One year MBA’s are typically for executives. These are individuals with 7 or more years of experience (usually closer to 10) and will attend classes at night and on weekends. Some one year MBA’s for executives will be an intensive year long program. These individuals are already senior leaders in their companies and have demonstrated strong leadership and are new to C-Suite positions or are about to hit them. The requirements are strict for one year executive programs because you have to be in a position of actual leadership with bare minimum 7 years progressive experience.

Two year programs are expensive, but so are executive MBA’s. The main difference is that they serve two different type of individuals. Traditional is for newcomers with 5 or less years experience and they are about to hit their first real level of management. Some of these individuals are could also be in early stages of a great start-up company. Executive is for indi who have been in senior leadership and are on the C-Suite cusp. Their years of experience hover around 7–8.