Personalization & Flexibility: how important are they for a student with a full-time job? 

Being a full-time worker, one of the reasons why I chose the International Part-Time MBA at POLIMI Graduate School of management is, of course, the format.

But, in practice, after almost a year since the start of this journey, how does this format meet my needs for flexibility and personalization?

Let me explain it to you in an easy-to-read bullet list:

• Weekend Format: since the International Part-Time MBA is designed for those professionals who want to get top managerial skills without taking a break from their career, the program lasts 20 months and lessons are held one weekend each month, with the following schedule:
  on Friday the lessons are held at POLIMI GSoM in Bovisa from 10.00 am to 8.30 pm. For lessons held with companies the schedule runs from 9.00 am to 7.00 pm.
  On Saturday, after the Friday night dinner with peers, lessons are held at POLIMI GSoM in Bovisa from 9.00 am to 7.00 pm.
  Even if on Sunday you need a rest day to process all the information you have  collected, I find this schedule (with the right coffee breaks) to be the best compromise in order to go through the whole program in the right way.
• Online Attendance Option: personally, I have never had the chance to attend a class online, so I asked my colleague Céline Schumacher, who attended a few classes remotely, to share her opinion about this possibility and, more generally, about the IMBAPT’s flexibility: “The ability to manage my studies flexibly was a significant motive for choosing the MBA at POLIMI GSoM. I really appreciate the blended learning experience, as it allows me to easily manage the requirements of the MBA around my professional and personal life. When in the classroom environment, I can take part in live discussions or when unable to travel to Milan, I can choose to join the lectures remotely. I have participated in lectures from a distance a couple of times and was happy to see that the class was just as engaging and I was still encouraged to contribute. While I do prefer the learning experience in a classroom and especially, having personal exchanges with the other students during breaks and group projects, the option to connect from a distance really enhances the overall MBA experience.”
• D-Hub and Didactic Materials: you are given three weeks on average to prepare for the next class attendance, which is in order to standardize the minimum competences needed to follow the lessons among the students. The D-Hub portal is the tool for doing this. It allows you to prepare or review the materials (also the streaming of the previous lessons) whenever you want, according to your schedule. This is a strong plus, because you can have access to extremely useful content and organize your studying moments as you see fit.
• Assignments: the assignments are, of course, created for students working full-time and even if you definitely need to make some sacrifices, in my opinion you won’t be risking burnout to deliver them. Also, for team assignments, being in a class of full-time workers, most of the time you will easily find a way to schedule the meetings according to everyone’s diary. You will need dedication and commitment, this for sure. But it’s not impossible.
• Career Development Activities: you will find a lot of workshops, networking events, webinars, etc, for your career development path and all of these are scheduled after Italian working hours or during the weekend. I found them very useful, so it is important to have the chance to attend them.