Video Transcript – Emphasis Areas

Ally Daniels, director and advisor for the online MBA program, highlights the emphasis areas provided by the program and important information students should know before choosing one.

Video Transcript

[Ally Daniels, director and advisor, online MBA] An emphasis is a focus or specialization that you can use to customize your MBA. Boise State offers seven emphasis areas in health care leadership, management, construction management, cybersecurity, business analytics, finance and marketing leadership. Students can also choose a general or no emphasis and mix and match from the available elective options.

For Boise State, ten courses are required and three are electives. The electives make up your emphasis. There are no extra classes required for an emphasis.

Why would you pick an emphasis?

An emphasis is the opportunity to tailor your curriculum towards jobs, industries and topics of your choice. It shows current and future employers the commitment that you have to an industry and developing expertise in a specialized area.

An emphasis provides relevant learning. It’s what you need to know as a manager for success in a corresponding field. You’re also able to network with faculty and classmates in that industry. Emphasis areas often tend to have smaller class sizes as well.

Boise State’s emphasis areas are unique, with seven emphasis areas to choose from. All have a leadership focus. We’ve worked to develop these emphasis areas directly with employers from our community in terms of what they want from their next level managers. If you’re not sure of the right emphasis for you, you can talk with one of your advisors or your success coaches at the time of admission or even afterwards to choose the right emphasis area depending on your goals and career needs.

You can change your emphasis at any time, so don’t worry if you get in and decide you want to try something different. If you do decide on a general or no emphasis, you can work with your advisor to pick classes that are most interesting to you.

Many times students ask if an emphasis shows on the diploma. Yes, it is printed on your diploma and your transcripts. If you decide to do general or no emphasis, your diploma will simply state Master of Business Administration. Remember, all Boise State Online MBA diplomas state Master of Business Administration. We do not designate online on your printed diploma.

Boise State University College of Business and Economics. Online MBA. OnlineMBA@boisestate.edu or call 208-426-5921.