Florida Southern College - Barney Barnett School of Business and Free Enterprise

Based at Florida Southern College, in Lakeland, Florida, the Barney Barnett School of Business & Free Enterprise is a small, ���well-connected��� school with an ���excellent��� and ���amazing��� MBA director who ���seems to know all the students personally and is vested in their success.��� Students praise the school���s ���small classroom size, ���involved administration,��� and ���prestige.��� The school���s ���symbiotic��� partnerships ���enhance both the business school and [local] community organizations.��� The ���thoroughly vetted��� faculty shows strong ���leadership and experience��� and are both ���responsive��� and ���easy to work with.��� Florida Southern MBA students often choose Barnett for its ���excellent��� hybrid program, which offers coursework every other Saturday on campus and the remainder online.

Many students choose the Florida Southern MBA ���because their program [is] catered towards working professionals.��� Indeed, the hybrid program is a great offering for working students, who praise the ���convenient[t] location,��� schedule, and value, saying it���s ���the best money can buy.��� Florida Southern MBAs get plenty of real consulting practice through Living Case Studies, which ask student cohorts to conduct research around an actual business problem or opportunity and make a recommendation to the company. Many students also attended Florida Southern as undergraduates and note prior relationships with business faculty. Some prominent alumni include Abdalla Salem El-Badri, Secretary General of OPEC; James Carl France, President, International Speedway Corporation; Barney Barnett, Vice Chairman, Publix Supermarkets, Inc.; Rick Ruffner, President, Avanti Press, Inc., and Shelly Schaffer, Executive Vice President and CFO, Yahoo.

Florida Southern College is located in a ���beautiful setting on Lake Hollingsworth, with lots of access to water sports.��� MBA students note that nearly ���everything is within walking distance.��� Many students are ���busy professionals��� who commute and live off campus, but students generally find the student body to be ���caring and helpful,��� ���easy going, but opinionated and open to discussion,��� ���hardworking,��� and ���liberal, friendly, intelligent, and motivated.��� There is a mix of younger and older students at Barnett, with seemingly ��� an even split [between] millennials and Gen-Xers.��� Said one student: ���You could definitely tell a difference between the generations, but [it] was surprisingly refreshing in most cases.���