Is work experience required?
Work experience is not required for acceptance to the MBA program. However, work experience is considered a positive factor in the admissions decision, and most Montclair MBA candidates have worked full-time 3-6 years before applying to the program. Applicants who don’t yet have professional experience should be prepared to present especially strong academic credentials, personal statements, and recommendations. Click here for more on work experience and references.
Although work experience is not necessary to get into the program, it does bring an added dimension to the classroom, both in terms of what the student contributes to and receives from the class. Thus it is preferable for a student to have work experience. But it is not required and will not adversely affect the admission decision. However, experience is important when the student begins looking for a job after graduation. Experience helps students either get a job or get a better job. Thus, we strongly encourage students with no experience to gain work experience while they are in the program.
All students admitted to the MSF program have some type of work experience. While the MSF Admissions Committee places a strong emphasis on admitting students with at least 2 years of professional work experience following their undergraduate degree, applicants with less work experience and strong academic credentials are also encouraged to apply. High quality summer internships and part-time work experience might be enough to compensate for less than two years of full-time work experience if other credentials are sufficiently strong.
Based on feedback from faculty and recruiters, work experience is a critical component of both class participation and career placement post-MBA. Therefore, the Office of Admissions requires a minimum of 18 months of work experience to apply to the Full-time MBA program. We evaluate an applicant on his or her full-time post-graduate work experience only. The average years of full-time work experience for our current first-year class is over four years. The only exception(s) to the work requirement rule include applicants interested in joint degree programs, and/or non-traditional applicants. Do you accept non-traditional applicants? Yes. Non-traditional applicants have work experience prior to enrolling in an undergraduate program. Non-traditional applicants may include military officers, religious servants, etc.
