Online MBA programs

abc

Does anyone here have experience with an online MBA program?

What accreditations are most important when evaluating options?

Does the US News and World Reports list have credibility for evaluating/ranking MBA programs?

In terms of the actual program, I realize being online I will have to be disciplined! This aspect kind of scares me a little, so if anyone can talk to that aspect it would be great.

My company has some preferred programs in which we get discounts, but I don't want to limit my possibilities to only those schools on the list.

Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer.

10 years ago

Off Topic

11 replies

Latest reply was from Kristin L

retailgirl

Veteran

The most important thing for an MBA program is AASCB accreditation. For profit schools are not held in high regard. If your schedule means you have to do your degree online, that's OK but I found the best part of my ( part time) MBA program was the interaction with other students and the professors. We did lots of presentations and group projects, which were the best experience. Not to mention the contacts you make with your fellow students, most or all of which are working professionals, just like you.

10 years ago

carter

Veteran

I didn't do my MBA online, so I can't help with direct experience. I'd be interested though in how your company decided to subsidize some but not others. If their reasoning sounds right to you, it may be that other companies would also view degreees from those online schools favorably.

I imagine that online only programs will take extreme diligence. My thought would be to actively and aggressively engage with other students and the professors. Let them aid in keeping you accountable. I would also likely schedule regular "class" time even if there's no set schedule.

Best of luck to you!

10 years ago

abc

Veteran

Retailgirl, part of my opting for online is because I am an expat but want the degree from a US university. I agree with your comments and would prefer an in person program but that's not likely in the cards. Some I've seen do have options for some in person experiences so I would try hard to take advantage of that. You confirmed what I suspected with the comments about group projects and presentations. Virtual work makes it way more challenging IMHO but it's also good learning to adapt as our work styles these days reflect that as well.

Carter, I have no idea how they selected which schools to partner with. I could ask HR. It seems geographically spread out - there are schools from all over the country. I don't think it's that they choose to subsidize some but not all, you're free to choose from seemingly any school that meets basic criteria. But the preferred ones apparently have preferred pricing for employees vs any other one you choose you pay regular prices. I'm checking it all out. Not certain I will do it but it's always been a goal of mine and I really should do it if I aspire to as I'm not getting any younger lol. And regarding diligence - SO not my strong suit! Haha thx for the input.

10 years ago

annagybe

(website)

Veteran

My alma mater, first degree, but it was in biology so I can't help you. Anyways they have pretty well reviewed online MBA.

http://omba.wsu.edu/home-page-2/

Or at least they're advertising the heck of it here

10 years ago

abc

Veteran

Thanks, Anna!

10 years ago

Thistle

Veteran

So, in my experience, most of the companies in my area don't hold online degrees in high regard at all. Not saying that is true everywhere, but it most assuredly is here. Any For Profit school is also very poorly received. There is a great deal of concern that the For Profit is more about making money than teaching, and a lot of on line schools don't have a good reputation. I think it might be difficult to get the full MBA experience online (not sure how they would do group projects, presentations and the like - while I wasn't a fan of these, they did make me learn how to work with non-accountants).

Back when I was deciding on a program, my mentor told me to go to the best school I could afford. The MBA designation was as much about the prestige of the school as the degree.

I didn't take his advice, and I sometimes wish I had.

10 years ago

Gaylene

Veteran

Here's my opinion as an academic:

Unless your company or organization has a clear requirement for an MBA as a condition of employment for a position or for determining salary level, I'd say you need to consider what YOU want from the degree.

If it's just having the initials after your name, then it probably doesn't matter which school awards the degree to you--and there are plenty of schools will be willing to take your money and give you a degree as long as you follow their requirements. Whether or not the degree ultimately will be useful in helping you get a job or move up the ladder is open to question. MBA designations are pretty common and employers don't seem to be as impressed by the designation as they were 20-30 years ago when MBAs were much rarer. Under these conditions, it makes sense to go with the least costly alternative in terms of time and money.

If you want to pursue the MBA degree to increase your knowledge about an area, then the whole picture changes. Under those conditions, I'd look seriously at the faculty, the courses, the areas of concentration, and, most important, the teaching/learning conditions. Looking at rankings is a good place to start, but I wouldn't stop there. You want a good school, but, even more importantly, you want a worthwhile learning experience--with the MBA designation just being the cherry on top. A good MBA program will demand more than just reading texts, writing papers, and sitting exams. Discussing, debating, defending, and revising your ideas with other students and your teachers is when the real learning takes place. It's possible to do this kind of learning online, but it's much harder which is why the schools who do it well are so rare. If you are serious about learning, as opposed to just getting a designation on a piece of paper, I'd look for a school which takes this kind of collegial experience seriously because that's usually the hallmark of a "prestige" school.

10 years ago

Veteran

I was looking into online programs as well and some very reputable schools, like Penn State and U of Wash., now offer online programs that are the same as a degree you would earn at their B&M school. That is the route I wanted to go to avoid degree mills. But life happened and I had to put the dream of a masters on hold. Good luck!

10 years ago

Greg

Administrator

I don't know much about online programs, but I did a full time MBA that cost a lot of money (and then worked at Microsoft for 7 years in a mix of business and engineering management roles.)

I very much agree with Gaylene about your goals being key.

If an MBA is a key requirement for jobs that you want... It is likely that the people hiring for those roles are going to be very interested in where and how (part time v full time) you got it. Part of this is the quality of the education, but an equal part is what a top tier program signals to them about you. In a way the business school has done some of the prescreening for them.

If your goal is to approximate the value of a full time in person MBA... A big part of this value is exposure to your classmates, both in terms of the experience of working with incredible (and incredibly demanding) people, but also in terms of the network you develop. This makes it important that the school is in high demand and has a high bar for admissions. There is a virtuous cycle where good schools attract good students who in turn make them better schools.

If you want to learn specific skills... MBAs are broad and shallow. A lot of the real skills are developed post MBA in a role where you need to go deep. If there are particular aspects that you want to learn more about, then I wonder whether there are individual courses you could take for those. A lot of the good business schools offer executive education courses that cover specific areas, for example. This would also have the advantage of separating the commitment into manageable chunks.

I don't know where you are, but there are some good schools outside the U.S. I considered London Business School and INSEAD, because our plan (ha ha) was to live and work in Europe. I also know of highly regarded schools in Spain and Switzerland. INSEAD has a campus in Singapore.

BTW, I'm not sure whether this has changed, but in 2002 when I did my MBA there was really an age range that was optimal... Late 20s to early 30s. The nice way of putting this is that it is a stage of life kind of thing. But truly, ageist might be more accurate. If this hasn't changed and you fall far outside the range then it might be an argument in favor of an online program.

ETA: look who's advertising to me on this page now. Hilarious.
ETA2: the "London school of business and finance" in that ad is not to be confused with "London business school". It is a for profit school with no affiliation to LBS.

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10 years ago

Gaylene

Veteran

I totally concur with everything Greg has said.

I'd be inclined to carefully investigate any school that spends a lot to market their online MBA--and I'd extend that careful scrutiny to schools with good reputations. Most advertising glosses over the fact that many "prestige" schools do not consider their online MBAs to be equivalent of their B&M MBAs. The online degrees get tagged as "executive"--or something similar--which alerts a potential employer to their online staus. To the big universities, these online MBAs are revenue generators since they rely on the school's reputation to attract students to their program and they can be offered with little drain on the school's resources. Your "professor" may be a grad student or retired prof who gets a small stipend to manage the online interaction and mark assignments and tests according to a standardized rubric created by the online course designer.

I actually think that some of the international schools, like those Greg mentioned, have made greater strides than the schools in the US and Canada in trying out how to provide a quality online experience.

10 years ago

Kristin L

Veteran

Quick disclaimer : I work in graduate admissions. While many different programs have different requirements, a lot of schools still have all of their applicants go through their institution's Graduate School. With us, the department makes the first recommendation and then we follow-up based on the department's decision.

I can't give any advice about the why part of your MBA, but I can tell you about the admissions and difference in schools part. If you think you may ever want to go back after your MBA, you REALLY need to go (figuratively, of course) to an accredited institution. I use the following site a lot at my job when people call asking us if we accept degrees from Institution X and Y. Granted, this only applies to US institutions. For international institutions, we only accept degrees from institutions that are accredited by appropriate government bodies or accrediting agencies.

http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/

If you don't mind me asking, where did you do your undergrad? It's important to make sure the institution you choose recognizes and accepts your undergrad degree. If they don't, then you typically can't even apply. Well, you can apply, but most places will cancel your application and refund your money. Most institutions have a place somewhere on their website where they list what accreditations they recognize.

One warning that I have to give you is that you will more than likely be required to take either the TOEFL exam or the IELTS exam (some schools will accept other exams, but these are the two we accept). Even though you are still an American citizen, if you have been living for over 2 years in a country where the national language is English, we still require you to take an English proficiency exam. I believe that policy is still enforced for online programs, but I would advise checking with the program to see what entrance exams are accepted and/or required.

I know this seems like a lot. If you have any more specific questions, I'll be glad to help answer as best I can.

10 years ago

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