Your Duke MBA will provide you with the skills, knowledge, and cross-cultural awareness needed to become a valuable collaborative leader, able to manage effectively in global business environments.

Go Beyond the Basics
As you compare business schools, one of the first differences you'll notice about the Daytime MBA program is the breadth and depth of our content and the strength of our faculty. This breadth, built on our world-class multi-disciplinary faculty, offers an unparalleled ability to help you go beyond the basics by exposing you to cutting-edge research and renowned business leaders.

As a student, you will develop collaborative leadership and organizational management skills along with a global outlook during the first term and then you will dive into a rigorous exploration of the major functional areas in business including:

• Economics
• Quantitative analysis 
• Statistics
• Accounting
• Finance
• Marketing
• Strategy
• Operations management
• Management communications 

As you continue through the program, you will have the chance to undertake a wide-ranging general management education designed to suit your individual goals; alternatively, you might choose to focus on a particular career path through a variety of interdisciplinary concentrations and certificate opportunities.

The Daytime MBA program follows a traditional full-time MBA format, with the exception that our terms are only 6 weeks long. This allows you to explore more subjects and broaden your academic experience during the first year to better prepare you for a summer internship. Then, during your second year, all your classes are electives enabling you to specialize in a concentration or certificate to gain greater expertise in a particular area.

No classes are scheduled on Wednesdays so that you may have a full day every week to concentrate on other school activities including club-sponsored conferences, special speakers, and career services events. Many on-campus recruiting events, including interviews, occur on Wednesdays.

Program Length: 22 months

Academic Terms: 5 terms in the first year, and 4 terms in the second year that are each 6 weeks long

First Year: 10 core courses and 5 or more electives

Second Year: All elective courses

Joint Degree
With our flexible format, you also have the option to enroll in a joint degree. We have 5 joint degree programs available with other Duke schools. Learn more about this option.

Dual Degree
We also offer a dual degree program for students enrolled in an MBA at Seoul National University in South Korea. Learn more about this program.

Global Knowledge
As a student, you will develop collaborative leadership and organizational management skills along with a global outlook during the first term's Global Institute held in August. The 4-week institute features 3 core courses: Leadership, Ethics, and Organizations; Global Institutions and Environments; and Consequential Leadership. The Global Institute begins the process of helping you understand the multifaceted global business environment.

You will also have multiple opportunities to experience business and cultural practices in other countries through Global Academic Travel Experience (GATE) courses and exchange programs.

Learn more about our international coursework opportunities.

Flexible and Focused
Courses in the Daytime program are taught in 6-week terms. This arrangement allows you to take more courses (3 or 4 per term) with the same number of faculty contact hours as in a more traditional system — giving you greater breadth of knowledge without sacrificing depth. You will take at least 5 elective courses by the end of your first year — more if you qualify for course exemptions. This flexibility continues through your second year when you may select from a broad menu of electives and choose those that you have a professional or personal interest in.

Learn more about the Daytime MBA curriculum.

Concentrations: Interdisciplinary Depth
We offer specialized concentrations in all major functional areas (such as decision sciences, finance, management, marketing, operations, and strategic consulting) and in topical areas (such as entrepreneurship, international business, leadership and ethics, and social entrepreneurship).

Each concentration includes a set of electives from which you will choose 6 courses. Concentrations have a common "4-2" structure, where the concentration typically has 4 courses in a focal area (like finance) and 2 courses from other areas that support the focal concentration.

Concentrations are not required. You may choose none, one, or a maximum of two. If you choose 2 concentrations, think of the first as providing depth needed for early career success and the second as providing breadth needed for lifelong career success. Even if you choose 2 concentrations, you still have room in your schedule for additional electives to customize your MBA experience. No matter your career path, your grounding in the principles and practices of general management coupled with a specialization will expand your career opportunities.

Learn more about concentrations.

Certificates: Professional Specialization
A certificate allows you to branch out beyond the MBA curriculum to further specialize in a particular area. We offer 2 certificates within the Daytime program — a Certificate of Excellence in Finance and a Health Sector Management (HSM) Certificate. You may combine the certificate with other concentrations.

Learn more about certificates. 

The Daytime program boasts one of the most active — and proactive — student bodies of any business school in the United States. The Fuqua experience offers extracurricular activities including:

•   industry sector career clubs
•   organized athletics
•   community service groups
•   cultural organizations

In addition to the more than 40 student-run clubs and organizations, students are encouraged to found new clubs should they identify an unmet need in the Fuqua community. At the center of student life is The Duke MBA Association (MBAA) which governs all student-run clubs and is a hub of activity.

The close partnership between students, faculty, and staff provides additional opportunities for students to contribute to the school through student government, the Leadership Development Initiative, or as academic, admissions, career, executive or leadership fellows. Fellows take on a number of roles, including organizing conferences and guest speaker visits, providing peer mentoring, and conducting admissions interviews with prospective students.

You will enrich your leadership skills and build strong business contacts and experience by participating in our many extracurricular activities.

Accessible, enthusiastic, and innovative, our faculty are renowned leaders in every discipline. The faculty — ranked No.1 in the world for intellectual capital in 2012 by Bloomberg Businessweek — are noted scholars in the academic and business world and regularly receive top honors for their research and professional service.

Our faculty bring insight from their research, along with a host of innovative ideas, into the classroom to merge academic concepts with real-world application. The diverse experience and knowledge of our faculty members provides students with a rich and relevant academic learning environment, which enhances your learning experience and prepares you to make more valuable contributions at work.  

Meet the Duke MBA faculty.