Somebody want to explain to me why a company that "is not accepting new customers" would advertise on TV, newspapers, the phone book and the web?
Argh. Still looking. House and personal temperatures continue to rise.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
No Air Conditioning
Attic unit runs, but not the backyard unit. That thing just hummmmmmmms in an ominous way.
House temp up to 83 and climbing. Wife is not happy.
Seeking assistance.
House temp up to 83 and climbing. Wife is not happy.
Seeking assistance.
Top Online MBA School Profile - #4 University of Colorado at Denver
Colorado at Denver finished a very solid fourth place among AACSB-accredited schools offering online MBAs. This article profiles the school.
The University of Colorado at Denver was founded in 1912 as the downtown campus for the University of Colorado.
UCD offers an MBA with specializations available in Business Marketing, Consumer Marketing, Business Intelligence, Business Strategy, Change Management, Corporate Financial Management, Decision Sciences, Enterprise Technology Management, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Financial Analysis, Human Resource Management, Information Systems, International Business, Investment Management, Managing for Sustainability, Services Management, and Sports and Entertainment Management. UCD also offers professional post-graduate certification for additional classwork. UCD also offers dual MS/MBA degrees in accounting, finance, information systems, international business, management or marketing. UCD students may finish their MBA in as little as 16 months or as long as 5 years.
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of UCD’s MBA students is 600; UCD says the average GMAT score for enrolled students is 560.
According to the AACSB, 1,207 of UCD’s 2,857 total students are MBA students (42.25%).
Sixteen classes are required for the UCD MBA, or 48 semester hours minimum.
Tuition for the MBA for Colorado residents is $482 per semester hour, and $1,146 per semester hour for out-of-state students. There is an online fee of $100 per course, plus $50 for online labs. Consequently, Colorado students would expect to pay $25,536 in tuition and fees for an MBA, while out-of-state students would pay $57,408 in tuitition in fees. Add another $3,200 in books and course materials, and a UCD MBA for a Colorado resident costs around $28,736 and $59,608 for an out-of-state student.
The University of Colorado at Denver was founded in 1912 as the downtown campus for the University of Colorado.
UCD offers an MBA with specializations available in Business Marketing, Consumer Marketing, Business Intelligence, Business Strategy, Change Management, Corporate Financial Management, Decision Sciences, Enterprise Technology Management, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Financial Analysis, Human Resource Management, Information Systems, International Business, Investment Management, Managing for Sustainability, Services Management, and Sports and Entertainment Management. UCD also offers professional post-graduate certification for additional classwork. UCD also offers dual MS/MBA degrees in accounting, finance, information systems, international business, management or marketing. UCD students may finish their MBA in as little as 16 months or as long as 5 years.
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of UCD’s MBA students is 600; UCD says the average GMAT score for enrolled students is 560.
According to the AACSB, 1,207 of UCD’s 2,857 total students are MBA students (42.25%).
Sixteen classes are required for the UCD MBA, or 48 semester hours minimum.
Tuition for the MBA for Colorado residents is $482 per semester hour, and $1,146 per semester hour for out-of-state students. There is an online fee of $100 per course, plus $50 for online labs. Consequently, Colorado students would expect to pay $25,536 in tuition and fees for an MBA, while out-of-state students would pay $57,408 in tuitition in fees. Add another $3,200 in books and course materials, and a UCD MBA for a Colorado resident costs around $28,736 and $59,608 for an out-of-state student.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Top Online MBA School Profile - #3 East Carolina University
East Caroina also finished less than one point out of first place, but had to settle for third among AACSB-accredited schools offering online MBAs. This article profiles the school.
East Carolina University was founded in 1907 as a training school for teachers, with its first classes beginning in 1909. The original name was East Carolina Teachers Training School, changed to East Carolina Teachers College, then East Carolina College, and finally East Carolina University in 1967.
ECU’s Business School was founded in 1936, offers full-time and online MBA degrees. ECU allows students to take from one to five courses per semester, with concentrations available in Accounting (with undergraduate degree in Accounting), or General Business MBA, with optional certificates available in Finance, Environmental Planning, Health Care, Hospitality Management, Management Information Systems, Professional Investment, Security Studies, Sport Management, and Supply Chain Management for additional classwork.
ECU also offers an MBA for medical students. According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of ECU’s MBA students is 526; ECU says the minimum acceptable GMAT score is 500.
According to the AACSB, 854 of 3,444 total students are MBA students (24.79%).
Tuition for MBA students at ECU is $219 per semester hour for North Carolina residents, and $725 per semester hour for out-of-state students. ECU offers scholarships to MBA Students, but only five a year for merit and five a year for need. Assistanships are avaiable only to full-time MBA students. Waiver for the out-of-state premium is considered only for a limited number of applicants, and requires at least a 650 GMAT score for consideration.
Twenty classes minimum must be taken for the ECU MBA, so tuition for in-state online students would cost $13,140, and out-of-state students would need to pay $43,500. The additional courses for specific concentrations would add about $1,971 to an in-state student’s tuition cost and another $6,525 to an out-of-state student’s total tuition. That does not include course materials, though, so with 20 classes you’re looking at about another $4,000 in textbooks and supplemental material, so the actual price tag is around $19,111 for an in-state ECU MBA, and 54,025 for an out-of-state MBA from East Carolina University.
East Carolina University was founded in 1907 as a training school for teachers, with its first classes beginning in 1909. The original name was East Carolina Teachers Training School, changed to East Carolina Teachers College, then East Carolina College, and finally East Carolina University in 1967.
ECU’s Business School was founded in 1936, offers full-time and online MBA degrees. ECU allows students to take from one to five courses per semester, with concentrations available in Accounting (with undergraduate degree in Accounting), or General Business MBA, with optional certificates available in Finance, Environmental Planning, Health Care, Hospitality Management, Management Information Systems, Professional Investment, Security Studies, Sport Management, and Supply Chain Management for additional classwork.
ECU also offers an MBA for medical students. According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of ECU’s MBA students is 526; ECU says the minimum acceptable GMAT score is 500.
According to the AACSB, 854 of 3,444 total students are MBA students (24.79%).
Tuition for MBA students at ECU is $219 per semester hour for North Carolina residents, and $725 per semester hour for out-of-state students. ECU offers scholarships to MBA Students, but only five a year for merit and five a year for need. Assistanships are avaiable only to full-time MBA students. Waiver for the out-of-state premium is considered only for a limited number of applicants, and requires at least a 650 GMAT score for consideration.
Twenty classes minimum must be taken for the ECU MBA, so tuition for in-state online students would cost $13,140, and out-of-state students would need to pay $43,500. The additional courses for specific concentrations would add about $1,971 to an in-state student’s tuition cost and another $6,525 to an out-of-state student’s total tuition. That does not include course materials, though, so with 20 classes you’re looking at about another $4,000 in textbooks and supplemental material, so the actual price tag is around $19,111 for an in-state ECU MBA, and 54,025 for an out-of-state MBA from East Carolina University.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Top Online MBA School Profile - #2 Drexel University
Drexel University just missed taking top honors among AACSB-accredited schools offering online MBAs. This article profiles the school.
Drexel University was founded in 1891 as Drexel Institute, a private school focusing on “Art, Science, and Industry”. The Philadelphia, PA school operates the Bennett S. Lebow College of Business. Drexel offers full-time, part-time, Distance and Executive MBA programs. In terms of online MBAs, Drexel’s program is called the MBA Anywhere program. The MBA Anywhere offers concentrations in Finance, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, or Engineering Management. Drexel also offers an online Corporate MBA in Pharmaceutical Management.
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of Drexel’s MBA students is 600; Drexel says the minimum acceptable GMAT score is 600.
The MBA Anywhere at Drexel is a 20-course curriculum, featuring 17 “cohort” classes taken at the same time as contemporaneous classmates, plus three on-campus residency seminars, all to be completed in 24 months. The rigorous 60-credit course load is more difficult than most MBA programs, but the program is nationally recognized; the Lebow School is often highly regarded as a prominent “second tier” Business School and BusinessWeek ranks Drexel’s Part-Time MBA as the 10th best in the nation, making it arguably the most prestigious university to offer an online MBA.
One significant advantage to Drexel is that the Lebow school operates an MBA Career Services office, designed to help MBA graduates make immediate use of their MBA in their career. This office is open to MBA Anywhere students just the same as any MBA student at Drexel.
According to the AACSB, 747 of 3,283 total students are MBA students (22.75%).
Tuition for MBA students at Drexel is the same, in-state or out-of-state. Drexel charges $54,000 in tuition and fees for a one-year full-time MBA, not including course materials, room and board. Per credit-hour charges are $915 each, so a 60-hour curriculum would cost $54,900. Drexel advises online students to inquire for specific costs for online classes, indicating additional fees would be applicable, although their website says the MBA Anywhere is a flat $54,000.
That does not include course materials, though, so with 20 classes you’re looking at about another $4,000 in textbooks and supplemental material, so the actual price tag is around $58,000. But at least it’s simple and clear, no hiding the cost.
Drexel University was founded in 1891 as Drexel Institute, a private school focusing on “Art, Science, and Industry”. The Philadelphia, PA school operates the Bennett S. Lebow College of Business. Drexel offers full-time, part-time, Distance and Executive MBA programs. In terms of online MBAs, Drexel’s program is called the MBA Anywhere program. The MBA Anywhere offers concentrations in Finance, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, or Engineering Management. Drexel also offers an online Corporate MBA in Pharmaceutical Management.
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of Drexel’s MBA students is 600; Drexel says the minimum acceptable GMAT score is 600.
The MBA Anywhere at Drexel is a 20-course curriculum, featuring 17 “cohort” classes taken at the same time as contemporaneous classmates, plus three on-campus residency seminars, all to be completed in 24 months. The rigorous 60-credit course load is more difficult than most MBA programs, but the program is nationally recognized; the Lebow School is often highly regarded as a prominent “second tier” Business School and BusinessWeek ranks Drexel’s Part-Time MBA as the 10th best in the nation, making it arguably the most prestigious university to offer an online MBA.
One significant advantage to Drexel is that the Lebow school operates an MBA Career Services office, designed to help MBA graduates make immediate use of their MBA in their career. This office is open to MBA Anywhere students just the same as any MBA student at Drexel.
According to the AACSB, 747 of 3,283 total students are MBA students (22.75%).
Tuition for MBA students at Drexel is the same, in-state or out-of-state. Drexel charges $54,000 in tuition and fees for a one-year full-time MBA, not including course materials, room and board. Per credit-hour charges are $915 each, so a 60-hour curriculum would cost $54,900. Drexel advises online students to inquire for specific costs for online classes, indicating additional fees would be applicable, although their website says the MBA Anywhere is a flat $54,000.
That does not include course materials, though, so with 20 classes you’re looking at about another $4,000 in textbooks and supplemental material, so the actual price tag is around $58,000. But at least it’s simple and clear, no hiding the cost.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Top Online MBA School Profile - #1 Auburn University
Auburn University won a close contest among AACSB-accredited schools offering online MBAs. This article profiles the school.
First off, Auburn University is a well-known name among American Universities. Founded in 1856, the Alabama university first established its name as a liberal arts school, and indeed that remains its primary focus. Auburn also takes pride in its Business School and MBA program, which offers full-time, part-time, Distance and Executive MBA programs. In terms of online MBAs, Auburn boasts that over 1,100 alumni have earned an “Outreach” MBA from Auburn.
Auburn says that online classes average 10-15 students, providing a strong opportunity for contact and discussion with the professors. According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of Auburn’s MBA students is 606.3; Auburn’s website says its mean GMAT score for new entrants is 643. Tuition for Alabama residents in 2008 was $3,120.00 for 10-15 hours, plus $8.00 per semester hour; if less than ten hours was taken in a semester, there is a registration fee of $540.00 plus $258.00 per credit hour taken. Online students must also pay a $67.00 fee per semester plus $166.00 online service fee per semester hour (all rates for Alabama residents). If a student is not an Alabama resident, the following conditions apply - $9,360.00 for 10-15 hours, plus $8.00 per semester hour; if less than ten hours was taken in a semester, there is a registration fee of $1,620.00 plus $774.00 per credit hour taken. Online students must also pay a $67.00 fee per semester plus $166.00 online service fee per semester hour. The Distance MBA at Auburn has a minimum required curriculum of 12 courses, or 36 semester hours. Auburn’s website indicates the degree in meant to be earned over seven semesters. Auburn has a one-time requirement for a five-day on-campus Strategy Case Analysis competition. Applicants with “strong academic backgrounds” and GMAT scores above 620 are often awarded “Graduate Assistantship” titles which include tuition waiver and a living expenses stipend, although this is not available to distance MBA students .
Therefore, most residents of Alabama would pay $19,585 in tuition and fees and non-Alabaman students would pay $45,649 in tuition and fees for an Auburn MBA. Add in the books and course materials and you’re looking at about $21,025 for an Alabama resident and $47,089 for a non-Alabama resident to earn an Auburn MBA.
Auburn offers 12 options in MBAs including dual MS/MBAs in Information Systems or Industrial Systems. According to the AACSB, 562 of 4,375 total students are MBA students (12.8%).
First off, Auburn University is a well-known name among American Universities. Founded in 1856, the Alabama university first established its name as a liberal arts school, and indeed that remains its primary focus. Auburn also takes pride in its Business School and MBA program, which offers full-time, part-time, Distance and Executive MBA programs. In terms of online MBAs, Auburn boasts that over 1,100 alumni have earned an “Outreach” MBA from Auburn.
Auburn says that online classes average 10-15 students, providing a strong opportunity for contact and discussion with the professors. According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of Auburn’s MBA students is 606.3; Auburn’s website says its mean GMAT score for new entrants is 643. Tuition for Alabama residents in 2008 was $3,120.00 for 10-15 hours, plus $8.00 per semester hour; if less than ten hours was taken in a semester, there is a registration fee of $540.00 plus $258.00 per credit hour taken. Online students must also pay a $67.00 fee per semester plus $166.00 online service fee per semester hour (all rates for Alabama residents). If a student is not an Alabama resident, the following conditions apply - $9,360.00 for 10-15 hours, plus $8.00 per semester hour; if less than ten hours was taken in a semester, there is a registration fee of $1,620.00 plus $774.00 per credit hour taken. Online students must also pay a $67.00 fee per semester plus $166.00 online service fee per semester hour. The Distance MBA at Auburn has a minimum required curriculum of 12 courses, or 36 semester hours. Auburn’s website indicates the degree in meant to be earned over seven semesters. Auburn has a one-time requirement for a five-day on-campus Strategy Case Analysis competition. Applicants with “strong academic backgrounds” and GMAT scores above 620 are often awarded “Graduate Assistantship” titles which include tuition waiver and a living expenses stipend, although this is not available to distance MBA students .
Therefore, most residents of Alabama would pay $19,585 in tuition and fees and non-Alabaman students would pay $45,649 in tuition and fees for an Auburn MBA. Add in the books and course materials and you’re looking at about $21,025 for an Alabama resident and $47,089 for a non-Alabama resident to earn an Auburn MBA.
Auburn offers 12 options in MBAs including dual MS/MBAs in Information Systems or Industrial Systems. According to the AACSB, 562 of 4,375 total students are MBA students (12.8%).
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The 25 Top Online MBA Schools 2009
In my earlier article I discussed the different types of MBA programs in terms of how to earn them. This article ranks the 25 best, in my opinion. So to start, let me explain why I believe I have any business ranking online MBA programs. The short answers are one, no one else is really doing it to any serious effort; and two, there are some reasonably objective criteria by which such programs can be measured against one another. I will also say that a great deal more information is available now than in 2006, so my rankings will be a bit different, as they now use ten types of data to reach the results. That data was provided by the websites of the schools evaluated, as well as information from the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business(AACSB), the largest international accrediting body for business schools.
I’d like to stop here and go over some information about the AACSB, and its member schools. The AACSB has 1,081 accredited colleges and universities for business worldwide. Of those, 512 schools offer a Masters degree of some type of business major, and 498 offer the MBA degree. But only 3.4 percent of MBA students earn their degree online. Consequently, I only found 77 AACSB-accredited schools which actively offer an online MBA at this time. That cuts down the field considerably. There are a handful of schools which also advertise an online program, but have no participating students at this time, and there are also a few schools which are just starting up online MBA programs – I left them off because there is not enough data at this time to say how well they are doing with their new programs. So later there may well be more schools to consider, but for now we are looking at a field of 77. And in case you’re wondering, none of those for-profit schools you see advertised on TV are AACSB-accredited; schools like the University of Phoenix, Devry, or Capella may or may not give you a good education and may or may not be worth the money, but they are none of them accredited with the AACSB, and that’s a serious problem you should know about before signing up with them. Those schools will be discussed in a future article.
So, how to rank the online schools? When I started looking up the data, I found eight relevant types of information, plus two rankings I could use to leaven my subjectivity somewhat. First is the question of how many concentrations the school offers, second is the general and scholarly orientation of the school, third is the average GMAT score earned to enter the program, fourth is the overall student-to-faculty ratio for masters programs, fifth is the in-state tuition, sixth is the out-of-state tuition, seventh is the proportion of MBA students to the total student population, and eighth is the graduation percentage per year. I initially planned to use those categories in equal weighting, then add balance from BusinessWeek’s rankings for Part-Time MBA schools and Get Educated’s value rankings. I realized, after looking more closely however, that this resulted in a skewed ranking, one that might look good on paper but would not really serve the student’s best interests. So here is how I redid that data:
First and foremost is the variety of concentrations available. Schools which only offer one type of MBA, and only one focus, do a disservice to the professional. For instance, I am pursuing my CPA license and so a program which focused on Accounting was important to me, but other MBA candidates might take more interest in Finance, Marketing, or Entrepreneurship. Therefore, whether a school offered multiple choices of concentrations became significantly more important in points, now weighted at 35.0% of the total value. The in-state and out-of-state tuition also weighed heavily, at 15.0% and 12.5% of the total score respectively. The school’s average GMAT score was also important, worth 12.5% of the total. The proportion of masters students to the overall population weighed 10.0% of the total score, the student-to-faculty ratio weighed 5%, the proportion of MBA students graduated each year weighed 5%, and the rankings from BusinessWeek and GetEducated each counted for 2.5% of the score. So, with that weighting, here are the top 25 Online MBA programs for 2009. I will write up brief capsules of the top 10 programs in future articles:
1. Auburn University (Alabama) 95.60%
2. Drexel University (Pennsylvania) 94.75%
3. East Carolina University (North Carolina) 94.67%
4. University of Colorado at Denver 94.58%
5 (t). Tennessee Technological University 94.50%
5 (t). University of Houston at Victoria (Texas) 94.50%
7 (t). Morehead State University (Kentucky) 94.33%
7 (t). Wayne State University (Michigan) 94.33%
9. University of Colorado at Colorado Springs 94.25%
10. University of North Dakota 94.17%
11 (t). Georgia Southern University 94.08%
11 (t). University of Texas at Dallas 94.08%
13 (t). University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh 94.00%
13 (t). University of Wisconsin at Whitewater 94.00%
15. Texas A&M at Commerce 93.92%
16. University of Michigan at Dearborn 93.42%
17. Nicholls State University (Louisiana) 92.75%
18. Suffolk University (Massachusetts) 92.25%
19. Georgia College & State University 88.00%
20. Colorado State University 87.92%
21. University of Florida 87.17%
22 (t). Florida State University 87.00%
22 (t). University of Nebraska at Lincoln 87.00%
24. University of Wyoming 86.75%
25 (t). Durham University (UK) 86.67%
25 (t). University of Texas at Arlington 86.67%
25 (t). University of Massachusetts at Lowell 86.67%
25 (t). University of North Texas 86.67%
I’d like to stop here and go over some information about the AACSB, and its member schools. The AACSB has 1,081 accredited colleges and universities for business worldwide. Of those, 512 schools offer a Masters degree of some type of business major, and 498 offer the MBA degree. But only 3.4 percent of MBA students earn their degree online. Consequently, I only found 77 AACSB-accredited schools which actively offer an online MBA at this time. That cuts down the field considerably. There are a handful of schools which also advertise an online program, but have no participating students at this time, and there are also a few schools which are just starting up online MBA programs – I left them off because there is not enough data at this time to say how well they are doing with their new programs. So later there may well be more schools to consider, but for now we are looking at a field of 77. And in case you’re wondering, none of those for-profit schools you see advertised on TV are AACSB-accredited; schools like the University of Phoenix, Devry, or Capella may or may not give you a good education and may or may not be worth the money, but they are none of them accredited with the AACSB, and that’s a serious problem you should know about before signing up with them. Those schools will be discussed in a future article.
So, how to rank the online schools? When I started looking up the data, I found eight relevant types of information, plus two rankings I could use to leaven my subjectivity somewhat. First is the question of how many concentrations the school offers, second is the general and scholarly orientation of the school, third is the average GMAT score earned to enter the program, fourth is the overall student-to-faculty ratio for masters programs, fifth is the in-state tuition, sixth is the out-of-state tuition, seventh is the proportion of MBA students to the total student population, and eighth is the graduation percentage per year. I initially planned to use those categories in equal weighting, then add balance from BusinessWeek’s rankings for Part-Time MBA schools and Get Educated’s value rankings. I realized, after looking more closely however, that this resulted in a skewed ranking, one that might look good on paper but would not really serve the student’s best interests. So here is how I redid that data:
First and foremost is the variety of concentrations available. Schools which only offer one type of MBA, and only one focus, do a disservice to the professional. For instance, I am pursuing my CPA license and so a program which focused on Accounting was important to me, but other MBA candidates might take more interest in Finance, Marketing, or Entrepreneurship. Therefore, whether a school offered multiple choices of concentrations became significantly more important in points, now weighted at 35.0% of the total value. The in-state and out-of-state tuition also weighed heavily, at 15.0% and 12.5% of the total score respectively. The school’s average GMAT score was also important, worth 12.5% of the total. The proportion of masters students to the overall population weighed 10.0% of the total score, the student-to-faculty ratio weighed 5%, the proportion of MBA students graduated each year weighed 5%, and the rankings from BusinessWeek and GetEducated each counted for 2.5% of the score. So, with that weighting, here are the top 25 Online MBA programs for 2009. I will write up brief capsules of the top 10 programs in future articles:
1. Auburn University (Alabama) 95.60%
2. Drexel University (Pennsylvania) 94.75%
3. East Carolina University (North Carolina) 94.67%
4. University of Colorado at Denver 94.58%
5 (t). Tennessee Technological University 94.50%
5 (t). University of Houston at Victoria (Texas) 94.50%
7 (t). Morehead State University (Kentucky) 94.33%
7 (t). Wayne State University (Michigan) 94.33%
9. University of Colorado at Colorado Springs 94.25%
10. University of North Dakota 94.17%
11 (t). Georgia Southern University 94.08%
11 (t). University of Texas at Dallas 94.08%
13 (t). University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh 94.00%
13 (t). University of Wisconsin at Whitewater 94.00%
15. Texas A&M at Commerce 93.92%
16. University of Michigan at Dearborn 93.42%
17. Nicholls State University (Louisiana) 92.75%
18. Suffolk University (Massachusetts) 92.25%
19. Georgia College & State University 88.00%
20. Colorado State University 87.92%
21. University of Florida 87.17%
22 (t). Florida State University 87.00%
22 (t). University of Nebraska at Lincoln 87.00%
24. University of Wyoming 86.75%
25 (t). Durham University (UK) 86.67%
25 (t). University of Texas at Arlington 86.67%
25 (t). University of Massachusetts at Lowell 86.67%
25 (t). University of North Texas 86.67%
Top 25 Rankings to be Edited
I discovered some new information which may change the rankings for the 2009 Top 25 Online MBA Schools. The short version is that the information from the AACSB is in conflict with school-specific data in some cases. The rankings will be posted once I have confirmed certain points.
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