The Olin Business School is the business school and one of seven academic schools at Washington University in St. Louis. The school offers undergraduate, master's, doctoral, and executive programs.
 | |
| Motto | Creating knowledge... Inspiring individuals... Transforming business. |
|---|---|
| Type | Private |
| Established | 1917 |
Parent institution | Washington University in St. Louis |
| Accreditation |
|
| Endowment | US$326 million (2016)[1] |
| Dean | Michael J. Mazzeo[2] |
Academic staff | 154 |
| Undergraduates | 837 |
| Postgraduates | 1557 |
| Location |
,
, US 38°38′53″N 90°18′42″W / 38.6481°N 90.3116°W / 38.6481; -90.3116 |
| Website | olin |
Olin has more than 20,000 alumni across the world.[3]
Founded in 1917, the business school was renamed for entrepreneur John M. Olin in 1988.
The Olin Business School includes the 80,000 sq ft (7,400 m2) Simon Hall, whose 1986 construction was largely funded by a gift from John E. Simon; Knight and Bauer Halls, whose 2014 construction was largely funded by gifts from Charles F. And Joanne Knight and George and Carol Bauer; and the Charles F. Knight Executive Education and Conference Center, all on the Danforth Campus.
On July 1, 2009, the school took over management of the Brookings Institute's executive management program.[4]
| Business School International Rankings | |
|---|---|
| U.S. MBA Ranking | |
| Bloomberg (2024)[5] | 30 |
| U.S. News & World Report (2024)[6] | 26 (full-time) 17 (part-time) |
| Global MBA Ranking | |
| Financial Times (2024)[8] | 49[7] |
At Olin, undergraduate students are admitted directly into the BSBA program as freshmen. Inter-division transfers are allowed for students who are in good standing with their current division, can complete the BSBA requirements within 4 years, have completed 2 or more core professional business courses for credit, have completed Calculus II for credit, and have a minimum 3.5 GPA.
To graduate, students must complete a minimum of 120 units of coursework.[9] 40% of classes must be outside the areas of business. Students can choose from eight different business majors: Accounting, Economics and Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Healthcare Management, Marketing, Organization and Strategic Management, and Supply Chain, Operations, and Technology. Olin students can also minor in International Business, the Business of the Arts, the Business of Entertainment, or the Business of Sports Management.[10]
Students declare their business administration major (or majors) during their sophomore year. Students can also earn a second major or minor from one of the university's other schools, such as the College of Arts & Sciences, School of Engineering & Applied Science, or Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.
Non-business students from other WUSTL schools also can minor in the following business fields: Accounting, Business Economics, Business of Sports, Business of the Arts, Entrepreneurship, Finance, General Business, Healthcare Management, International Business, Leadership, Marketing, Operations and Supply Chain Management, and Strategy.[11]
Olin has four main rounds and after June they have rolling admissions.
Olin's Full-Time MBA program was named the #4 global MBA program for women in the Financial Times (2018).[12] In 2019, the class reached near-gender parity with 49% female students. In October 2019, an Inc. Magazine ranking powered by Poets&Quants ranked Olin as the #1 MBA program in the world for entrepreneurship.[13] In January 2020, Olin was named the Poets&Quants MBA Program of 2019 as a result of a series of radical changes to the program focusing on global immersion.[14]
Students in the full-time MBA program experience three global immersions in the first year of their experience.[15] Students begin with an orientation in St. Louis before spending time in Washington, DC learning about the intersection of business and policy. They then spend time in two international locations; in 2022 the immersion included Barcelona, consulting with local wineries, then Paris, and lastly Santiago, Chile where student teams evaluated production capacity and bottlenecks at three firms.[16]
The MBA curriculum requires completion of 67 credit hours, nearly two-thirds of which are elective courses selected by the student. The fall semester of year one focuses on critical thinking, leadership, career strategy, and the major functional areas of business. During the spring semester of year one and throughout year two, students take mostly elective courses of their choosing, often following the guidelines of platforms and concentration areas that help students navigate the curriculum toward their career goals. Platforms offered include:
| Platform | Concentration |
|---|---|
| Consulting [17] | General Management and Internal Consulting |
| International Management | |
| Strategy Consulting | |
| Human Capital Consulting | |
| Corporate Finance and Investments [18] | Financial Management |
| Investment Banking - Corporate Finance | |
| Private Equity and Venture Capital | |
| Investment Banking - Capital Markets and Trading | |
| Asset Management | |
| Entrepreneurship [19] | Commercial Entrepreneurship |
| Social Entrepreneurship | |
| Marketing [20] | Brand Management |
| Product Management | |
| Customer Analytics | |
| Operations and Supply Chain [21] | Operations/Supply Chain Management |
| Supply Chain Consulting |
Elective courses include semester-long (3 credit) courses, six week "mini" (1.5 credit) courses, and work-study positions. Olin MBAs can also take up to nine credits of approved coursework from other graduate programs at Washington University.
WashU Olin also offers a 20-month Executive MBA[22] and a part-time Flex MBA[23] with the option of online or on-campus courses.
Specialized Masters business degrees can typically be completed in three semesters. Four programs — Master of Science in Supply Chain Management (MSSCM), Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSA), Master of Science in Finance-Wealth and Asset Management (MSFWAM), and Master of Science in Finance-Quantitative Finance (MSFQ) — hold STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) designations.[24] The Master of Accounting (MACC) can be structured to meet CPA exam eligibility requirements.[25] Online specialized master's are offered in business analytics and finance.[26]
There are usually 80 students enrolled in the Ph.D program. A DBA in finance also is offered for individuals pursuing applied research in corporations, banks, government and consulting.[27]
MBA students can choose to study one semester at Manchester Business School in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology in Hong Kong; Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Management at WHU-Koblenz in Koblenz, Germany; École Management de Lyon (EM Lyon) in Lyon, Paris Dauphine University, France; the Institute for Advanced Studies in Administration (IESA) in Caracas, Venezuela; ESADE (Escuela Superior De Administracion Y Direccion De Empresas) in Barcelona, Spain; Bocconi UniversityinMilan, Italy or the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in India.
The school's Executive Programs group, consisting of Executive MBA and Executive Education, is located in the Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center on the Danforth Campus. The school also maintains Executive MBA programs in Shanghai (atFudan University), and Mumbai (at Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management). [28]
| Program | Enrollment |
|---|---|
| Masters | 1475 |
| BSBA | 837 |
| Doctoral | 82 |
The Kopolow Business Library offers Dow Jones Interactive, Lexis/Nexis, InfoTrac, and ABI, as well as databases provided by Moody's, Standard & Poor's, Hoover's, and Disclosure. The library also receives real-time stock and other market information through the Bloomberg and Bridge Information systems. It holds around 30,000 books and subscribes to more than 400 business journals, magazines, and newspapers.