Picture of a group of four students sitting together and the university seal

Direct Admission Program for Business Master's Degrees

Kent State is proud to offer incoming, high achieving undergraduate students, direct admission into a business master's program. With direct admission, students can comfortably complete their bachelor’s degree and master's degree within five years. Students who meet the requirements below and maintain academic excellence during their bachelor’s degree program will be granted a simplified MBA admissions process.

Waiver of:

Graduate school application fees
The GMAT/GRE
Application essay
Letters of recommendation

Admitted students may defer the start of their master's program for one year following completion of an undergraduate degree.

INCOMING STUDENT PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS (ALL MASTER'S PROGRAMS)

High School Requirements

High school GPA of 3.4 or better
Preference given to candidates with rigorous high school coursework (AP, IB, CCP, Honors, etc.)

Undergraduate Current or Transfer Student Requirements

Transfer GPA of college level credit of 3.2 or better for students with 30+ college credits
Transfer students with 29 credits or less will be evaluated on a combination of their college level coursework GPA and high school GPA

Common Undergraduate Requirements Across All Master's Programs

Maintain a minimum cumulative undergraduate GPA at Kent State of 3.2
Submit Master’s program application during junior year

Master's Degree Application Requirements

When applying, select the “MBA DIRECT ADMIT” program (or MSA, MAE, MSBA)
Resume – required
Application fee – waived
Letters of Recommendation – waived
GMAT/GRE – waived
Essay of Goals and Objectives – waived

UNDERGRADUATE REQUIREMENTS THAT VARY BY PROGRAM

MBA Program (Full-time & Online*)

Enroll in any Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) major
Meet quantitative undergraduate course requirements: Must complete 2 courses, such as advanced algebra or statistics, and earn a grade of B or higher in both courses

* Direct Admission to the Online MBA program is open to only to undergraduate students who are in the General Business major.

Master of Science Business Analytics (MSBA) (Full-time & Online)

Enroll in the Bachelor of Business Analytics major (BBA)

Master of Science in Accounting (MSA)

Enroll in the Bachelor of Accounting major (BBA)
Maintain a 3.2 GPA overall and a minimum Accounting Major GPA of 3.2

Master of Arts in Economics (MAE)

Enroll in the Bachelor of Economics major (either the BBA or the BA)
- Economics majors may enroll in either the Economic Analysis or the Financial Economics concentration for the MA in Economics degree.

Enroll in the Bachelor of Finance major (BBA)
Finance majors must earn B or better in ECON 32040 Intermediate Microeconomic Theory and Applications
For finance majors, ECON 32050 Applied Econometrics is strongly recommended but not required
- Finance majors can only enroll in the Financial Economics concentration for the MA in Economics degree.

Combined Degree Programs

In their junior year, students applying to any of the Direct Admission programs are also encouraged to apply for a combined undergraduate/graduate degree program. This will allow them to double count up to 9 credit hours of graduate coursework toward both their undergraduate and graduate degree programs. This applies to the following program combinations: