Auburn University’s Harbert College of Business MBA programs already are highly regarded, but a recently announced admissions goal for the school’s Full-Time MBA track is aimed at making its graduates even more in demand.

Beginning with the fall 2025 recruiting cycle, Harbert’s Full-Time MBA program actively will be recruiting students with two or more years of professional experience. It will not yet be a requirement for all students accepted, but the move is intended to strengthen the quality of the class and help its graduates become better prepared to advance their careers.

The new Full-Time MBA recruitment strategy falls in line with requirements for Harbert’s other MBA programs, such as its highly acclaimed Online MBA, Executive MBA and Physicians Executive MBA, as each of those programs already prefers candidates with professional experience.

“This update to our admissions process could best be described as a strategic decision to right-size the Full-Time MBA cohort and create a program that showcases a superior student experience while also delivering a pool of talent that is attractive to industry,” said Jim Parrish, Harbert College of Business executive director of Full Time & Online Graduate Programs. “For the fall 2025 intake, the competition for admissions into the Full-Time MBA will be at a very high level and space will be limited.”

Realizing those ‘aha’ moments

Moving from graduation with an undergraduate degree into the workforce can provide another avenue of education within itself, Parrish said, and that helps students considering an MBA to be better prepared when the time is right for graduate school, and to better shape their career path.

Entering the Full-Time MBA program typically means leaving a full-time job for the short term, and that’s not always an easy decision. However, when prospective candidates do, it not only serves them better to have work experience, but it helps others in the program, Harbert officials said.

“All students who choose to enroll in the Full-Time MBA program go through a transformative experience,” Parrish said. “Students who come back to school from working a time tend to showcase their skills where they can leverage their professional experience to classroom discussions.

“In addition, these professionals who make the move from work to graduate business school have multiple aha moments that enrich their time on campus,” he said.

Applications continue to rise

Jordan Holladay, Harbert’s director of graduate recruiting, agreed that students often face a significant financial challenge in switching gears from a job back into school mode, citing that as a reason why candidates accepted into the Full-Time MBA program normally become eligible for tuition assistance.

“Leaving a professional career to pursue the Full-Time MBA on Auburn University’s campus also means leaving behind a salary,” Holladay said. “In the short term and long term, we hope guaranteeing tuition assistance to accepted students with two or more years of professional work experience will help alleviate the financial concerns of prospective students.”

Recruiting the best and brightest students, and more of them, remains a positive trend for Harbert College of Business, he said.

“The Full-Time MBA program had a 14 percent increase in applications in 2024 from students around the world,” Holladay said. “The Auburn MBA provides a strong network of alumni and brand recognition, and tuition assistance opportunities allow students with professional work experience to pursue a degree they might not have thought was possible.

“Our Full-Time MBA program is cohort based, and students form a network with their cohort that lasts beyond their time at Auburn University. Attracting more students with professional work experience will strengthen the value of the cohort, as students will have more experiences to share and learn from and a wider network to which they can connect.”

‘A great way to pivot’

Rena Scofield, from Montgomery and now a student in Harbert’s Full-Time MBA program, already has a bachelor’s degree in communication studies and a master’s degree in health informatics, both from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“Upon graduating with my bachelor's, I was an implementation specialist at the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation where I opened new clinics with our systems and processes, and relocated other clinics,” she said. “While I was at this job, I started my master's program part-time.”

She transitioned into other jobs before most recently working as the partnerships officer for a non-profit called KultureCity, where she managed relationships with 1,800-plus partners, among other duties.

What triggered her move to Auburn and Harbert’s Full-Time MBA program?

“I attended Auburn my freshman year, but I ultimately transferred to UAB after my first year. I knew I wanted to come back to Auburn, but I didn't know in what capacity,” Scofield said. “I had a couple of options, but I loved that the Full-Time MBA program didn't have a standardized test requirement due to my years of work experience.

“At this point, I knew I wanted to transition my career, and the MBA program offered a great way to pivot. I wasn't going to apply for this cycle because I wanted to save more money in anticipation of quitting my full-time career, but I saw that there was still time for me to apply before the Graduate Assistantship deadline and took the plunge,” she said.

She fully supports the plan to begin requiring two or more years of work experience for candidates entering the program. 

“I think it's a great idea,” she said. “There is a lot of value that work experience adds to the MBA. It provides perspective.”

The journey from ‘a standstill’ to an MBA

Nicolas Thomas, originally from the Greater Cleveland area in Ohio, graduated in 2019 from Muskingum University with a degree in criminal justice before coming to Auburn.

“After graduating, I worked for a record-auditing company for a little over five years, spending two years as a researcher and three years as a supervisor. My daily responsibilities were primarily focused on operations, and I am now looking to shift into a different industry by pursuing an MBA,” he said.

“I have always enjoyed being in a management position, so pursuing an MBA has always been on my mind. My wife and I moved to Auburn over four years ago.... In 2023 I found myself at a standstill in my career in terms of upward mobility and I was eager to pivot into a new industry,” Thomas said.

“After years of saving and becoming well-acquainted with Auburn, the timing felt right for me to begin my academic journey this fall. I chose to attend classes in person for two reasons: I wanted to learn from my peers in the classroom, and foster closer relationships with them throughout the program,” he said. “In my experience, connecting with others in person is more meaningful than communicating over a screen.”

Advancing your career

Graduate students who fill graduate assistant roles or receive tuition assistance through other means praise the program for providing the help, calling it a difference-maker.

“I think the most difficult challenge for me was giving up my salaried job with benefits for a year. I think the graduate assistantship is wonderful,” Scofield said. “I would not have enrolled in the program if I had not received the graduate assistantship because financially it wouldn't have made sense for me to quit my job.”

Taking a full course load and working as a graduate assistant can be stressful at times when trying to balance a family, she said, “but I just try and have a positive attitude and ask for help when I need it.” 

She offered a bit of advice for others considering the Full-Time MBA program.

“The program is truly what you make of it. There are opportunities for you to advance your career, but you need to be proactive on reaching your goals,” she said. “It'll be stressful at times, but if you put in the work, you'll see returns.

“Also, the people that this program attract are very cool, interesting, and willing to help,” Scofield said.

A great combination

Hanna Homer from Paris, Texas, said it was a combination of Auburn’s reputation as a friendly, family-feel campus and the reputation of Harbert College of Business that lured her into the MBA program.

“I started digging around on the website and the emphasis on the Graduate Career Services, Professional Development, and the potential to do a dual degree enticed me. The other aspect of Auburn that drew me in was the ‘Auburn Family,’” she said. “Coming from a relatively small town and from an undergraduate institution that instills the importance of tradition and loyalty, the culture of the community I am in, is so important to me and my happiness.

“Even though I read a lot about the Auburn Family on the Auburn website, I needed to do my own research to see if the claims were genuine,” Homer said. “What sold me is that I honestly, in a way, stalked the public social media accounts of MBA students at the time and I could see from their posts how connected the cohort was. The care they had for each other and the fun they were having together, in and out of class, was palpable and solidified my decision in wanting to choose this program.”

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Learn more about the Auburn Harbert College of Business MBA programs.