Lehigh University
College of Business and Economics
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Overview
Lehigh University, founded in 1865, was one of the first American institutions to offer a technical education. Its first five schools included a school of general literature and four scientific schools. The innovative concept of offering both technical and nontechnical courses of study has continued to be a successful formula at Lehigh. Today, Lehigh has a graduate school of education and three colleges: Engineering and Applied Science, Arts and Sciences, and Business and Economics. Thirty-five percent of the students are enrolled in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Women have always been admitted to Lehigh at the graduate level, and in 1971, the University began admitting women at the undergraduate level. In 1987, the campus expanded to 1,600 acres, with the addition of the former Homer Labs of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. The Mountaintop Campus houses several engineering departments and centers.
A total of 369 graduate students are enrolled in the College of Business and Economics, of whom 243 are men and 126 are women. There are 323 students enrolled in master's degree programs (277 in the M.B.A., 13 in the M.S. in economics, and 13 in the M.S. in accounting and information analysis), 17 in the Ph.D. program, and 29 are non-degree-seeking students. Ninety-nine students are full-time and 270 are part-time.
Graduates of the M.B.A. and M.S. programs have taken positions in a variety of industries, including health care, marketing, operations, and financial institutions. Ph.D. graduates have accepted teaching positions in academia and research positions in financial institutions, business, and government.
The Location and Community
Lehigh University consists of three distinctive, continuous areas, totaling more than 1,600 acres. Located 90 miles southwest of New York City and 50 miles north of Philadelphia, the Lehigh Valley is Pennsylvania's fourth-largest metropolitan area. Bethlehem, one of three principal cities of the Lehigh Valley, is a center of industry, high technology, culture, and education.
Programs of Study and Degree Requirements
The College of Business and Economics offers an M.B.A.; Master of Science (M.S.) programs in accounting and information analysis, analytical finance, economics, and health and biopharmaceutical economics; and the degree of Ph.D. in business and economics. The 36-credit, sixteen-month M.B.A. is specifically designed to mirror business challenges and decision-making situations in a dynamic and rapidly changing corporate environment. The M.S. in economics program requires 30 credit hours of course work and can be completed in one calendar year, with no requirement for prior work experience. The M.S. in accounting and information analysis program is a flexible, 30-hour program offering either a general degree emphasizing assurance services or concentrations in consulting and business risk management, financial services, and strategic cost management. The M.S. in analytical finance, for students with a highly quantitative background in engineering, physics, or mathematics, prepares its graduates for positons in the financial field. The M.S. program in health and biopharmaceutical economics focuses on outcomes assessments in health care and related fields. Both the M.S. in analytical finance and in health and biopharmaceutical economics are one-year degree programs and can be pursued directly after completing the undergraduate degree. The Ph.D. program provides its graduates with extensive knowledge complemented by a demonstrated ability to conduct independent research and requires a minimum of 72 credit hours of work beyond the bachelor's degree or 48 credit hours beyond the master's degree. Students must pass comprehensive examinations in microeconomic and macroeconomic theory and two areas of specialization. A dissertation is also required.
Faced with dramatic changes in the way of conducting business in the twenty-first century, which produce unprecedented challenges in the preparation of future business leaders, students must be surrounded by up-to-the-moment theories and thinking. These programs are designed to accommodate those needs. Students have the resources to learn about the current economic environment and are ready to adjust as changes in today's complex business world arise.
Facilities & Resources
The Rauch Business Center, a $17.8-million headquarters for the graduate programs in the College of Business and Economics, is a modern, dynamic, professional environment for learning and teaching. There are forty well-equipped classrooms, computer labs, auditoriums, and conference rooms. A wireless, state-of-the-art Financial Services Laboratory offers students access to real-time financial information and a window on the world of financial markets. The Clayton Conference Center wing has excellent facilities for executive education programs, conferences, seminars, and other special programs, with plenty of comfortable places to gather and study. Lehigh's distance learning facilities on the Mountaintop Campus provide a state-of-the-art environment for students to interact with students at corporate sites throughout the United States. Along with books and journals, Lehigh's library system includes electronic databases and microfilm, computer software, and media collections. Via the campuswide integrated voice and data communication network, users can access the Internet, the libraries' online catalog, and hundreds of national and international electronic databases and can submit reference inquires, place orders, and request media services and the delivery of documents electronically. The campus network provides access to mainframe computers, the Integrated Library System, and other computers on campus.
Expenses and Aid
Tuition is $730 per credit hour. Full-time students are assessed a $100 technology fee each semester. Online courses also require a $100 technology fee.
Financial Aid:
Aside from that offered to graduate students by Lehigh as a whole, the College of Business and Economics offers several types of financial aid. There are twenty-two teaching assistantships, which provide up to 10 credit hours of tuition each semester and an annual stipend of $13,000. Teaching assistants provide classroom support, teach recitation sections, and work 20 hours per week. Graduate assistants, hired to assist departments and faculty members with research and/or administrative duties, work up to 10 hours a week and may receive tuition waivers and hourly pay. Business analysts assist small and growing businesses in the Lehigh Valley area through the Small Business Development Center. They work 20 hours a week, receive an hourly wage, and receive tuition waivers for up to 10 credit hours of tuition each semester. Scholarships are available for both full-time and part-time students. Ph.D. students are eligible to apply for fellowships that cover up to 10 credits of tuition and an annual stipend.
Housing/Living Expenses:
Information on graduate student housing is available through the Department of Residential Services at 610-758-3500. On-campus housing costs range from $435 to $585 per month. Off-campus listings are also available through Residential Services. Students should budget approximately $28,000 per year in tuition and living expenses.
How to Apply / Application
The credentials evaluated by the faculty admission committee include the candidate's undergraduate background, GMAT scores, personal essay, and letters of recommendation.
Lehigh evaluates applications on a rolling basis and usually notifies applicants of admissions decisions within three weeks of receiving a completed application. Deadlines for regular students are May 1 for the fall semester, December 1 for the spring semester, April 30 for summer session I, and May 30 for summer session II. The deadline for financial aid is January 15 for the upcoming academic year.
International Students
International applicants must have 16 years of formal education, including four years at the university level, to be considered for admission to Lehigh's MBA program. Applicants should submit official English translations in addition to credentials in the original language. If credentials do not record the awarding of the degree received, you must submit certified true copies of your diplomas. If credentials do not show the grading system used by the university, you must also submit a separate official statement from the university that gives this information. A TOEFL score is required of all applicants for whom English is not the native language.
Who to Contact
Mary Theresa Taglang
Director of Recruitment and Admissions
College of Business and Economics
Graduate Programs Office
Lehigh University
621 Taylor Street
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015
610-758-5280
E-mail: mtt4@lehigh.edu
Faculty and Research
• Anne-Marie Anderson, Assistant Professor of Finance; M.B.A., Tulsa, 1998; Ph.D., Arizona, 2003. Corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, valuation.
• J. Richard Aronson, William L. Clayton Professor of Business and Economics and Director, Martindale Center for the Study of Private Enterprise; Ph.D., Clark, 1964. Tax and expenditure analysis, pension funds, municipal bond analysis.
• Richard W. Barsness, Professor; Ph.D., Minnesota, 1963. International business, corporate strategy in the airline industry.
• John W. Bonge, Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., Northwestern, 1968. Management consulting, entrepreneurship.
• William D. Brown Jr., Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Massachusetts Amherst, 2001. Accounting and econometrics.
• Stephen G. Buell, Professor; Ph.D., Lehigh, 1977. High-yield bonds, corporate bankruptcy.
• Ravi Chitturi, Assistant Professor of Marketing; M.B.A., 1996, Ph.D., 2003, Texas at Austin. New product design and development, customer emotion management, wireless technology, virtual customer and market simulator.
• Shin-Yi Chou, Assistant Professor of Economics; Ph.D., Duke, 1999. Health economics.
• Karen M. Collins, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Virginia Tech, 1988. Behavioral dimensions of public accounting practice (including stress, turnover, and upward mobility of women), ethnic diversity.
• James A. Dearden, Professor; Ph.D., Penn State, 1987. Game theory, marketing design, institutional design.
• Mary E. Deily, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Harvard, 1985. Steel industry and other declining industries, government regulation of business.
• Dale F. Falcinelli, Professor of Practice in Marketing and Management and Chairman, vSeries Corporate Entrepreneurship; M.B.A., Lehigh, 1972. Contemporary marketing, business management policies.
• Neville Francis, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., California, San Diego, 2001. Economics and statistical methods.
• Robert C. Giambatista, Assistant Professor of Management; Ph.D., Wisconsin, 1999. Leadership, groups, decision making, diversity.
• James A. Greenleaf, Associate Professor; Ph.D., NYU, 1973. Portfolio management, derivative instruments, international investments, quantitative applications to investments.
• Frank Gunter, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins, 1985. Economies of Columbia, China, and Latvia; capital flight; customs; unions.
• Parveen P. Gupta, Frank L. McGee Professor of Accounting; Ph.D., Penn State, 1987. Enablers and techniques for effective process redesign through reengineering and benchmarking for accounting and finance functions within manufacturing and service organizations, assessment of business risks and controls within the value chain.
• James A. Hall, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Oklahoma State, 1979. Systems design, internal control of systems, computer systems auditing.
• Thomas J. Hyclak, Professor and Economics Department Chairperson; Ph.D., Notre Dame, 1976. Regional labor market analysis, industrial relations in the truck manufacturing industry, international differences in unemployment.
• Ruihua (Joy) Jiang, Assistant Professor of Management; M.B.A., CUNY, Baruch, 1997; Ph.D., Western Ontario, 2004. Foreign direct investments, Japanese MNEs, technology management via strategic alliances.
• Arthur E. King, Professor; Ph.D., Ohio State, 1976. Applied econometrics, comparative economics, economics of Central Europe.
• Richard J. Kish, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Florida, 1988. Fixed-income securities, efficient markets, international mergers.
• Rajiv Kohli, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Maryland, Baltimore County, 1994. Strategic information systems, management of information systems.
• Michel G. Kolchin, Professor and Chair, Management and Marketing Department; D.B.A., Indiana, 1980. Comparative buying processes, purchasing education and training, supply chain management.
• Robert Kuchta, Professor of Practice; M.S., NJIT, 1982. Long-term effects of the 1 percent population base of prolonged exposure to V-Twin mechanical rotations adjusted for speed, time, and distance.
• James A. Largay, Professor; Ph.D., Cornell, 1971. Cash flow reporting, intercorporate investments, derivative financial investments.
• Lucinda M. Lawson, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Texas A&M, 2001. Organizational behavior and human resource management.
• Stephen L. Liedtka, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Maryland, College Park, 1999. Taxation, managerial accounting, auditing, corporate performance measurement and decision making.
• Benjamin Litt, Professor; Ph.D., NYU, 1970. Communicating across Asian-American cultures.
• James M. Maskulka, Associate Professor; D.B.A., Kent State, 1984. Integrated marketing communications, brand equity and brand strategy, tourism marketing.
• Teresa McCarthy, Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management; Ph.D., Tennessee, 2003. Role of marketing in demand management, demand planning and demand forecasting, market orientation and supply chain orientation, collaboration forecasting and salesforce forecasting management, e-commerce demand management.
• Judith A. McDonald, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Princeton, 1986. United States-Canada economic relations, external debt and tropical deforestation issues, pay equity.
• Matthew A. Melone, Associate Professor; J.D., Pennsylvania, 1993. Taxation, law and accounting, real estate law, partnership and LLC taxation.
• Vincent G. Munley, Professor; Ph.D., SUNY at Binghamton, 1979. Political economy of state and local government finances.
• David H. Myers, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Washington (Seattle), 2001. Mutual funds, pension funds, portfolio strategies, Japanese equity market and international investing.
• George A. Nation III, Professor; J.D., Villanova, 1983. Commercial lending, environmental liability for lenders, promissory notes, product liability.
• Nandu Nayar, Professor and Hans Baer Chair in Finance; Ph.D., Iowa, 1988. Business administration, corporate finance.
• Anthony P. O'Brien, Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley, 1986. Business history, economic history, microeconomics.
• John W. Paul, Professor; Ph.D., Lehigh, 1978. Audits of small businesses, audits of information systems, statistical sampling in auditing.
• Dennis S. Praedin, Professor of Practice; B.A., Muhlenberg, 1977. Information technology strategic planning, business continuity planning, disaster recovery planning, customer relationship management, IT return on investment.
• James Rebele, Professor; Ph.D., Indiana, 1984. Auditor decision making and information utilization, accounting education.
• Catherine M. Ridings, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Drexel, 2000. Virtual communities, e-commerce, trust, management of technical personnel.
• Michael D. Santoro, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Rutgers, 1998. Organizational strategy, entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, the sources of technological innovation, the role of industry-university collaboration in advancing new technologies.
• Theodore W. Schlie, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Northwestern, 1973. Advanced manufacturing and competitive strategy, globalization of industrial research and development, international competitiveness.
• Susan A. Sherer, Professor; Ph.D., Pennsylvania, 1988. Software failure risk, management of software development, manufacturing networks, interorganizational information systems, strategic information systems.
• Kenneth P. Sinclair, Professor and Accounting Department Chairman; Ph.D., Massachusetts, 1972. Performance evaluation, human resource accounting, case studies in managerial accounting.
• K. Sivakumar, Arthur Tauck Professor of International Marketing and Logistics and Associate Professor of Management and Marketing; Ph.D., Syracuse, 1992. Pricing, international marketing, innovation management.
• Stephen E. Snyder, Assistant Professor of Economics; Ph.D., Maryland, 2004. Labor economics, economic history, pharmaeconomics.
• Quingjiu (Tom) Tao, Assistant Professor of Management; Ph.D., Pittsburgh, 2004. Strategic alliance in emerging market environments, institutions and firm behavior, first mover advantage in international market entry.
• Larry W. Taylor, Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina, 1984. Specification testing for economic models, finite-sample issues in econometrics, econometric methodology, macroeconomic modeling.
• Stephen F. Thode, Associate Professor and Director, Goodman Center for Real Estate Studies; D.B.A., Indiana, 1980. New mortgage products, mortgage pricing, affordable housing financing, taxation of real estate investments.
• Robert J. Thornton, Charles W. MacFarlane Professor of Economics; Ph.D., Illinois, 1970. Unionism and collective bargaining, public employment, labor market discrimination, forensic economics.
• Robert J. Trent, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Michigan State, 1993. Cross-functional teams in purchasing.
• Geraldo M. Vasconcellos, Arthur F. Searing Professor of Finance and Economics; Ph.D., Illinois, 1986. Cross-border mergers and acquisitions, portfolio approach to export-diversification strategy, foreign direct investment, decision making in financial institutions.
• Todd A. Watkins, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Harvard, 1986. Technology and industrial policy, economics and management of innovation, defense industries.
• Samuel C. Weaver, Swartley Professor of Finance; Ph.D., Lehigh, 1985. Performance measurement, valuation, strategic financial management.
• Wenlong Weng, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Stanford, 2001. Applied microeconomics.
• Yuliang (Oliver) Yao, Assistant Professor of Business Information Systems; M.B.A., Rensselaer, 1997; Ph.D., Maryland, 2002. Supply chain management, electronic commerce, technology issues in supply chains, logistics modeling/simulation.
• Perry A. Zirkel, Iacocca Professor of Education; LL.M., Yale, 1982; J.D., Yale; Ph.D., Connecticut. Education law and labor arbitration.