College accreditation & MBA's

[Z-man]

Looking to the Pelican braintrust about this...

My company is offering an MBA program with a school in NY: Excelsior College. (Formerly Regents College of the University of New York) They are basically an online school, but are funded by the state of New York.

The reason this program is attractive is that besides the 5 courses which will be taken online, the rest of the classes would be taught in classrooms in the building where I work. Corporate College Services is the outfit that coordinates the classes between my company and Excelsior College.

Excelsior College is regionaly accredited to award college degrees by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. According to the rep from Corporate College Services, this is the same accreditation that Rutgers U, and Seton Hall, William Paterson University, and Montclair State University have. (All schools in NJ).

The program is quite attractive -- each course takes 7 weeks to complete, and we would meet one night a week for 4 hours. It takes about 2.5 years to complete the course, and no GMAT test is required.

So -- is there a higher accreditation that I should be concerned with?

I would like to get going with obtaining my MBA, and this program seems to be catered towards folks who are in the corporate world. But would I be selling myself short by doing this program vs. the traditional "Brick and Mortar" school?

What are your thoughts?

-Z-man.

[berettafan]

personal opinion is MBA stands for 'mediocre but arrogant'.

still i'd take the classes if free IF you feel they will help at current job.

[Don Plumley]

There are a series of answers that depend on why you want the degree.

If you are undertaking the course of study primarily to improve yourself and learn new skills, then the accreditation is a secondary concern - so long as it is not a diploma mill school (which this does not appear to be).

There are two benefits of a top tier MBA 1) More rigorous coursework which is driven by faculty and the peer group attracted the the school. For example, presenting a case study and having to defend your position when surrounded by a room of really bright people. 2) The network and door opening that comes with a degree from a "known-name" university.

In general, if I'm hiring and see a top-tier school, the implication is that the individual is above average smart, motivated and able to compete. They still need to pass an interview and be skilled, but much of the culling has been done. That being said, the top-tier schools feed the top-tier firms or people that are looking to climb the biggest corporate ladders. Again, this gets back to motivation - why you are doing this.

If I see an MBA, particularly a mid-career MBA, but not from a school I readily recognize, once I satisfy myself that it's not a diploma mill school, then I think very highly of the candidate in terms of trying to improve themselves and learn new skills. So in the long-run it potentially nets out.

With respect to your original question on accreditation, top schools are AACSB because it is a national accreditation. However, good regional accreditation are fine. This article is a good summary.

Since your employer is sponsoring this program, aside from your own personal time commitment, there's not much to lose, and certainly much to potentially gain.

[id10t]

If they qualify for federal financial aid then that's all you need to worry about

[jyl]

Top-tier business schools sometimes have "Evening" MBA programs. They take about 3 years to complete. At the school I went to, the Evening MBA students were more highly regarded (by employers) than the full-time MBA students. They were more mature, had more work experience, and had demonstrated a willingness to work harder for longer.

There are also "Executive" MBA progams which are shorter programs. I don't know much about those.

I'm fairly sure that an Evening MBA from a recognizable top-flight school (like, say, Columbia) will have far more value for future employers than an online MBA.

The question, though, is how much value do you really need and how much time and money are you willing to put into it.

I'd say, first critically examine why you are considering getting an MBA in the first place. The rest of the analysis should flow from there.

[Z-man]

Thanks for the replies -- looks like Excelsior is NOT AACSB accredited, but it does have Regional accreditation. Not a show-stopper for me, but something to consider...

-Z-man.

[Head416]

I'm not sure, but...

I've heard recently that regional accreditation is better. I think the CSU and UC schools are regional, as well as all the typical brick and mortar universities in my area. I know ITT has a national accreditation rather than a regional.

[sammyg2]

Go for it.
There is no downside to this opportunity.
Unless of course you are a shallow insecure petty individual who only gets degrees to try and impress others, which we know you are not. Poopy-head yes, shallow no.

If you were you could just print out a bunch of fake diplomas off the internet and accomplish the same thing.

[onewhippedpuppy]

No downside. If it is facilitated (and hopefully subsidized) by your employer then you can't go wrong. From what I've seen, unless you're working towards CEO at GE just having an MBA is a huge advantage.

[1990C4S]

While I am not a snob about most things I do turn up my nose (just a bit) at pseudo-MBA programs.

Sorry, but you asked. My gut feel is that most people consider them to be second tier. Bricks and mortar still hold a real value to me.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Maybe it's a regional thing, but most of our upper management has an MBA from a no-name school.

[racer]

You get to put MBA on your resume. No one even asks me what college I graduated from, let alone my GPA. An MBA, at the very least, shows your concern to continue learning and doing it while working shows extra effort, no matter what school it came from. If its "free" that what does it hurt?

[Esel Mann]

Originally Posted by racer

You get to put MBA on your resume. No one even asks me what college I graduated from, let alone my GPA. An MBA, at the very least, shows your concern to continue learning and doing it while working shows extra effort, no matter what school it came from. If its "free" that what does it hurt?

+1

Unless you are trying to get in bed with alumnus from sckool XYZ (how can you ever be in be with just 1?) who really cares about the source of the degree?

+2

If someone else foots the bill (travel, edjubacion, etc) seize it!

For 92.625% (Y.M.M.V.) of the world nobody really cares what sckool you came from, it's simply can you get the job done (and of course if your name ain't DIC, are you one to work with?).

[berettafan]

Alumn status is worth 5 times what MBA is worth IMO. PSU grads hire PSU grads, etc.

Were i to choose between an MBA, etc etc from a local or even regional school vs. just a BS from a nat'l school that oozes pride there is no question which i'd choose.

[Z-man]

Update: decided to go ahead with the Excelsior / Corp. College Services / Mercedes Benz program. Class starts tonight -- already read the 1 chapters and wrote the 3 papers that are due today.

And so it begins...

-Z-man.

[M.D. Holloway]

No one ever regretted getting an education but plenty of people regretted not...

[Hugh R]

My MBA is from CA State Northridge. It never hurt, but didn't help a whole lot in the line of work that I've chosen, not finance.

[kanadary]

not sure if attending in person is a must have for you but for engineering and technical MBA degrees there's alot of big name schools that off off hours on line classes. USC has one for engineering that i've been looking into as a double masters. got my first thru u of washington from work.

[LWJ]

I see where Z-man signed up and I don't want to rain on his parade but I have a strong opinion on MBA's in general.

First, I have one. It is from a state school and in Oregon is well thought of.

I am not sure that it has ever bought me any benefit. Yes, people who don't have an MBA think it's great, but the folks I interact with who do have one mostly nod and give a knowing look. The look that says they really aren't worth all that much. (ok, a little over sold here)

The BIGGEST loss for me is lack of networking / friendship. I attended nights for about 3 years. I am not social with a single person who I went to school with. This is because I worked full time, was newly married, and lived a bit of a commute away. Compare that to undergrad work where I still see dozens of people. Understand, I created my situation, but I think I could have used the time to much better effect.

I guess what I would say is go forth with your eyes open. Maximize the opportunity. The MBA coursework is not really that big of a deal. Have fun. Better yourself.

Larry
PS - one of the absolute BEST things about education is that it sets you apart from other candidates in a crummy economy. I will say I have not struggled with work since getting the MBA. And I struggled mightily before the degree.

[Z-man]

Originally Posted by LWJ

I guess what I would say is go forth with your eyes open. Maximize the opportunity. The MBA coursework is not really that big of a deal. Have fun. Better yourself.

The class is co-workers of mine - some of which I deal with on a daily basis, others that I interact with weekly or monthly, and still others I don't really work with at all. But for the next 2.5 years, we will be essentially going through the program together. Except for electives and online courses, we will be taking the same courses at the same time.

As for why I want to pursue an MBA? Simple -- to better myself. My company's structure is very flat -- extremely flat, so there's not much room for upward mobility, and I know that, and I'm ok with that. Do I want to leverage an MBA in another company? Well, frankly, I hope to retire from my current company, so that's not much of an incentive to 'further myself.'

I have always loved to learn new things -- my work in IT kinda dictates that mentality. Also - my dad was the same way -- even at age 83 he received his doctorate in divinical studies (he's a retired minister). So if I have the possibility to learn more, and have someone else pay for it, then why not?

-Z-man.