The Columbia Business School Executive MBA program, awarding the Master of Business Administration degree, is a full-time program designed to be completed in five (six for EMBA-NY Saturday) consecutive terms. The curriculum consists of 24 credits of required core coursework, and 36 credits of elective courses. Students are required to take a 3 credit International Seminar as part of the 36 elective credits.
No transfer credits from other institutions may be applied toward the MBA degree.
Students may take a maximum of 6 credits of non-Business School courses during their time in EMBA, as 54 of the required 60 credits must consist of in-classroom Business School courses. Students may count a combined maximum of 6 credits of independent study and graduate-level courses from other Columbia schools toward the MBA degree. Graduate-level courses are denoted by a number of 4000 or higher. Undergraduate-level courses will not count towards a student's MBA degree, but will count towards the maximum of 6 allowed non-business school credits.
Students generally register for 12 credits per term, which is considered full-time residence at the Business School. With approval from Academic & Student Affairs, students are permitted to take up to 18 credits in elective terms if they are in good academic standing (they must not be on academic probation).
A failed core course must be repeated; a failed elective must be replaced by another elective.
Students must maintain a minimum GPA throughout the program and must have a cumulative GPA of 5.5 or greater upon graduation to be eligible for the degree.