I am only a few months from finishing my Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Phoenix (Online). It’s still a lot of work. The work is more of an annoyance now, taking my time away from activities where I’d be earning more money. It amazes me that many of my classmates were able to pass high school — much less make it to this stage in a masters program — with their lack of writing skills.
My post from last May about whether the MBA degree is worthwhile is still attracting comments. If you’re new to Consumerism Commentary and have any interest in a business degree, be sure to check it out.
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I’ve often wondered if the U of P would be a good option. Going to class takes so much time. Have you been pleased with your experience overall?
Brittany, you can always enroll in another online program. I’m currently taking classes at Drexel (philadelphia) and everything is online. The classes are the same as the campus classes and the degree received is the same. Many U.S. colleges/universities offer this type of thing. It saves a ton of commute time ans in my opinion, is worth it. My company pays for every cent of the degree, which is why I decided to enroll.
Flexo,
I think a MBA is a pretty darn good investment and well worth the work. You’ll be glad you did it. I got my BS in Computer Engineering and through that cirriculum never got exposed to much “business” stuff. I came out the other end of my MBA experience much more well rounded with a solid understanding of all aspects of business. If you aspirations of moving into management, this broad knowledge helps a lot and having the MBA is definitely a plus. I know that when I hire for a management position, and I see an MBA, it gets yellow highlighter treatment.
As far as what school you go to…I can’t say that in all my hiring experience I have seen many people really pay attention. I have never seen anyone say “Wow, this guy looks good! Too bad he got his MBA from .” I have to say, in my experience where you got the degree isn’t nearly as important as having it. I think the only time a Bachelor’s degree (and where you got it) really matters is when you are fresh out of college looking for that first job. At that point in life, you need something to set yourself apart, and where you went to school and what kind of grades you received may be the things to do it. After that, it doesn’t much matter. Experience eventually outweighs the degrees.
The last throws of attaining a degree are always tough. I am in my last semester of finishing my BS. While I still have more work to do (CLEP exams and portfolio work), I am glad that it is drawing to a close. However, I am nearly to the point of giving up, mentally. I skip classes here and there. But, I have five more weeks and I am done with the trips to the uni three days a week after work.
I am looking into getting an MBA, myself. My BS is in Information Systems, which is a business degree… so I am pretty well rounded, including my seven years of experience, but I definately want to move into a management level position if I am going to remain a W-2 worker for any extended period of time.
Indiana University (a top 25 MBA program) offers an online degree program. It is two years long, and it requires a week on campus each year. It is about $800/cr. hr., though. If my work will front the cash, I will do it. My current school, University of Indianapolis, has an MBA program that will accept up to nine credit hours of work from a related BS course. Since my IS degree is a business degree, I have plenty of those. It is a much more modest cost of $324/cr. hr… which is on par with Indiana University’s brick ‘n’ mortar MBA pricing.
Lisa, while I haven’t seen people say things like “but the MBA is only from…” I have seen the inverse of “and, the MBA is from…” where they are excited by a certain school. Also, there are plenty of employers that do look at that… especially employers that have an MBA “requirement.”