Quinnipiac University: Master of Science in Information Technology

Accelerate Your IT Career

The MSIT is a business degree for people who manage information technology systems and staff, or who aspire to be IT managers. Quinnipiac University began the Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program in 2001 directly in response to a growing industry need for leaders in IT management.

The Leading Edge

Unlike other programs taught in engineering departments, the QU MSIT is taught in Quinnipiac’s School of Business. It combines in-depth grounding in current IT technologies and a practical, hands-on business format. This is the leading edge where there are very few competing programs.

Rigorous and Fast Paced

This rigorous, fast-paced, and demanding curriculum appeals strongly to working IT professionals preparing to move into management. The program may also be appropriate for people in fields with intensive IT support experience or for recent undergraduates with IT degrees who wish to enter the job market with a competitive edge.

Meets the Demands of Working Professionals

Originally taught on campus, the MSIT moved to a completely online curriculum in 2010, in response to requests from working professionals asking for a more flexible schedule. Coursework remains cutting edge, team based, and collaborative.

Highly Supportive

With a cohort of experienced IT professionals from around the country, a highly collaborative environment, and a current student-to-faculty ratio of only 10:1, student support is a hallmark of Quinnipiac’s MSIT program. Students connect and learn from each other and from the individual attention of our distinguished professors.

Master of Business Administration

The Master of Business Administration (MBA or M.B.A.) is a master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out scientific approaches to management. The core courses in the MBA program are designed to introduce students to the various areas of business such as accounting, finance, marketing, human resources, operations management, etc. Students in MBA programs have the option of taking general business courses throughout the program or can select an area of concentration and focus approximately one-fourth of their studies in this subject.

Accreditation bodies exist specifically for MBA programs to ensure consistency and quality of graduate business education. Business schools in many countries offer MBA programs tailored to full-time, part-time, executive, and distance learning students, with specialized concentrations.

History

The first graduate school of business in the United States was the Tuck School of Business, part of Dartmouth College Founded in 1900, it was the first institution conferring advanced degrees (masters) in the commercial sciences, specifically, a Master of Science in Commerce degree, the forebear of the modern MBA degree.
In 1908, the Graduate School of Business Administration (GSBA) at Harvard University was established; it offered the world's first MBA program, with a faculty of 15 plus 33 regular students and 47 special students.
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business first offered working professionals the Executive MBA (EMBA) program in 1943, first available in permanent campus in three continents (Chicago, London and Singapore) and this type of program is offered by most business schools today.
In 1946, Thunderbird School of Global Management was the first school to offer an MBA program focused on global management.
In 1950, the first MBA degrees awarded outside the United States were by the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario in Canada, followed in 1951 with the degree awarded by the University of Pretoria in South Africa. In 1955, the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi was established under the University of Karachi in Pakistan, in collaboration with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and became the first Asian business school to offer an MBA program under the US MBA model. In 1957, INSEAD became the first European business school to offer an MBA program. In 1986, the Roy E. Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College (Florida) was the first MBA program to require every student to have a laptop computer in the classroom. Initially, professors wheeled a cart of laptops into the classroom.
The MBA degree has been adopted by universities worldwide, and has been adopted and adapted by both developed and developing countries.

Program content

Most top MBA programs cover similar subjects within their core required courses. For information about the typical content of an MBA program's core curriculum, see the overview at the Wikiversity MBA topic page. MBA programs expose students to a variety of subjects, which students may choose to specialize in a particular area. Students traditionally study a wide breadth of courses in the program's first year, then pursue a specialized curriculum in the second year. Full-time students typically seek an internship during the interim. Typical specializations include: accounting, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, international business, management science, marketing, operations management, organizational behavior, project management, real estate, and strategy, among others.
Many individuals choosing a specialized field of study, such as real estate or accounting, are well-suited for their respective industries through pursuing a Master of Real Estate Development or Master of Science in Accounting degree, for example. Other specialized programs include Master of Science in Finance, Master of Science in Information Systems, Master of Science in Supply Chain Management.

MBA degree and current financial crisis

The Financial crisis of 2007–2010 has raised new challenges and questions regarding the MBA degree. Graduates of MBA programs have a reported tendency to go into Finance shortly after receiving the degree. As the field of Finance is tightly linked to the global economic downturn, anecdotal evidence suggests new graduates are stepping onto alternate paths.

Deans at top business schools have acknowledged media and public perception of the MBA has shown some shifts as a result of the financial crisis.
Articles about public perception related to the crisis range from schools' acknowledgment of issues related to the training students receive to criticisms of the MBA's role in society.

Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)

The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Program is a professional credential offered by the CFA Institute (formerly AIMR) to investment and financial professionals. A candidate who successfully completes the program and meets other professional requirements is awarded a "CFA charter" and becomes a "CFA charterholder".

The CFA designation

The CFA charter is a qualification for finance and investment professionals, particularly in the fields of investment management and financial analysis of stocks, bonds and their derivative assets. The program focuses on portfolio management and financial analysis, and provides a generalist knowledge of other areas of finance. Additionally, the CFA charter has experienced increasing relevance and demand within corporate finance.

The CFA designation was first awarded in 1963. As of March 2012, CFA Institute has about 107,000 members in 138 countries around the world, including about 98,000 CFA charterholders.

Requirements

To become a charterholder a candidate must satisfy the following requirements.

• Have four years (48 months) of qualified work experience (or a combination of education and work experience acceptable by the CFA Institute). However individual level exams may be written prior to satisfying this requirement
• Complete the CFA Program (mastery of the current CFA curriculum and passing three six-hour examinations)
• Become a member of the CFA Institute and apply for membership to a local CFA member society
• Adhere to the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct

Independent of any other requirements for becoming a charterholder, the CFA Program takes an average of four years for candidates to complete.

History

 The predecessor of CFA Institute, the Financial Analysts Federation (FAF), was established in 1947 as a service organization for investment professionals in its societies and chapters. The earliest CFA charter holders were "grandfathered" in through work experience only. Then, the series of three exams was established along with requirements to being a practitioner for several years to qualify to take the exams. In 1990, in hopes of boosting the credential's public profile, CFA Institute (formerly the Association for Investment Management and Research or AIMR) was created from the merger of the FAF and the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts (ICFA). The CFA program began in the United States but has become increasingly international with many people becoming charter-holders across Europe, Asia and Australia. By 2003 fewer than half the candidates in the CFA program were based in the US and Canada, with most of the other candidates based in Asia or Europe. India and China have shown some of the highest growth from 2005 to 2006 with increases of 25% and 53% respectively in the total number of charterholders.

Process

The basic requirements for participation in the CFA Program include holding or being in the final year of a university degree (or equivalent as assessed by CFA Institute), or having four years of qualified, professional work experience in an investment decision-making process. To obtain the charter, however, a candidate must have completed a university degree (or equivalent) and four years of qualified, professional work experience, in addition to passing the three exams that test the academic portion of the CFA program, as discussed below.

Candidates take one exam per year over three years (assuming a pass on the first attempt). Fees as of December 2009 for each exam range from $710 to $955, depending on the date on which the candidate registers to take the exam, plus an additional $400 to $480 for program enrollment for new members. Exams are challenging, with 38% passing the Level I, 42% passing Level II, and 52% passing Level III exam in June 2012. It should be noted that level 2 and 3 pass rates apply to candidates that must have already passed the prior level.

All three exams are administered on paper on a single day; the Level I exam is administered twice a year (usually the first weekend of June and December). The Level II and III exams are administered once a year, usually the first weekend of June. Each exam consists of two three-hour sessions. Level I has 240 independent, multiple-choice questions - all information required to answer the question is contained in the question. Level II has 120 multiple-choice questions, organized as 20 six-question item sets, each set having its own vignette of facts. To answer each question, the candidate must refer to the vignette as there is insufficient information in the question stem. Level III consists of a session of constructive response, essay-type questions, and a session of 10 six-question item sets as in the Level II exam. On the multiple-choice/item set sections, there is no penalty for wrong answers. For the test, only two models of calculator are allowed (the Hewlett Packard 12C including the HP 12C Platinum, and the Texas Instruments BA II Plus including the BA II Plus Professional).

Candidates who have taken the exam receive a score report that is intended to be fairly unspecific: there is no overall score for the test, only a Pass/Fail result, and a range within which his or her performance for each topic area falls: below 50%, between 50% and 70%, and above 70%. Additionally, failing candidates are informed of their decile rank within the body of failing candidates. The passing grade for the exams had been defined as 70% of the top percentage of exam papers until 1989; since then, the grading method is not explicitly published and the minimum passing score is set by the Board of Governors after each exam. The Board of Governors reviews the results of the standard setting process and input from psychometricians.

Standard setting is a process that defines the passing score of the exam. The CFA exam utilizes the modified Angoff method which is a commonly used approach to setting standards for certification and licensure examinations. Subject matter experts review the exam and recommend a minimum passing score for the "just-qualified candidate". The minimum passing scores are presented to the Board of Governors in a report. The Board of Governors is not bound by this recommendation, but does recognize it as very important information.