Every so often, a little voice tells me to write something. That’s part of why I blog. Also, I am sometimes a bit unhappy with the lack of good fiction available, and I like to imagine that – just maybe – I could tell a story as well as the original author. Maybe even better.
Such hubris often leads to an attempt to write something myself. And very often I am forced to admit that it’s not easy at all to do a proper job writing something. But even so, it’s an itch to scratch, and some itches are more persistent than others.
Which brings me to Roger Zelazny.
In my opinion, Roger Zelazny is the best author I ever had the pleasure to read. The man could tell a story better than anyone else in the business. And my favorite works of his were the Amber Chronicles, the ten books and five short stories about the Eternal City and the twin poles of Reality in Zelazny’s mythic universe. Oh, and a very short story, incomplete and only partly written by Roger. “A Secret of Amber” is really a fragment, actually, but it hints at a few things that add to the depth of Amber, things which I thought could – and should – be drawn out to show something more of Amber.
For those unfamiliar with the Amber Chronicles, Roger Zelazny wrote a series of five novels from 1970 to 1978, focusing on the adventures of a hero named Corwin, who hailed from an eternal city named Amber. The series was wildly successful in all respects, and was followed by a second series of five books, which focused on Corwin’s son Merlin. After these came five short stories which many people, including myself, believed to mean that Zelazny was considering a third series to round out the myth and complete his story in full. Unfortunately, Roger contracted a cancer of the kidney and died before the third series could be written. Zelazny’s estate contracted with Gregory Betancourt to write a new series, but the effort was – to me at least – disappointing, in part because Betancourt wrote a prequel, addressing events before the time of the first series and focusing on Oberon, rather than resolving all the loose ends left from the Merlin Cycle. Also, that series was never completed, for reasons we don’t need to go into here. Suffice to say that many Amber fans have been left with unsolved mysteries for more than a decade. I wrote before that there are hints in the way the first two cycles were written, as well as the five short stories, which could be used to build the framework of the third series. That said, the idea that anyone but Zelazny could do his work justice is daunting even for one book, let alone trying to put together a five-book series to follow the theme and pattern of the first ten.
Which brings me to Ed Greenwood. Like many Amber fans, Greenwood found the books by Zelazny to be masterpieces of writing. Unlike many of us, Ed took it upon himself to present Roger with a bookmark at a convention – a bookmark with a snip of script he wrote about a conversation between Corwin and Fiona. And Roger wrote a follow-up to it. Over time, a short but significant story continued, with Ed writing some and Roger writing some. It is, sadly, far from complete, only a few paragraphs in all. And many Amber fans would consider it far from Canon, seeing it the fruit of a passing jest between two writers, and that in the most informal of settings. Nevertheless, we have those words from Roger, and I do think that even written on the spur of a moment, he would write them true to the spirit of his city and the royal family of Oberon.
What’s more, there’s a new story there, one that adds to the overall story and hints at things we should consider in total.
The itch was small at first, but as time passed that little voice suggested that I should give it a go. After all, it’s not as if I would be trying to write a true Amber novel, nor taking anything away from Mr. Greenwood. The bits from Mr. Zelazny were short enough to qualify as ‘fair use’, especially if I made sure to credit Zelazny’s parts as his own. Nothing against the parts written by Ed, but as a Zelazny fan I have to admit I wanted to put my own text alongside Roger’s, much as it seems Ed wanted to do. But I also wanted to see if I could finish the story, to do it in a way faithful to the Amber spirit and the known canon.
That itch has become too annoying not to scratch, so I have decided to give it a try. That said, there’s a reason I have never been published, and many people who have read my other writing have told me to make sure I kept my day job. So, before you read my work, be warned that I cannot promise its level of quality will rise to your expectation.
So why write it? Well, as I said there’s that itch. Also, I do think that every so often I do hit the message right and put out something that’s not a complete waste of time. And even if the result of my effort is a care wreck, well, there are a lot of people who like to watch car wrecks. I am not going to use Ed’s title, so – since I’m swiping the idea and also since I think it suits the theme, I’m going to call it ‘A Thief In Amber’.
So where to start? First, we need to set the story, and to do that, we should start with the fragments in “A Secret of Amber”, as written by Zelazny himself (with credit to Ed Greenwood, Amberzine 12-15, 2005):
[Corwin in conversation with Fiona, in some mild disagreement]
‘ “Whereas wit is a bird that eludes the hand of rather too many princes.”
I shrugged. “Your disapproval concerns me even less than usual, Fi. All things considered.”
She tossed her head, read hair like a fall of flame. “Yet, perhaps it should. All things considered.”
I did things with my own eyebrows, emptied my glass, swung my boots down from the table, and headed for the door.
She chuckled, behind me.
I stopped, refrained from turning, and waited. Fiona could never resist showing the rest of us that she was a step ahead. Or pretending to be.
“You are wearing your blade,” she said. “Good.”
I went out, uttering no clever comments. With at least three murderous ghosts stalking Castle Amber, the time for such things was past.’
OK, first off, the last time I wrote about this story, I said it took place just after Merlin was returned to Amber following Merlin’s showdown with Chaos. I now take that back. The manner of both Corwin and Fiona is not the friendship they had begun at the end of the Corwin Cycle, and both are far too brash for what they have come to learn by the end of the Merlin cycle. So this story takes place much, much earlier, prior to the original conditions in Nine Princes In Amber. Before Corwin lost his memory on the Shadow Earth, I think. It takes place in that time when Corwin and his brothers and sisters were much younger, before any of the scheming we see in the books came to full flower. This is important to me, because it means the scheming is the result of characters like Oberon, Dworkin, Suhuy, and of course the main actors behind the curtain, the Pattern and the Logrus. With that said, on to the next fragment:
‘It was very late, or rather early, before one of the walls opened in a place where it should not have done, and something that was both silver and shadow joined me.
Grayswandir felt good in my hand as I put down what I was finished drinking anyway, and waited.
Patience, they say, is a chiefly a virtue for statues, but I’d made more than my share of mistakes, thus far, and blood is hell to get out of good rugs.
Came a whisper, out of darkness. “Corwin, is it time?”’
Once again, we see that the events happening here must have preceded the books’ events. After learning of the Primal Pattern and his experiences with the Hall of Mirrors, Corwin would not have been surprised to see walls open up in the Castle itself. Also, Corwin very obviously thinks very highly of his ability to deal with the situation, a trait not diminished later, but he’s just plain overconfident here. On to the next fragment, then:
‘And shadows fled before me, and I was alone.
My book was on the floor, blackened. Damn. I watched lightning flicker and wondered if I would ever know what I fought, or why. Family politics seemed as tiresome as ever.
Three ghosts, Benedict had said, and had been on the brink of saying more ere his face had smoothed and he’d turned away.
Which meant he’d recognized the one he’d seen.
So had the lamplighter, before the ghost that slew him caught up with him and burned his skull bare, from within.
Coln had died, before that, and one of the cooks. Seven maids, or more by now, since.
Then they started on us. Flora had almost fallen to one, and then Julian. Almost.
We’re tough meat, we of Amber.’
And that’s it from Roger, but that last part has a number of clues in it. Ghosts familiar to Amber’s family and household, with the ability to microwave people. And apparently holding a grudge against the Royal Family, though not all that picky over their choice of victims.
I’m starting on the story now, no idea when it will be done. If it’s not too horrible, I will post what I have done from time to time. Wish me luck, or stay to watch the car wreck.
Friday, February 04, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Non Compos Mentis
Well, I’m back from China. Lots of stories to tell, most of which no one but me will find worth the telling, so I know better than to trot them out here. At least for now. I actually got back Monday night, but had a lot to do once I got home, and today I’m really feeling the jet lag, or whatever you want to call that disorientation, mild discomfort, and general lack of mental acuity that often occurs when you get back from a long trip. And yes, in case you were thinking that I plan to use that as an excuse to post a stupid article then claim I was incapacitated if it crashes, that is my intention.
President Obama had his State of the Union address Tuesday, speaking of someone else working with less than a fully functional cerebellum. I guess the word that best describes it would be ‘predictable’. As in, demands that his programs not be repealed by the GOP-controlled Congress, mixed in with promises of bipartisan respect and cooperation, verbal jabs at leading Conservatives while demanding softer political rhetoric, and promises to control or even ‘freeze’ spending – while at the same time urging more and more money be spent on his personal pet projects. The same old predictable narcissism and hypocrisy, in other words. Of course Big Media – my new tag for corporate sycophants who still try to pretend that their blatant and omnipresent contempt against anything conservative, rational, or common sense as ‘objective journalism’ – thought the world of Obama’s dialectic, and cheered him on as de facto cheerleaders, but I don’t get the sense that the average American buys the spin anymore, at least not to the degree that the Obamites believe they will.
Obama being what he is, we should not be surprised to discover his approval of a slap at the U.S., performed by one of the very guests invited to perform at the White House. Lang Lang, a musician of mediocre ability but acceptably leftist perspective, performed an instrumental piece celebrating a military victory by Chinese soldiers over the Americans – at an event celebrating Sino-American cooperation and goodwill. We now have the choice to believe either that President Obama’s protocol corps was so inept and stupid that they did not bother to consider the provenance of the piece, or that they secretly approved of the sentiment and allowed the offensive performance to take place on the assumption that the public would not notice the insult or worse, that the Administration did not care that America was being insulted in the very heart of her government. The decision is not an attractive one, and this event happening in the same week where Obama’s aides and staff have emphasized that words and symbols have significant meaning, does not do them credit at all.
My perspective on these current events is colored by my recent experiences in China, a nation whose government hates the U.S. but whose people plainly love Americans. During my time there, I discovered a wide range of public opinion regarding foreigners and their business in China. To be blunt, Asians have an advantage in China but not so much Koreans, Russians are flat-out unpopular, but Americans, while relatively scarce in China, are generally popular and well-liked. That’s a generalization, of course, and it has risks in too broad an application, but from what I have seen, heard and experienced there is a great respect and affection for Americans. Applying that to the Lang Lang incident, it seems to me no wonder that Hu Jintao enjoyed the gesture, because in his country he is generally not able to attack Americans or their way of life. Quite the opposite, although most of my time was spent in coastal regions, even when I went inland to more rural parts of China, Americans are respected and, well, envied, for what they have been able to achieve and what they represent to China. China is a land full of hard-working, intelligent people, but they have been hindered by both a lack of infrastructure and a government which regards innovation as disloyal. American companies succeed in Asia to some degree, because Americans are not afraid to challenge assumptions and seek practical solutions, rather than just play to some rote expectation . In that sense, both Obama and Jintao are alien to the true character of their people and their national culture. I have no doubt that they both mean well, but they lack, well, the ‘common touch’ that true leaders possess; they are professional mandarins, who dress well and speak smoothly, but who do not understand the issues in full and who do not represent their nations half so well as they imagine.
If China ever reaches her full potential, she will lead the world in Commerce and many aspects of Culture. But to do so, she will have to follow the path taken by America. That is, to allow free expression in all public respects, to encourage and reward risk-taking and innovation, not only in processes but also fundamental concepts.
President Obama had his State of the Union address Tuesday, speaking of someone else working with less than a fully functional cerebellum. I guess the word that best describes it would be ‘predictable’. As in, demands that his programs not be repealed by the GOP-controlled Congress, mixed in with promises of bipartisan respect and cooperation, verbal jabs at leading Conservatives while demanding softer political rhetoric, and promises to control or even ‘freeze’ spending – while at the same time urging more and more money be spent on his personal pet projects. The same old predictable narcissism and hypocrisy, in other words. Of course Big Media – my new tag for corporate sycophants who still try to pretend that their blatant and omnipresent contempt against anything conservative, rational, or common sense as ‘objective journalism’ – thought the world of Obama’s dialectic, and cheered him on as de facto cheerleaders, but I don’t get the sense that the average American buys the spin anymore, at least not to the degree that the Obamites believe they will.
Obama being what he is, we should not be surprised to discover his approval of a slap at the U.S., performed by one of the very guests invited to perform at the White House. Lang Lang, a musician of mediocre ability but acceptably leftist perspective, performed an instrumental piece celebrating a military victory by Chinese soldiers over the Americans – at an event celebrating Sino-American cooperation and goodwill. We now have the choice to believe either that President Obama’s protocol corps was so inept and stupid that they did not bother to consider the provenance of the piece, or that they secretly approved of the sentiment and allowed the offensive performance to take place on the assumption that the public would not notice the insult or worse, that the Administration did not care that America was being insulted in the very heart of her government. The decision is not an attractive one, and this event happening in the same week where Obama’s aides and staff have emphasized that words and symbols have significant meaning, does not do them credit at all.
My perspective on these current events is colored by my recent experiences in China, a nation whose government hates the U.S. but whose people plainly love Americans. During my time there, I discovered a wide range of public opinion regarding foreigners and their business in China. To be blunt, Asians have an advantage in China but not so much Koreans, Russians are flat-out unpopular, but Americans, while relatively scarce in China, are generally popular and well-liked. That’s a generalization, of course, and it has risks in too broad an application, but from what I have seen, heard and experienced there is a great respect and affection for Americans. Applying that to the Lang Lang incident, it seems to me no wonder that Hu Jintao enjoyed the gesture, because in his country he is generally not able to attack Americans or their way of life. Quite the opposite, although most of my time was spent in coastal regions, even when I went inland to more rural parts of China, Americans are respected and, well, envied, for what they have been able to achieve and what they represent to China. China is a land full of hard-working, intelligent people, but they have been hindered by both a lack of infrastructure and a government which regards innovation as disloyal. American companies succeed in Asia to some degree, because Americans are not afraid to challenge assumptions and seek practical solutions, rather than just play to some rote expectation . In that sense, both Obama and Jintao are alien to the true character of their people and their national culture. I have no doubt that they both mean well, but they lack, well, the ‘common touch’ that true leaders possess; they are professional mandarins, who dress well and speak smoothly, but who do not understand the issues in full and who do not represent their nations half so well as they imagine.
If China ever reaches her full potential, she will lead the world in Commerce and many aspects of Culture. But to do so, she will have to follow the path taken by America. That is, to allow free expression in all public respects, to encourage and reward risk-taking and innovation, not only in processes but also fundamental concepts.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
A Question That Shows Something I Don't Like
OK, we've all heard about the shooting in Tucson, and quite a bit about Rep. Giffords and her condition. A senseless crime, and we all hope and pray for her complete recovery.
But ...
There were SIX people murdered that day. How many others' names have you heard, or remember? One man, for example, died shielding his wife, who survived. Do you know his name?
There were TWENTY people shot that day. How many of them have not even been mentioned by the media?
WHY?
But ...
There were SIX people murdered that day. How many others' names have you heard, or remember? One man, for example, died shielding his wife, who survived. Do you know his name?
There were TWENTY people shot that day. How many of them have not even been mentioned by the media?
WHY?
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Free Speech, Foul Actions
The horrific attack on Rep. Giffords yesterday in Tucson has sparked a debate about, well, debate. Even as the media has acknowledged that the alleged gunman in custody had no ties to any political party or movement, many well-known anchors have tried to blame selected groups for the attack; in the absence of evidence, they fall back on innuendo and gossip, blaming their enemies for the “climate” they claim at least ‘influenced’ the crime. In such false and hateful accusations, these self-impressed narcissists not only fail to stop and consider their own behavior, as they demand of others, they try to turn the crime to their own advantage.
Let’s just stop right there, and focus on what we know at this time:
1. None of the victims of yesterday’s shootings deserved any of the violence, regardless of their political or personal opinions;
2. The suspect in custody had a history of aberrant behavior and violent, antisocial beliefs. In succession, he was rejected by the Army and suspended from his university for what seemed, even years go, to be advocacy of violence and a rejection of civil discourse to discuss and address political issues;
3. No mainstream or significant television or radio talk show ever advocated violence, especially against elected officials. The hyperbole being thrown out now is essentially dishonest and inflammatory, ironically in character and justification no different from even the strongest political campaign ads run in the past several election cycles;
4. Rep. Giffords is no extremist, no enemy of common sense. The meeting she held yesterday was no part of an election campaign, but a commitment to meet her constituents and learn their opinions. As a Democrat, Giffords supported her party and the President but she was notably open to Republican opinions and alternatives as well. There is no sense to committing violence against an elected official, but even from the paranoid perspective attacking Giffords makes no sense.
This was a senseless act of violence, and should no more be assigned to an official or significant political opinion than a mugging or drive-by shooting. As we remember the families of the victims, and consider how we move forward from this, we would all do well to put aside blame and attacks of opponents, and to count the perpetrators of such crimes as they are – failed and worthless creatures, who tried to drag others down to their level in a futile act of hatred and violence. Such monsters need to be put away, and at need put down, but they should be forgotten, not used to advance personal or political vendetta or machinations.
At times like this, we need to be people, not politicians, and to focus on healing, not the hatred.
Let’s just stop right there, and focus on what we know at this time:
1. None of the victims of yesterday’s shootings deserved any of the violence, regardless of their political or personal opinions;
2. The suspect in custody had a history of aberrant behavior and violent, antisocial beliefs. In succession, he was rejected by the Army and suspended from his university for what seemed, even years go, to be advocacy of violence and a rejection of civil discourse to discuss and address political issues;
3. No mainstream or significant television or radio talk show ever advocated violence, especially against elected officials. The hyperbole being thrown out now is essentially dishonest and inflammatory, ironically in character and justification no different from even the strongest political campaign ads run in the past several election cycles;
4. Rep. Giffords is no extremist, no enemy of common sense. The meeting she held yesterday was no part of an election campaign, but a commitment to meet her constituents and learn their opinions. As a Democrat, Giffords supported her party and the President but she was notably open to Republican opinions and alternatives as well. There is no sense to committing violence against an elected official, but even from the paranoid perspective attacking Giffords makes no sense.
This was a senseless act of violence, and should no more be assigned to an official or significant political opinion than a mugging or drive-by shooting. As we remember the families of the victims, and consider how we move forward from this, we would all do well to put aside blame and attacks of opponents, and to count the perpetrators of such crimes as they are – failed and worthless creatures, who tried to drag others down to their level in a futile act of hatred and violence. Such monsters need to be put away, and at need put down, but they should be forgotten, not used to advance personal or political vendetta or machinations.
At times like this, we need to be people, not politicians, and to focus on healing, not the hatred.
Friday, January 07, 2011
The Maltheists
Most people, including many who call themselves Christians, Muslims, and so on, are actually atheists in practice. Think about it. If you really, truly, believed that God is real and exists, then you would weigh your decisions and choose your actions with some serious interest in aligning things with His will, either out of love and evotion, or from fear of punishment or retribution. That does not match up well with the way people really act, including a disappointingly large number of mullahs, priests, ministers and so on. Let’s be honest – we all spend a lot of our energy, time, and focus thinking about how to get what we want for ourselves, and to prevent bad things from happening to ourselves. Some of that is biology (self-preservation) and some of it is cultural, but from what I see, pretty much everybody spends at least 85% of their time and effort on themselves. The use of religion, therefore, as an excuse to get what you want while pretending you’re a great guy, must therefore be considered early on as a popular human hobby.
I suspect this false devotion bothers a certain number of people, but what else is interesting is that hatred of religious practice and beliefs is very broad and has a very long history. And not just by Nazis, Cossacks and West Coast lawyers, either. A great many ‘regular’ people have found it, hmm, kosher to insult and deride people for their religious beliefs and practices. For every person who finds they cannot live without a reference to God on our coins, there seem to be as many or more who cannot live with any reference to God, no matter how vague. A sizable demographic has always found it not only reasonable to reject religion, but fashionable to attack and harass anyone who practices their faith, especially if that faith requires standards of dress or behavior which do not match popular social behavior. As a result, while it is not only illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of their race or gender, but is also strongly disapproved by the public in general, and there is strong emotional support for perceived victims of discrimination because of sexual orientation or certain niche demographics, there is a common sense that insulting and harassing people for overt expressions of faith is not only acceptable but expected. Hence the consistent derision in popular dramas of anyone who displays their faith in public, and the same in many business practices – pray all you like, as long as it’s not where anyone else can see it. Come to that, many businesses have policies regarding religious expression which are similar to their policy regarding sexual harassment; if you get caught showing faith, expect the hammer to come down hard, albeit in unofficial form. To put it plainly, there are quite a few people who, whether they believe in God or not, hate Him, anyone who believes in Him, and even mention of Him. These are the maltheists.
The best-known maltheist, of course, is Satan, a being who rebelled against God, then when he realized that course was futile, set about hurting God the most effective way he could, by attacking, polluting, and subverting God’s children on earth. There are a lot of people who have no trouble trying to eradicate people whose religion offends them; the Russian then Soviet progroms against Jews, for example, the ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the Balkans, not only now but also back before World War I, and Muslim suppression of non-Islamic beliefs in any country they control. Maltheism in practice ranges from sneering condescension of anyone who practices a faith all to the way to genocide.
Let’s look at that for a moment. ‘Genocide’ is a word often used in exaggerated in discussing alleged abuse of various groups. But when a writer speaks against a perceived reluctance to spend more tax money on AIDS research, calling it ‘genocide of gays’ is not only inaccurate and a false indictment of the intentions of the relevant parties, it cheapens and insults the memory of real victims of genocide, like Buchenwald or Rwanda, Darfur or Bosnia. It ignores the history of the Genocide Convention, which at its inception in 1948 recognized that many people have been killed, in history and in contemporary days, simply for their religious identity and beliefs. Maltheists therefore, not only exist and in both significant numbers and power, but also practice hatred of faith to a degree that includes deliberate, premeditated murder. Most malthesists, of course, are not violent but merely advocate a lower-level hatred against people of faith, and imagine as a result that their hatred is not only excusable but a reasonable practice of free speech. A State Department briefing paper published in 1996, however, notes that this sort of speech can be a step on the road to advocation of violence, in “The 8 Stages of Genocide” :
Stage 1: Division into ‘us’ and ‘them’
Stage 2: Symbolism used to demean and insult target groups
Stage 3: Dehumanization
Stage 4: Organization of programs to oppress target group
Stage 5: Polarization, especially using the media
Stage 6: Preparation, target groups singled out by religious/ethnic identity
Stage 7: Mass Killing
Stage 8: Denial
The active conditions in many countries where differing stages exist should be obvious to the reader. And going back to the idea that most people look out for themselves most of all, it should be easy to understand why people who practice religious beliefs would be seen as irritating minorities and obvious targets for exclusion and reprisals. Religious people may seem to be trying to show off a superior personal morality, even when they only hold themselves to a personal code of ethics based on their religion. That a few high-profile religious figureheads try to hijack faith for their personal benefit only adds gasoline to the fire, as maltheists use the offenses of the few to condemn the many.
I am not saying that most maltheists would like to commit violence against people of faith, nor even that they would approve of violence against religion. The problem is that the opinion and character of maltheists is consistent, from insults against God and the people who believe in Him, all the way through to those who try to kill in the name of that hate.
I suspect this false devotion bothers a certain number of people, but what else is interesting is that hatred of religious practice and beliefs is very broad and has a very long history. And not just by Nazis, Cossacks and West Coast lawyers, either. A great many ‘regular’ people have found it, hmm, kosher to insult and deride people for their religious beliefs and practices. For every person who finds they cannot live without a reference to God on our coins, there seem to be as many or more who cannot live with any reference to God, no matter how vague. A sizable demographic has always found it not only reasonable to reject religion, but fashionable to attack and harass anyone who practices their faith, especially if that faith requires standards of dress or behavior which do not match popular social behavior. As a result, while it is not only illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of their race or gender, but is also strongly disapproved by the public in general, and there is strong emotional support for perceived victims of discrimination because of sexual orientation or certain niche demographics, there is a common sense that insulting and harassing people for overt expressions of faith is not only acceptable but expected. Hence the consistent derision in popular dramas of anyone who displays their faith in public, and the same in many business practices – pray all you like, as long as it’s not where anyone else can see it. Come to that, many businesses have policies regarding religious expression which are similar to their policy regarding sexual harassment; if you get caught showing faith, expect the hammer to come down hard, albeit in unofficial form. To put it plainly, there are quite a few people who, whether they believe in God or not, hate Him, anyone who believes in Him, and even mention of Him. These are the maltheists.
The best-known maltheist, of course, is Satan, a being who rebelled against God, then when he realized that course was futile, set about hurting God the most effective way he could, by attacking, polluting, and subverting God’s children on earth. There are a lot of people who have no trouble trying to eradicate people whose religion offends them; the Russian then Soviet progroms against Jews, for example, the ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the Balkans, not only now but also back before World War I, and Muslim suppression of non-Islamic beliefs in any country they control. Maltheism in practice ranges from sneering condescension of anyone who practices a faith all to the way to genocide.
Let’s look at that for a moment. ‘Genocide’ is a word often used in exaggerated in discussing alleged abuse of various groups. But when a writer speaks against a perceived reluctance to spend more tax money on AIDS research, calling it ‘genocide of gays’ is not only inaccurate and a false indictment of the intentions of the relevant parties, it cheapens and insults the memory of real victims of genocide, like Buchenwald or Rwanda, Darfur or Bosnia. It ignores the history of the Genocide Convention, which at its inception in 1948 recognized that many people have been killed, in history and in contemporary days, simply for their religious identity and beliefs. Maltheists therefore, not only exist and in both significant numbers and power, but also practice hatred of faith to a degree that includes deliberate, premeditated murder. Most malthesists, of course, are not violent but merely advocate a lower-level hatred against people of faith, and imagine as a result that their hatred is not only excusable but a reasonable practice of free speech. A State Department briefing paper published in 1996, however, notes that this sort of speech can be a step on the road to advocation of violence, in “The 8 Stages of Genocide” :
Stage 1: Division into ‘us’ and ‘them’
Stage 2: Symbolism used to demean and insult target groups
Stage 3: Dehumanization
Stage 4: Organization of programs to oppress target group
Stage 5: Polarization, especially using the media
Stage 6: Preparation, target groups singled out by religious/ethnic identity
Stage 7: Mass Killing
Stage 8: Denial
The active conditions in many countries where differing stages exist should be obvious to the reader. And going back to the idea that most people look out for themselves most of all, it should be easy to understand why people who practice religious beliefs would be seen as irritating minorities and obvious targets for exclusion and reprisals. Religious people may seem to be trying to show off a superior personal morality, even when they only hold themselves to a personal code of ethics based on their religion. That a few high-profile religious figureheads try to hijack faith for their personal benefit only adds gasoline to the fire, as maltheists use the offenses of the few to condemn the many.
I am not saying that most maltheists would like to commit violence against people of faith, nor even that they would approve of violence against religion. The problem is that the opinion and character of maltheists is consistent, from insults against God and the people who believe in Him, all the way through to those who try to kill in the name of that hate.
Friday, December 24, 2010
A Christmas Story
“Dad, I’m going now.”
He looked up from his work, gestured to his staff to come back later, and walked over to his son, waiting by the doorway.
“Are you sure about this? You remember what I said …”
“Yes, Father” said the son, “I remember everything, and I know you are worried about me. I know it will be hard, painful, all of that, but you know that we have to do this. If we don’t … “
The father nodded gravely.
“You could at least take some comforts. You know you have the right to money, power, protection. I could arrange – ” but the son stopped him, shaking his head.
“If I did that, then those who have none of those things might not believe I was truly with them, truly one of them. I must be as poor, as ordinary as anyone else.”
The father sighed.
“I know. I know you must do things this way.” The father smiled. “After all, I said so myself a long time ago, didn’t I?”
The son smiled too.
“It’s a perfect plan.”
“But the cost?”
“We must pay it. Who else could?”
They stood together for a moment, father and son, no words but in perfect understanding and love.
“I love you, Father.”
“And I love you, Son.”
Later that evening, in the fields near Bethlehem, shepherds watching their flocks were startled by bright lights in the sky, and they were terrified. An angel appeared to them, saying “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people …”
He looked up from his work, gestured to his staff to come back later, and walked over to his son, waiting by the doorway.
“Are you sure about this? You remember what I said …”
“Yes, Father” said the son, “I remember everything, and I know you are worried about me. I know it will be hard, painful, all of that, but you know that we have to do this. If we don’t … “
The father nodded gravely.
“You could at least take some comforts. You know you have the right to money, power, protection. I could arrange – ” but the son stopped him, shaking his head.
“If I did that, then those who have none of those things might not believe I was truly with them, truly one of them. I must be as poor, as ordinary as anyone else.”
The father sighed.
“I know. I know you must do things this way.” The father smiled. “After all, I said so myself a long time ago, didn’t I?”
The son smiled too.
“It’s a perfect plan.”
“But the cost?”
“We must pay it. Who else could?”
They stood together for a moment, father and son, no words but in perfect understanding and love.
“I love you, Father.”
“And I love you, Son.”
Later that evening, in the fields near Bethlehem, shepherds watching their flocks were startled by bright lights in the sky, and they were terrified. An angel appeared to them, saying “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people …”
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Christ and Christmas
Every year, the same tired argument comes up between the overly religious and the overly cynical, basically about who owns the holiday season which comes around at the end of December each year. A great many things have been said which appear at first to make sense, but which lose a lot of their validity when you stop to consider them. As a result, anyone making an assertion about what the holiday season “should” mean tends to get ignored by a large portion of the public straight off, and sometimes that is a mistake. Not that my own opinion is better than anyone else’s, but I think there are some things we ought to consider, whatever our personal beliefs and perspective.
First, I want to emphasize that compulsion has no place in the Christmas season, as I think of it. That is, no one who is not Christian should feel obliged to act in accordance with Christian beliefs, anymore than someone who is not Jewish should observe Hannukah, or someone who is not Muslim should observe Ramadan, or someone who is not Seinfeld should observe Festivus. The flip side, of course, also applies. Someone who is not a Jew has no business attacking the observance of Hannukah, someone who is not a Muslim has no business trying to restrict Ramadan, and so on. In the United States, there is no valid legal or moral basis for trying to stamp out public ceremonies which peacefully celebrate a religious event. It may or may not be valid to restrict public funds for religious presentations (but if you ban one, you must ban all, including Kwanzaa, Gaia festivals, or even the Great Pumpkin), but the modern culture attacks private businesses and organizations for exercising their right to observe religion as they see fit.
Some critics have pointed out that most Christmas decorations and celebrations are secular events, anyway. You won’t find Santa Claus, Christmas trees, or the Grinch in any of the Scriptural accounts of Christ’s birth. And there is a lot of talk that Jesus was probably not born on December 25th. Of course, there’s a lot of people who go on to claim that Jesus was not born in that season, not in Bethlehem, does not really exist, and in fact is the creation of the Military-Industrial Complex of the Emperor Constantine … or Rush Limbaugh, take your pick. But we’re not going to talk about the Gores or the Kerry’s here today. Here’s the thing – when Christianity first got going, it was the oddest of paradigms; a religion which worshipped an all-powerful God who took human form as the son of a poor carpenter’s family, born without influence, money or status, who brought God’s truth and love but was rejected by the very class of believer who had been waiting for centuries for the Messiah to appear, who lived a life of perfect obedience to the law but taught that even perfect obedience was not enough, that a person whose religion was imperfect but who loved God was better than a person whose deeds were mighty but selfish. He was rejected by the leading thinkers of his day, ignored by the very priests who served specifically to prepare for his arrival, falsely accused, tortured, then murdered publicly to advance a conspiracy between Herod and Caiaphas to prevent an uprising by the masses (which was delayed for a time but happened anyway in 70 AD). With one exception, his followers scattered, or were arrested and killed. That one exception was exiled to a barren island, where he wrote a weird tale about the Messiah coming back and ruling forever in a perfect kingdom. The leaders of Rome, Judea, and Judiasm all expected the strange little cult to die out, especially as Rome increased penalties for following this Christ, from fines to imprisonment, to banishment to torture and execution. Yet the faith kept growing, with more and more believers all the time, until the Emperor Constantine found it advantageous to throw his support behind the Christians. From there, the Church gained material and political power, until it became oppressive and hateful in its own character, and splintered to become something else. To this day there remain intense debates about who is a ‘true’ Christian, and what it means to believe this doctrine or that, but the essence of Christianity is Christ, the revealed truth of the Triune God, which is to say One God revealed to Humanity in power, love, and hope.
The Scriptures do not say exactly when Christ was born, but the event was clearly important. Choirs of Angels, supernatural lightshows, and so on make it clear that Jesus’ birthday was a big deal. This led to the practice of celebrating the birthday because of Christ, rather than the date. The December date was chosen for two simple reasons – first, between Hannukah and the Winter Solstice, there were a number of celebrations which allowed Christians to celebrate the birth of the Savior without being particularly obvious. Also, Jesus’ decision to live meekly and teach his followers the same meekness (meekness in this case means to avoid hostility, not to be weak or silent) of spirit, reminds us that Christ represents us all, and so just as no one day is known to be his birthday, so we celebrate a day to focus on the love of God and not to put one day above another, just as we should not put one person above another in worth.
Christmas is about Christ. All the semantics in the world cannot change that fact. But as Christians, we should remember that our celebration of Christ in Christmas came in disguise, so we could worship without calling undue attention to ourselves. Demanding that people who do not share our faith give way to our commands is not the way of Christ. Neither is it the way of Christ to pretend that Christmas is the same thing as other celebrations. We love our families and friends, but Christmas is not about family and friends. We love to give and help, but Christmas is not about social justice. Christmas is about all those things insofar as they are from and of God, but the essence of God, His love and truth and hope, the miracles that are the reality of goodness and the definition of holiness, these are things which must not be discounted or replaced with meaningless baubles and egotistical , humanist blather.
God is real, and came to us as Christ Jesus. Not in judgment of our sins and errors, but in forgiveness, healing and hope. Not in his right to command our every thought and deed, but living in perfect service, that we might come to understand the value and virtue of humility and selflessness. Not to claim his right to all power and glory, but to bring us all up as his children and as the people in whole we were always meant to be, full in service, potential, and joy. We celebrate Christmas the right way, by remembering and celebrating Christ, and seeking his will we find our own freedom and perfection.
Merry Christmas.
First, I want to emphasize that compulsion has no place in the Christmas season, as I think of it. That is, no one who is not Christian should feel obliged to act in accordance with Christian beliefs, anymore than someone who is not Jewish should observe Hannukah, or someone who is not Muslim should observe Ramadan, or someone who is not Seinfeld should observe Festivus. The flip side, of course, also applies. Someone who is not a Jew has no business attacking the observance of Hannukah, someone who is not a Muslim has no business trying to restrict Ramadan, and so on. In the United States, there is no valid legal or moral basis for trying to stamp out public ceremonies which peacefully celebrate a religious event. It may or may not be valid to restrict public funds for religious presentations (but if you ban one, you must ban all, including Kwanzaa, Gaia festivals, or even the Great Pumpkin), but the modern culture attacks private businesses and organizations for exercising their right to observe religion as they see fit.
Some critics have pointed out that most Christmas decorations and celebrations are secular events, anyway. You won’t find Santa Claus, Christmas trees, or the Grinch in any of the Scriptural accounts of Christ’s birth. And there is a lot of talk that Jesus was probably not born on December 25th. Of course, there’s a lot of people who go on to claim that Jesus was not born in that season, not in Bethlehem, does not really exist, and in fact is the creation of the Military-Industrial Complex of the Emperor Constantine … or Rush Limbaugh, take your pick. But we’re not going to talk about the Gores or the Kerry’s here today. Here’s the thing – when Christianity first got going, it was the oddest of paradigms; a religion which worshipped an all-powerful God who took human form as the son of a poor carpenter’s family, born without influence, money or status, who brought God’s truth and love but was rejected by the very class of believer who had been waiting for centuries for the Messiah to appear, who lived a life of perfect obedience to the law but taught that even perfect obedience was not enough, that a person whose religion was imperfect but who loved God was better than a person whose deeds were mighty but selfish. He was rejected by the leading thinkers of his day, ignored by the very priests who served specifically to prepare for his arrival, falsely accused, tortured, then murdered publicly to advance a conspiracy between Herod and Caiaphas to prevent an uprising by the masses (which was delayed for a time but happened anyway in 70 AD). With one exception, his followers scattered, or were arrested and killed. That one exception was exiled to a barren island, where he wrote a weird tale about the Messiah coming back and ruling forever in a perfect kingdom. The leaders of Rome, Judea, and Judiasm all expected the strange little cult to die out, especially as Rome increased penalties for following this Christ, from fines to imprisonment, to banishment to torture and execution. Yet the faith kept growing, with more and more believers all the time, until the Emperor Constantine found it advantageous to throw his support behind the Christians. From there, the Church gained material and political power, until it became oppressive and hateful in its own character, and splintered to become something else. To this day there remain intense debates about who is a ‘true’ Christian, and what it means to believe this doctrine or that, but the essence of Christianity is Christ, the revealed truth of the Triune God, which is to say One God revealed to Humanity in power, love, and hope.
The Scriptures do not say exactly when Christ was born, but the event was clearly important. Choirs of Angels, supernatural lightshows, and so on make it clear that Jesus’ birthday was a big deal. This led to the practice of celebrating the birthday because of Christ, rather than the date. The December date was chosen for two simple reasons – first, between Hannukah and the Winter Solstice, there were a number of celebrations which allowed Christians to celebrate the birth of the Savior without being particularly obvious. Also, Jesus’ decision to live meekly and teach his followers the same meekness (meekness in this case means to avoid hostility, not to be weak or silent) of spirit, reminds us that Christ represents us all, and so just as no one day is known to be his birthday, so we celebrate a day to focus on the love of God and not to put one day above another, just as we should not put one person above another in worth.
Christmas is about Christ. All the semantics in the world cannot change that fact. But as Christians, we should remember that our celebration of Christ in Christmas came in disguise, so we could worship without calling undue attention to ourselves. Demanding that people who do not share our faith give way to our commands is not the way of Christ. Neither is it the way of Christ to pretend that Christmas is the same thing as other celebrations. We love our families and friends, but Christmas is not about family and friends. We love to give and help, but Christmas is not about social justice. Christmas is about all those things insofar as they are from and of God, but the essence of God, His love and truth and hope, the miracles that are the reality of goodness and the definition of holiness, these are things which must not be discounted or replaced with meaningless baubles and egotistical , humanist blather.
God is real, and came to us as Christ Jesus. Not in judgment of our sins and errors, but in forgiveness, healing and hope. Not in his right to command our every thought and deed, but living in perfect service, that we might come to understand the value and virtue of humility and selflessness. Not to claim his right to all power and glory, but to bring us all up as his children and as the people in whole we were always meant to be, full in service, potential, and joy. We celebrate Christmas the right way, by remembering and celebrating Christ, and seeking his will we find our own freedom and perfection.
Merry Christmas.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thoughts On Employment
One of the big differences in the working classes is the kind of job you get. I don’t mean industry, or even the pay and title. I mean, there are people who have enough money that they only work in order to pass the time, some don’t work but instead find a way to game the system for money, some work because they have to but have enough that losing their job means they live off their savings until they find a position that pays well enough to be acceptable and offers career growth … and a whole lot of people work hard at their jobs, hoping and praying those jobs will continue because if they lose their job they will be hurting pretty soon. Some of that last group have some savings, but they were naively imagining they might send their kids to college, or pay off their house, or maybe even retire while they are able to enjoy their remaining years. When one of those people loses their job, they pretty much take the first offer they get for another job, because they cannot afford not to work.
This is not an issue that can be quantified very easily. People still argue about tracking unemployment and defining underemployment, there’s not even an official term to describe 'the job that was available, but not in a million years the job I was hoping to do for my life’s work’. It’s not something that will be solved with more education or a higher minimum wage, it won’t be fixed by the government or some social program. It’s the kind of problem that can only be solved one person at a time, and this pretty much means that for most people it won’t be solved at all.
This is not an issue that can be quantified very easily. People still argue about tracking unemployment and defining underemployment, there’s not even an official term to describe 'the job that was available, but not in a million years the job I was hoping to do for my life’s work’. It’s not something that will be solved with more education or a higher minimum wage, it won’t be fixed by the government or some social program. It’s the kind of problem that can only be solved one person at a time, and this pretty much means that for most people it won’t be solved at all.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
What Do You Pray For?
There are many different faiths and religions to choose from. Some folks think that's evidence of a lot of people believing the wrong faith, and some think all religion is irrational and foolish. But having met a number of people who believe differently from me, and having tested and reconsidered my beliefs many times over the years, I think there is much more to the matter than the first reaction most people have. As I am a Christian, it should not surprise anyone that I believe in Jesus Christ and the Gospel. But I accept a wide range of dogma as legitimate, even when it's a bit different from my own. And I can even accept religions that seem alien to me as valid in their own right. Six billion people on the planet, there's a lot of possibility that any one of us can't comprehend, but could still be true.
What bothers me, though, is the hate. And I think some of that comes from false belief, the idea that shows up so many places where someone only holds faith because they think they can use it for their advantage; God to them is not King but Butler. Chewing on that point some more, I realize that when we commune with God, we do so through prayer, and that beings me to the question which reveals our heart - what do you pray for? I'm not saying it's wrong to pray for something you need, or something that is very important to you, but how often do you pray to be a better person, to help someone else, or to be more aware of someone else's need?
What bothers me, though, is the hate. And I think some of that comes from false belief, the idea that shows up so many places where someone only holds faith because they think they can use it for their advantage; God to them is not King but Butler. Chewing on that point some more, I realize that when we commune with God, we do so through prayer, and that beings me to the question which reveals our heart - what do you pray for? I'm not saying it's wrong to pray for something you need, or something that is very important to you, but how often do you pray to be a better person, to help someone else, or to be more aware of someone else's need?
Monday, September 27, 2010
Ghandi was Wrong
I have been thinking about the concept of Ahimsa recently. As a Christian, it rings true to me that a person should avoid violence in order to accomplish what matters most.
Yet … yet …
I keep thinking about Jesus’ command to His disciples to obtain swords, after His resurrection. I am reminded that God Himself commanded the Israelites to make war, and that some of the angels worse and used swords. Violence, it seems, has a place in the will of God, though it’s a perilous thing for any man to take it upon himself to decide how and when to take up arms.
Also, I find it interesting to consider how nonviolence pops up over and over in History. Does it do this because the concept is right, or because it is partly wrong, it inevitably fails?
Heresy, I know, to think that peace can be wrong. Of course I don’t mean that, but in fact I mean that nonviolence is not the same thing as peace. Peace is all things being as they should be, which requires Justice to be so. Nonviolence may lead to peace, but it is no sure thing. In fact, chewing on the idea leads me to think that there is a certain threshold for nonviolence to be effective. A nonviolent world may be a paradise, but one nonviolent man may well fail.
Also, nonviolence is unnatural. Nature is full of violence. Predators, chaos, death and destruction all the time.
More to think on …
Yet … yet …
I keep thinking about Jesus’ command to His disciples to obtain swords, after His resurrection. I am reminded that God Himself commanded the Israelites to make war, and that some of the angels worse and used swords. Violence, it seems, has a place in the will of God, though it’s a perilous thing for any man to take it upon himself to decide how and when to take up arms.
Also, I find it interesting to consider how nonviolence pops up over and over in History. Does it do this because the concept is right, or because it is partly wrong, it inevitably fails?
Heresy, I know, to think that peace can be wrong. Of course I don’t mean that, but in fact I mean that nonviolence is not the same thing as peace. Peace is all things being as they should be, which requires Justice to be so. Nonviolence may lead to peace, but it is no sure thing. In fact, chewing on the idea leads me to think that there is a certain threshold for nonviolence to be effective. A nonviolent world may be a paradise, but one nonviolent man may well fail.
Also, nonviolence is unnatural. Nature is full of violence. Predators, chaos, death and destruction all the time.
More to think on …
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Drummond’s Rules of Economics and Politics
The coming election is about the economy, no matter what the political-party-about-to-be-hit-with-a-ton-of-voter-rage claims. Oddly, this is the same myopia which blinded the other political-party-slammed-for-missing-the-obvious in 2006 and 2008; seems to be common for D.C. to be D.O.A. on the basics. There needs to be some basic primer about how money works in political terms, so I offer the following basic rules which drive the political consequence of money:
1. Everything has to be paid for
It’s quite fashionable for politicians to promise whatever the public wants, or at least the targeted voter bloc. But sooner or later, the services and goods have to be paid for, and with real money. Delaying the inevitable only adds interest costs to the total.
2. Taxpayers pay for everything the Government buys
Don’t be fooled when some official tries to say there will be no tax increase for a program, or that it will be paid from by another government or corporation. Other governments serve groups of taxpayers who won’t accept higher taxes either, and eventually the cost will come back around to your country again and hit the citizens. As for corporations, these are made up of people who don’t like paying taxes, and so a corporate tax will result either in higher prices, lower employment, or both.
3. People never like taxes
Joe Biden is a liar and a moron. No one, absolutely nobody will pay a penny more than required in taxes. Folks will pay what they feel they must, they may make virtuous noises to feel better about paying, and they may form mobs and demand that some certain person or group should be made to pay more in taxes, but no one chooses to pay more than they believe they have to pay.
4. Politicians lie to you about how much you have to pay
Politicians will either promise that your taxes will go down, or if taxes must go up, that someone else will have to pay more. Knowing how much people hate paying taxes, no politician planning to stay in office will ever tell you directly that he expects you to pay more.
5. There will never be a system where everyone pays a 'fair' amount of tax
There are several reasons for this fact. First, it’s impracticable in any medium-to-large country, since people will constantly try to reduce the taxes they pay, through resistance, political and legal actions, or just plain evasion and avoidance tactics. Second, no government truly wants a transparent system for collecting taxes, as this will inevitably lead to comparison, complaint, argument and further questions about who gets paid and why. By playing groups against one another, adjusting one group’s tax rate up or down to make it more ”fair”, governments distract the public from figuring out how much it is really gouging them.
6. Revenue is dependent on the health of the economy more than any other factor
This is sometimes missed when planning growth and forecasting revenue, whether by companies or governments. You need a healthy economy overall, in order for your goods or services to produce revenue. For tax purposes it is even plainer – you cannot collect money which is not there. Consequently,
7. The only functional tax rate is the one which maximizes revenue with the least interference with the economy
This is not a new idea. Remember the story warning not to kill the golden goose? The idea is that you pay attention to how folks are doing before you tell them they need to pay you more money. At the very least, tax increases (and ending prior tax cuts are tax increases, semantics won’t save you) should never happen when the economy is in decline, especially during a recession, and only a brain-dead moron would consider them when unemployment is 7% or higher. To bring in tax revenue, you need to spur job growth, because only when people have jobs can you get income tax from them. And to spur job growth, you have to lower the tax rate. Here’s why – the cause of every economic crisis always comes down to consumer confidence. When people stop buying things, the economy collapses, it’s really that simple. And when taxes are high, people worry about them and spend less, which causes businesses to slow down and fail. When businesses slow down, they lay off employees, which obviously raises unemployment. A low tax rate with low unemployment is better for revenue than a higher tax rate with a higher unemployment rate, as should be patently clear. There is a floor rate beyond which revenue fails to improve, but it is undeniable that in any recession, the most effective means to improve employment, and in so doing improve revenues from taxes, is to reduce the tax rate.
1. Everything has to be paid for
It’s quite fashionable for politicians to promise whatever the public wants, or at least the targeted voter bloc. But sooner or later, the services and goods have to be paid for, and with real money. Delaying the inevitable only adds interest costs to the total.
2. Taxpayers pay for everything the Government buys
Don’t be fooled when some official tries to say there will be no tax increase for a program, or that it will be paid from by another government or corporation. Other governments serve groups of taxpayers who won’t accept higher taxes either, and eventually the cost will come back around to your country again and hit the citizens. As for corporations, these are made up of people who don’t like paying taxes, and so a corporate tax will result either in higher prices, lower employment, or both.
3. People never like taxes
Joe Biden is a liar and a moron. No one, absolutely nobody will pay a penny more than required in taxes. Folks will pay what they feel they must, they may make virtuous noises to feel better about paying, and they may form mobs and demand that some certain person or group should be made to pay more in taxes, but no one chooses to pay more than they believe they have to pay.
4. Politicians lie to you about how much you have to pay
Politicians will either promise that your taxes will go down, or if taxes must go up, that someone else will have to pay more. Knowing how much people hate paying taxes, no politician planning to stay in office will ever tell you directly that he expects you to pay more.
5. There will never be a system where everyone pays a 'fair' amount of tax
There are several reasons for this fact. First, it’s impracticable in any medium-to-large country, since people will constantly try to reduce the taxes they pay, through resistance, political and legal actions, or just plain evasion and avoidance tactics. Second, no government truly wants a transparent system for collecting taxes, as this will inevitably lead to comparison, complaint, argument and further questions about who gets paid and why. By playing groups against one another, adjusting one group’s tax rate up or down to make it more ”fair”, governments distract the public from figuring out how much it is really gouging them.
6. Revenue is dependent on the health of the economy more than any other factor
This is sometimes missed when planning growth and forecasting revenue, whether by companies or governments. You need a healthy economy overall, in order for your goods or services to produce revenue. For tax purposes it is even plainer – you cannot collect money which is not there. Consequently,
7. The only functional tax rate is the one which maximizes revenue with the least interference with the economy
This is not a new idea. Remember the story warning not to kill the golden goose? The idea is that you pay attention to how folks are doing before you tell them they need to pay you more money. At the very least, tax increases (and ending prior tax cuts are tax increases, semantics won’t save you) should never happen when the economy is in decline, especially during a recession, and only a brain-dead moron would consider them when unemployment is 7% or higher. To bring in tax revenue, you need to spur job growth, because only when people have jobs can you get income tax from them. And to spur job growth, you have to lower the tax rate. Here’s why – the cause of every economic crisis always comes down to consumer confidence. When people stop buying things, the economy collapses, it’s really that simple. And when taxes are high, people worry about them and spend less, which causes businesses to slow down and fail. When businesses slow down, they lay off employees, which obviously raises unemployment. A low tax rate with low unemployment is better for revenue than a higher tax rate with a higher unemployment rate, as should be patently clear. There is a floor rate beyond which revenue fails to improve, but it is undeniable that in any recession, the most effective means to improve employment, and in so doing improve revenues from taxes, is to reduce the tax rate.
Monday, August 09, 2010
Thoughts on An Unsatisfactory Victory
I’m pretty freaking lucky. Sometimes in a gruesome way, however. One of those ways is the way my cancer was discovered in 2006. The short version is this sequence of events:
1. A kidney stone forms in my urinary tract.
2. I pass said kidney stone.
3. Not being an imbecile, I see my doctor, who schedules a CT scan
4. CT scan reveals I have ruptured my appendix; emergency surgery follows.
5. During the surgery, an unexpected mass is found in my abdominal cavity near the appendix. The mass is removed and sent for testing. The tests come back malignant.
So, in a span of a few days I went from being an annoying, overweight white guy to passing a kidney stone and breaking my appendix, to being diagnised with cancer.
Everything changed. For a while. I quickly experienced a range of emotions and discoveries, including an unprofessional oncologist and a surprisingly compassionate insurance company, but in the end I escaped major surgery and got to keep my hair.
Turns out I’m lucky, really lucky. My cancer was fond during surgery and oh-by-the-way I not only live in a city with one of the leading research centers on cancer, my surgeon sent my tissue samples to MDA for the initial tests.
I revisted my situation after reading about Christopher Hitchens’ own battle with cancer. It’s clear we are very different men. Mr. Hitchens is a very successful writer who has had to deal with a much harder situation than I have had to face. And yet, he too seems to be luckier than some. In my visits to MDA, I regularly see patients and their families, who are facing a much bleaker prognosis than even Mr. Hitchens has had to endure. And knowing this, I regularly face a kind of survivor’s guilt about my own good fortune. No major surgery, no chemo, no nausea, while everywhere I meet and see patients whose future is unknown, who must endure pain and doubt and the threat of death, and whose families suffer along with them. I want to help somehow, but I feel very helpless, and sometimes as if I’m wasting the time and resources of the doctors and nurses who should be focusing on people who really need help.
I have felt well for so long that by mid-2009 I began to worry that I did not have cancer at all. My oncologist ended that idea by showing me exactly where my tumors are residing; just because they’re not causing trouble at the moment does not mean they aren’t there. So while I feel like a normal person, my doctors make sure I never forget that I’m not just like anyone else. And because PMP is rare, with an unknown cause and with a very limited amount of clinical research available, there’s no guarantee that my present well-being will be permanent. That leads to some concern every time I have an unexplained pain in my abdomen or difficulty in urination or defecation. I find myself swinging from thinking that I’m overreacting, to worrying that I’m not telling my doctors something they need to know. This is important for another reason – since my cancer was found early, the doctors have been keeping records on me in hopes of learning more about PMP in the early stages. I can’t say that I’m doing much to help, but it’s better than nothing and just maybe something will come up that will help someone.
My point here is threefold – sometimes I need to vent, first of all. Second, never assume things will always be what you expect them to be, and three, there’s a reason for everything but that doesn’t mean everything will make sense when you try to figure it out.
1. A kidney stone forms in my urinary tract.
2. I pass said kidney stone.
3. Not being an imbecile, I see my doctor, who schedules a CT scan
4. CT scan reveals I have ruptured my appendix; emergency surgery follows.
5. During the surgery, an unexpected mass is found in my abdominal cavity near the appendix. The mass is removed and sent for testing. The tests come back malignant.
So, in a span of a few days I went from being an annoying, overweight white guy to passing a kidney stone and breaking my appendix, to being diagnised with cancer.
Everything changed. For a while. I quickly experienced a range of emotions and discoveries, including an unprofessional oncologist and a surprisingly compassionate insurance company, but in the end I escaped major surgery and got to keep my hair.
Turns out I’m lucky, really lucky. My cancer was fond during surgery and oh-by-the-way I not only live in a city with one of the leading research centers on cancer, my surgeon sent my tissue samples to MDA for the initial tests.
I revisted my situation after reading about Christopher Hitchens’ own battle with cancer. It’s clear we are very different men. Mr. Hitchens is a very successful writer who has had to deal with a much harder situation than I have had to face. And yet, he too seems to be luckier than some. In my visits to MDA, I regularly see patients and their families, who are facing a much bleaker prognosis than even Mr. Hitchens has had to endure. And knowing this, I regularly face a kind of survivor’s guilt about my own good fortune. No major surgery, no chemo, no nausea, while everywhere I meet and see patients whose future is unknown, who must endure pain and doubt and the threat of death, and whose families suffer along with them. I want to help somehow, but I feel very helpless, and sometimes as if I’m wasting the time and resources of the doctors and nurses who should be focusing on people who really need help.
I have felt well for so long that by mid-2009 I began to worry that I did not have cancer at all. My oncologist ended that idea by showing me exactly where my tumors are residing; just because they’re not causing trouble at the moment does not mean they aren’t there. So while I feel like a normal person, my doctors make sure I never forget that I’m not just like anyone else. And because PMP is rare, with an unknown cause and with a very limited amount of clinical research available, there’s no guarantee that my present well-being will be permanent. That leads to some concern every time I have an unexplained pain in my abdomen or difficulty in urination or defecation. I find myself swinging from thinking that I’m overreacting, to worrying that I’m not telling my doctors something they need to know. This is important for another reason – since my cancer was found early, the doctors have been keeping records on me in hopes of learning more about PMP in the early stages. I can’t say that I’m doing much to help, but it’s better than nothing and just maybe something will come up that will help someone.
My point here is threefold – sometimes I need to vent, first of all. Second, never assume things will always be what you expect them to be, and three, there’s a reason for everything but that doesn’t mean everything will make sense when you try to figure it out.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
The Best Online MBA Schools (AACSB) for 2010 Part Eighteen: Summary Review, Methodology and Advice to MBA Candidates
If you’re still reading this, please accept my apologies for its length (18 parts!) and breadth. My intention was to not only present a relatively objective review of the AACSB’s accredited online MBA programs on consistent measures which you can check for yourself, but also to show the impact of each category upon the whole, and by showing the top schools in each category, to introduce schools not only in sum but also which perform well in selected areas. Some of the ranked schools stood out over and over again, while others were not at the top, but always did well enough to stay in the chase.
I’d like to take the time here to go over the top 25 programs again, looking at their key focus and why you should consider them. I will follow that section with a review of my scoring methodology, so anyone interested can tally up, weight and calculate scores on their own standards. And at the end, I have a bit of final advice for MBA candidates, from the academic and business perspectives of your MBA pursuit.
So, let’s have a look again at the Top 25 AACSB Online MBA Programs for 2010, in order of rank. The information presented here comes first from the school’s response to the AACSB survey, and then from the school’s website. In the event of conflicting information, the survey takes precedence because all schools in this review participated in the same survey with the same categories in the same time frame.
FIRST: Colorado – Denver (7,830.15 points)
Location – Denver, Colorado
Founded – 2004
Size – 1,207
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $52,444
Average GMAT – 560
# of Concentrations – Nineteen (!)
Student/Faculty Ratio – 14.9
SECOND: Wisconsin – Whitewater (7,416.19)
Location – Whitewater, Wisconsin
Founded – 1868
Size – 650
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $18,118
Average GMAT – 501
# of Concentrations – Seven
Student/Faculty Ratio – 7.2
THIRD: Gonzaga (7,372.01)
Location – Spokane, Washington
Founded – 1887
Size – 288
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $23,640
Average GMAT – 560.8
# of Concentrations – Seven
Student/Faculty Ratio – 6.3
FOURTH: Michigan – Flint (7,164.92)
Location – Flint, Michigan
Founded – 1944
Size – 187
Degree Levels – Two
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $8,881
Average GMAT – 517
# of Concentrations – Eight
Student/Faculty Ratio – 8.9
FIFTH: Nebraska – Lincoln (7,016.55)
Location – Lincoln, Nebraska
Founded – 1869
Size – 381
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $33,332
Average GMAT – 625.5
# of Concentrations – Four
Student/Faculty Ratio – 4.8
SIXTH: Northeastern (6,950.81)
Location – Boston, Massachusetts
Founded – 1898
Size – 774
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $71,620
Average GMAT – 553
# of Concentrations – Eight
Student/Faculty Ratio – 5.2
SEVENTH: Worcester Poly (6,948.84)
Location – Worcester, Massachusetts
Founded – 1865
Size – 285
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $53,361
Average GMAT – 595.5
# of Concentrations – Eight
Student/Faculty Ratio – 12.4
EIGHTH: Alabama (6,855.84)
Location – Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Founded – 1831
Size – 408
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $37,786
Average GMAT – 611
# of Concentrations – Four
Student/Faculty Ratio – 2.6
NINTH: Florida State (6,821.99)
Location – Tallahassee, Florida
Founded – 1851
Size – 623
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $39,150
Average GMAT – 559.6
# of Concentrations – Four
Student/Faculty Ratio – 5.3
TENTH: Auburn (6,792.18)
Location – Auburn, Alabama
Founded – 1856
Size – 197
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $19,215
Average GMAT – 500
# of Concentrations – Five
Student/Faculty Ratio – 4.4
ELEVENTH: Quinnipiac (6,634.93)
Location – Hamden, Connecticut
Founded – 1929
Size – 199
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $33,580
Average GMAT – 580
# of Concentrations – Five
Student/Faculty Ratio – 3.0
TWELFTH: Penn State (6,620.94)
Location – University Park, Pennsylvania
Founded – 1855
Size – 267
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business And Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $58,408
Average GMAT – 640.5
# of Concentrations – Four
Student/Faculty Ratio – 3.6
THIRTEENTH: Fayetteville State (6,591.61)
Location – Fayetteville, North Carolina
Founded – 1877
Size – 98
Degree Levels – Two
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $13,207
Average GMAT – 472
# of Concentrations – Six
Student/Faculty Ratio – 2.3
FOURTEENTH: Houston – Victoria (6,512.91)
Location – Victoria, Texas
Founded – 1983
Size – 866
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $27,024
Average GMAT – 442.5
# of Concentrations – Six
Student/Faculty Ratio – 25.5
FIFTEENTH: Georgia Southern (6,495.10)
Location – Statesboro, Georgia
Founded – 1929
Size – 285
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $15,274
Average GMAT – 504
# of Concentrations – Three
Student/Faculty Ratio – 2.3
SIXTEENTH: Alabama – Birmingham (6,443.18)
Location – Birmingham, Alabama
Founded – 1969
Size – 347
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $21,905
Average GMAT – 557
# of Concentrations – Four
Student/Faculty Ratio – 6.2
SEVENTEENTH: Massachusetts – Amherst (6,426.50)
Location – Amherst, Massachusetts
Founded – 1867
Size – 1,183
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $21,944
Average GMAT – 617.2
# of Concentrations – One
Student/Faculty Ratio – 10.1
EIGHTEENTH: Morehead State (6,355.22)
Location – Morehead, Kentucky
Founded – 1968
Size – 202
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $15,192
Average GMAT – 400
# of Concentrations – Five
Student/Faculty Ratio – 5.2
NINETEENTH: Florida Gulf Coast (6,194.38)
Location – Fort Myers, Florida
Founded – 1991
Size – 230
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $51,198
Average GMAT – 505
# of Concentrations – Five
Student/Faculty Ratio – 4.2
TWENTIETH: North Texas (6,157.94)
Location – Denton, Texas
Founded – 1961
Size – 665
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $28,948
Average GMAT – 493.3
# of Concentrations – Two
Student/Faculty Ratio – 5.4
TWENTY-FIRST: Washington State (6,153.22)
Location – Pullman, Washington
Founded – 1890
Size – 52
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $23,656
Average GMAT – 554
# of Concentrations – One
Student/Faculty Ratio – 10.5
TWENTY-SECOND: Arizona State (6,150.06)
Location – Phoenix, Arizona
Founded – 1958
Size – 1,726
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $60,186
Average GMAT – 587.5
# of Concentrations – Two
Student/Faculty Ratio – 7.1
TWENTY-THIRD: Texas – San Antonio (6,120.89)
Location – San Antonio, Texas
Founded – 1969
Size – 626
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $30,906
Average GMAT – 561.7
# of Concentrations – One
Student/Faculty Ratio – 4.4
TWENTY-FOURTH: Suffolk (6,112.81)
Location – Boston, Massachusetts
Founded – 1937
Size – 1,028
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $57,900
Average GMAT – 468.3
# of Concentrations – Five
Student/Faculty Ratio – 6.8
TWENTY-FIFTH: Oklahoma State (6,031.20)
Location – Stillwater, Oklahoma
Founded – 1890
Size – 690
Degree Levels – four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $37,326
Average GMAT – 562.5
# of Concentrations – one
Student/Faculty Ratio – 5.1
METHODOLOGY
The idea in setting up a ranking system was to record the relevant, consistent and publicly available elements of a school. The first part was to examine the information that could be found by simply looking up the school’s website and AACSB survey. From that, I selected fifteen categories of data which I believe is relevant for an MBA candidate to consider.
I then broke the fifteen categories down into three broad sub-groups, of Major, Useful, and Minor value, then ranked the categories within each. I then assigned relative proportions of the total to the categories, so that the end result would be 100%. This resulted in percentage values ranging from 0.36% to 24.00% for a single category.
I then ranked the schools according to their performance in each category. There were two ways to do this. Schools trying to reach a maximum number (like concentrations, where more is better) were assigned a value equal to the score in a category divided by the maximum (6 concentrations out of 8 maximum possible, for example) times 100 times the percentage value. Schools trying to reach a minimal value (such as tuition, where less is better) were assigned a value equal to the formula as follows: (1-(score-smallest possible)/largest possible) times 100 times the percentage value. As a result, maximum values for each category ranged from 36 points (for the lowest in-state undergraduate tuition) to 2,400 points (for the highest number of available concentrations). The rest was simple addition of scores to reach an aggregate. Anyone interested in their own scoring system can simply add or remove other categories they find relevant, adjust the weighting to suit their focus, and work the numbers the same way. I would just remind everyone that it’s important to use consistent data gathered the same way, which is available for all contending universities. Inconsistent data creates invalid results.
Finally, I’d like to thank everyone for reading my work and for your thoughts and comments, if you feel so inclined. This ranking is not meant to be advice on which school you should choose, but rather a tool to help you see which schools offer strengths that match your preferences. So far as I know, no one else is doing this, so amateur that I am, I like to think this may be of use.
I’d like to take the time here to go over the top 25 programs again, looking at their key focus and why you should consider them. I will follow that section with a review of my scoring methodology, so anyone interested can tally up, weight and calculate scores on their own standards. And at the end, I have a bit of final advice for MBA candidates, from the academic and business perspectives of your MBA pursuit.
So, let’s have a look again at the Top 25 AACSB Online MBA Programs for 2010, in order of rank. The information presented here comes first from the school’s response to the AACSB survey, and then from the school’s website. In the event of conflicting information, the survey takes precedence because all schools in this review participated in the same survey with the same categories in the same time frame.
FIRST: Colorado – Denver (7,830.15 points)
Location – Denver, Colorado
Founded – 2004
Size – 1,207
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $52,444
Average GMAT – 560
# of Concentrations – Nineteen (!)
Student/Faculty Ratio – 14.9
SECOND: Wisconsin – Whitewater (7,416.19)
Location – Whitewater, Wisconsin
Founded – 1868
Size – 650
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $18,118
Average GMAT – 501
# of Concentrations – Seven
Student/Faculty Ratio – 7.2
THIRD: Gonzaga (7,372.01)
Location – Spokane, Washington
Founded – 1887
Size – 288
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $23,640
Average GMAT – 560.8
# of Concentrations – Seven
Student/Faculty Ratio – 6.3
FOURTH: Michigan – Flint (7,164.92)
Location – Flint, Michigan
Founded – 1944
Size – 187
Degree Levels – Two
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $8,881
Average GMAT – 517
# of Concentrations – Eight
Student/Faculty Ratio – 8.9
FIFTH: Nebraska – Lincoln (7,016.55)
Location – Lincoln, Nebraska
Founded – 1869
Size – 381
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $33,332
Average GMAT – 625.5
# of Concentrations – Four
Student/Faculty Ratio – 4.8
SIXTH: Northeastern (6,950.81)
Location – Boston, Massachusetts
Founded – 1898
Size – 774
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $71,620
Average GMAT – 553
# of Concentrations – Eight
Student/Faculty Ratio – 5.2
SEVENTH: Worcester Poly (6,948.84)
Location – Worcester, Massachusetts
Founded – 1865
Size – 285
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $53,361
Average GMAT – 595.5
# of Concentrations – Eight
Student/Faculty Ratio – 12.4
EIGHTH: Alabama (6,855.84)
Location – Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Founded – 1831
Size – 408
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $37,786
Average GMAT – 611
# of Concentrations – Four
Student/Faculty Ratio – 2.6
NINTH: Florida State (6,821.99)
Location – Tallahassee, Florida
Founded – 1851
Size – 623
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $39,150
Average GMAT – 559.6
# of Concentrations – Four
Student/Faculty Ratio – 5.3
TENTH: Auburn (6,792.18)
Location – Auburn, Alabama
Founded – 1856
Size – 197
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $19,215
Average GMAT – 500
# of Concentrations – Five
Student/Faculty Ratio – 4.4
ELEVENTH: Quinnipiac (6,634.93)
Location – Hamden, Connecticut
Founded – 1929
Size – 199
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $33,580
Average GMAT – 580
# of Concentrations – Five
Student/Faculty Ratio – 3.0
TWELFTH: Penn State (6,620.94)
Location – University Park, Pennsylvania
Founded – 1855
Size – 267
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business And Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $58,408
Average GMAT – 640.5
# of Concentrations – Four
Student/Faculty Ratio – 3.6
THIRTEENTH: Fayetteville State (6,591.61)
Location – Fayetteville, North Carolina
Founded – 1877
Size – 98
Degree Levels – Two
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $13,207
Average GMAT – 472
# of Concentrations – Six
Student/Faculty Ratio – 2.3
FOURTEENTH: Houston – Victoria (6,512.91)
Location – Victoria, Texas
Founded – 1983
Size – 866
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $27,024
Average GMAT – 442.5
# of Concentrations – Six
Student/Faculty Ratio – 25.5
FIFTEENTH: Georgia Southern (6,495.10)
Location – Statesboro, Georgia
Founded – 1929
Size – 285
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $15,274
Average GMAT – 504
# of Concentrations – Three
Student/Faculty Ratio – 2.3
SIXTEENTH: Alabama – Birmingham (6,443.18)
Location – Birmingham, Alabama
Founded – 1969
Size – 347
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $21,905
Average GMAT – 557
# of Concentrations – Four
Student/Faculty Ratio – 6.2
SEVENTEENTH: Massachusetts – Amherst (6,426.50)
Location – Amherst, Massachusetts
Founded – 1867
Size – 1,183
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $21,944
Average GMAT – 617.2
# of Concentrations – One
Student/Faculty Ratio – 10.1
EIGHTEENTH: Morehead State (6,355.22)
Location – Morehead, Kentucky
Founded – 1968
Size – 202
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $15,192
Average GMAT – 400
# of Concentrations – Five
Student/Faculty Ratio – 5.2
NINETEENTH: Florida Gulf Coast (6,194.38)
Location – Fort Myers, Florida
Founded – 1991
Size – 230
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business
Out/State MBA Tuition – $51,198
Average GMAT – 505
# of Concentrations – Five
Student/Faculty Ratio – 4.2
TWENTIETH: North Texas (6,157.94)
Location – Denton, Texas
Founded – 1961
Size – 665
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $28,948
Average GMAT – 493.3
# of Concentrations – Two
Student/Faculty Ratio – 5.4
TWENTY-FIRST: Washington State (6,153.22)
Location – Pullman, Washington
Founded – 1890
Size – 52
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $23,656
Average GMAT – 554
# of Concentrations – One
Student/Faculty Ratio – 10.5
TWENTY-SECOND: Arizona State (6,150.06)
Location – Phoenix, Arizona
Founded – 1958
Size – 1,726
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $60,186
Average GMAT – 587.5
# of Concentrations – Two
Student/Faculty Ratio – 7.1
TWENTY-THIRD: Texas – San Antonio (6,120.89)
Location – San Antonio, Texas
Founded – 1969
Size – 626
Degree Levels – Four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $30,906
Average GMAT – 561.7
# of Concentrations – One
Student/Faculty Ratio – 4.4
TWENTY-FOURTH: Suffolk (6,112.81)
Location – Boston, Massachusetts
Founded – 1937
Size – 1,028
Degree Levels – Three
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $57,900
Average GMAT – 468.3
# of Concentrations – Five
Student/Faculty Ratio – 6.8
TWENTY-FIFTH: Oklahoma State (6,031.20)
Location – Stillwater, Oklahoma
Founded – 1890
Size – 690
Degree Levels – four
AACSB Accreditation – Business and Accounting
Out/State MBA Tuition – $37,326
Average GMAT – 562.5
# of Concentrations – one
Student/Faculty Ratio – 5.1
METHODOLOGY
The idea in setting up a ranking system was to record the relevant, consistent and publicly available elements of a school. The first part was to examine the information that could be found by simply looking up the school’s website and AACSB survey. From that, I selected fifteen categories of data which I believe is relevant for an MBA candidate to consider.
I then broke the fifteen categories down into three broad sub-groups, of Major, Useful, and Minor value, then ranked the categories within each. I then assigned relative proportions of the total to the categories, so that the end result would be 100%. This resulted in percentage values ranging from 0.36% to 24.00% for a single category.
I then ranked the schools according to their performance in each category. There were two ways to do this. Schools trying to reach a maximum number (like concentrations, where more is better) were assigned a value equal to the score in a category divided by the maximum (6 concentrations out of 8 maximum possible, for example) times 100 times the percentage value. Schools trying to reach a minimal value (such as tuition, where less is better) were assigned a value equal to the formula as follows: (1-(score-smallest possible)/largest possible) times 100 times the percentage value. As a result, maximum values for each category ranged from 36 points (for the lowest in-state undergraduate tuition) to 2,400 points (for the highest number of available concentrations). The rest was simple addition of scores to reach an aggregate. Anyone interested in their own scoring system can simply add or remove other categories they find relevant, adjust the weighting to suit their focus, and work the numbers the same way. I would just remind everyone that it’s important to use consistent data gathered the same way, which is available for all contending universities. Inconsistent data creates invalid results.
Finally, I’d like to thank everyone for reading my work and for your thoughts and comments, if you feel so inclined. This ranking is not meant to be advice on which school you should choose, but rather a tool to help you see which schools offer strengths that match your preferences. So far as I know, no one else is doing this, so amateur that I am, I like to think this may be of use.
Friday, June 25, 2010
The Best Online MBA Schools (AACSB) for 2010 Part Seventeen: Number of FTE Faculty and Score Totals and Final Ranking
This is the last of our fifteen categories. It’s easy to overlook, but it can be important. The number of FTE (full-time employees) is the weighted full-time number of professors and instructors available, and just as the student body size influences your ability to find quality peers, the faculty size influences your access to top instructors. After all, the more instructors the more choice you have. This category counts for 8% of the total score.
In terms of scoring, each school earns up to 100 times the percentage value of the category, so that in total a maximum score of 10,000 is possible. For this category, since there is a range from 3 to 117 FTE faculty, schools can earn up to 800 points.
Here are the top ten schools by FTE faculty counts for our group of schools:
1. Hong Kong Polytechnic
2. Texas - Dallas
3. Kennesaw State
4. Arizona State
5. Texas – Arlington
6. Towson
7. Massachusetts - Amherst
8. Wisconsin - Whitewater
9. East Carolina
10. Colorado – Denver
With that done, let’s look again at last year’s top programs:
2009 Top Online MBA Programs
1. Auburn
2. Drexel
3. East Carolina
4. Colorado – Denver
5t. Tennessee Tech
5t. Houston – Victoria
7t. Morehead State
7t. Wayne State
9. Colorado – Colorado Springs
10. North Dakota
11t. Georgia Southern
11t. Texas – Dallas
13t. Wisconsin – Oshkosh
13t. Wisconsin – Whitewater
15. Texas A&M – Commerce
16. Michigan – Dearborn
17. Nicholls State
18. Suffolk
19. Georgia College & State U
20. Colorado State
21. Florida
22t. Florida State
22t. Nebraska – Lincoln
24. Wyoming
25t. Durham
25t. Texas – Arlington
25t. Massachusetts – Lowell
25t. North Texas
And now, the Top 25 Online MBA Schools for 2010:
1st: Colorado – Denver (7,830.15)
2nd: Wisconsin – Whitewater (7,416.19)
3rd: Gonzaga (7,372.01)
4th: Michigan – Flint (7,164.92)
5th: Nebraska – Lincoln (7,016.55)
6th: Northeastern (6,950.81)
7th: Worcester Poly (6,948.84)
8th: Alabama (6,855.84)
9th: Florida State (6,821.99)
10th: Auburn (6,792.18)
11th: Quinnipiac (6,634.93)
12th: Penn State (6,620.94)
13th: Fayetteville State (6,591.61)
14th: Houston – Victoria (6,512.91)
15th: Georgia Southern (6,495.10)
16th: Alabama – Birmingham (6,443.18)
17th: Massachusetts – Amherst (6,426.50)
18th: Morehead State (6,355.22)
19th: Florida Gulf Coast (6,194.38)
20th: North Texas (6,157.94)
21st: Washington State (6,153.22)
22nd: Arizona State (6,150.06)
23rd: Texas – San Antonio (6,120.89)
24th: Suffolk (6,112.81)
25th: Oklahoma State (6,031.20)
As I said before I repeat now, this ranking is not an absolute ranking. It takes the available information on fifteen salient categories for AACSB-accredited schools of business which offer a true online MBA program, and assigns values based on the weighting of those categories as I understand them to proportionately apply to the value of the MBA. I present the top schools for each category, and have shown how the total score unfolded through the addition of the new points from each category. The school which is best for you, depends on the qualities which matter most to you. This presentation is to show how each category plays into the whole, and to present schools which excel in those areas. Some of these schools are well-known and some are not. I thought about presenting links to the schools’ websites and detailing the specific results for their performance in each category, but I presume you have access to a search engine, and the intent I brought here was to encourage you to chase down the relevant details yourself for schools which interest you. Because in the end, you must choose the school you attend, what concentrations and what cost and what length of curriculum and electives you select, and so you owe it to yourself to chase down the support for the school you choose. All I have done here is to point out how certain qualities are represented in schools, and to give you thoughts on some schools to consider. I will revisit the most prominent schools, and my methodology, in the next and final post.
Thanks.
In terms of scoring, each school earns up to 100 times the percentage value of the category, so that in total a maximum score of 10,000 is possible. For this category, since there is a range from 3 to 117 FTE faculty, schools can earn up to 800 points.
Here are the top ten schools by FTE faculty counts for our group of schools:
1. Hong Kong Polytechnic
2. Texas - Dallas
3. Kennesaw State
4. Arizona State
5. Texas – Arlington
6. Towson
7. Massachusetts - Amherst
8. Wisconsin - Whitewater
9. East Carolina
10. Colorado – Denver
With that done, let’s look again at last year’s top programs:
2009 Top Online MBA Programs
1. Auburn
2. Drexel
3. East Carolina
4. Colorado – Denver
5t. Tennessee Tech
5t. Houston – Victoria
7t. Morehead State
7t. Wayne State
9. Colorado – Colorado Springs
10. North Dakota
11t. Georgia Southern
11t. Texas – Dallas
13t. Wisconsin – Oshkosh
13t. Wisconsin – Whitewater
15. Texas A&M – Commerce
16. Michigan – Dearborn
17. Nicholls State
18. Suffolk
19. Georgia College & State U
20. Colorado State
21. Florida
22t. Florida State
22t. Nebraska – Lincoln
24. Wyoming
25t. Durham
25t. Texas – Arlington
25t. Massachusetts – Lowell
25t. North Texas
And now, the Top 25 Online MBA Schools for 2010:
1st: Colorado – Denver (7,830.15)
2nd: Wisconsin – Whitewater (7,416.19)
3rd: Gonzaga (7,372.01)
4th: Michigan – Flint (7,164.92)
5th: Nebraska – Lincoln (7,016.55)
6th: Northeastern (6,950.81)
7th: Worcester Poly (6,948.84)
8th: Alabama (6,855.84)
9th: Florida State (6,821.99)
10th: Auburn (6,792.18)
11th: Quinnipiac (6,634.93)
12th: Penn State (6,620.94)
13th: Fayetteville State (6,591.61)
14th: Houston – Victoria (6,512.91)
15th: Georgia Southern (6,495.10)
16th: Alabama – Birmingham (6,443.18)
17th: Massachusetts – Amherst (6,426.50)
18th: Morehead State (6,355.22)
19th: Florida Gulf Coast (6,194.38)
20th: North Texas (6,157.94)
21st: Washington State (6,153.22)
22nd: Arizona State (6,150.06)
23rd: Texas – San Antonio (6,120.89)
24th: Suffolk (6,112.81)
25th: Oklahoma State (6,031.20)
As I said before I repeat now, this ranking is not an absolute ranking. It takes the available information on fifteen salient categories for AACSB-accredited schools of business which offer a true online MBA program, and assigns values based on the weighting of those categories as I understand them to proportionately apply to the value of the MBA. I present the top schools for each category, and have shown how the total score unfolded through the addition of the new points from each category. The school which is best for you, depends on the qualities which matter most to you. This presentation is to show how each category plays into the whole, and to present schools which excel in those areas. Some of these schools are well-known and some are not. I thought about presenting links to the schools’ websites and detailing the specific results for their performance in each category, but I presume you have access to a search engine, and the intent I brought here was to encourage you to chase down the relevant details yourself for schools which interest you. Because in the end, you must choose the school you attend, what concentrations and what cost and what length of curriculum and electives you select, and so you owe it to yourself to chase down the support for the school you choose. All I have done here is to point out how certain qualities are represented in schools, and to give you thoughts on some schools to consider. I will revisit the most prominent schools, and my methodology, in the next and final post.
Thanks.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The Best MBA Schools (AACSB) for 2010 Part Sixteen: Minimum Program Duration
This category is important to a minority of students, but for some people it will matter. This category counts for 4% of the total score.
In terms of scoring, each school earns up to 100 times the percentage value of the category, so that in total a maximum score of 10,000 is possible. For this category, since there is a range from 12 to 36 months to finish the program, schools can earn up to 400 points.
Here are the shortest minimum-duration programs in our group of schools:
1t. Western New England
1t. Florida
3t. Michigan – Flint
3t. Institute de Empresa
5t. Colorado – Colorado Springs
5t. Colorado - Denver
7t. Suffolk
7t. Georgia Southern
7t. Florida State
7t. Florida Gulf Coast
7t. Georgia College & State U
7t. Gonzaga
The overall lead is now as follows:
1st: Colorado – Denver (7,475)
2nd: Gonzaga (7,215)
3rd: Michigan – Flint (7,110)
4th: Wisconsin – Whitewater (7,040)
5th: Nebraska – Lincoln (6,866)
6th: Worcester Poly (6,853)
7th: Auburn (6,676)
8th: Alabama (6,658)
9th: Northeastern (6,609)
10th: Florida State (6,548)
11th: Fayetteville State (6,516)
12th(tie): Quinnipiac (6,498)
12th(tie): Penn State (6,498)
14th: Houston – Victoria (6,328)
15th: Alabama – Birmingham (6,300)
16th: Morehead State (6,239)
17th: Georgia Southern (6,235)
18th: Washington State (6,119)
19th: Florida Gulf Coast (6,064)
20th: Massachusetts – Amherst (6,030)
21st: Wyoming (5,909)
22nd: Western New England (5,893)
23rd: Suffolk (5,839)
24th: North Texas (5,816)
25th: Texas – San Antonio (5,806)
In terms of scoring, each school earns up to 100 times the percentage value of the category, so that in total a maximum score of 10,000 is possible. For this category, since there is a range from 12 to 36 months to finish the program, schools can earn up to 400 points.
Here are the shortest minimum-duration programs in our group of schools:
1t. Western New England
1t. Florida
3t. Michigan – Flint
3t. Institute de Empresa
5t. Colorado – Colorado Springs
5t. Colorado - Denver
7t. Suffolk
7t. Georgia Southern
7t. Florida State
7t. Florida Gulf Coast
7t. Georgia College & State U
7t. Gonzaga
The overall lead is now as follows:
1st: Colorado – Denver (7,475)
2nd: Gonzaga (7,215)
3rd: Michigan – Flint (7,110)
4th: Wisconsin – Whitewater (7,040)
5th: Nebraska – Lincoln (6,866)
6th: Worcester Poly (6,853)
7th: Auburn (6,676)
8th: Alabama (6,658)
9th: Northeastern (6,609)
10th: Florida State (6,548)
11th: Fayetteville State (6,516)
12th(tie): Quinnipiac (6,498)
12th(tie): Penn State (6,498)
14th: Houston – Victoria (6,328)
15th: Alabama – Birmingham (6,300)
16th: Morehead State (6,239)
17th: Georgia Southern (6,235)
18th: Washington State (6,119)
19th: Florida Gulf Coast (6,064)
20th: Massachusetts – Amherst (6,030)
21st: Wyoming (5,909)
22nd: Western New England (5,893)
23rd: Suffolk (5,839)
24th: North Texas (5,816)
25th: Texas – San Antonio (5,806)
The Best Online MBA Schools (AACSB) for 2010 Part Fifteen: Operating Budget per Student
This category is another relatively small one, but given the need for facilities and resources for online students, it still counts, especially since a large budget is less effective if it’s cut up into too many pieces. This part counts for 3% of the total score.
In terms of scoring, each school earns up to 100 times the percentage value of the category, so that in total a maximum score of 10,000 is possible. For this category, since there is a range from $2,060 to $404,481, schools can earn up to 300 points.
Here are the ten lowest undergraduate in-state tuition rates of our group of schools:
1. Washington State
2. Southern Arkansas
3. Penn State
4. Missisippi
5. Wisconsin – Lacrosse
6. Western Kentucky
7. Wyoming
8. Tennessee - Martin
9. Indiana – Bloomington
10. Clarion U of Pennsylvania
The overall lead is now as follows:
1st: Colorado – Denver (7,119)
2nd: Gonzaga (6,881)
3rd: Wisconsin – Whitewater (6,773)
4th: Michigan – Flint (6,744)
5th: Worcester Poly (6,720)
6th: Nebraska – Lincoln (6,599)
7th: Alabama (6,524)
8th: Auburn (6,476)
9th: Northeastern (6,342)
10th: Fayetteville State (6,250)
11th: Quinnipiac (6,232)
12th: Penn State (6,231)
13th: Florida State (6,215)
14th: Alabama – Birmingham (6,166)
15th: Houston – Victoria (6,028)
16th: Morehead State (5,972)
17th: Georgia Southern (5,902)
18th: Washington State (5,852)
19th: Massachusetts – Amherst (5,763)
20th: Florida Gulf Coast (5,731)
21st: Wyoming (5,643)
22nd: North Texas (5,549)
23rd: Texas – San Antonio (5,540)
24th: Suffolk (5,506)
25th: Western New England (5,493)
In terms of scoring, each school earns up to 100 times the percentage value of the category, so that in total a maximum score of 10,000 is possible. For this category, since there is a range from $2,060 to $404,481, schools can earn up to 300 points.
Here are the ten lowest undergraduate in-state tuition rates of our group of schools:
1. Washington State
2. Southern Arkansas
3. Penn State
4. Missisippi
5. Wisconsin – Lacrosse
6. Western Kentucky
7. Wyoming
8. Tennessee - Martin
9. Indiana – Bloomington
10. Clarion U of Pennsylvania
The overall lead is now as follows:
1st: Colorado – Denver (7,119)
2nd: Gonzaga (6,881)
3rd: Wisconsin – Whitewater (6,773)
4th: Michigan – Flint (6,744)
5th: Worcester Poly (6,720)
6th: Nebraska – Lincoln (6,599)
7th: Alabama (6,524)
8th: Auburn (6,476)
9th: Northeastern (6,342)
10th: Fayetteville State (6,250)
11th: Quinnipiac (6,232)
12th: Penn State (6,231)
13th: Florida State (6,215)
14th: Alabama – Birmingham (6,166)
15th: Houston – Victoria (6,028)
16th: Morehead State (5,972)
17th: Georgia Southern (5,902)
18th: Washington State (5,852)
19th: Massachusetts – Amherst (5,763)
20th: Florida Gulf Coast (5,731)
21st: Wyoming (5,643)
22nd: North Texas (5,549)
23rd: Texas – San Antonio (5,540)
24th: Suffolk (5,506)
25th: Western New England (5,493)
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
The Best Online MBA Schools (AACSB) for 2010 Part Fourteen: Student Body Size
Things are closing towards the final results now, with only 16.43% (or 1,643 possible points remaining) of the total to be assigned. This category is the smallest of the four remaining areas to consider. The number of students attending a university influences the opportunity to find high-value partners for projects and challenging competition for to honors. This category counts for 1.43% of the total score.
In terms of scoring, each school earns up to 100 times the percentage value of the category, so that in total a maximum score of 10,000 is possible. For this category, since there is a range from 14 to 5,599 students, schools can earn up to 143 points.
Here are the ten highest size of MBA student class in our group of schools:
1. Texas – Dallas
2. Hong Kong Polytechnic
3. Arizona State
4. Florida
5. Texas – Arlington
6. Kennesaw State
7. Thunderbird
8. Durham
9. Colorado – Denver
10. Massachusetts – Amherst
(Note that these rankings are for ONLINE MBA student class size only)
The overall lead is now as follows:
1st: Colorado – Denver (7,106)
2nd: Gonzaga (6,858)
3rd: Wisconsin – Whitewater (6,759)
4th: Worcester Poly (6,759)
5th: Michigan – Flint (6,701)
6th: Nebraska – Lincoln (6,542)
7th: Alabama (6,459)
8th: Auburn (6,451)
9th: Northeastern (6,295)
10th: Quinnipiac (6,182)
11th(tie): Florida State (6,170)
11th(tie): Fayetteville State (6,170)
13th: Alabama – Birmingham (6,117)
14th: Penn State (6,108)
15th: Houston – Victoria (6,022)
16th: Morehead State (5,938)
17th: Georgia Southern (5,855)
18th: Massachusetts – Amherst (5,738)
19th: Florida Gulf Coast (5,703)
20th: Washington State (5,552)
21st: Wyoming (5,547)
22nd: North Texas (5,518)
23rd: Texas – San Antonio (5,495)
24th: Suffolk (5,439)
25th: Western New England (5,437)
In terms of scoring, each school earns up to 100 times the percentage value of the category, so that in total a maximum score of 10,000 is possible. For this category, since there is a range from 14 to 5,599 students, schools can earn up to 143 points.
Here are the ten highest size of MBA student class in our group of schools:
1. Texas – Dallas
2. Hong Kong Polytechnic
3. Arizona State
4. Florida
5. Texas – Arlington
6. Kennesaw State
7. Thunderbird
8. Durham
9. Colorado – Denver
10. Massachusetts – Amherst
(Note that these rankings are for ONLINE MBA student class size only)
The overall lead is now as follows:
1st: Colorado – Denver (7,106)
2nd: Gonzaga (6,858)
3rd: Wisconsin – Whitewater (6,759)
4th: Worcester Poly (6,759)
5th: Michigan – Flint (6,701)
6th: Nebraska – Lincoln (6,542)
7th: Alabama (6,459)
8th: Auburn (6,451)
9th: Northeastern (6,295)
10th: Quinnipiac (6,182)
11th(tie): Florida State (6,170)
11th(tie): Fayetteville State (6,170)
13th: Alabama – Birmingham (6,117)
14th: Penn State (6,108)
15th: Houston – Victoria (6,022)
16th: Morehead State (5,938)
17th: Georgia Southern (5,855)
18th: Massachusetts – Amherst (5,738)
19th: Florida Gulf Coast (5,703)
20th: Washington State (5,552)
21st: Wyoming (5,547)
22nd: North Texas (5,518)
23rd: Texas – San Antonio (5,495)
24th: Suffolk (5,439)
25th: Western New England (5,437)
The Best Online MBA Schools (AACSB) for 2010 Part Thirteen: Student/Faculty Ratio
This category is trickier than it may first appear. In face-to-face classes, the ratio of students per teacher is critical in the quality level of instruction a candidate may expect. It is less so in online classes, because the online student has greater access to the teacher when offering answers or asking questions. Also, since online classes use virtual office hours for professors or organized Q&A sessions for the class, there is no risk that a student may miss time with the instructor because someone else has already arrived first or the available time is a problem with other commitments, like work.
However, the student/faculty ratio does factor into how much attention an instructor may give an individual student’s work. Just imagine the difference between evaluating, say 75 students’ projects or just 25 in the same available amount of time, regardless of how the work is submitted. This category counts for 9% of the total score for a school.
In terms of scoring, each school earns up to 100 times the percentage value of the category, so that in total a maximum score of 10,000 is possible. For this category, since there is a range from 5.4 to 85.9 for schools, schools can earn up to 900 points.
Here are the ten lowest student-to-faculty rations of our group of schools:
1. Southern Arkansas
2. Tennessee - Martin
3. Western Kentucky
4. Georgia Southern
5. Wisconsin - LaCrosse
6. North Dakota
7. Louisiana - Monroe
8. Rowan
9. Fayetteville State
10. Mississippi
The overall lead is now as follows:
1st: Colorado – Denver (7,075)
2nd: Gonzaga (6,851)
3rd: Wisconsin – Whitewater (6,742)
4th(tie): Worcester Poly (6,697)
4th (tie): Michigan – Flint (6,697)
6th: Nebraska – Lincoln (6,533)
7th: Alabama (6,449)
8th: Auburn (6,446)
9th: Northeastern (6,275)
10th: Quinnipiac (6,176)
11th: Fayetteville State (6,168)
12th: Florida State (6,155)
13th: Alabama – Birmingham (6,108)
14th: Penn State (6,101)
15th: Houston – Victoria (6,000)
16th: Morehead State (5,933)
17th: Georgia Southern (5,848)
18th: Massachusetts – Amherst (5,708)
19th: Florida Gulf Coast (5,697)
20th: Washington State (5,551)
21st: Wyoming (5,544)
22nd: North Texas (5,502)
23rd: Texas – San Antonio (5,479)
24th: Western New England (5,434)
25th: Oklahoma State (5,414)
However, the student/faculty ratio does factor into how much attention an instructor may give an individual student’s work. Just imagine the difference between evaluating, say 75 students’ projects or just 25 in the same available amount of time, regardless of how the work is submitted. This category counts for 9% of the total score for a school.
In terms of scoring, each school earns up to 100 times the percentage value of the category, so that in total a maximum score of 10,000 is possible. For this category, since there is a range from 5.4 to 85.9 for schools, schools can earn up to 900 points.
Here are the ten lowest student-to-faculty rations of our group of schools:
1. Southern Arkansas
2. Tennessee - Martin
3. Western Kentucky
4. Georgia Southern
5. Wisconsin - LaCrosse
6. North Dakota
7. Louisiana - Monroe
8. Rowan
9. Fayetteville State
10. Mississippi
The overall lead is now as follows:
1st: Colorado – Denver (7,075)
2nd: Gonzaga (6,851)
3rd: Wisconsin – Whitewater (6,742)
4th(tie): Worcester Poly (6,697)
4th (tie): Michigan – Flint (6,697)
6th: Nebraska – Lincoln (6,533)
7th: Alabama (6,449)
8th: Auburn (6,446)
9th: Northeastern (6,275)
10th: Quinnipiac (6,176)
11th: Fayetteville State (6,168)
12th: Florida State (6,155)
13th: Alabama – Birmingham (6,108)
14th: Penn State (6,101)
15th: Houston – Victoria (6,000)
16th: Morehead State (5,933)
17th: Georgia Southern (5,848)
18th: Massachusetts – Amherst (5,708)
19th: Florida Gulf Coast (5,697)
20th: Washington State (5,551)
21st: Wyoming (5,544)
22nd: North Texas (5,502)
23rd: Texas – San Antonio (5,479)
24th: Western New England (5,434)
25th: Oklahoma State (5,414)
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The Best Online MBA Schools (AACSB) for 2010 Part Twelve: Number of Concentrations
This category is the big one. This is because the initial criteria gave us a set of good schools, schools accredited by the AACSB, which offered a true online MBA. The difference between these 72 schools is weighed by what the school can offer a top candidate, and the top category of the 15 available to measure is the number of concentrations. Businesses like to know what the MBA means to them, and the concentration sets the applicant apart, even from other MBA holders.
In terms of scoring, each school earns up to 100 times the percentage value of the category, so that in total a maximum score of 10,000 is possible. For this category, since there is a range from 1 to 8 concentrations, schools can earn up to 2,400 points.
Here are top schools by available MBA concentration:
1t. Colorado- Denver
1t. Michigan – Flint
1t. Northeastern
1t. Worcester Poly
5t. Gonzaga
5t. Wisconsin - Whitewater
7t. Fayetteville State
7t. Houston – Victoria
9t. Auburn
9t. Florida Gulf Coast
9t. Morehead State
9t. Quinnipiac
The overall lead is now as follows (points):
1st: Colorado – Denver (6,363)
2nd: Gonzaga (6,023)
3rd: Michigan – Flint (5,979)
4th: Worcester Poly (5,956)
5th: Wisconsin – Whitewater (5,910)
6th: Nebraska – Lincoln (5,754)
7th: Alabama (5,639)
8th: Auburn (5,613)
9th: Northeastern (5,481)
10th: Houston – Victoria (5,378)
11th: Florida State (5,361)
12th: Alabama – Birmingham (5,326)
13th: Quinnipiac (5,323)
14th: Fayetteville State (5,301)
15th: Penn State (5,297)
16th: Morehead State (5,104)
17th: Georgia Southern (4,970)
18th: Massachusetts – Amherst (4,964)
19th: Florida Gulf Coast (4,869)
20th: Suffolk (4,725)
21st: Washington State (4,708)
22nd: Wyoming (4,702)
23rd: North Texas (4,684)
24th: Florida (4,670)
25th: Texas – San Antonio (4,665)
In terms of scoring, each school earns up to 100 times the percentage value of the category, so that in total a maximum score of 10,000 is possible. For this category, since there is a range from 1 to 8 concentrations, schools can earn up to 2,400 points.
Here are top schools by available MBA concentration:
1t. Colorado- Denver
1t. Michigan – Flint
1t. Northeastern
1t. Worcester Poly
5t. Gonzaga
5t. Wisconsin - Whitewater
7t. Fayetteville State
7t. Houston – Victoria
9t. Auburn
9t. Florida Gulf Coast
9t. Morehead State
9t. Quinnipiac
The overall lead is now as follows (points):
1st: Colorado – Denver (6,363)
2nd: Gonzaga (6,023)
3rd: Michigan – Flint (5,979)
4th: Worcester Poly (5,956)
5th: Wisconsin – Whitewater (5,910)
6th: Nebraska – Lincoln (5,754)
7th: Alabama (5,639)
8th: Auburn (5,613)
9th: Northeastern (5,481)
10th: Houston – Victoria (5,378)
11th: Florida State (5,361)
12th: Alabama – Birmingham (5,326)
13th: Quinnipiac (5,323)
14th: Fayetteville State (5,301)
15th: Penn State (5,297)
16th: Morehead State (5,104)
17th: Georgia Southern (4,970)
18th: Massachusetts – Amherst (4,964)
19th: Florida Gulf Coast (4,869)
20th: Suffolk (4,725)
21st: Washington State (4,708)
22nd: Wyoming (4,702)
23rd: North Texas (4,684)
24th: Florida (4,670)
25th: Texas – San Antonio (4,665)
The Best Online MBA Schools (AACSB) for 2010 Part Eleven: Minimum GMAT
This category is useful but less significant than the average GMAT score, because it defines a floor which all students meet or exceed, but does not define the actual caliber of the students as a group. This category is worth 1.79% of the total.
In terms of scoring, each school earns up to 100 times the percentage value of the category, so that in total a maximum score of 10,000 is possible. For this category, since there is a range from 200 (if the GMAT is required or a score floor is established) to 600, schools can earn up to 179 points.
Here are the top minimum GMAT score requirements of our group of schools:
1t. Florida
1t. Nebraska - Lincoln
3t Mississippi
3t. Oklahoma State
3t. Massachusetts - Amherst
3t. Massachusetts - Lowell
3t. Wyoming
8t. Indiana - Bloomington
8t. North Dakota
8t. Quinnipiac
8t. Western Kentucky
8t. Worcester Poly
The overall lead is now as follows (points):
1st: Massachusetts – Amherst (4,664)
2nd: Nebraska – Lincoln (4,554)
3rd: Alabama (4,439)
4th: Washington State (4,408)
5th: Wyoming (4,402)
6th: Florida (4,370)
7th: Texas – San Antonio (4,365)
8th: Oklahoma State (4,331)
9th: Mississippi (4,204)
10th: Texas – Pan American (4,193)
11th: Florida International (4,173)
12th: Florida State (4,161)
13th: Texas – Dallas (4,128)
14th: Alabama – Birmingham (4,126)
15th: Auburn (4,113)
16th: Penn State (4,097)
17th: North Texas (4,084)
18th: Indiana – Bloomington (4,075)
19th: Georgia Southern (4,070)
20th: South Dakota (4,035)
21st: Arizona State (3,992)
22nd: Massachusetts – Lowell (3,983)
23rd: Colorado – Denver (3,963)
24th: Temple (3,930)
25th: Gonzaga (3,923)
In terms of scoring, each school earns up to 100 times the percentage value of the category, so that in total a maximum score of 10,000 is possible. For this category, since there is a range from 200 (if the GMAT is required or a score floor is established) to 600, schools can earn up to 179 points.
Here are the top minimum GMAT score requirements of our group of schools:
1t. Florida
1t. Nebraska - Lincoln
3t Mississippi
3t. Oklahoma State
3t. Massachusetts - Amherst
3t. Massachusetts - Lowell
3t. Wyoming
8t. Indiana - Bloomington
8t. North Dakota
8t. Quinnipiac
8t. Western Kentucky
8t. Worcester Poly
The overall lead is now as follows (points):
1st: Massachusetts – Amherst (4,664)
2nd: Nebraska – Lincoln (4,554)
3rd: Alabama (4,439)
4th: Washington State (4,408)
5th: Wyoming (4,402)
6th: Florida (4,370)
7th: Texas – San Antonio (4,365)
8th: Oklahoma State (4,331)
9th: Mississippi (4,204)
10th: Texas – Pan American (4,193)
11th: Florida International (4,173)
12th: Florida State (4,161)
13th: Texas – Dallas (4,128)
14th: Alabama – Birmingham (4,126)
15th: Auburn (4,113)
16th: Penn State (4,097)
17th: North Texas (4,084)
18th: Indiana – Bloomington (4,075)
19th: Georgia Southern (4,070)
20th: South Dakota (4,035)
21st: Arizona State (3,992)
22nd: Massachusetts – Lowell (3,983)
23rd: Colorado – Denver (3,963)
24th: Temple (3,930)
25th: Gonzaga (3,923)
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