Updated: Thursday, August 13th, 2009

New research that may be of interest to those planning to apply to a business school has found most MBA programs are making curricular changes to better respond to today's students' expectations.

The MBA Roundtable, a non-profit organization focused on academic business programs' design and innovation, has found that nearly 70 percent of programs across the country made revisions recently, and the most common had to do with adding applied content to give students more hands-on experience.

Schools have also added interdisciplinary content and some 25 percent have introduced an industry specialization such as healthcare, biotech, medicine and entrepreneurship.

"[This] shows that there has been a concentrated effort among MBA programs to innovate and make changes that increase their relevance to both students and employers," says Rodney Alsup, the organization's president.

Students interested in business careers have many MBA programs to choose from that can accommodate a range of individual needs and expectation, both in traditional schools and via online degree programs.

While research has shown that average salaries for holders of MBA degrees ranged from $73,510 to $171,583 in 2008, some in the field have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

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