Arizona's Hot Hybrid Programs

MBA graduates from The University of Arizona's Eller College of Management leave with a combination of business and technical knowledge, says Simone Pollard, associate director of Eller's MBA programs.

The career-services team assists 200-plus full-time MBA students. Median starting salary for the Class of 2005 was $60,000, with a salary high of $100,000. By graduation, 50% of the class found jobs, and 80% gained employment three months later. Now the program is focused on new dual-degree programs, launched last spring, which allow students to get the business knowhow of an MBA and the technical smarts of a Master's from the College of Engineering or College of Science, all in just two years.

Pollard has headed both admissions and career services at Eller for one year and is herself the product of a hybrid education. She graduated with a chemical-engineering degree from the University of Virginia and worked as an engineer for Monsanto (MON ) for four years before heading to the University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School of Business to earn an MBA. After B-school, she spent three years as a human-resources consultant for Sibson Consulting, then moved into her current position with the Eller MBA program.

Pollard recently talked with BusinessWeek Online reporter Janie Ho. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation:

What are the strengths of your dual-degree program?
We have new dual-degree programs with the university's engineering and agriculture departments (see BW Online, 1/11/06, "MBAs Who Double Up"). If a student wants to get a Master's of some kind as well as an MBA, he or she can do that in two years.

Even if you stay technical, you still need to have management experience and business awareness to climb the ladder. The dual-degree program also allows us to tap into a different set of employers, especially in the Southwest, who are looking for strong technical capability.

Are there any more dual-degree programs on the way?
Yes. We hope to launch a dual-degree program with the College of Medicine and the College of Pharmacy in the fall of 2007. These will be accelerated like the other dual-degree programs.

How do you seek strong technical and functional students for these dual-degree programs?
We work closely with the undergraduate departments in the hard sciences, which are really strong departments, and let students know about the MBA program. If a top undergrad has great work experience, we recruit him or her to enter the MBA program right after graduation. We also reach out to local tech companies like IBM (IBM ) and Honeywell (HON ) to find prospective students.

What skills do you emphasize when marketing Eller students?
We have students with really strong functional skills. The college has very good...

See Full Version