Which MBA program should I consider?

[YS2003]

I am very interested in pursuing the part-time or on-line MBA program in the near future. As I cannot take an extended leave from my work, the full time MBA is not an option for me (at this time). So, it would be the part-time MBA (classes in weekend) or on-line MBA (with short residential periods during the holiday season). The programs should be conducted mainly in English. My areas of interest are marketing or general management (with strong international elements to it). Which university would you recommend for MBA programs?

 

[rhsgolfer33]

I am very interested in pursuing the part-time or on-line MBA program in the near future. As I cannot take an extended leave from my work, the full time MBA is not an option for me (at this time). So, it would be the part-time MBA (classes in weekend) or on-line MBA (with short residential periods during the holiday season). The programs should be conducted mainly in English. My areas of interest are marketing or general management (with strong international elements to it). Which university would you recommend for MBA programs?

Not knowing where you are located it is hard to tell you which ones are feasible. There are quite a few top programs that offer a part-time/evening program. If you want to stay in your current area it would be worth it to find a local university that offers a part-time program. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of online education, especially for an MBA where quite a bit of the learning should not be from lecture but rather discussion, application, and problem solving.

Here are the programs US News ranks as some of the best: US News. These rankings aren't necessarily totally accurate and some people don't believe them, but for general information they are all right. If you can get into a top 10 or top 20 it would most likely be worth it to go.

Knowing your GMAT scores would help as well, the top programs are generally well into the 700s. You can do well at a non-top program as well, but it would be worth it to make sure you'll receive a high enough return on your investment to make the 2+ years and thousands of dollars you'll spend worthwhile.

 

[InvalidUserID]

I'm in the evening MBA course at Santa Clara University. If my memory serves correctly, Leavey was ranked somewhere between #12-15.

They also have an accelerated weekend program which I considered but ultimately chose the evening courses as I like having weekends for myself.

Good luck!

 

[63dot]

With the internet, there are many options. Just make sure it's regionally accredited.

 

[GoCubsGo]

With the internet, there are many options. Just make sure it's regionally accredited.

Best advice yet. ^^^

My recommendations:
Pepperdine University
Utica College
Chapman University (check that out in the even they do not have a satellite or online school).

You just need to make sure it is regionally accredited. Online degrees from a regionally accredited school are never disregarded. If they are then the person discrediting them are in serious need of education themselves.

 

[rhsgolfer33]

Best advice yet. ^^^

My recommendations:
Pepperdine University
Utica College
Chapman University (check that out in the even they do not have a satellite or online school).

You just need to make sure it is regionally accredited. Online degrees from a regionally accredited school are never disregarded. If they are then the person discrediting them are in serious need of education themselves.

You might check out the AACSB's accredited schools as well.

I second the Pepperdine recommendation, assuming he is in California of course. Its a great school, good luck focusing in lecture if you take classes at the Malibu location.

 

[Melrose]

This is a pointless post, but given the subject of this website I at first thought he meant MacBook Air program... Just had to say that.

 

[63dot]

I may get myself into BIG trouble on this, but I want to fit the OPs need, too. I went to B-school on the west coast at a similarly rated school to some of those mentioned, my bachelors' and most of my master's, who now, like many, offer excellent programs online. They are very do-able for one who works since many discovered the internet since I was in school in the typewriter days.

There are also some Eastern online B-schools that have more prestige, but can never be done by a person who both works and does online school. Not only is it far more expensive, and that this school(s) I researched may have more nobel prize winners and top authors than all the west coast B-schools combined, but don't do them because while they say you can do them while working, you would not sleep for the next two to four years (as these are PT programs wanting your money). They're called NYU, among a few others, and they advertise heavily. For that school, they are not the easiest school and they may pull themselves off as the "workingman's non-Ivy", but their rankings in their grad schools show otherwise. A school like NYU and some Ivies don't top the grad school rankings list by being easy, especially while still working, so buyer beware. I just wanted to let you know early before you start seeing all their ads. And yes, the Ivies also have, belatedly, jumped on the online band wagon in graduate education.

Now if you plan to go to B-school full time (MBA, MS, MAcc, MPA, MSTax, MA quantitative analysis/business stats, and many other B-school related majors), then NYU and Harvard are great choices, and perhaps the best online US choices that I have heard about. Anyway, check out Bear's guide to online colleges, and they have a write up on Harvard. As for NYU, www.scps.nyu.edu .Those are the best online examples I know about domestically. University of London is a great "international" school and I was an exchange student there. But don't expect them to be easier than American NYU type schools. Be prepared to smash the GMAT though if you shoot for top Eastern B-schools or top international B-schools.

But what makes the most sense, if you are going to work, is get that regionally accredited MBA as that is your cake as the regionally accrediting agencies are the only standard that an employer will care about, and nobel prize winners on faculty, former Fed Chairmen on the faculty, AASCB status, US department of Education status, awards for online education excellence write ups in the Wall Street Journal, Gourman Report rankings, and Business Week rankings are only the icing on the cake. And the whole "bakery" is what you do with the degree, bachelor's or master's. I have met plenty of MBAs out of work who have some excuse that so and so had a Nobel and was their advisor, or that Professor so and so writes widely used textbooks, or that their school produced more CEOs in the fortune 500 than any other school. What is key is that you have a job, and then way down the list after that, is that you get that MBA.

 

[63dot]

When I was an HR person, and just out of school and in my first year of grad school, I was overly impressed with people who did their B-schooling at then #1 ranked University of Pennsylvania or took classes from world's most famous business professor, Lord Drucker the "wise one". But in the fifteen years since I have been in the real world, you are either called an MBA or not. Peter Drucker aside, even some of the most informed HR people you talk to won't know, or care that you hung out with him at B-school.

That icing on the cake as mentioned on the above list, outside of the substantive accredited MBA or bachelor's B-degree, will only impress 1% percent of the population for about fifteen seconds. I have some of those things attached to my school but putting them on my resume will only guarantee that an HR person tosses it into the trash. After you get the job, and if your employer is exceptionally well versed in the education of business, you can casually, at lunch, bring up AASCB, Drucker, that WSJ called your online school the nation's best, and all the Nobel prize winners who you had coffee with at Harvard Square, but before your boss digests his meal, he will forget those details and still remember that you are an MBA and that's what matters. It is a sign of somebody of low self esteem that has to hide behind non essentials like the icing, and are not pleased with the MBA itself.

And also, one more thing to make you look like a pro and not a newbie, don't ever put MBA behind your name on your business card. It looks foolish in business environments. If you are a doctor, dentist, or educator, then sure, the letters are usually custom. But on the business card, if it reads Joe Blow, Senior Product Manager, IBM - then that will look cool. But Joe Blow, MBA, Senior Product Manager, IBM looks like a bad joke on a business card.