Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business features a global emphasis in its full-time MBA curriculum. During the fall semester, first-year students are required to take “Structure of Global Industries,” an immersive core course that provides a foundation in international business. The global emphasis continues in the second year, when students take part in the school’s signature Global Business Experience. In this program, students take on consulting roles working for actual international organizations or Fortune 500 companies. In the spring, student teams travel to their respective client’s country—in 2025, these included Kenya, Spain, and Singapore—to gain firsthand experience working in a global consulting and management setting. After the participating students return to campus, they present the stories and takeaways from their experiences to their classmates at the school’s Global Business Conference. Since the Global Business Experience’s inception, more than 9,300 students have taken part in more than 1,700 projects.
Just four miles away from Georgetown, the George Washington University School of Business offers a similarly international MBA experience—in fact, the program is titled “Global MBA.” During the first year of the program, students take such core courses as “Microeconomics for the World Economy” and “Competition in the Global Economy” before taking part in the Consulting Abroad Program, during which all Global MBA students spend seven weeks preparing on campus in Washington, DC, and then two weeks abroad in the partner company’s country. In 2025, destinations included Sweden and the United Arab Emirates.
Finally, Global MBA students have the option of enrolling in one of the school’s graduate and professional certificate programs—such certificates as “Global Management” and “Culture Heritage Tourism” may be of interest to those hoping to focus on international experiences.
