MBA

I haven't gone for mine yet but at my previous place of employment the way it worked was you did everything on your own regarding which school to go to and you paid your own tuition. At the end of the term you would show your grades and if it met the minimum the company required of you, usually a C, the company would reimburse you.

Also by taking the money you would have to stay working for them for at least two years after you received your degree. If you left early they would have you pay back a prorated portion of your tuition. For example, if tuition was 50K and you stayed 1 year after you graduated you owed them 25K, after only 6 months, 37.5K.

I haven't heard of a company version of affirmative action, which is kind of like what you described, but probably more of a networking thing and your letter of recommendation if they come from a high level CEO.

Now I looked into this about 3 years ago so things may be different but that was my experience.

 

If your company is willing to pay for an executive MBA program, you'll get in. That of course is separate from standard MBA programs which are dependent on admissions. Executive MBA's cost absurd amounts of money and are pretty much designed to get corporate sponsored people like yourself.

 

Univ. of Chicago Exec. MBA (Europe/Singapore/Chicago), has been useful (but would have been more useful if I worked in Finance), seemed to me like almost everyone got in, worked full time the first year, then stopped and didn't work the second year. If your company pays, take advantage of the opportunity.

 

I'm in this Dilema too. My problem is that:

- it will take away a lot of my time since I will be working full time,
- I'm sure that I don't want to stay in my current field.
- I want to start my own business and I need the after-work time to continue working on it.

But it still makes me think about the opportunity to have someone pay for my degree, and I'm not sure I want to pass up on that type or deal.

 

My Company paid for my entire MBA, although I had to pay the tuition up front, and they reimbursed me when I passed.

I did mine 50% regular and 50% by correspondence/distance learning. Certainly a time commitment, but can be managed. I only did 1 unit per semester, hence it was pretty easy.

Mine was absolutely worth it, especially since my undergraduate was in Engineering, where I did almost no business training.

My opinion, if someone is willing to pay the costs, you should do it. Additional education can never be a bad thing, even if only for the learning itself.

 

depends what field you are in.

Accounting and financial side, don't waste you're time and do the CPA.

 

I got an evening MBA from Rice, but paid my own way. If someone else wants to pay for you, it would be a travesty not to take it. That's easy money.

It some time commitment, but nothing unbearable. I did it with a job, a wife, a young child, and had a second child halfway through the program. Probably more work if you want to be at the top of your class, but if you're content to just do well, it's not terribly hard. You have to be really, really bad to get bad grades.

The thing I found about the evening program was that it wasn't as good as the full MBA experience for joining clubs, networking, and the like, which was a bigger part of the program than I had anticipated. But, someone who is an established professional already, especially someone who isn't even trying to switch jobs, doesn't need it so much anyway.

I'm glad to have done it even if I'm paying for it. Pay and job prospects improved enough to justify it. And, if someone else is picking up the bill, how could you not?

 

You need 150 hours in most states, which qualifies you for a MACC, and it isn't much beyond that for an MBA.

I'm getting my MBA online through the University of West Georgia, while working full-time. It isn't that time consuming. I recommend the program I am taking, which is available through 6 different GA schools. The only thing you have to attend in person is an orientation in ATL at the beginning of the program. Total cost for the program is a little over $20,000.

http://www.webmbaonline.org/about-webmba.phtml

 

I'd guess Rice and UT are probably the best schools there.

 

You should have no problems getting into the McCombs part time MBA program. It's largely a cash grab for the program, so they accept most applicants.

 

Depends on what kind of work you want to be doing. Rice mostly does Finance and Marketing. If you want to do something besides those two, I suggest looking elsewhere.

I also would be prejudiced against out-of-town schools. A weekend/evening program already isolates you a bit from the main body of the school. To do it off-campus can only exacerbate that problem.

Finally, my opinion of UH's program wasn't too high when I was going into Rice's program, but it has come up considerably since then.

 

What do you do/want to do for a living?

Different MBA programs have different specialties. Look into that. UH is well known for their entrepreneurship. I'm at St. Thomas (2 semesters left) and they're good for International Business and Finance. Rice is good for Finance, so I've heard. Operations management is also up and coming if that's something your interested in, not sure who offers an actual program in it though.

I would also urge you to be careful with the online programs. They can be more time consuming than a regular class because they tend to be very heavy on assignments; also, about 90% of my classes have involved group projects ... these would be considerably harder if I was never able to at least meet with the group in class. You also need to make sure it's an AACSB accredited school, especially if you go the online route.

Regarding time commitment - it's bearable, even working full time. You just have to manage your time and plan things out so it doesn't all hit you at once. It's almost a given that you'll be spending a lot of weekend time doing schoolwork/studying though. During the busiest semesters, taking Saturday classes every other Saturday, I've spent a minimum of 4-5 hours a day on off-weekends doing schoolwork. During the week, I have a hard time getting anything done in the evenings, so it's an hour or two tops before I give up. Some days you just have to forget it and let yourself rest and go back at it later. All in all, I would say an average of 4-8 hours (per class) a week outside of class is what you should get used to. Some weeks can get higher than that, when you've got big projects and tests coming up.

If you're unsure about what the classes are like, ask around so that you don't sign up for multiple intense courses at one time. I would have been in trouble had I taken any of finance, statistics, or operations management together.

 

Just finished this weekend, thank god.....

http://www.mbahc.info/

Expensive, but I have two jobs and both kicked in with reimbursement.

It has a healthcare speciality but that is the field I wish to move into, completely online, never had to go to the campus and I would just work on the weekends. 3 classes at a time, 6 per semester, 3 semesters a year.

We'll see how much it helps, since it's specialized it should give me a legup for upper management positions for hospitals, pharma, medical devices, health insurance companies, etc. Healthcare of course is a never slowing industry especially with the baby boom retiring.

Also I wanted the degree so that I could teach at the college level, hopefully online as my second job. Currently I teach at a vocational school in the evenings.

There are plenty of full online MBA programs from reputable schools like AZ State, Indiana, Florida State, etc. that are not executive MBAs.

As someone else mentioned and I agree find your passion and go with a specialized degree. These days it seems everyone has a degree the more you can differentiate yourself the better.