Slice of Life Video: Bay Area Part-Time MBA

Transform your career without hitting pause. The UC Davis Bay Area Part-Time MBA program offers you a unique opportunity to earn a degree from a nationally ranked part-time program while maintaining career momentum.

Located at the prestigious Bishop Ranch campus in San Ramon—just 45 minutes from Silicon Valley—the program combines the flexibility of virtual learning with the power of in-person collaboration.

You'll often be able to apply what you learn in the classroo at work the next day.

With a diverse cohort of experienced professionals, you'll gain more than advanced business skills and knowledge—you'll build lifelong networks and friendships.

Whether you're a scientist or engineer transitioning to management, a tech veteran seeking strategic expertise or an emerging leader ready to grow, this program blends academic rigor, real-world application and a collaborative community to accelerate your career.

Video Transcript

Nishwetha, "Nish" Kumar, Bay Area Part-Time MBA student

I chose UC Davis because they have a great biotech immersion program. I have a background in biotechnology, and I'm a lab scientist by training. I'm a product manager for a biotech company. So, all of that made sense, and the classes are right here in San Ramon. There are a lot of great benefits of going into the UC Davis GSM program. You have the Biotech Immersion Program, which is great. So, depending on where your interests are, there are a lot of things that you can choose from and tailor-make your experience.

Mansi Saxena, Bay Area Part-Time MBA student

I have been working at Cisco for a very long time on the technology side, operationally, customer experience. That's where the Bay Area MBA has provided me the insights, the professors’ feedback on how I've been working. So, it's substantiated and brought in a whole rounded development for me. As you grow in the corporate sector as well, there is a length and breadth that you need to your education and to your work. So, as I gained operational excellence or learned more about leadership, there is something about strategy. There's something about marketing or finance that was nothing that I can learn on the job. The academics, the professors, that's what will get me a well-rounded ecosystem in the corporate area.

Kathy Truong, Bay Area Part-Time MBA student

I love my cohort. There is a diverse background, everybody is from different industries, with about eight to nine years of experience. So, it was really nice because I am an outlier. I have minimal experience, but I seek guidance from my classmates. They offer a lot of advice and a lot of support, which I really am thankful for because they are not just your classmate, they're your lifelong friends.

Tim O'Brien, Bay Area Part-Time MBA student

Earlier this year, I was a part of the class Product Management with Professor Mark Lowe. The class uses an online simulation. The objective of the course is to take a product to market, where you are given a budget. What I most enjoyed about the class was that it allowed an opportunity to work in small groups to collaborate on how we were going to negotiate on who and how we were going to allocate our budget and then work with the professor to get feedback. So, for someone without a product management background, for me, it was eye-opening because it's something that, going into business, there are tools that I’ll need to leverage and be familiar with in order to manage a business.

Matthew Zaragoza-Watkins, Adjunct Professor
Energy Economist

Be ready to have fun. One of my favorite aspects of teaching in the Graduate School of Management and the Bay Area MBA in particular is kind of where the students are at in their life. They're bringing a lot of interesting, diverse skills and great energy. They're excited. Entrepreneurs in many cases, always leaders. And so, the conversations are going to be engaging, fascinating, and fun.

Marc Lowe, Continuing Lecturer
Silicon Valley Executive Founder, Praxis Ventures

The cool thing about the MBA programs is that it doesn't really take preparation. I don't think it's book learning that you need to get prepared for an MBA program. I think it's more getting your mindset right. I think what they should bring is an open mind. They should bring enthusiasm and creativity, curiosity in their thinking. And they should actually also bring social skills and openness to get to know others that they can learn from.