iMSM Program Requirements

Preparation is key to your success in this program. Your iMSM degree is designed to be completed in 1 to 2 years. In that time, you will complete 36 credit hours over 9 to 10 courses. For successful completion of this program, all iMSM students are required to:

Complete 36 Credit Hours
Comprised of 24 credit hours of required courses and 12 credit hours of electives.
Complete Degree within 5 Years
While our program is designed to be completed in 1 to 2 years, students can take up to 5 years to complete the degree as long as they are making satisfactory progress. The clock starts in a student’s first term as a degree student (time spent as a non-degree is not counted).
Earn a Cumulative GPA of 2.75
This is the minimum GPA required to maintain good academic standing in each term and to graduate. Students who fall below this standard will be placed on academic probation. You will be dismissed by the Grad College if this happens in two consecutive terms.

Core and Electives

As mentioned above, we break our courses down into required courses and electives.

Embedded Graduate Certificates

iMSM degree-seeking learners have the option to earn one graduate certificate during their degree program. The addition of a graduate certificate is optional and can be selected from elective coursework:

Global Challenges in Business
Strategic Leadership and Management

How to earn an Embedded Graduate Certificate

All 12 credit hours of graduate certificate coursework must be completed during your iMSM program.

To officially elect and earn a graduate certificate, you must complete the two-step process of adding the certificate to your academic record through a Curriculum Change Petition and then applying to graduate through self-service to confer your graduate certificate.

The petition to add a secondary curriculum (graduate certificate) to your record and the application to confer your certificate must be submitted by the deadlines set by the University each semester. Please refer to the University Calendar below to identify upcoming deadlines each semester.

Fall Deadlines  l   Spring Deadlines   l    Summer Deadlines  

Step 1: Add to your Academic Record

Follow these instructions to successfully submit your petition: 

Login to the Graduate Student Portal using your NetID and password 
Under the "Forms and Resources" section, click on the "Graduate Student Petition" link and "Start a new petition" 
Select "Curriculum Change" and "Other" as your request type and complete all fields on the form 
Are you currently on an upcoming degree list? Select "Yes" or "No" to indicate if you have already applied to graduate from the iMSM. You can verify this by clicking on the “View Graduation Application” in the UIUC Self-Service “Graduation” section
Enter the effective Term: Enter the term you wish to desire to add this to your academic record
Select Curriculum Change Category: "Current doctoral or master's student adding a secondary certificate program curriculum" 
Add the certificate you are requesting in the "New Degree Program" option from the drop-down list 
Please provide a detailed explanation of your request.
"Please add the {list focus area} Graduate Certificate to my academic record effective in {list term}” 
Click "continue" when you have completed these steps and to submit your petition.

It may take up to one week to see this added to your academic record after submitting the petition. The Graduate College will send you an email confirming the certificate has been added to your academic record.

Step 2: Confer your Graduate Certificate

Once your petition has been approved and added to your record, you can continue to the next step of conferring your graduate certificate. You must submit your application to graduate in Student Self-Service by the University deadline for the semester you wish to confer. You should confer your graduate certificate once you are either enrolled in the final course of the certificate or after all certificate coursework is completed.

Required Core Courses

Elective Options

With the remaining 12 credit hours, students can customize their degree by taking the following elective courses. Students need to be sure that they take a total of 12 credit hours. Note that the * next to a course indicates a 2-credit hour course instead of the standard 4 credit hour course.

Suggested Course Pairings

Looking for electives that build upon one another? Select one of the following suggested course pairings to satisfy your 12 elective hours. Please note that these paths are only suggested course pairings—they are not transcriptable and will not appear on your degree as a concentration.

Option 1: Business Value and Project Management:

ACCY 500: Accounting Measurement, Reporting, and Control
BADM 509: Managing Organizations
BADM 589: Project Management

Option 2: Global Business Challenges:

MBA 549: Multiculturalism in Management and the Marketplace
MBA 547: Global Marketing
MBA 548: Global Strategy

Option 3: Business Data Management and Communication:

ACCY 500: Accounting Measurement, Reporting, and Control
MBA 562: Introduction to Data: Communicating with Data*
MBA 561: Introduction to Applied Business Analytics*
MBA 565: Infonomics

*Denotes a 2-credit hour course

iMSM Degree Planning Resources

Your degree plan is an important step that will give you a road map toward graduation. Our dedicated Student & Academic Success Specialists will work with you throughout your iMSM journey to help you plan a degree path that will meet your professional and personal needs. For this reason, it is always a good idea to submit your degree plan to a specialist for review. You must meet with a Specialist if you are planning to stack your iMSM degree into the iMBA to review remaining iMBA degree requirements.

iMSM Degree Planning Resources

Annual iMSM Course Offerings

For your convenience, we provide you with an Annual View of iMSM Course Offerings to give you a good idea of when our courses are offered throughout the year.

iMSM Degree Planner