Graduates - Get Started
Graduates
Get Started
Hear from graduate students at RIT’s Saunders College of Business about their experiences in our MBA programs.
Unlock your career potential at Saunders College. Make it your own by tapping diverse career options through powerful graduate degree options that match your interests and goals. Experience the difference of a graduate education that delivers an applied approach featuring real-world experiences employers value and recognize as evidenced by our high placement rates. Join a community that gets to know you and cares about your career success.
Map it out with flexible schedules that provide the convenience your lifestyle demands, and built to give you the experience your passions and ambitions require for success. Choose from full-time and part-time options
Whether you are looking to advance your career or launch a new career, Saunders gives you the options to reach your career goals.
Full-time Options
Pursuing a graduate degree at Saunders on a full-time basis allows you to get the most out of our degrees. This will give you the most flexibility in selecting courses and customizing course options, while allowing the best opportunity to pursue a paid cooperative education experience.
Accelerated MBA and Master of Science degree formats allow you to complete your degree in as little as one year. Full-time, two-year MBA options allow you to incorporate more program features, including additional options for dual-concentrations, pursuing additional electives, join Saunders Consulting, or work in paid co-op positions.
Part-time Options
Saunders offers evening and online courses to give you the flexibility to pursue a graduate degree around your busy schedule at work and at home. Most programs offer a part-time option, and it is possible to graduate in as little as 2.5 years, when taking courses over fall, spring and summer semesters.
Online Courses
Select courses are available online across all programs. These will allow you to complement your on-campus courses with the convenience of taking classes remotely. This may be useful during semesters where you are busier than normal or perhaps traveling out of town.
Online Programs
Saunders offers the following programs that are available 100% online.
- Business Administration–Online Executive MBA
- Business Analytics MS (on campus option available)
- Hospitality Business Management MS
- Organizational Leadership and Innovation MS
Degree Completion Timeline
Saunders delivers degree options that provide the timeline built for your goals. Finish full-time programs in as few as two semesters, or part-time in as little as 5 semesters in 2.5 years (taking two courses per semester.) There are three semesters (or “Terms”) throughout the year including fall, spring and summer.
| Degree Type | First Term | Second Term | Third Term | Fourth Term | Fifth Term |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
MBA |
|||||
| +1 MBA | |||||
| Part-Time +1 MBA | |||||
| Full-Time 2 Years | |||||
| Part-Time | |||||
|
MS |
|||||
| Full-Time | |||||
| Part-Time | |||||
Note: This chart represents minimum estimated times to completion. Actual completion times vary depending on number of courses taken each academic semester, and course availability. Academic advisors can assist to build an academic plan to meet your degree goals. Please visit the +1 MBA web page for course waiver details.
Experience Matters
Saunders College gives you unparalleled exposure to real-world experiences. RIT delivers a rich tradition of experiential education (a.k.a. applied learning) built on a foundation of strong corporate partners and one of the oldest and largest cooperative education programs in the world. This formula leads to successful graduates that are prepared from day one of their careers, and employers who take notice, as evidenced by a 95% outcomes rate across all programs.
Graduate Career Services
The Office of Career Services and Cooperative Education places more than 4,500 students completed over 6,200 co-op assignments each year and are employed by more than 3,400 employers throughout the U.S. and abroad. Tap into a worldwide network of nearly 136,000 RIT and 25,000 Saunders Alumni.
As a Saunders student or alumni you benefit from this vast resource of experience and corporate relationships. You obtain the business and technology skills to be successful in careers that accelerate business growth. Employers take notice as they place great value in RIT graduates that are recognized as having the experience to be ready day-one, as evidenced by our 95% outcomes rate.
Experiential Education
Experiential Education (a.k.a. applied learning) is part of the RIT DNA, placing an emphasis on career education and real-world experiences. Our faculty place an priority on teaching. In fact, all classes are taught by professors, not teaching assistants. A majority of our professors have industry experience that expose students to real-world examples inside and outside the classroom. Class projects often serve as resume builders while co-op jobs business plans pitched in competitions often serve as the beginning of a career and longer-term employment.
Perhaps the most important ingredient in delivering an applied education is a dynamic curriculum that has the flexibility to allow you to pursue your interests, in lockstep with your academic plans. Although our applied learning focus is most recognized through RIT expertise in delivering Cooperative Education, it embodies so many additional methods, including some of our key offerings as follows.
Capstone Courses
Capstone Courses are a common component of many of our graduate programs. These allow classes to work on real-world projects for companies seeking solutions from our brightest students and faculty. Thanks to our corporate partnerships, classes receive many industry projects to choose from ensuring a good fit for meeting class objectives and student interests. Visit Capstone at Saunders for more information and examples of past capstone projects.
Saunders Consulting
In Saunders Consulting, students work in paid positions to deliver solutions for industry projects while gaining the advice and guidance of faculty experts. This gives students real-world experience outside the classroom, while companies gain the ability to pursue projects with Saunders outside of the constraints of a semester schedule. Saunders Consulting headquarters are located within RIT Venture Creations incubator, which is home to approximately 20 mid-seed stage companies advance their concepts on their way to joining the ranks of profitable, viable businesses.
Competitions
Through the Albert J. Simone Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship programs and competitions put you in touch with real venture capital professionals. They offer investment opportunities and expertise through pitch sessions, mentorships, and judging at several competitions conducted throughout the year. This is also the place to find help and meet students from other RIT colleges when working on projects requiring expertise in other fields such as engineering, science, technology or arts.
Events
Saunders Event Calendar is full of activities that expose you to speakers, networking events, and Saunders community members that attend.
Your Network
Come and meet your new community and support network that is as unique as it is powerful. As part of the Saunders Community, you experience small class sizes and a faculty to student ratio that allows faculty to get to know you by name and who cares about your career success. At Saunders, your connections run deep, well beyond your team of dedicated advisors.
Industry Advisory Boards
Industry experts from many of Saunders College corporate partners serve on industry advisory boards. They help ensure graduate degree programs are up to date in addressing their needs in a competitive business world. Their expertise often extends to support classroom initiatives and activities such as speaking engagements, student networking events, mentoring, and other opportunities that put them in indirect contact with you and other students. Please see our industry advisory board pages for a full set of active boards and their members.
Alumni Connections
Students Today, Alumni Forever
As a student, you plug into and benefit from a vast network of alumni that span the globe. Having walked in your footsteps before you, they have paved the way to help create the great resources and reputation we benefit from today. You will experience their impact directly through their engagement in student activities inside and outside the classroom. They serve as mentors, advisors, speakers and judges. Often Saunders alumni are responsible for providing the funding for college scholarships and activities.
Once you graduate, you become a member that delivers a lifetime of rewards and support. Nearly 25,000 Saunders College alumni are part of a larger network of nearly 136,000 across all of RIT. Our Alumni Association offices will be there for you when you are looking for assistance or for opportunities to engage with Saunders College and RIT.
Diversity
As part of RIT, Saunders College is at the center of a university that delivers significant global, cultural and academic diversity. RIT offers an exciting environment for intellectual and personal development.
Global Diversity
The International Student Services Office is the hub for a campus with students of all cultures and backgrounds from 50 states and more than 100 countries. At RIT, you are part of a student body consisting of approximately 2,700 international students, with an additional 1,900 students enrolled at RIT’s four international campuses. The RIT English Language Center and Rochester Global Connections offer additional resources to the global community at RIT.
Cultural Diversity
In addition to our global diversity, nearly 3,300 RIT students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds are enrolled on our main RIT Rochester campus. The RIT Division of Diversity and Inclusion is committed to diversity through a mission to foster living, learning, and working environments that support and incorporate principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, and community.
Academic Diversity
Large universities can offer a diversity of academic programs and RIT is no exception with many internationally recognized programs across nine RIT colleges. What makes your experience at Saunders College unique is that at RIT you get unparalleled access through a flexible and dynamic curriculum. This commitment to multidisciplinary studies allows student to use MBA joint-concentrations and electives to take courses in any college on campus. In addition, our 200+ student clubs and entrepreneurship competitions and activities put you in direct access to students and expertise in your fields of interest across campus, outside of business.