What is a Hybrid MBA Program?

Blended master of business administration (MBA) degrees are increasingly attractive to prospective students. Also known as hybrid degrees, these programs blend on-campus sessions with online education and offer unique advantages to students.

Early on, experts believed that online education would completely upend academia. Students would prefer to do all of their learning on a computer and would no longer be committed to attending universities near their homes. In addition, experts believed that distance would become irrelevant when students apply to schools.

Furthermore, when it came to business schools, the consensus was that MBA applicants would choose a school or program based on rankings, regardless of how far the physical campus was from where they lived. Online learning offered the opportunity for students to attend the best schools in the country without leaving their city or town of residence. If students could now take classes and complete coursework from anywhere, why would they not seek a degree from the most prestigious, nationally-ranked school?

In 2025, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) Prospective Students Survey reported a noticeable pivot back toward campus-based study. Candidate interest in hybrid and flexible MBA formats declined compared with recent years, while preference for both full-time and part-time in-person programs increased, with younger candidates in their 20s showing some of the strongest renewed interest in full-time, on-campus learning.

At the same time, the report notes that professional MBAs offered in online, hybrid, or other flexible formats remain important options for working professionals—particularly older candidates—who continue to value the ability to balance education with career and family responsibilities.

In parallel, Poets & Quants interviewed Tim Westerbeck, the founder of the business school consulting firm Eduvantis. He predicted that interest in the hybrid delivery of MBA programs would be a major trend in MBA education, particularly for working professionals who wanted both flexibility and access to on-campus experiences.

“One of the common things we hear about purely online experience is that the full value of that experience is not readily achieved,” Westerbeck told Poets & Quants. “People know that a campus-based environment is kind of the center of activities, like clubs, the social and cultural aspects of the educational experiences.”

In other words, while online education offers exceptional benefits for many students, the value of a degree is not only quantifiable through academic learning. The personal interaction involved in going to school on campus is not to be ignored; it has been a cornerstone of education for centuries and remains an element that students look for in a program.

This is how the hybrid MBA program was born. According to 2018 data from the GMAC, one of the most significant changes in professional education over the last decade was the development of effective online and distance-learning tools, which helped set the stage for blended formats. Many universities and colleges learned that business school applicants expected and often preferred a blended approach to the traditional classroom experience, combining online content and in-person learning—even though newer GMAC surveys now show a partial swing back toward fully in-person study alongside continued demand for flexible options.

The Race for Hybrid Programs

The early consensus that education would move completely online was wrong, and by 2014, universities caught on to students’ interest in blended in-person and online education. As a result, the race was on among business schools to add blended in-person learning options to their online MBA programs.

The oldest blended MBA program is based in Europe. The IE Business School has offered online virtual education combined with face-to-face sessions at its Madrid campus for 20 years.

The first blended program offered in the U.S. was at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In late 2012, UCLA inaugurated the school’s first hybrid MBA option, called FEMBA Flex, as part of the Anderson School’s fully employed MBA (FEMBA) program, which is a flexible part-time on-campus program available to students who want to continue working while earning their degree. The FEMBA Flex track is mostly online, with four two-day weekend campus visits per quarter.

The third school to offer a hybrid program was Carnegie Mellon University. In 2013, the Tepper School of Business started its online hybrid MBA program, an innovative feature of which involves “access weekends” every eight weeks where students work face-to-face with classmates, faculty, and alumni at Tepper’s various campuses around the country, including Pittsburgh, Silicon Valley, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

These pioneering programs helped establish the hybrid model that—despite recent shifts in candidate preferences toward in-person formats per 2025 GMAC data—remains a key option for working professionals.

Is There a Difference Between Hybrid and Blended?

The words “hybrid” and “blended” are often used interchangeably when referring to an online and in-person program. Students typically complete most coursework online, but the program also includes some required face-to-face instructional activities like lectures, discussions, or seminars. These may also include social events scheduled for networking purposes since networking among faculty, classmates, and alumni is essential for all face-to-face and blended program components.

Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business demonstrates a model for a great blended program. Its format combines a cutting-edge academic software platform with bi-monthly in-person weekends. Another example of a blended program offering less frequent in-person sessions is the hybrid MBA program at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. UW’s program is 95 percent online, requiring three trips to Foster’s campus each year, with each trip lasting three to five days.

Michigan Ross continues to offer one of the most recognized online MBA programs from a top-ranked business school, featuring self-guided study, live online classes, and in-person residencies focused on leadership and innovation. While no longer “new,” it remains a flagship example of how elite programs blend digital flexibility with structured on-campus experiences.

How Do Immersions and Residencies Relate to Blended Programs?

Some schools call their face-to-face components “immersions” or “residencies.” However, regardless of their duration, the required on-campus element of an online MBA program is a common industry standard, especially at nationally-ranked business schools.

Residencies and immersions indeed constitute one possible embodiment of a blended program. However, the frequency, length, and type of an on-campus component vary according to the school. For example, many blended programs schedule regular in-person weekends, ranging from once a semester to once a week. The hybrid MBA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill requires students to complete two global immersions during the program. Students can choose between an on-campus, domestic, or international immersion where they get the chance to travel to major business centers and learn from professors and influential business leaders.

For more about residencies and immersions, see our guide “Do Online MBA Programs Require Residency or Campus Visitation?” This guide profiles the on-campus requirements at UNC, Maryland, Pepperdine, Syracuse, and American University.

The Advantages of Blended Online MBA Programs

We mentioned earlier one of the primary driving forces of hybrid programs: students’ combined desire for on-campus education and their need for flexible learning. In this section, we go into further detail about the advantages of a blended program.

On-Campus Job Placement and Career Support

Career advancement drives most MBA decisions. Blended programs offer access to elite career services typically reserved for full-time students, including on-campus recruiting and personalized coaching.

Tepper School’s Masters Career Center provides online hybrid MBA students with one-on-one coaching, corporate presentations, mock interviews, and access to the same recruiters as full-time MBAs. Access Weekends provide additional in-person networking with employers and alumni.

While many recruiters now conduct virtual interviews, these campus visits remain a key advantage for blended students.

Networking With Students and Faculty

Networking with classmates and faculty can help with advancement throughout one’s career by providing encouragement, support, and career opportunities; for many, this network is the single most valuable feature of an MBA.

Moreover, in the more reputable hybrid programs, students are seasoned professionals with diverse and impressive backgrounds from an array of different industries. Many classmates in these programs have already reached mid-level or senior positions. Students with real-world experience can further enrich classroom discussions with relevant and interesting contributions. In these programs, students can learn as much from classmates as they learn from faculty.

Business schools intend for their hybrid programs to create stronger bonds between students as well as with faculty and alumni than those created in their strictly online programs. The in-person component, where students put a face to the name of the people they interact with online, is crucial.

Tepper’s online hybrid MBA students participate in multiple Access Weekends annually, including academic sessions in Pittsburgh and travel weekends in business hubs like Boston—creating “lifelong connections” that complement online coursework.

Opportunities to Apply Lessons Immediately

As with all online MBA programs, blended programs enable students to apply what they learn and test classroom theories on the job without delay. Phillip Kim, a Lewis Family Distinguished Professor in Social Innovation in the entrepreneurship department at Babson College, explains that the program’s value proposition to TopMBA News is the opportunity to work and learn at the same time:

Rather than having to take time off work to pursue an MBA full-time or attend classes during the evening or weekends, the online format offers another pathway. Our students tell us how much they value taking what they learn this week and putting it to use immediately at work. The online format facilitates this rapid learning and application.

Real-time learning reinforces concepts and delivers immediate workplace impact. Professionals test strategies, refine skills, and demonstrate value to employers while studying. Unlike full-time programs requiring a break, hybrid formats maintain income stability while building expertise for promotions and transitions.

Example Hybrid MBA Programs

Here are a few examples of top-ranked schools offering blended MBA programs:

• University of Southern California
• Oregon State University
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Massachusetts Amherst
• University of Texas at Dallas
• University of Florida
• Rice University

The following schools provide executive programs similar to a hybrid option:

• Duke University
• University of Virginia
• Emory University