Haslam College of Business - UT Haslam’s M.S. in Marketing Graduates Enter Field with Must-Have Skills

Haslam launched its 10-month Master of Science in Marketing program in 2022, seeing a growing need for early-career marketers with advanced skills.

The cohort-based M.S. in Marketing equips students with these critical skills and competencies employers seek in job candidates, including strategic and data-driven decision making, marketing analytics, strategy formulation and AI literacy. The program also emphasizes close collaboration among students, experiential learning opportunities and frequent interaction with marketing professionals.

The program’s rankings reflect the quality of education and practical experience it provides. In the program’s fourth year, Haslam’s M.S. in Marketing ranks No. 11 among public universities and No. 35 among all schools in the annual U.S. News and World Report’s Best Marketing Masters’ Programs rankings.

The Value of a New Program

According to Mark Collins, distinguished lecturer and former M.S. in Marketing director, some of the strongest benefits for students is the program’s 10-month format and cohort-based model, which allow for continuous curriculum revision and updating.

“Marketing practice is changing faster than ever with the proliferation of AI and related technologies,” says Collins. “Haslam’s marketing master’s program was designed to be in tune with these developments and keeps the content at the cutting edge of the industry.”

To guarantee course materials stay fresh, faculty regularly update content for each new cohort and perform annual curriculum reviews, incorporating input from graduating cohort exit interviews and corporate partner feedback.

Technology Immersion 

A top priority of Haslam’s M.S. in Marketing program is ensuring graduates meet the demand for professionals with aptitude and experience in the latest marketing technical innovations. Haslam’s is one of the only master’s programs in the country to offer a course exclusively on marketing technology (MarTech), which designs and manages stacks of integrated tech to meet business’s specific marketing needs.

The program’s MarTech offerings have quickly evolved to take on emerging technologies, especially with the proliferation if AI.

Marketing associate professor Aaron Garvey, whose research program is AI focused, teaches the program’s MarTech course. According to Garvey, the class focuses not only on AI’s capabilities and marketing uses for the technology, but also on how to use the technology responsibly and thoughtfully.

“Students learn what these systems can and cannot do and how to apply them to marketing decisions that create value in advertising, brand strategy and customer experience,” he says. “Our marketing master’s students also build a technical understanding of the core technology so they can explain limitations and use these tools wisely, but they also develop habits that make AI a capability multiplier rather than a substitute for thinking.”

Collins sees the focus on MarTech as another differentiator for Haslam graduates in a crowded job market.

“With the enhanced MarTech training Haslam provides, our graduates will be able to do things with marketing technology that graduates from other schools simply cannot,” he says.

Real-World Experience

To ensure M.S. in Marketing students put their learned skills and technical abilities to practice, program leaders forge partnerships with businesses and professionals from multiple industries, and these partners provide students the opportunity to apply those skills to actual business problems they’re facing. Past partners include Marcus Theatres, Trusted Telehealth, Total Wine, Sugarlands, Nissan and Eastman Chemical. These real-world challenges are layered into nearly all program classes to ensure students directly apply lessons learned and build portfolios of work as they progress through the program.

In the process, students gain experience in real business situations and develop invaluable professional connections. For Hannah Moore (HCB, ’22; M.S. in Marketing, ’23), director of brand and marketing for Chicago-based healthcare technology company Ascendco Health, working on projects with real companies gave her a crash course in diagnosing problems and recommending workable solutions.

“It’s one thing to learn case studies in a classroom, but it’s another to sit across from a client and present insights backed by data,” Moore says, “Those moments gave me the confidence to step into my career with experience navigating complex issues.”

Exclusive Networking Opportunities

Beyond curriculum that balances critical skills with practical experience, Haslam’s M.S. in Marketing offers innovative networking options.

The program hosts a reverse career fair each fall, where students develop and pitch their professional brands, conveying them with virtual portfolios and curated booths that reflect their personalities and goals. During the event, business representatives and members of the Haslam community visit the individual stations, where students offer their professional perspectives and explain the expertise they can bring to prospective employer.

According to Christine White, the M.S. in Marketing managing director, assistant professor of practice and director of partnerships and growth initiatives, the program offers additional networking opportunities beyond the reverse career fair. The department provides students exclusive opportunities to connect with senior executives from major companies through its distinguished speaker series.

“Our speaker series offers intimate conversations with impactful marketing leaders from companies like Google, TikTok and the NFL, available exclusively to M.S. in Marketing students,” says White.

In addition, students have exclusive access to the department’s industry-facing Marketing and Sales Innovation Conference and Awards each spring, where representatives from companies like Coca-Cola, Google and Intuit MailChimp come together with department faculty and students to explore the future of marketing and sales.

Cohort Cohesion

As a 10-month program, Haslam’s M.S. in Marketing focuses on curating a supportive cohort for each class to amplify learning.

“We have a group of students who have committed to an intense, in-person program, and the energy level they exhibit raises the performance of all the students together,” notes Collins.

Kacey Cannon (HCB, ’24; MS. in Marketing, ’25), a loyalty specialist with Pilot Company, a Knoxville-based retail, energy and logistics enterprise, appreciated being part of a small cohort.

“Seeing rapid growth not only in myself, but in my classmates offered a rich and unique experience,” she says. “Throughout the 10 months, we cheered each other on during presentations, projects and job searches. Now that we have graduated, I am still close with many of them both as professionals and as friends.”