How Long Does it Take to Complete an Online Master’s in Management?

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Staff
Updated August 4, 2020

Today, thanks to the pervasiveness of the modern internet, high-speed sharing, file streaming, and a number of other innovations, it is possible to pursue a high-quality and widely respected graduate degree program from a distance. Many schools offer a Master's in Management, as well as closely related programs in management theory and administration, with no on-site classroom attendance required. Gone are the days when this was purely the realm of questionable for-profit institutions; today, even the most reputable and well-established schools, such as Ivy League institutions, offer respectable degree programs to students working remotely. However, many such students have a lot of questions about these relatively new and innovative programs, some of which don't offer any convenient answers.

Resource: Top 30 Ranked Affordable Online Master's in Management

One of the most frequently asked questions of this nature is as follows: how long does it take to complete an online Master's in Management program?

Standard Duration

Most digital Master's degree programs take approximately two years to complete. This is an abbreviated frame of time, made possible by the additional convenience and reduced stress factors of a long-distance learning environment. Coursework offered via this medium also tends to avoid a lot of the superfluous; it isn't a graduate certificate program, but hovers somewhere in between a graduate certificate and a graduate degree, in terms of how narrowly focused the course selection is on the subject at hand. At the same time, there are assumptions in place - prerequisites which must be met, before beginning the Master's program. Some programs may take longer to complete, with a few requiring three-year commitments, assuming a standard academic workload.

Academic Prerequisites Play a Large Role

As with traditional degree programs undertaken in a normal academic environment, digital-age degree programs undertaken at a distance have specific prerequisites, which are based upon a given institution's academic standards. Many graduate students will undertake their graduate studies at an institution other than the one through which they received their undergraduate degrees. This requires the transfer of credits, some of which may or may not be transferable: as counterintuitive as it sounds, many institutions (including those which offer online learning programs) are relucant to accept the transfer of credits earned through other colleges' remote education programs. This doesn't necessarily prevent enrollment, but it can translate to increased academic requirements - and a longer time commitment.

How to Shorten the Required Time Investment

Often, people pursuing their education remotely have options available to them which can help them to shorten the amount of time involved. Though it seems at odds with generally accepted stereotypes about the time constraints we face within today's modern lifestyle, the average individual's biggest problem is less "time" and more "convenience." A digital courseload can be undertaken with greater convenience, and (just like traditional students taking on a heavy courseload) additional classes can often be carried, usually with less stress than those which require the investment of specific time slots.

A Master's in Management is a prestigious degree to have, with a list of applicable careers (and a level of compensation) that's consistently rising. It shows no signs of doing anything else in the near future. Undertaken in a purely remote capacity via today's digital technology, this program can be completedly in anywhere from one and a half to four years depending upon a variety of factors, but with an average duration (all things being equal) of 2 years.

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