focus. BS in Business Administration degree candidates can choose a concentration area like finance, accounting or information systems from among seven available options, and they can expect to participate in courses about financial analysis and valuation, information analysis for managerial decisions and international finance. Those course options are a part of the department’s upper division core classes which are generally taken by third and fourth years students. The faculty and staff at Lundquist College realized that many students need time to decide if a major of study is right for them so new students enroll as pre-business majors before being admitted to the college formally as business majors.
BA in Business Administration
Many employers seek business leaders with a varied skill set to manage complex operations and a diverse workforce. Some of these polished business professionals gain their unique backgrounds from liberal arts based courses that bring in elements of history, philosophy and communication that aid critical thinking and socially conscious decision-making. BA in Business Administration candidates can tailor their degree with concentration areas and specially selected electives to gain the broad skill set that is in demand by today’s employers. Entrepreneurship, marketing and sports business are just a few examples of the concentration areas for which BA in Business Administration students can choose. Before formally entering the BA in Business Administration degree program in their third year, students must complete their pre-business major coursework. Core pre-business major classes include topics like microeconomics, macroeconomics and accounting; other required course topics are English composition, calculus and statistics.
MBA
The UO MBA program is distinctive as it offers students the option of choosing among the four track areas of Sustainable Business Practices, Finance and Securities Analysis, Entrepreneurship and Sports Marketing. Each track area is associated with a center of excellence that serves as a resource hub for students that puts them in contact with industry leaders, the latest research and unique opportunities to practice concepts learned in the classroom. Each specialized track area presents students with innovative concepts and learning opportunities that will give them advantages in the workplace. Some of these activities include things like managing an actual investment fund, engaging with corporate executives in Asia’s exploding market economy and participating in enterprise-wide planning projects. By putting the college’s motto of learning by doing into practice, students are equipped with a hefty portfolio of relevant work experience when they visit the university’s career center.
Accreditations
- AACSB International
Contact
1208 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403
(541) 346-3306
lcb-undergrad@uoregon.edu
mbainfo@uoregon.edu
http://admissions.uoregon.edu/majors/business%20administration
https://business.uoregon.edu/mba
University of Portland
Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. School of Business Administration
The Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. School of Business Administration began developing competent, ethical business leaders through excellence in teaching and scholarship as early as 1939. Today, the school’s faculty and staff keep their hand on the pulse of industry through collaborative partnerships and exemplary faculty research to continuously improve its programs. Students can pursue their educational goals through a number of undergraduate and graduate degree programs. The school keeps their programs relevant to today’s job market by placing emphasis on global business, entrepreneurship and sustainable business practices.
Bachelor of Business Administration
The BBA at the University of Portland (UP) provides students with a broad range of skills derived from its unique program curriculum requirements. There are seven majors associated with the UP BBA, and they are Accounting, Economics, Finance, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Global Business, Marketing and Operations and Technology Management. The BBA program is structured so that students must take certain university and business school core courses in addition to ones related to their chosen specialization. Some of the university core courses include topics about math, social sciences, history, philosophy and fine arts. The requirements for students enrolled in the Pamplin School of Business include professional development sessions that emphasize career building activities like vocational assessment, resume writing, business etiquette, and practice interviews. These courses provide the polish employers expect from today’s business leaders.
Business Administration Minor
UP undergraduates who did not choose a Pamplin School of Business major can still get a broad understanding of business foundational disciplines through the school’s Business Administration Minor. The minor program consists of 30 credit hours of varied business program courses along with any prerequisite classes needed before taking upper level courses. Some examples of prerequisite course topics taught within the Business Administration Minor include financial accounting, marketing principles, economics and statistics. The minor program’s core course topics include inter-cultural organizational behavior and business finance. Students enrolled in this minor program can choose three upper level courses like the school’s Entrepreneur Scholars Program. This program is often taken by health care, science, and engineering majors who aspire to management positions.
MBA
UP’s MBA program seeks to provide its students the best of both worlds that include broad business topics as well as relevant concentration areas that meet personal interests and industry demand. Students can specialize in Health Care Management, Finance, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability or Operations and Technology Management. Statistics is the only prerequisite course needed for students to take before beginning core coursework, and they may waive the course by testing out of it. Core coursework associated with the UP MBA program include accounting principles, operations and technology management, applied marketing strategies, corporate finance and economic analysis. Other course topics relate to the demand for socially conscious business leaders who are concerned with sustainable business practices for company finances, the environment and the community. Some examples of these values related course topics are leadership for upper level managers, metrics for sustainability and inter-cultural management and communications. Also, every MBA student is required to take a study abroad course to lend an international perspective to their learning experience.
Accreditations
- AACSB International
Contact
5000 N Willamette Blvd
Portland OR 97203
(503) 943-7224
bus-up@up.edu
mba-up@up.edu
https://business.up.edu
Willamette University
Atkinson Graduate School of Management
The Atkinson Graduate School of Management specializes in MBA programs that meet the needs of business professionals at every level of their careers. The faculty and staff at Atkinson seek to develop competent business leaders who are adept at integrating the various business disciplines and creating an environment of inclusion for innovative ideas from a diverse workforce. Their graduate programs encourage the promotion of human dignity, integrity and scholastic excellence.
MBA
Although Atkinson Graduate School of Management offers many variations of its MBA program, its traditional, full-time MBA program is designed for business professionals who are just starting their careers or who want to transition into new careers in the private, public or non-profit sectors. Students enrolled in the Atkinson Graduate School of Management gain in-depth knowledge of the specialized management tools, broad-based instruction in all business disciplines and customized learning experiences through generous elective course options. MBA program participants also get to develop and hone their leadership, management and communication skills through internships and consulting projects with actual industry clients. Participating in an MBA program at Atkinson Graduate School of Management is not about simply checking off a task on a to do list, but it is about gaining valuable skills and work experience that move careers forward even in a competitive job market.
Accreditations
- AACSB International
Contact
900 State Street
Salem, Oregon 97301
(503) 370-6167
mba-admission@willamette.edu
http://www.willamette.edu/mba/full-time/index.html
The employment landscape of Oregon provides a win-win situation for local business school students who need experiential learning opportunities and small businesses searching for fresh ideas to make themselves viable in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. Graduates from accredited business administration degree programs in Oregon are often prime choices for employment opportunities in Oregon’s promising job market.