Kent State students and community members will gather in Room 306 of the Student Center on Thursday for a College of Business Administration Graduate Programs Information Night.

“The info session is for anyone interested in our programs or learning more about them to see if it’s something they want to pursue,” said Felecia Urbanek, senior adviser in the Graduate Programs Office.

The Graduate Programs Information Night is for “anyone who has finished their bachelor’s degree and wants to do a graduate program,” said Louise Ditchey, academic program director in the Graduate Programs Office.

“You don’t need a specific undergraduate degree either,” Urbanek said.

Urbanek said during the information night, a presentation will discuss admission requirements, program specifics, the importance of Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accreditation, application procedures, deferred billing for company reimbursement and full-time graduate assistantships. Attendees will meet with current professors, students and alumni as well.

“The first 20 to 25 minutes, we’ll give an overview of all of our programs,” Ditchey said. “Then we break and students are free to go table to table learning about different programs.”

“This brings them together and gets their questions answered,” Information Systems associate professor Pratim Datta said.

Urbanek said this is a chance for people attending to put a face to the name of some of the professors, faculty and staff, which can create a more personal connection.

“It gets them to apply to our university rather than somewhere else,” Urbanek said.

Ditchey said at least half of the people who attend the information session end up later on applying to one of the offered graduate programs.

Datta said there will be one representative for every graduate program offered.

The programs offered include: Full-time MBA, Part-time MBA, Executive MBA, Executive MBA for Healthcare Professionals, M.S. in Accounting, M.A. in Economics and Ph.D. in Business Administration.

“It’s usually pretty good,” Urbanek said. “We keep doing it so that people will get the information they need.”

Urbanek and Ditchey said they want attendees to leave the Graduate Programs Information Night with a solid knowledge of what programs are offered and all of their questions answered.

There is a College of Business Administration graduate programs information night once every semester.

Refreshments will be provided.

If interested in attending the graduate programs information night, call 330-672-2282 to reserve a seat or go to www.kent.edu/business/grad.

Contact Alexis Cummins at [email protected].