At a time when full-time MBA programs are closing, “Forbes” magazine declares the MBA degree “in crisis,” and “Poets & Quants” reports applications to major programs are seeing double-digit drops in applications for the second straight year, Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business is experiencing the reverse. Robinson’s MBA programs saw a 15.4 percent increase in applications for 2018, a 15.3 percent rise for 2019, and a 33.1 percent rise over the last two years.

“Robinson’s MBA programs have had a very strong recent performance,” said Richard Phillips, dean of the Robinson College. Phillips attributes their success to factors including part-time formats and the introduction of seven interdisciplinary MBA Career Pathways focused on high demand skills, including analytics consulting, digital transformation, and fintech.

The college has just over 1,000 students enrolled in its master’s level programs, which include 14 specialized master’s in addition to its MBA programs. The master’s student body is an even split in terms of gender (50 percent female, 50 percent male), spans 60 years (the youngest is 19, and the eldest is 79), and is racially and ethnically diverse (34 percent Asian, 30 percent Caucasian, 24 percent Black, 7 percent Hispanic, 3 percent multiracial, and 2 percent American Indian/Alaska Native). International students represent 72 countries, and domestic students hail from 23 states and the District of Columbia.

Robinson enrolled its largest-ever undergraduate class this semester, with more than 6,400 students in its B.B.A. program. The undergraduate student body is diverse in terms of age with a 59-year range (the youngest is 15, the eldest is 74), gender (55 percent male/45 percent female), and race and ethnicity (36 percent Black, 22 percent Asian, 13 percent Hispanic, 22 percent Caucasian, 6 percent multiracial, and 1 percent American Indian/Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander). International students represent 111 countries, and U.S. students are from 37 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.