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Academics

Acton School of Business’s unique MBA is like “boot camp” for entrepreneurs. This “challenging yet rewarding” program covers every aspect, practical and personal, of launching a successful venture. Through the school’s unique curriculum, students “learn how to learn, learn how to make money, and learn how to live a life of meaning.” In meeting this mission, Acton employs “some of the best entrepreneurs in the world”; the school’s stellar professors are “leaders in the field of study, and experts at leading the classroom discussions.” A current student gushes, “To say the professors here are ‘world-class’ would be an understatement. These are the best teachers an MBA student could ever encounter.” Coursework is entirely case-based, and professors employ the Socratic method to encourage discussion and creative problem solving in the classroom. Students love the fact that “class time is 100 percent dedicated to real-life applicable situations. There is no wasted time on theory that we can’t use.” A current student adds, “After seeing 300 cases and having analyzed those from the entrepreneur point of view, you start seeing patterns.”

The Acton MBA is an accelerated program, which packs two years of coursework into single fast-paced year. Every day is a marathon, with students meeting for break-of-dawn study groups before class kicks off at eight o’clock in the morning. With its emphasis on discussion, “class is incredibly intense; the professors are knowledgeable, and the students are incredibly well prepared.” On that note, there are roughly ten cases assigned every week, so you can reasonably expect “ninety to a hundred hours of case prep per week.” Fortunately, the rewards of the Acton MBA are well worth the effort. Despite the long hours, “discussions and material make the days go by so fast. It really is a lot of fun once you get past the tough schedule.” Not to mention, the rigor itself is a great teacher; here, the curriculum is “so difficult and time-consuming that you are a different person after you finish.”

“Acton is run like a well organized company,” and overseen by a staff of three that is “very easy to work with and very efficient.” The “school administration is very responsive to problems” when they arise, treating students like valued customers. A case in point, all Acton instructors are required to sign a contract agreeing to step down if students are dissatisfied with their course. Students also appreciate the accelerated structure, which limits their educational expenses to a single year. Sure, you may sweat through it, but “the amount of education packed into one year is better than any two or two-plus year program in the country.”<