Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh

The Katz School tracings its beginnings to the introduction of business education to the university in 1907 as the Evening School of Economics, Accounts, and Finance. Classes met in the Fulton Building on Sixth Street in Pittsburgh. Three years later in 1910, the School of Economics (named for the London School of Economics) was formally set up on Pitt's Oakland campus. In 1916, the school became one of the 17 founding members of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

By 1923 the school was renamed again, this time as the School of Business Administration.  In 1949, it became only the third school in the United States to offer executive management training programs. The Graduate School of Business came into existence in 1960 out of a merger with the School of Business Administration and Graduate School of Retailing. Marshall A. Robinson was assigned as dean of the new school, which discontinued the issuance of undergraduate degrees and had an MBA class of 25 students its first year. That same year, the school launched its first doctoral program as well.

In 1963, the school began offering a one-year MBA program, making it the first in the United States to offer the accelerated program. It was one of the first business schools to offer an MBA and Master of Information Systems dual degree. For much of the 1960s, business classes were held in the Cathedral of Learning and Bruce Hall. In 1972, Lou Mervis and wife Myra established a trust fund for Pitt's Graduate School of Business with a $2 million donation ($13 million in 2021 dollars). In their honour, the building now known as Thackeray Hall was named after them and dedicated as home of the business school. In 1983, a new building was built to house the business school, and the name was carried over to it.

In 1987, the business school was renamed after Joseph Katz, Pitt alumnus and founder of Papercraft Corporation, following his $10 million donation ($23.9 million in 2021 dollars) to the university. In the 1990s Katz became the first US institution to offer an MBA in Central Europe, and in 2002 launched a bioengineering dual-degree program. The Katz Graduate School of Business now oversees the administration of the undergraduate College of Business Administration.

In 2015, Arjang A. Assad was named the dean of Katz. Under Assad's leadership, the school launched a part-time hybrid online/in-person MBA program and the full-time MBA program earned its best U.S. News & World Report ranking in school history.

Traditional two-year MBA:

Katz two-year students start in August and graduate 20 months later in April. Entrance statistics for the Full-Time Incoming Class of 2014 included 82 students with a 3.34 average grade point average, a 625 average GMAT score, and 3.8 years of work experience.

The MBA curriculum is divided into two types of courses: Core courses and elective courses. Core courses are required of all MBA students and are intended to provide students with the breadth of knowledge to build a solid business foundation. Full-time MBA students are required to take 27 credits of core courses encompassing Finance, Accounting, Economics, Statistics, Decision Technology, Organisational Behaviour, Marketing, Strategy, and Information Systems. Elective courses which total 30 credits are intended to provide depth in a particular concentration. MBA students typically choose one or two concentrations and then choose electives within those concentrations.

Non-traditional and joint degree programs:

• One-year MBA
• Part-time MBA
• Executive MBA
• Joint program with Law School (MBA/JD)
• Joint program with Swanson School of Engineering (MBA/MS in Engineering)
• Joint program with Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (MBA/MPIA and MBA/MID)
• Joint program within Katz in Information Systems (MBA/MS-MIS)
• Joint program within Katz in International Business (MBA/MIB

National rankings of Katz' MBA program include #37 by Forbes, #35 by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and #39 by U.S. News & World Report. In global rankings, Katz was ranked #73 by Financial Times and #51 by The Economist.

The MBA program is also ranked among the top 20 in U.S. public universities by Poets&Quants.

The Katz Two Year MBA program has also been ranked #12 in the world by Times Higher Education and the Wall Street Journal.

According to Katz, 91% Students Employed @ 90 Days Post-Grad