The Alternative M.B.A.: One-Year Master’s Degrees

Shane Torchiana was working in asset management in a job focused on global-fixed income, but he wanted to make the leap to analyst and eventually become a fund manager.

His first thought was to apply to a traditional two-year M.B.A. program. But he believed he didn’t need years of general management training in order to get the specific career he wanted. After researching his options, Mr. Torchiana opted for a master’s degree in finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, a new yearlong program launched this year.

"It might be a lesser-known type of program, but in terms of quantitative finance skills and the shorter time period, it wins," says Mr. Torchiana. He says he is learning finance at a detailed level he couldn’t get in a typical M.B.A. program—including some doctoral-level coursework.

By DIANA MIDDLETON

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