5 Best Online MBA Programs for Private Equity

Created by Henry Steele

By Henry Steele - May 21, 2018
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Reading Time: 5 minutes

Business management professionals who want to work in finance are often choosing MBA programs today in private equity and venture capital. These are typically highly regarded MBA programs that have strong finance streams for PE and venture capital companies. Students are choosing PE and VE focused MBAs because this concentration generally offers some of the highest salaries on the market.

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If you want to work in finance, private equity and venture capital, below are five excellent online MBA programs to consider.

#1 University of North Carolina

The University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business offers an online MBA with a concentration in investment management. It will prepare students interested in private equity and venture capital with the analytical skills and financial expertise they need to transition their business management careers into investment management or to enhance their opportunities for advancement.

With theoretical and applied courses, you will learn the possible risks and rewards of various investment strategies, and also the pluses and minuses of various types of financial securities. Students explore topics such as security analysis and portfolio management, capital markets, sales and trading, and private wealth management.

Students who graduate from this 18 to 36 month, online MBA program will have excellent skills in the following areas:

  • Portfolio management
  • Sales and trading
  • Risk management
  • Compliance
  • Private wealth management
  • Private equity

Previous graduates from this top private equity MBA have worked in positions such as portfolio manager, chief risk officer, security sales agent, compliance officer, chartered financial advisor and senior stock broker. This fully online MBA offers students excellent career services, strong network of accomplished alumni and access to world finance industry leaders, so you will have a priceless competitive edge once you enter the business marketplace.

#2 Arizona State University

The online MBA at Arizona State University and the W.P. Carey School of Business is designed to enhance your leadership and business finance skills no matter where you are in your career journey. This highly ranked online MBA program has an entrepreneurship concentration that is appropriate for business professionals who want to work in finance, private equity and venture capital.

This program is fully accredited by the AACSB, and is recognized as a top-30 business school in the United States. It consists of 49 credit hours, 17 classes and five weeks for each course.

Entrepreneurship is one of the major economic engines of financial growth in the US and world. This concentration focuses on boosting your mindset and business toolkit whether you intend to launch your own business, join others in their new financial business, work in an existing organization or even a combination of all of them over the years.

The core class in entrepreneurship is designed so you increase your skills in idea generation, opportunity assessment, concept development, resource determination and acquisition, venture capital funding opportunities, how to manage growth and harvest the business. Courses include entrepreneurial finance, corporate entrepreneurship and new venture challenge.

Another advantage of this online MBA is the faculty at the W.P. Carey School of Business are known to outperform other schools for impact and innovative research. Faculty and lecturers often appear in renowned business journals and conferences, and stay active within innovative venture capital and private equity companies to maintain a strong resource network for students.

#3 Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University and the Tepper School of Business offers a highly ranked online MBA by US News and World Report. Carnegie Mellon is known around the world for its business school and how it challenges conventional problem solving approaches in business. The reputation of the business school continues to grow as business and society continue to deal with a marketplace of information that is undergoing rapid change.

The Tepper School also is renowned for its approach to entrepreneurship. It is viewed at the school as a campus-wide collaborative opportunity. The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship is well known in the area as a great destination for entrepreneurs, private equity and venture capital companies, and startups. Students have access at all times to a growing, global network that spans many industries, continents and business models.

The MBA program features an agile, and data driven curriculum that focuses on experiential learning and problem solving in the real world that is both anticipating and contributing to the changing business world. Carnegie Mellon’s innovation at its business school has spurred serious economic growth with its students over the years by helping to launch 300 companies and create 9000 jobs in the last 15 years.

Required courses in this two year MBA program in entrepreneurship and finance include:

  • Probability and Statistics
  • Financial and Managerial Accounting
  • Managerial Economics
  • Optimization
  • Financial and Managerial Accounting II
  • Statistical Decision Making
  • Corporate Strategy
  • Interpersonal Communication

#4 Indiana University

The Kelley School of Business at Indiana University is one of the most flexible and highly ranked online MBAs in the country. It is recognized as the perfect way to accelerate your private equity and venture capital, entrepreneurship career while you still maintain your work and personal obligations.

Students learn from the same highly regarded faculty who teach the campus based MBA program. Core courses in the AACSB-accredited MBA program are in business law and ethics, economics, marketing, finance, operations, IT and project management.

One of the major benefits of the program is the opportunity to study abroad in the AGILE program – Accelerating Global Immersion Leadership Education. This course is offered every quarter and is frequently in partnership with other business schools around the globe. Some of the business capitals you could visit to grow your VC and PE career are New Delhi, Johannesburg, Havana, Sao Paulo, Beijing and Yangon, Myanmar.

Required courses include:

  • Strategic Entrepreneurship
  • Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation
  • Information Technology
  • Business Econometrics
  • Data Predictive Analytics and Business Strategy
  • Financial Management
  • Financial Analysis and Firm Valuation

#5 University of Southern California

The USC Marshall Online MBA is a bold, fully accredited program that provides students with the camaraderie and academic rigor you would expect of one of the best ranked online MBAs in US News and World Report for 2018. The program will teach you to become a forward thinking entrepreneur and business leader in such areas as venture capital and private equity.

The program has been especially designed to help students to succeed in the modern digitally driven business world, and provides a curriculum that is based upon the necessary practical skills that business leaders need today:

  • How to think like an entrepreneur and drive maximum business growth
  • How to communicate with international business leaders and team members
  • How to interpret and act upon digital metrics and analytics
  • How to develop a global perspective
  • How to use social media to strengthen your business brand

Every course in the two year program has been specifically designed by the USC Marshall faculty. Some courses are self paced and asynchronous while others are real time, interactive class sessions where you work with other students and professors.

Throughout the program, you will gain a lot of hands on experience as you work with the latest metrics and analytics technologies so you can make informed business decisions and improve existing business processes. You will develop a complete and multifaceted perspective on business leadership and will be prepared to examine entrepreneurial business challenges from every angle.

Required courses include:

  • Fundamentals of Business
  • Opportunity Recognition and Implementation
  • Managing Inside the Firm
  • Managing Outside the Firm
  • Business Environment and Leadership

References

  • Best MBA Programs for Private Equity and Venture Capital. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.mbacrystalball.com/blog/2017/04/10/best-mba-programs-private-equity-venture-capital/
  • Best Online MBA Programs. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings

Henry Steele
Managing Editor
Henry is Managing Editor of BusinessStudent.com. He is a seasoned business professional who regularly consults with local business's throughout Southern California. Henry pursued his undergrad in Business and Economics at the University of San Diego and gained valuable life changing experience through a unique internship upon graduation.

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