Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA)

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The Executive MBA is a four-semester program designed to meet the unique needs of both mid-career managers who have demonstrated the potential to reach senior management positions and senior executives who want to significantly increase their personal and organizational effectiveness. The Sobey EMBA grounded in an evidence-based approach to enhance participants’ ability to think across functional lines and understand organizations at an enterprise level in a global environment.

Features of the program include:

  • Modules are delivered in class with online seminars and workshops in between residency sessions.
  • An Evidence-based approach to decision making is integrated into the program to help participants enhance decision outcomes.
  • Managerial experiences and practical backgrounds of participants will be utilized.
  • A broad management view of various business and organizational problems will be provided.
  • A global perspective of business will be developed with an International Business Trip as a required part of the program.
  • An understanding of economic, social, political, and environmental forces that affect the organization and influence managerial decisions will be developed.
  • An exchange of information and insights will be encouraged among participants from diverse industries, organizations, functions and responsibilities.
  • The sponsoring organization and its participating manager will be able to meet common educational goals without major disruptions of job assignments and home life.

Admission Requirements

The EMBA follows the general admission requirements and procedures of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research as outlined in the Graduate Studies Academic Calendar with the following additional requirements and procedures.

The EMBA Admissions Committee will consider an applicant’s prior academic record, scores on the GMAT, military or work experience, extracurricular activities, recommendation forms, and the online application. While each of these general criteria is important, the applicant’s entire profile will be evaluated, where significant strengths in one area may help compensate for weaknesses in another.

Test scores and academic records will be evaluated as evidence of academic grade; however, the Admissions Committee will also look for personal qualities, such as leadership and motivation, which are important for success as a manager.

An online application, including a statement of the objectives of the student, and interview will be the basis of the Admissions Committee’s decision. Applications will not be evaluated until the application is complete, including test scores. It will be the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that the application is complete.

In general, an applicant for admission to the Executive MBA program will have:

  1. substantial experience at the senior management level;
  2. sponsorship by an employer who agrees to support their employee’s participation in the program;
  3. a bachelor’s degree with high standing or equivalent qualification (in certain cases, consideration will be given to students who do not hold a bachelor’s degree);
  4. taken and achieved a satisfactory score on the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), or its equivalent, such as the GRE (may be waived for engineers, accountants and those with a post-graduate degree);
  5. three recommendation forms from work-related or academic sources.

Prior to starting the program, each student will participate in team-building, accounting and research skills workshops.

Online applications to the Executive MBA program should be made as early as possible. A list of supporting documents that must accompany an application is available at:http://www.smu.ca/academics/graduate-application-forms-and-requirements.html