Accelerated 4-Month Curriculum

Accelerated 4-Month Curriculum

Expedite your learning and expand your horizons

Open to both U.S. and international students, our four-month certificate offers a full-time intensive period of learning and a quick path to a valuable credential. You'll choose four courses (12 credits) to complete your program. If you're on sabbatical, gearing up for a return to the workforce, or spending a semester in the United States, this option may be a perfect fit for you.

Your learning will center on the skills you need for a business world undergoing a digital transformation—you can select any courses that are available during the semester you'd like to study, from accounting and management to entrepreneurship and innovation.

This option is F-1 visa compliant, which makes it a good fit for international students who want to study abroad at D'Amore-McKim and complete their studies in a single semester. (However, it doesn't qualify you to pursue Optical Practical Training, or OPT.) It's a great way to study on our Boston campus and earn credits that may be transferrable to an MBA or other eligible master's program at Northeastern.

A Graduate Certificate in Business Administration will be a meaningful credential in its own right, but it can also be a valuable stepping stone toward an MBA. If you ultimately complete your certificate and decide to pursue an MBA or other eligible master's degree here at Northeastern, your credits earned may apply directly toward your course requirements.

This program will challenge you to learn and help you get ready to participate in innovation within real markets. You will learn how to use the tools, concepts, frameworks, and techniques that are necessary for building global business opportunities.

Wuttikrai Malili, Accelerated 4-Month Curriculum

Graduate Certificate Accelerated 4-Month | Typical program timeline

GCBA - Updated timeline graphic 07/12/2023
*Starts in September or January. Course offerings vary per semester.

Curriculum

Select 12 credits from the following list of eligible courses.

Accounting Courses

Offers the first of a two-course sequence that focuses on the acquisition, measurement, and management of firm resources. Business managers make strategic decisions about the acquisition and use of a variety of firm resources. Helps enable students to understand and utilize critical information in corporate financial reports to improve business decision making. Offers students the opportunity to learn contemporary methods of financial reporting and analysis used by internal decision makers and external capital providers. Required course for co-op MBA/part-time MBA.

ACCT 6200 | 3 Hours

Continues ACCT 6200, offering the second of a two-course sequence that focuses on the acquisition, measurement, and management of firm resources. Critical to the effective planning, implementation, and management of successful business strategies is the ability to measure and manage the commitment and utilization of entity resources. Focuses on contemporary methods and frameworks used in the process of measuring, analyzing, and allocating firm resources to achieve strategic and operating objectives. Required course for co-op MBA/part-time MBA.

ACCT 6201 | 1.5 Hours

Management Courses

Examines today's evolving environment, in which effective utilization of human resources is a source of competitive advantage. To maximize the contribution of organizational members, managers must be able to understand, diagnose, and influence workplace behavior in the context of change. Topics include management of cross-functional teams and boundaryless organizations. Emphasis is on the role of corporate culture and distributed leadership.

HRMG 6200 | 3 Hours

Focuses on the international business environment, and examines the influence on global decision making of such areas as the international economy and trade issues, legal and political context differences, governmental actions, cultural and ethical system differences, exchange rates and international currency markets, international institutions like the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund, and regional agreements like the European Union, NAFTA, and Mercosur. Also analyzes why firms internationalize their operations, how they can internationalize, and key areas such as international manufacturing, marketing, human resource management, and strategy.

INTB 6200 | 3 Hours

Focuses on issues of the strategic uses of information technology for competitive advantage, support of business processes, information and control, digital business, integration of business with technology, organizational communication, and data management. Information has become a key resource in doing business. Managers must understand that high-quality information adds value to existing products and services, enhances the creation of new products, changes the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes, and affects relationships with customers, suppliers, and competitors.

MGSC 6204 | 1.5 Hours

Focuses on the integrative management of processes and activities involved in transformation and delivery of goods and services. Offers students an opportunity to obtain foundational knowledge on operations and supply chain management concepts, techniques, and functions. Topics covered include sourcing and procurement, manufacturing and service operations, process design and control, quality management, capacity planning, demand planning and forecasting, inventory management, transportation and distribution management, interfirm relationship management, and attendant information flows.

SCHM 6201 | 3 Hours

Marketing Courses

Focuses on marketing analysis and planning. Emphasizes analysis of customer needs and company and competitor capabilities. This analysis forms the basis of a sound marketing strategy that provides value to customers in a way superior to competitors. Discusses how to deliver this strategy through the development of an intergrated marketing program covering product offerings, pricing, promotion, and distribution. Includes professional accounting students.

MKTG 6200 | 3 Hours

Trains managers to understand the competitive implications of global economic policies, the business effects of technological change, and the commercial imperatives of alternative political systems at a macro level. At a micro level, it creates a framework for industry analysis in a global setting that combines economic analysis, competitive analysis, and business decision-making skills.

MECN 6200 | 3 Hours

Analysis Courses

Highlights the role of financial management as a source of value creation in a competitive global environment characterized by rapid technological, personal, and market changes. Offers students an opportunity to develop tools and techniques of financial analysis and valuation to support financial decision making. Presents future managers with actual business problems to learn to apply the tools of financial analysis to strategic decisions faced by the firm, such as capital budgeting and capital structure.

FINA 6200 | 3 Hours

Provides students with basic information analysis skills and tools needed to manage effectively in today's information-intensive business climate. Exposes students to analytical problems from different areas of business and the quantitative concepts and techniques that can analyze them. Course objectives are to improve the information analysis skills of the students, to provide students with a working knowledge of important statistical tools, to help students become more critical evaluators of studies and reports involving statistical and quantitative methods, and to improve skills in communicating the results of analyses. Offers students the opportunity to learn how to evaluate, analyze, and interpret data, and present their findings and conclusions that will be most useful for managerial decision making through the use of business applications and analytical software.

MGSC 6200 | 3 Hours

Focuses on strategy development and implementation for a line of business and for the corporation as a whole by adopting a top management perspective. Beginning with developing a mission statement and goals for the firm, focuses on environmental scanning, incorporating economic, technological, sociopolitical, and legal trends in conducting industry analysis, thus assessing opportunities and threats and the firm's capabilities before formulating strategy that represents a fit between the environment and the firm. Discusses how to develop competitive advantage and assess competitive positioning, and studies how organizational structure and systems contribute to implementing strategy. Stresses the role of leadership and motivation before moving on to feedback mechanisms to assess success in strategy implementation, leading to revision of strategic plans as needed.

STRT 6200 | 3 Hours

Entrepreneurship Course

Explores the challenges and processes for harnessing technological innovation for new-business development. Integrates technology strategy, innovation in marketing, product development, and organization design for the purpose of enterprise growth. Through readings, cases, and exercises, studies how firms from different industries gain competitive advantage through distinctive products and services, and leverage their technologies and skills into new emerging markets. Also focuses on processes for conceiving, financing, and organizing new ventures.

INNO 6200 | 3 Hours

The following is a sample curriculum and is subject to change. Enrolled students should reference the academic catalog for current program requirements.