Prospective business school students with jobs or family obligations often consider part-time options for getting their degrees. But when those options require students to move as a cohort — attending many of the same classes at the same time, regardless of each student’s possible scheduling conflicts — a part-time program may require full-time planning to make it all work.

A part-time, self-paced program, however, can help the busiest students fit everything into their days in a way that works for them.

These programs, which can be online or in a traditional classroom setting, aren’t as popular as some other MBA degree options, but they still have appeal. Among the 54 part-time, self-paced MBA programs responding to a survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council, 37 percent recently had an increase in applications, according a September report on admissions trends.

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Having the freedom to decide which classes to take and in which order is a big draw for many students.

“It gave me the opportunity to have the flexibility I needed to stay working and get an MBA,” says Mike Szalkowski, who graduated in October from the online, self-paced MBA program at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. “It worked out perfectly for me.”

Szalkowski, a 49-year-old family office manager, worked the entire time while he was in school. He was required to log in at a specific time for some parts of his classes but when he learned was largely his decision. He worked with a registrar to decide which classes to take each quarter and watched prerecorded lectures during his lunch breaks or while using a stationary bike.

But he cautions that this type of learning environment is not a fit for everyone. “You definitely have to be a self-motivated self-starter,” he says.

At George Washington University‘s business school, students in the self-paced professional MBA program also can take the lead on choosing their course work.

[Consider three reasons for choosing a part-time MBA.]

“Only about half of the degree is required courses that we sort of lay out as fundamental core business courses, and then the other half of the degree is completed in elective areas,” says Christopher Storer, executive director of graduate programs and admissions.

An academic adviser helps students decide what classes to take, he says, and they can specialize in 15 different concentrations, such as business analytics or digital marketing.

“You can choose to do up to two,” says Storer. But having a concentration isn’t required. “We really want to leave it up to the student in terms of what they think is best for their professional goals.”

California State University–Long Beach offers business students in the self-paced, evening MBA program 11 concentrations to choose from, says Ingrid Martin, a professor of marketing and director for all graduate programs in the College of Business Administration.

Classes meet Monday through Thursday in the evening, leaving students free to work or tend to family obligations during the day and on weekends.

[Learn how to decide on an accelerated, executive or online MBA program.]

Students in self-paced MBA programs are usually looking to advance their current careers, unlike full-time MBA students, who may be looking to make a complete career change, experts say. They also tend to be older than students in other MBA programs.

The average age of self-paced students at California State University, for example, is 31. Students in the school’s 13-month daytime MBA program are 26, on average, says Martin.

Although the flexibility of a self-paced program is attractive to many students, they may pay a price for having a looser schedule.

“In our other programs, the cohort model creates a very strong network between students,” says Martin. Students may even stay close after graduation, she says.

Because students in self-paced programs choose their own schedule, many don’t see the same classmates repeatedly. And commitments outside of school may prevent them from hanging out before or after class.

For students in a cohort, she says, “there really is a strong community or network that is built.”

MBA applicants considering a self-paced approach should speak with students and administrators at the programs they’re eyeing to get an idea of what their day-to-day will be like.

“To better understand how flexibility is accomplished in practice, we recommend that students attend a class,” writes Shelley Burt, assistant dean for graduate enrollment at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, in an email. “Speak with students, seek counseling from admissions, etc., to better understand how the program flows, discuss the merits of a self-paced program, how to balance b-school parallel to full-time employment.”

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Consider a Part-Time, Self-Paced MBA Program originally appeared on usnews.com