Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business is a leader in global business, not surprising given the university's strong School of Foreign Service. In addition to its full-time on-site MBA program, the school offers an international executive MBA and a joint MBA program with ESADE, in which students split their studies between Barcelona, Washington, D.C., India, Russia and South America. Moreover, students in the full-time MBA program are required to complete a one-week residency abroad as part of their studies, as well as complete four consulting projects for foreign or overseas companies with a group of their classmates.

In fall 2008, McDonough reduced the number of core requirements in the first year from 20 to 14 credits, somewhat alleviating a workload that, as students explain in Vault's surveys, is intense. Academics are grouped in a module system, concentrating classes into blocks of six weeks. The school is currently working on a new business school building, expected to open sometime in 2009, which will update and expand the facilities. Students live on campus around D.C., concentrated particularly in downtown neighborhoods such as DuPont Circle. The social scene focuses more on downtown bars than campus activities, but there are weekly kegs and a couple of annual formal events.