One of the more over-used claims I have heard in my lifetime, is how this condition or that somehow violates someone’s rights. The U.S. is a great country, in my opinion the very best, but we have waaaaaaaaaaaaay too many lawsuits, not to mention protests against just about everything. We read, see, and hear about ‘Animal Rights’ (not to mention that a certain Obama Administration official once wanted trees to have legal standing to file lawsuits), ‘Right to Life’ vs. “Woman’s Right to Choose’, ‘Right to Die’, and the popular meme of the moment, the ‘Right’ to Healthcare.
There are, it seems, three common sources for the notion of enumerated rights; the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the popular imagination. The key phrase from the Declaration of Independence is that line about “certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”; while some folks try to draw inferences that government should be providing these things to people, I would remind the audience that when this document was written, the theme and tone were to tell the extant government – Britain, King George III and Parliament – where they could go and with what accessories. The Declaration of Independence was in no way an endorsement of government power and influence.
The Constitution of the United States is where most people come to think of rights, yet many beliefs are mistaken. The founding fathers, for instance, have made it abundantly clear not only in the text of the Constitution but in other writings of the time that the Constitution was created not to spell out the rights of the people, but to define the limits of the federal government’s power. The Bill of Rights was noted not to lay out what the citizens were allowed to do, but to emphasize certain boundaries which the government may under no circumstances trample. From that original context, therefore, it is important to understand that “rights” come to mean areas where the government is not allowed to exert power or influence, even with the best of intentions. The legitimate power and authority of government extends only to that degree where the Constitution specifically grants that power and authority – sadly, the actual affairs of government have gone well beyond those limits, and it is doubtful that we shall ever again see the government truly envisioned by the founding fathers. We must make do with the reality in which we live.
The reality of the Constitution, is that it’s really a very simple framework. Let’s have a walk through the structure of the thing and I hope you will see what I mean:
Preface
”We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
That sets out what we’re doing. Union, Justice, Peace, Defense, Welfare, and Liberty are the goals. The rest of the Constitution lays out how these goals are to be accomplished.
Article I
Article I lays out the Congress of the United States, how it is created and how it shall operate. Section 8 is particularly important, setting out taxation, debt, commerce, naturalization of citizens, bankruptcy law, the treasury, post office and rail roads, patents and copyright, the establishment of courts, and the conduct and operation of the military, in that order.
Article II
Article II lays out the Executive Branch, the qualifications for President of the United States and how he/she may be elected. The Constitution clearly shows the President to be Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, to have the right to make appointments and to recommend actions to Congress, and that he may be removed only by impeachment for “high crimes”, such as Treason or Bribery. The President’s role is clearly set out distinct from the role of Congress; the Congress is expected to deliberate and move slowly and with the deliberation appropriate to its great power, while the President is in a leadership role, so that he may move more quickly but with less effect than the Congress.
Article III
Article III sets out the judicial system, derived from the Supreme Court and – as the Constitution describes them – inferior courts. It is interesting that Section 1 specifically qualifies the right of any judge to sit on the bench to their “good behavior”; I cannot help but wonder how many of our esteemed honors would actually pass a reasonable examination to see whether in fact their behavior as judges could properly be called ‘good’.
Article IV
Article IV gets into greater detail than the previous articles, addressing the rights of states to conduct their public acts with the confidence that other states will consider such acts as legitimate within their own jurisdiction to the degree that relations between those states are affected, the universal applicability of criminal law and civil judgments, the territory and boundaries of states, and the universal protection by the armed forces of each state from invasion or attack.
Article V
Article V sets out how amendments to the Constitution may be created and ratified. This plainly worded section is perhaps the most effective means by which the Constitution remains relevant.
Article VI
Article VI almost reads as an afterthought to the main body of the Constitution, but two points in this article are of paramount importance – the clear affirmation that the Constitution of the United States is the “supreme Law of the Land”, which rather snuffs the notion that interpretation of foreign law should be considered anything close to equal in standing to the Constitution as written and ratified; and the direct admonition that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States”, which is in actual fact the strongest clear statement of the separation of Church and State; note that this separation is effected in the conduct of public officials, not in the rights of private citizens.
Article VII
Article VII sets out the ratification of the Constitution.
The Amendments
The twenty-seven Amendments to the Constitution of the United States are, to me anyway, a fascinating historical commentary on the enduring value and stability of the Constitution. It should be remembered, after all, that other nations had Constitutions which failed because they ignored them – the politicians in, for example, the Soviet Union ignored their Constitution whenever they felt like it, or – why does this sound familiar – decided whatever they wanted to do was actually allowed under the Constitution, even where specifically proscribed by the actual document. We see maddening debates over the meaning of the wording in various places, but at least our judges still consider the Constitution as the rule book on our laws.
The first ten amendments, of course, were created at the time of the original Constitution, and are collectively known as the Bill of Rights. It shows something of the concern by Mr. Madison and his colleagues, that even in a document which clearly set out to limit the scope and power of government, they determined it was necessary to enumerate specific rights which may not, under any circumstances, be abrogated. In short summary they are as follows:
1. Freedom of Speech
2. Right to Firearms
3. Quarters for Troops
4. Search and Seizure limits
5. Rights of the Accused
6. Criminal Prosecutions
7. The Right to Juries
8. The Right to Bail, limits on Punishment
9. The Bill of Rights does not list all rights of the people
10. Powers not specifically accorded the federal government by the Constitution belong to the states, or to the people
It gets interesting after that. The eleventh amendment addresses lawsuits against states, the twelfth concerns the election of the President and Vice-President, the thirteenth abolishes slavery, the fourteenth details due process rights, equal protection, and voting rights, the fifteenth prohibits racial discrimination of voting rights, the sixteenth establishes income tax, the seventeenth addresses the election of senators in more detail, the eighteenth banned alcoholic drinks, the nineteenth confirmed the right of women to vote, the twentieth addresses the succession of the President of the United States, the twenty-first repealed the eighteenth amendment, the twenty-second limits the President of the United States to two full terms of office, the twenty-third allows D.C. residents to vote in Presidential elections, the twenty-fourth bans the poll tax, the twenty-fifth details specific conditions for succession of the President, the twenty-sixth sets the voting age at 18 across the nation, and the twenty-seventh prohibits the Congress from voting on their pay more than once in a two-year period. From this, we can see that of the 17 amendments after the Bill of Rights, four address the actions and election of the President of the United States, eight address elections and voting rights, two clarify the operation of the federal government, two ban certain practices, one establishes a new power for the federal government, and one simply cancels a prior amendment.
The sum effect of the Constitution and its amendments, for me anyway, is that this is a simple framework meant to be applied in the spirit of limited government and maximum rights for individuals. From this spirit, it follows that individuals may do as they please, with the common sense restrictions that each of us is responsible for the effect of our actions upon others, and that as a member of our community we have obligations to promote its welfare. There is no right to a certain minimum number of years of life, nor to perfect health, no right to social networking or a secure job, nor to the exclusion of annoying people or discomfort, no right to guarantee that the police can solve every crime or the government solve your every worry.
Which brings us to that problem of imagination. Where did all those government programs come from, if our founding fathers did not had over the authority to create them? In a word, sophistry. Consider the Louisiana Purchase, for example. While I agree that it was a great deal for the United States and a brilliant bit of strategy, it was also clearly unconstitutional. And what about Lincoln suspending the writ of Habeus Corpus during the Civil War? Many historians have argued persuasively that the action was necessary, but again there is no authority in the Constitution for President Lincoln to have done it. The New Deal? As grand as FDR described it and as proud as so many are of their work in those years, nowhere does the Constitution allow the President or the Congress to take over the commerce of the nation in order to try out political theory, as happened in the 1930s. And yes, that in turn makes the Bush and Obama attempts to do the same thing unconstitutional. Frankly, the very notion of borrowing huge amounts of taxpayer money for the benefit of selected companies and industries is so offensive that one imagines Hamilton and Franklin retching at the mere notion, not to mention its repetition in succeeding terms. It will, no doubt, be observed that many courts in the United States, including the Supreme Court, have signed off on these egregious violations of the limits of government, but one might remind such individuals that the courts have made myriad mistakes over the years, from Dred Scott to Plessy v Ferguson to Hepburn v Griswold to Everson to Roe v Wade to Grutter to Kelo v. New London and so on. To this, we must also note that when there is influence or power to be gained by advancing the breadth and grasp of the federal government, the Constitution fares badly throughout history, in courtrooms as much as the halls of Congress.
Many critics of the current proposals argue that we cannot afford them, but at some point it is bound to occur to the citizens of the United States that they never got to vote on these obscene orgies of spending, that the hateful practice of ‘taxation without representation’ is in full effect in the modern world, and that in the end the only hope for the Republic is for its citizens to demand its return. The only right we have, in the end, is the right to take responsibility for our own condition and actions, and their consequence. The only proper role for government is to protect the citizens from enemies and continue the maintenance of infrastructure, but otherwise to shut up and get out of the way of those who do the real work at hand.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Sunday, August 02, 2009
A Clear Sign, But What Does It Say?
I have not written much at all about President Obama’s Approval Ratings in the polls since he was inaugurated in January, but noting the recent trend it seems appropriate to do so now.
I have said many times that for me, the gold standard in opinion polling is the Gallup Organization. This is due not only to Gallup’s long history, but also because Gallup follows a very consistent methodology and set of questions. This allows interested researchers the opportunity to track support within a poll over a period of time, to better gauge the actual cause and effect of his policies and decisions.
The people at Real Clear Politics provide a very useful resource, where general polling support can be easily tracked.
Looking at these polls, the following polls provide a track of Obama’s job approval since January:
Gallup: 68% when sworn in, 56% now, loss of 12 points
Rasmussen: 62% when sworn in, 50% now, loss of 12 points
CBS/NYT: 63% February 22, 58% now, loss of 5 points
NBC/WSJ: 60% March 1, 53% now, loss of 7 points
Pew: 64% February 8, 54% now, loss of 10 points
NPR: 59% March 14, 53% now, loss of 6 points
FOX: 65% when sworn in, 54% now, loss of 11 points
In every case of long-term tracking, President Obama’s levels of job approval are the lowest overall he has seen since taking office, across the board.
But a closer look shows the problem may be more serious, nothing to worry about, or paradoxically, both.
In addition to a high-level overview, the Gallup Organization also publishes support by demographic groups.
An examination of those 28 demographic groups, determined by gender, age, geographic region, race, education, wages, political affiliation and orientation shows that in 22 of 28 demographic categories, support for President Obama is at its lowest or tried for the lowest level since he took office. The six demographic areas where support for President Obama is not at its nadir, are Non-White voters (85% support highest on April 26, 75% lowest on April 5, presently at 79%), Black voters (96% highest on July 5, May 4, and March 8, lowest at 86% on January 25, presently at 95%), Hispanic voters (85% highest on April 26, 70% lowest on April 5 and March 22, presently at 72%), Voters making below $24,000 a year (76% highest on May 4, 66% lowest on June 21, presently at 68%), Republicans (41% highest on January 25, 20% lowest on July 12, presently at 21%), and Liberals (90% highest on June 28, May 31, May 24, and April 26, 83% lowest on January 25, presently at 86%). All of those demographics are relative minorities to the voting population at this time.
Even with the loss of support, however, President Obama still enjoys support levels above 50% across the board, indicating that his personal popularity is strong and the general theme of his administration is well-received. Therefore, it may be reasonable to consider the loss of support nothing more than a shaking out of the fair-weather support, and displaying a strong core of support for the President. That is, of course, assuming his numbers do not continue to fall.
It should, however, be noted that President Obama has lost significant support among major demographic groups. Between February 1 and July 26, President Obama lost twelve points of support from female voters, who were the dominant gender in the 2008 election. White voters made up 74% of the electorate in the 2008 election, and since taking office President Obama’s support among whites has fallen sixteen points according to Gallup. The largest demographic age group in the 2008 election was the 30-49 age group; among this group President Obama has lost twelve points since taking office. Among moderates, the largest political philosophy demographic, President Obama has lost ten points since taking office. The South was the most important geographic region in the 2008 election, and among Southern voters, President Obama has lost twelve points of support since taking office. In the 2008 election, the largest demographic by education was the ‘Some College’ category, and in that category President Obama has lost fifteen points of support since taking office. And among voters earning between sixty thousand and ninety thousand dollars a year, again the largest demographic in their section, President Obama has seen his support fall by twenty points since taking office. The conclusion is unavoidable that, if this loss of support is not rebuilt and assuming the Republicans can present a credible candidate, that at this time President Obama has seriously damaged his re-election chances, since every dominant demographic group from the 2008 election has significantly reduced support for the President since his Inauguration.
I have said many times that for me, the gold standard in opinion polling is the Gallup Organization. This is due not only to Gallup’s long history, but also because Gallup follows a very consistent methodology and set of questions. This allows interested researchers the opportunity to track support within a poll over a period of time, to better gauge the actual cause and effect of his policies and decisions.
The people at Real Clear Politics provide a very useful resource, where general polling support can be easily tracked.
Looking at these polls, the following polls provide a track of Obama’s job approval since January:
Gallup: 68% when sworn in, 56% now, loss of 12 points
Rasmussen: 62% when sworn in, 50% now, loss of 12 points
CBS/NYT: 63% February 22, 58% now, loss of 5 points
NBC/WSJ: 60% March 1, 53% now, loss of 7 points
Pew: 64% February 8, 54% now, loss of 10 points
NPR: 59% March 14, 53% now, loss of 6 points
FOX: 65% when sworn in, 54% now, loss of 11 points
In every case of long-term tracking, President Obama’s levels of job approval are the lowest overall he has seen since taking office, across the board.
But a closer look shows the problem may be more serious, nothing to worry about, or paradoxically, both.
In addition to a high-level overview, the Gallup Organization also publishes support by demographic groups.
An examination of those 28 demographic groups, determined by gender, age, geographic region, race, education, wages, political affiliation and orientation shows that in 22 of 28 demographic categories, support for President Obama is at its lowest or tried for the lowest level since he took office. The six demographic areas where support for President Obama is not at its nadir, are Non-White voters (85% support highest on April 26, 75% lowest on April 5, presently at 79%), Black voters (96% highest on July 5, May 4, and March 8, lowest at 86% on January 25, presently at 95%), Hispanic voters (85% highest on April 26, 70% lowest on April 5 and March 22, presently at 72%), Voters making below $24,000 a year (76% highest on May 4, 66% lowest on June 21, presently at 68%), Republicans (41% highest on January 25, 20% lowest on July 12, presently at 21%), and Liberals (90% highest on June 28, May 31, May 24, and April 26, 83% lowest on January 25, presently at 86%). All of those demographics are relative minorities to the voting population at this time.
Even with the loss of support, however, President Obama still enjoys support levels above 50% across the board, indicating that his personal popularity is strong and the general theme of his administration is well-received. Therefore, it may be reasonable to consider the loss of support nothing more than a shaking out of the fair-weather support, and displaying a strong core of support for the President. That is, of course, assuming his numbers do not continue to fall.
It should, however, be noted that President Obama has lost significant support among major demographic groups. Between February 1 and July 26, President Obama lost twelve points of support from female voters, who were the dominant gender in the 2008 election. White voters made up 74% of the electorate in the 2008 election, and since taking office President Obama’s support among whites has fallen sixteen points according to Gallup. The largest demographic age group in the 2008 election was the 30-49 age group; among this group President Obama has lost twelve points since taking office. Among moderates, the largest political philosophy demographic, President Obama has lost ten points since taking office. The South was the most important geographic region in the 2008 election, and among Southern voters, President Obama has lost twelve points of support since taking office. In the 2008 election, the largest demographic by education was the ‘Some College’ category, and in that category President Obama has lost fifteen points of support since taking office. And among voters earning between sixty thousand and ninety thousand dollars a year, again the largest demographic in their section, President Obama has seen his support fall by twenty points since taking office. The conclusion is unavoidable that, if this loss of support is not rebuilt and assuming the Republicans can present a credible candidate, that at this time President Obama has seriously damaged his re-election chances, since every dominant demographic group from the 2008 election has significantly reduced support for the President since his Inauguration.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
My Survivor Guilt
In late 2006, I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, Pseudomyxoma Peritonei, or PMP for short. PMP is a rare form of abdominal cancer, free-floating cells which grow in size and block the transfer of fluid throughout the abdominal cavity, and when the cells metastasize the cancer attacks multiple internal organs, either through . The nature of the cancer is such that normal warning signs simply do not appear; the only early warning signs of PMP are high blood pressure, weight and water gain, and sluggish body movements.
Those signs are also symptoms of simply being overweight, which is far more common and far less serious. Consequently, victims of PMP usually become aware of the cancer only when it begins to attack internal organs, at which time the chances of survival plummet. A study by the National Institute of Health said PMP patients have a 1-year survival rate of 98%, but a 5-year survival rate of just 53%, and a 10-year survival rate of only 32%. That study is a bit dated now, but it does give you a sense of how serious this cancer is to the people who must fight it.
An account of how one patient in Canada fought PMP may be read here. And I applaud Steve's courage and candid account of his fight.
In short, no one really knows what causes PMP, why it floats around loose in the abdominal cavity, what causes it to go from relatively harmless to aggressively life-threatening, or why some cases are discovered early but most only when it is too late. PMP is a damnable thing to have to face.
And this is why I feel guilty. I went in to M.D. Anderson yesterday for more tests and evaluations, and today I spoke with Paul Mansfield, the doctor who is in charge of my case and one of the top four or five experts in PMP. My tumors have not grown for more than two years, and all in all things are going very well for me. So well in fact, that I began to wonder if I had not been misdiagnosed, that maybe I did not in fact have cancer. Dr. Mansfield, along with the Colorectal Cancer team at MDA, assure me that I do indeed have PMP, but for me the cancer is strangely quiescent, not growing or making any signs of threat to my health or well-being. The cancer is not gone, but it’s not attacking me either. It’s like walking past a neighbor’s house every morning, and a gun is always pointed at me but never fired.
Why?
Why do I have a cancer that most people have never heard of? And why have I been blessed by having a cancer that only threatened me for a short time, never actually putting my life in real danger, when so many others are killed by the thing, or put through months of hellish suffering?
I never deserved to have cancer. At the same time, there are many people with cancer who deserved my good fortune far more than I do. I hate the trips to MDA, because I almost feel that I have no business being there, next to people who have suffered so much because of their cancer, while mine has cost me so little up to now. I know in my head that I should be grateful, especially for my wife and daughter who worry about me and who had a much harder time when I had my last operation than I did. But in my heart I do not wish to suffer, but I wish I could help the others suffer less – it feels wrong to be so helpless to help the others.
I stopped writing to my PMP Patient forum. I could not bring myself to write about my health and well-being, when so many of my fellow patients were suffering from slow recuperation, and so many lost their battles.
So damned many.
I don’t know why I have been spared. I don’t know what to do.
M.D. Anderson has started a study of the disease, having received permission from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) to do so, and I will be participating with whatever I can contribute. At least I can feel like I am doing something to help, though it’s small steps in a long journey.
Those signs are also symptoms of simply being overweight, which is far more common and far less serious. Consequently, victims of PMP usually become aware of the cancer only when it begins to attack internal organs, at which time the chances of survival plummet. A study by the National Institute of Health said PMP patients have a 1-year survival rate of 98%, but a 5-year survival rate of just 53%, and a 10-year survival rate of only 32%. That study is a bit dated now, but it does give you a sense of how serious this cancer is to the people who must fight it.
An account of how one patient in Canada fought PMP may be read here. And I applaud Steve's courage and candid account of his fight.
In short, no one really knows what causes PMP, why it floats around loose in the abdominal cavity, what causes it to go from relatively harmless to aggressively life-threatening, or why some cases are discovered early but most only when it is too late. PMP is a damnable thing to have to face.
And this is why I feel guilty. I went in to M.D. Anderson yesterday for more tests and evaluations, and today I spoke with Paul Mansfield, the doctor who is in charge of my case and one of the top four or five experts in PMP. My tumors have not grown for more than two years, and all in all things are going very well for me. So well in fact, that I began to wonder if I had not been misdiagnosed, that maybe I did not in fact have cancer. Dr. Mansfield, along with the Colorectal Cancer team at MDA, assure me that I do indeed have PMP, but for me the cancer is strangely quiescent, not growing or making any signs of threat to my health or well-being. The cancer is not gone, but it’s not attacking me either. It’s like walking past a neighbor’s house every morning, and a gun is always pointed at me but never fired.
Why?
Why do I have a cancer that most people have never heard of? And why have I been blessed by having a cancer that only threatened me for a short time, never actually putting my life in real danger, when so many others are killed by the thing, or put through months of hellish suffering?
I never deserved to have cancer. At the same time, there are many people with cancer who deserved my good fortune far more than I do. I hate the trips to MDA, because I almost feel that I have no business being there, next to people who have suffered so much because of their cancer, while mine has cost me so little up to now. I know in my head that I should be grateful, especially for my wife and daughter who worry about me and who had a much harder time when I had my last operation than I did. But in my heart I do not wish to suffer, but I wish I could help the others suffer less – it feels wrong to be so helpless to help the others.
I stopped writing to my PMP Patient forum. I could not bring myself to write about my health and well-being, when so many of my fellow patients were suffering from slow recuperation, and so many lost their battles.
So damned many.
I don’t know why I have been spared. I don’t know what to do.
M.D. Anderson has started a study of the disease, having received permission from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) to do so, and I will be participating with whatever I can contribute. At least I can feel like I am doing something to help, though it’s small steps in a long journey.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The Problem With Racial Dialogue
It seems strange to me that we cannot, as a nation, discuss race relations in anything like a civil manner. The recent incident between a white police officer and a black university professor in Massachusetts seems to only highlight that fact – there has been a flood of accusations and assumptions, but very few people have been able or willing to sit down and examine the incident on the evidence and known facts. Even the President of the United States, to use his own words, “acted stupidly” on this issue. The Civil War ended in 1865, Civil Rights were specifically codified in 1964, yet here in the Twenty-First Century there is no consensus on definitions of human rights, much less the proper relationship between people of different races. We have even reached a point where a person can start an argument by their choice of label used to describe a group of people.
To me, the heart of the problem is the tone. Most people mean no harm in how they speak and act, and so they don’t much like being lectured to by folks who don’t know the first thing about them, how they are guilty of this or that by association, or how they have to speak and act a certain way whenever they encounter someone of another race. In short, people don’t like being expected to take orders from someone just because of their race, no matter what race they happen to be. They do not respect the message from someone who delivers that message in a tone of condemnation simply for being a different race from themselves. A Black person who holds Whites in contempt is clearly no better than a White person who holds Blacks in contempt, or a Hispanic who hates Asians, or an Asian who hates Native Americans, or a Muslim who hates Jews, et cetera et cetera ad nauseum. The first requirement for a racial dialogue is mutual respect by and for all parties.
To me, the heart of the problem is the tone. Most people mean no harm in how they speak and act, and so they don’t much like being lectured to by folks who don’t know the first thing about them, how they are guilty of this or that by association, or how they have to speak and act a certain way whenever they encounter someone of another race. In short, people don’t like being expected to take orders from someone just because of their race, no matter what race they happen to be. They do not respect the message from someone who delivers that message in a tone of condemnation simply for being a different race from themselves. A Black person who holds Whites in contempt is clearly no better than a White person who holds Blacks in contempt, or a Hispanic who hates Asians, or an Asian who hates Native Americans, or a Muslim who hates Jews, et cetera et cetera ad nauseum. The first requirement for a racial dialogue is mutual respect by and for all parties.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Thought For The Day
Imagine for a moment that when we die, we go to a place where we meet everyone who ever lived. Not just the people we wanted to meet from history or our favorite friends and family, but everyone.
As in, everyone you ever lied to.
As in, everyone you ever hurt.
As in, everyone you ever treated rudely or with disrespect.
As in, everyone you judged on the basis of how they looked, or what they could do for you, or whether you could make them do something you wanted.
If you knew, absolutely, that everyone you meet in this world, you will meet again in the next, with full knowledge of what you thought, said and did, and you would be the full and permanent consequences of how you acted here and now … how then would you choose to act towards the people you know, meet, and interact with in this life?
As in, everyone you ever lied to.
As in, everyone you ever hurt.
As in, everyone you ever treated rudely or with disrespect.
As in, everyone you judged on the basis of how they looked, or what they could do for you, or whether you could make them do something you wanted.
If you knew, absolutely, that everyone you meet in this world, you will meet again in the next, with full knowledge of what you thought, said and did, and you would be the full and permanent consequences of how you acted here and now … how then would you choose to act towards the people you know, meet, and interact with in this life?
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Demographics and the Presidential Election
Politics being an American sport as much as football or baseball, there has already been a lot of discussion about the 2012 presidential election (in addition to more reasonable discussion about the upcoming midterm elections next fall). It seems to me that to get a sense of the landscape for 2012 even this early, we would do well to look at the demographic conditions prevailing in the 2008 election.
I got my information by looking at election and exit polling results from presidential elections in 1972 through 2008. Dave Leip’s Atlas of Presidential Elections was very helpful in that part, while I had to use a variety of sources for the exit polling, although the New York Times was generally the most consistent source.
I am still chewing through the data, but found some interesting indicators worth consideration. For instance, the total voters for 2008 made up 41.5% of the population, slightly down from 2004’s 41.9% but above the 1972-2008 average of 39.3%. Obama in 2008 took 2.8 million more votes than Kerry did in 2004, while McCain in 2008 took 4.5 million fewer votes than George W. Bush in 2004. Barack Obama won the White House by about 8.5 million votes, the largest popular-vote margin of victory since Reagan’s 1984 re-election, when he beat Mondale by 16.9 million votes. 2.7 million more men voted in the 2008 election than in 2004, while women voters increased from 2004 to 2008 by only 450 thousand voters. White voters decreased from 2004 to 2008 by 1.3 million, while black voters increased from 2004 to 2008 by 2.9 million voters – since McCain won white voters by a margin of 55% to 43% while Obama won black voters by a margin of 95% to 04%, this demographic shift is an important element in the Democrat’s victory. Hispanic voters increased by 1.5 million from 2004 to 2008, and since Republican support by Hispanics fell from 44% to 31% while support for the Democrat increased from 53% to 67%, this also represents a significant shift which favored Obama. Voters under 29 (a strong demographic for Obama) increased by 1.8 million, while voters over 60 (a key sector for McCain) decreased by half a million voters, which also played into Obama’s advantage.
Consequently, the exit polls demonstrated that race, gender, and age all affected the outcome of the 2008 presidential election. The next step would be to consider the thresholds of those demographic qualities, or the historical levels of support needed to win.
With regard to male voters, Bill Clinton won in 1992 with only 41% of male support. Barack Obama came close to that, with just 43% support. If male voters continue to grow faster than female voters, this could be a problem for Obama in 2012.
The 13% representation by black voters was the highest ever in a federal election. Obama won the black vote by a margin of 14.9 million votes (meaning that Mccain took 6.4 million more non-black votes than Obama). To win re-election, therefore, President Obama needs to enjoy similar turnout by black voters; statistically every black voter who voted in 2008 but does not vote in 2012 is twenty-three times more likely to hurt Obama than his Republican opponent by staying home.
Seniors represent a readitionally significant and active voter bloc. If they return in numbers in 2012, this will be a significant problem for Obama.
I got my information by looking at election and exit polling results from presidential elections in 1972 through 2008. Dave Leip’s Atlas of Presidential Elections was very helpful in that part, while I had to use a variety of sources for the exit polling, although the New York Times was generally the most consistent source.
I am still chewing through the data, but found some interesting indicators worth consideration. For instance, the total voters for 2008 made up 41.5% of the population, slightly down from 2004’s 41.9% but above the 1972-2008 average of 39.3%. Obama in 2008 took 2.8 million more votes than Kerry did in 2004, while McCain in 2008 took 4.5 million fewer votes than George W. Bush in 2004. Barack Obama won the White House by about 8.5 million votes, the largest popular-vote margin of victory since Reagan’s 1984 re-election, when he beat Mondale by 16.9 million votes. 2.7 million more men voted in the 2008 election than in 2004, while women voters increased from 2004 to 2008 by only 450 thousand voters. White voters decreased from 2004 to 2008 by 1.3 million, while black voters increased from 2004 to 2008 by 2.9 million voters – since McCain won white voters by a margin of 55% to 43% while Obama won black voters by a margin of 95% to 04%, this demographic shift is an important element in the Democrat’s victory. Hispanic voters increased by 1.5 million from 2004 to 2008, and since Republican support by Hispanics fell from 44% to 31% while support for the Democrat increased from 53% to 67%, this also represents a significant shift which favored Obama. Voters under 29 (a strong demographic for Obama) increased by 1.8 million, while voters over 60 (a key sector for McCain) decreased by half a million voters, which also played into Obama’s advantage.
Consequently, the exit polls demonstrated that race, gender, and age all affected the outcome of the 2008 presidential election. The next step would be to consider the thresholds of those demographic qualities, or the historical levels of support needed to win.
With regard to male voters, Bill Clinton won in 1992 with only 41% of male support. Barack Obama came close to that, with just 43% support. If male voters continue to grow faster than female voters, this could be a problem for Obama in 2012.
The 13% representation by black voters was the highest ever in a federal election. Obama won the black vote by a margin of 14.9 million votes (meaning that Mccain took 6.4 million more non-black votes than Obama). To win re-election, therefore, President Obama needs to enjoy similar turnout by black voters; statistically every black voter who voted in 2008 but does not vote in 2012 is twenty-three times more likely to hurt Obama than his Republican opponent by staying home.
Seniors represent a readitionally significant and active voter bloc. If they return in numbers in 2012, this will be a significant problem for Obama.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
End of a Despot
I write to bury Walter Cronkite, not to praise him. I almost did not write this article, since it is unseemly in the main to speak ill of the dead. What’s more, Walter Cronkite was undeniably a pioneer in broadcast journalism and many of his works and actions are worthy of praise. But then, we could say the same of Richard Nixon.
I mention Nixon because Nixon is rightfully stained forever for his actions in the Watergate scandal. Richard Nixon was also a pioneer in many ways, perhaps most notably his diplomatic strategy which set Beijing against Moscow in the Cold War. Nixon’s 1972 re-election victory is still the most second-most profound popular vote landslide in the history of presidential elections, Nixon having captured 60.7% of the popular vote (FDR in 1936 claimed 60.8%, the only time a presidential candidate ever got more of the popular vote). While no darling to Conservatives, Richard Nixon infuriated the Left, who looked long and hard for something to use as a political weapon against him. President Nixon handed his enemies that weapon in Watergate. There is a broad consensus that if Nixon had not resigned the Presidency, he would have been impeached, and if impeached he would have been convicted. Nixon was not nearly the only politician to abuse his power, but there was no real doubt that Nixon did abuse his office.
And this brings the story back to Walter Cronkite. Ordinarily, members of the press enjoy a certain celebrity and influence, but rarely is one journalist considered to speak as the complete authority on the nation’s welfare and direction. Cronkite built his credibility to the point, where for many Americans he spoke with indisputable authority. Cronkite played on that trust with his tag line each evening, saying ”and that’s the way it is.” A man never elected by the public, and answerable to no one, could say what he wanted and have it taken as absolute truth by many millions, simply because he was the person saying it. There is no indication that Cronkite ever stopped to consider the moral obligation he carried, or to balance his broadcasts in order to make sure he was as objective as his image. Instead, in interviews many years later, Cronkite admitted his liberal agenda and that he saw his role as an advocate for that agenda. Where politicians were known for their bias according to ideology and party support, Cronkite chose to hide his in order to falsely portray his opinion as established fact and popular consensus. In this, Walter Cronkite became a media despot, able to direct national opinion without any checks on his power and privilege. He was able to convince Americans that the war in Vietnam was unwinnable, by hiding facts which worked against his argument and distorting the significance of events in Vietnam. Cronkite helped build public support for politicians and programs he liked, while helping build opposition to politicians and programs he opposed. For all the talk from the Left in favor of the Fairness Doctrine, Cronkite had no intention of letting both sides be heard on key issues on anything like even terms. The man was a despot who cost lives and money and damaged the balance of power in America, showing that unelected dictators could claim influence and power here through sheer lies and trickery. In that regard, Walter Cronkite should not be compared to Richard Nixon, after all. Nixon, in the end, resigned and went away, and his actions were properly denounced even by his own party as wrong and against American ideals. Walter Cronkite could not manage even that much honor or integrity. He did much good, but far more damage.
I mention Nixon because Nixon is rightfully stained forever for his actions in the Watergate scandal. Richard Nixon was also a pioneer in many ways, perhaps most notably his diplomatic strategy which set Beijing against Moscow in the Cold War. Nixon’s 1972 re-election victory is still the most second-most profound popular vote landslide in the history of presidential elections, Nixon having captured 60.7% of the popular vote (FDR in 1936 claimed 60.8%, the only time a presidential candidate ever got more of the popular vote). While no darling to Conservatives, Richard Nixon infuriated the Left, who looked long and hard for something to use as a political weapon against him. President Nixon handed his enemies that weapon in Watergate. There is a broad consensus that if Nixon had not resigned the Presidency, he would have been impeached, and if impeached he would have been convicted. Nixon was not nearly the only politician to abuse his power, but there was no real doubt that Nixon did abuse his office.
And this brings the story back to Walter Cronkite. Ordinarily, members of the press enjoy a certain celebrity and influence, but rarely is one journalist considered to speak as the complete authority on the nation’s welfare and direction. Cronkite built his credibility to the point, where for many Americans he spoke with indisputable authority. Cronkite played on that trust with his tag line each evening, saying ”and that’s the way it is.” A man never elected by the public, and answerable to no one, could say what he wanted and have it taken as absolute truth by many millions, simply because he was the person saying it. There is no indication that Cronkite ever stopped to consider the moral obligation he carried, or to balance his broadcasts in order to make sure he was as objective as his image. Instead, in interviews many years later, Cronkite admitted his liberal agenda and that he saw his role as an advocate for that agenda. Where politicians were known for their bias according to ideology and party support, Cronkite chose to hide his in order to falsely portray his opinion as established fact and popular consensus. In this, Walter Cronkite became a media despot, able to direct national opinion without any checks on his power and privilege. He was able to convince Americans that the war in Vietnam was unwinnable, by hiding facts which worked against his argument and distorting the significance of events in Vietnam. Cronkite helped build public support for politicians and programs he liked, while helping build opposition to politicians and programs he opposed. For all the talk from the Left in favor of the Fairness Doctrine, Cronkite had no intention of letting both sides be heard on key issues on anything like even terms. The man was a despot who cost lives and money and damaged the balance of power in America, showing that unelected dictators could claim influence and power here through sheer lies and trickery. In that regard, Walter Cronkite should not be compared to Richard Nixon, after all. Nixon, in the end, resigned and went away, and his actions were properly denounced even by his own party as wrong and against American ideals. Walter Cronkite could not manage even that much honor or integrity. He did much good, but far more damage.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Right to Make Bad Decisions
When I was young, my father made a point about the importance of looking at things from other points of view. He believed strongly in Dr. King’s dream that all people should judged by their character and work, not their race, creed, gender or any superficial aspect. I was a bit disappointed, therefore, to find his ideals a bit inconstant when I told him about my fiancé, shortly after I proposed to her. My wife, you see, is of a different race, and while in theory my father was a man of broad mind, in the actual event he was far narrower in his tolerance. As time passed, he came to respect my wife and when we had a daughter he was delighted, but I recall the incident as an example of the distance between ourselves and whom we would like to be. I have met some very fine people in my lifetime, some of whom were people of great integrity, courage and ideals, and some who dismayed me with their attitudes and behavior. I notice that as I got to know people better, while some were clearly better or worse in their morals and actions, none were completely worthless and no one was perfect. Also, some people whom I could not stand in one way, were good people in others. You have to really get to know the person to see more than one dimension of their character, and over time many of us learn from mistakes and our judgment and behavior improve. That should not really surprise anyone; the whole automobile insurance industry is predicated on the belief that experienced drivers are generally safer and better risks than new drivers, and that education and time will improve the skills and habits.
I have also learned that some folks have to find things out the hard way. Having just completed my MBA, I went looking around for advice on the classes I still need to take in order to sit for my CPA license. Along the way, I found an interesting website which had a number of college forums. I visited the section on business schools, and found some lively discussions, including a number of prolific members with strong opinions but poor experience. It’s fascinating in a way, how people will voice an opinion on something they have never done and about which they really know very little. Part of that, I suspect, is the attraction of online forums, where you can writer as long a post as you please without fear of interruption. Sure, you may get a sharp retort, but the thing there is that it comes in response to your article or comment, and that means you are making things happen. In blogging, that’s pretty cool, but it’s far less cool when politicians start doing it.
Laws. There’s no doubt that we need them, but at some point they get to be burdensome, especially when the guys passing the laws make sure that they are not forced to abide by those laws. And at some point they become unreasonable, ridiculous, and cross the line into tyranny. Take the seat-belt law, for example. I’m all in favor of people wearing seat belts, they are a great invention. But a law requiring everyone to wear a seat belt? That, to me, is over the line. Think about it – if I have an accident and I am stupid enough to not wear a seat belt, who does that hurt besides myself? It does not increase the danger of the situation for other drivers or pedestrians, or the public at large. So what is that law meant to do? It’s a law meant to keep us safe. That may sound good, but nowhere in the federal or any state Constitution does it say that the government can pass laws in order to make us safer from ourselves. That’s why it makes no sense to ban trans-fats. Yes, it’s stupid to gorge on things that will give you a heart attack, but the government has no business choosing the meals of honest citizens. It’s one thing and a good idea to require restaurants to tell is what’s in their foods, so we can make informed decisions, but quite another to tell us we cannot make those choices ourselves.
The government passes more and more laws every year, and for what? Some of them are necessary, but in truth most are not at all necessary, and more and more of them take away our choices in order to protect us from the consequences of those choices. The thing is, if we are not allowed to make our choices, to face natural limits to what we can do and to see the direct consequences of our actions, instead being told by the nanny state that others will decide for us, then how do we learn? People today decry what they see as environmental threats, but they fail to realize that humans have faced such threats before – efforts to eradicate rats began when it was discovered that they carried plague, sanitation of the water supply began when it was discovered (then forgotten and later rediscovered) that there was a way to provide a clean water supply and remove foul waste, and coal was largely replaced with oil as the new energy source proved more efficient and cleaner. All of this happened without a single environmentalist agency. We are quite capable to seeing and addressing our needs through our own faculties and efforts, if only the government would stop pretending we cannot. Our economic markets can repair themselves, indeed history shows they always have, if only the government would stop borrowing generations of future earnings to try to create a solution by artifice. And the voters can be trusted to find and support the best candidates and political platform, there is no need or cause to keep presenting us with a PR-spun packaged candidate as fake as the late MJ’s nose.
We will make mistakes, to be sure. Some of them will be huge blunders, and that’s a fact. But that’s how we learn, and for all the best intentions of government, it’s more than time for these esteemed politicians to stop spending our children’s future, stop pretending they can control everything and prevent any bad news, and just go home to do some honest work. They do far more harm than good, and it’s apparent they are learning nothing themselves.
I have also learned that some folks have to find things out the hard way. Having just completed my MBA, I went looking around for advice on the classes I still need to take in order to sit for my CPA license. Along the way, I found an interesting website which had a number of college forums. I visited the section on business schools, and found some lively discussions, including a number of prolific members with strong opinions but poor experience. It’s fascinating in a way, how people will voice an opinion on something they have never done and about which they really know very little. Part of that, I suspect, is the attraction of online forums, where you can writer as long a post as you please without fear of interruption. Sure, you may get a sharp retort, but the thing there is that it comes in response to your article or comment, and that means you are making things happen. In blogging, that’s pretty cool, but it’s far less cool when politicians start doing it.
Laws. There’s no doubt that we need them, but at some point they get to be burdensome, especially when the guys passing the laws make sure that they are not forced to abide by those laws. And at some point they become unreasonable, ridiculous, and cross the line into tyranny. Take the seat-belt law, for example. I’m all in favor of people wearing seat belts, they are a great invention. But a law requiring everyone to wear a seat belt? That, to me, is over the line. Think about it – if I have an accident and I am stupid enough to not wear a seat belt, who does that hurt besides myself? It does not increase the danger of the situation for other drivers or pedestrians, or the public at large. So what is that law meant to do? It’s a law meant to keep us safe. That may sound good, but nowhere in the federal or any state Constitution does it say that the government can pass laws in order to make us safer from ourselves. That’s why it makes no sense to ban trans-fats. Yes, it’s stupid to gorge on things that will give you a heart attack, but the government has no business choosing the meals of honest citizens. It’s one thing and a good idea to require restaurants to tell is what’s in their foods, so we can make informed decisions, but quite another to tell us we cannot make those choices ourselves.
The government passes more and more laws every year, and for what? Some of them are necessary, but in truth most are not at all necessary, and more and more of them take away our choices in order to protect us from the consequences of those choices. The thing is, if we are not allowed to make our choices, to face natural limits to what we can do and to see the direct consequences of our actions, instead being told by the nanny state that others will decide for us, then how do we learn? People today decry what they see as environmental threats, but they fail to realize that humans have faced such threats before – efforts to eradicate rats began when it was discovered that they carried plague, sanitation of the water supply began when it was discovered (then forgotten and later rediscovered) that there was a way to provide a clean water supply and remove foul waste, and coal was largely replaced with oil as the new energy source proved more efficient and cleaner. All of this happened without a single environmentalist agency. We are quite capable to seeing and addressing our needs through our own faculties and efforts, if only the government would stop pretending we cannot. Our economic markets can repair themselves, indeed history shows they always have, if only the government would stop borrowing generations of future earnings to try to create a solution by artifice. And the voters can be trusted to find and support the best candidates and political platform, there is no need or cause to keep presenting us with a PR-spun packaged candidate as fake as the late MJ’s nose.
We will make mistakes, to be sure. Some of them will be huge blunders, and that’s a fact. But that’s how we learn, and for all the best intentions of government, it’s more than time for these esteemed politicians to stop spending our children’s future, stop pretending they can control everything and prevent any bad news, and just go home to do some honest work. They do far more harm than good, and it’s apparent they are learning nothing themselves.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Nasty Politics
The word “nasty” was first used somewhere around 1400 CE, probably derived from the Old French word nastre which meant something bad and strange. But when used in conjunction with politics, the word ‘nasty’ puts me in mind of the political cartoonist Thomas Nast. Nast was the most famous cartoonist of the 19th Century, and is commonly regarded as the man who affixed to the Republican and Democratic political parties their mascot animals of elephant and donkey, respectively. Nast built his reputation and success on political attacks in his cartoons. His most common theme was to cast a well-known politician as a crook or predatory animal. That’s not to say that many of Nast’s targets were not the villains he cast, but Nast’s cartoons were effective partly because there was no forum for debate, no available recourse for the target – if the public believed the cartoon, you were toast. While many political historians lionize Nast, it should be remembered that he introduced a new dimension to character assassination, legitimizing the caricature of people as inhuman monsters in order to persuade his audience, without any sort of debate on the facts or evidence. In many ways, the rants of Michael Moore and Keith Olbermann simply carry on the tradition of Thomas Nast, the petty venom of Peggy Noonan and George Will carry on the same behavior of an earlier flame-thrower from their party (Nast was an important player in Lincoln’s 1864 re-election, and he was particularly savage in his malignment of George McLelland).
To some degree, such artists of malice are an evil we must endure; the same protection of freedom which allows one idiot to dress up as Hitler and stomp down a street on the one hand, allows David Letterman to prove himself a moronic misogynist and thug on a nightly basis on the other. But a line has been crossed when elected officials act in such manner. Without naming names, it is sadly obvious that the political world has degenerated to such a condition. We now have the closest thing to one-party rule with deliberate public disparagement of all disagreement for the first time in two generations. And as long as the public puts up with such behavior, it will remain the new standard, or become even fouler.
To some degree, such artists of malice are an evil we must endure; the same protection of freedom which allows one idiot to dress up as Hitler and stomp down a street on the one hand, allows David Letterman to prove himself a moronic misogynist and thug on a nightly basis on the other. But a line has been crossed when elected officials act in such manner. Without naming names, it is sadly obvious that the political world has degenerated to such a condition. We now have the closest thing to one-party rule with deliberate public disparagement of all disagreement for the first time in two generations. And as long as the public puts up with such behavior, it will remain the new standard, or become even fouler.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Education in Context
Going back to school to earn my MBA and pursue my CPA license gave me an interesting opportunity to revisit the way students think about their education. I had forgotten, frankly, the many assumptions students have about the effort needed to succeed and the worth of their degrees. As I entered my final semester at UHV and chatted with classmates in our capstone Strategic Management course, I was a bit surprised to find how many expected their degree to somehow automatically produce good job offers for them, even as the recesssion continued. Some of that, I think, goes back to the way students have lived up to a certain age – through the first 18 years of life, everything happens more or less in predictable fashion. Finish tenth grade, move on to eleventh grade, get the summer job one year, decide whether to go back there or try something new the next summer, because there’s always summer work, et cetera.
What also surprised me, though, were more experienced people like myself who returned to school and seemed to believe that their new degree would open new opportunities for them, in a fashion not very different from the kids. You’d think that a few years in reality would remind a person that the degree is a tool, and while it can be very useful or even critical to success, you have to use it effectively to get results, and your success depends on your work, your ability, and your opportunity. I spend a lot of time asking God to give me some of that third quality. Unfortunately, there’s no magic wand in this world, and that includes a degree from even the best university. I read earlier this spring in BusinessWeek that even some graduates from the Harvard Business School were unable to find job offers. That’s a real wake-up call for anybody, but that snooze button is more popular.
When I first became a manager, I hated marketing and sales. Not that they are bad in themselves, I just had no taste for them and wanted to work without having to sell things. Reality taught me, however, that you have to sell things all through your life, and if you don’t learn to sell then you are cheating yourself. Product number 1 is You. The package is how you portray yourself and your work, and your resume is the printed ad. And the degree(s) you earn are features you offer. I mentioned some time back that I chose to go to a lower-profile business school not only because of price and convenience, but also because I have established my resume to the point that a fancy school would not significantly improve my offers. That does not mean that prestige has no value, but you’d better think hard about what you have to put in and what you hope to get back, and how it will work.
The big jump from high school to college is not just that the work gets harder and much different in form and style, but also that you choose your school, your classes, the number of classes, and of course your major, concentration, or focus. And as you work your way through the degree plan, you may well make changes and adjustments to your plan. Some people even change their school, either upgrading to a more prestigious school or changing for other reasons, like distance or personal comfort. What is important here is to understand that earning your degree is meant to outfit you for the life ahead, at least to equip you with the tools to succeed in your work.
Basically, here’s how I see college programs and degrees in terms of work value. Before I start, I want to remind you that you should always get more than one or two opinions on this sort of thing, even if you completely agree with one person’s position:
School
Top-Tier for Specialty: If you can afford it and have the ability to handle a difficult and strenous curriculum, you should consider applying to the top school in your chosen field. It will be hard to get in, and such schools will drain you in the pursuit of your degree. However, earning your degree from the school generally acknowledged to be the best will help you get not only offers when you graduate, but better ones. The chief caveat here, aside from the cost and making sure you can handle the work, is to get a very wide input of opinion; for every school that is truly the best in its field, another six will claim to be as good.
Regional Leader: If you ask around, you should be able to find out which school is the best-respected overall in your part of the state. If you cannot afford or receive entry into the top school for your field, or if you are unsure about your field, it’s generally a good idea to go to the best-known school in your area.
Major State: Most college students go to a big state university, for the obvious reason that such schools tend to be reasonable in cost, have a respectable reputation, and are not excessively difficult. A nice, safe, average road to travel.
Prestigious Private: There was a time when I would have said this was a smart road, a way to stand out without obscenely high cost or difficulty. Now, I am not so sure. Private schools cost more than public schools as a rule, but from speaking with managers and executives I have found that private school graduates do not impress any more than public school graduates, except for top schools in a certain field. So, if you are considering going to a private school in your area that is not specifically known for excellence in the area in which you wish to major, you might want to rethink your plan.
Common State: The old stand-by, the closest large school. This has the advantages of being relatively inexpensive and not all that hard to graduate, but it also looks the part. The biggest problem is that there are a lot of schools that look like a student settled for them when they could not get into their first or second choice. And yes, your resume might look like that as well when you try to go find a good job with a degree from Boring State U.
Small Private: This is one to avoid. If a school is private but can’t point to any good reason you should pay more to go there than a public school, leave it well alone.
Corporation U: By that tag, I mean the for-profit schools which try to sell you on the idea that their degrees will change your life and be just as good as the schools your parents knew and might have gone to. The good news, is that many of these schools are accredited, they offer flexible schedules and they have a lot of students. The bad news is that businesses do not regard degrees from these schools as equal to a “real” degree. Sure it’s prejudice, but it’s also reality.
Diploma Mill: I should not have to mention these places, but they pop up so much I feel I had better say something. In short, here it is – your degree is bascialy worth the work you put into earning it. There’s no educational value to “life experience”, if you put one of these on your resume you will be discovered sooner or later, and when it does your career will be ruined. Diploma mills are like prostitutes; you should not be tempted, but if you are for some reason, remember what can go wrong for that one bad decision.
The next part is the sort of Degree you earn:
Associates:
The Associates degree is useful if – and only if – you then continue on to at least a Bachelor’s degree. No major employer is impressed with an Associate’s degree.
Certification: This can be useful or worthless. A certificate is nowhere near a degree, at best it represents a small set of courses, ususally fewer than five, in a specific category of study. However, for some jobs certification is an advantage if it applies to the work.
Bachelor of Arts: It’s commonly said that what took a high school diploma in the 1960s, needs a Bachelor’s Degree today. But there are two general flavors of Bachelor’s degree, and the B.A. is clearly the weak sister on this level. The reason for this, is that the majors which lead to a B.A. degree are generally less practical than those which lead to a Bachelor of Science degree. Also, some majors allow for either a B.A. or B.S., but require more work for the B.S. degree. The B.A. is best when it leads to a more advanced degree.
Bachelor of Science: This degree is the basic tool for an effective education that leads to gainful employment (I include the B.B.A. in this category). The Bachelor of Science degree represents real world at an established standard level of proficiency, and it also can serve as the foundation for further degrees.
Masters Degree: The Masters degree takes your studies to the next level, but also discriminates against general knowledge. That is, a Masters degree in a subject focuses on the concentration more than does the Bachelor’s degree, so there is less flexibility. That is, a Master’s in one subject will not qualify you for jobs requiring a Master’s in a different area.
Master of Business Administration: The M.B.A. is the premier degree for business professionals. That said, if the job specifies a different degree, such as a Masters in Accountancy, the M.B.A. will probably not meet the requirement.
Doctorate: An effective degree for teaching, research, and government positions. Otherwise, not likely to be worth the effort, except in specialized fields like Medicine or Law.
What also surprised me, though, were more experienced people like myself who returned to school and seemed to believe that their new degree would open new opportunities for them, in a fashion not very different from the kids. You’d think that a few years in reality would remind a person that the degree is a tool, and while it can be very useful or even critical to success, you have to use it effectively to get results, and your success depends on your work, your ability, and your opportunity. I spend a lot of time asking God to give me some of that third quality. Unfortunately, there’s no magic wand in this world, and that includes a degree from even the best university. I read earlier this spring in BusinessWeek that even some graduates from the Harvard Business School were unable to find job offers. That’s a real wake-up call for anybody, but that snooze button is more popular.
When I first became a manager, I hated marketing and sales. Not that they are bad in themselves, I just had no taste for them and wanted to work without having to sell things. Reality taught me, however, that you have to sell things all through your life, and if you don’t learn to sell then you are cheating yourself. Product number 1 is You. The package is how you portray yourself and your work, and your resume is the printed ad. And the degree(s) you earn are features you offer. I mentioned some time back that I chose to go to a lower-profile business school not only because of price and convenience, but also because I have established my resume to the point that a fancy school would not significantly improve my offers. That does not mean that prestige has no value, but you’d better think hard about what you have to put in and what you hope to get back, and how it will work.
The big jump from high school to college is not just that the work gets harder and much different in form and style, but also that you choose your school, your classes, the number of classes, and of course your major, concentration, or focus. And as you work your way through the degree plan, you may well make changes and adjustments to your plan. Some people even change their school, either upgrading to a more prestigious school or changing for other reasons, like distance or personal comfort. What is important here is to understand that earning your degree is meant to outfit you for the life ahead, at least to equip you with the tools to succeed in your work.
Basically, here’s how I see college programs and degrees in terms of work value. Before I start, I want to remind you that you should always get more than one or two opinions on this sort of thing, even if you completely agree with one person’s position:
School
Top-Tier for Specialty: If you can afford it and have the ability to handle a difficult and strenous curriculum, you should consider applying to the top school in your chosen field. It will be hard to get in, and such schools will drain you in the pursuit of your degree. However, earning your degree from the school generally acknowledged to be the best will help you get not only offers when you graduate, but better ones. The chief caveat here, aside from the cost and making sure you can handle the work, is to get a very wide input of opinion; for every school that is truly the best in its field, another six will claim to be as good.
Regional Leader: If you ask around, you should be able to find out which school is the best-respected overall in your part of the state. If you cannot afford or receive entry into the top school for your field, or if you are unsure about your field, it’s generally a good idea to go to the best-known school in your area.
Major State: Most college students go to a big state university, for the obvious reason that such schools tend to be reasonable in cost, have a respectable reputation, and are not excessively difficult. A nice, safe, average road to travel.
Prestigious Private: There was a time when I would have said this was a smart road, a way to stand out without obscenely high cost or difficulty. Now, I am not so sure. Private schools cost more than public schools as a rule, but from speaking with managers and executives I have found that private school graduates do not impress any more than public school graduates, except for top schools in a certain field. So, if you are considering going to a private school in your area that is not specifically known for excellence in the area in which you wish to major, you might want to rethink your plan.
Common State: The old stand-by, the closest large school. This has the advantages of being relatively inexpensive and not all that hard to graduate, but it also looks the part. The biggest problem is that there are a lot of schools that look like a student settled for them when they could not get into their first or second choice. And yes, your resume might look like that as well when you try to go find a good job with a degree from Boring State U.
Small Private: This is one to avoid. If a school is private but can’t point to any good reason you should pay more to go there than a public school, leave it well alone.
Corporation U: By that tag, I mean the for-profit schools which try to sell you on the idea that their degrees will change your life and be just as good as the schools your parents knew and might have gone to. The good news, is that many of these schools are accredited, they offer flexible schedules and they have a lot of students. The bad news is that businesses do not regard degrees from these schools as equal to a “real” degree. Sure it’s prejudice, but it’s also reality.
Diploma Mill: I should not have to mention these places, but they pop up so much I feel I had better say something. In short, here it is – your degree is bascialy worth the work you put into earning it. There’s no educational value to “life experience”, if you put one of these on your resume you will be discovered sooner or later, and when it does your career will be ruined. Diploma mills are like prostitutes; you should not be tempted, but if you are for some reason, remember what can go wrong for that one bad decision.
The next part is the sort of Degree you earn:
Associates:
The Associates degree is useful if – and only if – you then continue on to at least a Bachelor’s degree. No major employer is impressed with an Associate’s degree.
Certification: This can be useful or worthless. A certificate is nowhere near a degree, at best it represents a small set of courses, ususally fewer than five, in a specific category of study. However, for some jobs certification is an advantage if it applies to the work.
Bachelor of Arts: It’s commonly said that what took a high school diploma in the 1960s, needs a Bachelor’s Degree today. But there are two general flavors of Bachelor’s degree, and the B.A. is clearly the weak sister on this level. The reason for this, is that the majors which lead to a B.A. degree are generally less practical than those which lead to a Bachelor of Science degree. Also, some majors allow for either a B.A. or B.S., but require more work for the B.S. degree. The B.A. is best when it leads to a more advanced degree.
Bachelor of Science: This degree is the basic tool for an effective education that leads to gainful employment (I include the B.B.A. in this category). The Bachelor of Science degree represents real world at an established standard level of proficiency, and it also can serve as the foundation for further degrees.
Masters Degree: The Masters degree takes your studies to the next level, but also discriminates against general knowledge. That is, a Masters degree in a subject focuses on the concentration more than does the Bachelor’s degree, so there is less flexibility. That is, a Master’s in one subject will not qualify you for jobs requiring a Master’s in a different area.
Master of Business Administration: The M.B.A. is the premier degree for business professionals. That said, if the job specifies a different degree, such as a Masters in Accountancy, the M.B.A. will probably not meet the requirement.
Doctorate: An effective degree for teaching, research, and government positions. Otherwise, not likely to be worth the effort, except in specialized fields like Medicine or Law.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Top Online MBA School Profile - #10 The University of North Dakota
The University of North Dakota finished in tenth place among AACSB-accredited schools offering online MBAs. This article profiles the school.
The University of North Dakota was founded in 1883. An interesting bit of trivia, is that the University was named for North Dakota six years before the territory was named as the state of North Dakota.
UND offers only one MBA degree but says it is “interdisciplinary".
UND’s MBA requires 32 hours of coursework (11 classes). The curriculum requires a minimum two years to complete.
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of UND’s MBA students is 566.5. UND says the minimum accepted GMAT score is 500.
Tuition at UND for all students is $244.75 per semester hour, plus $52.74 per credit hour mandatory fees, $50.00 per credit hour for online fee, tallying $347.49 per semester hour. Therefore a student will pay $11,120 in tuition and fees for an MBA from UND. Add in books, and a student will pay about $13,320 for a UND MBA.
According to the AACSB, 102 of 1,744 total students at UND are MBA students (05.8%).
The University of North Dakota was founded in 1883. An interesting bit of trivia, is that the University was named for North Dakota six years before the territory was named as the state of North Dakota.
UND offers only one MBA degree but says it is “interdisciplinary".
UND’s MBA requires 32 hours of coursework (11 classes). The curriculum requires a minimum two years to complete.
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of UND’s MBA students is 566.5. UND says the minimum accepted GMAT score is 500.
Tuition at UND for all students is $244.75 per semester hour, plus $52.74 per credit hour mandatory fees, $50.00 per credit hour for online fee, tallying $347.49 per semester hour. Therefore a student will pay $11,120 in tuition and fees for an MBA from UND. Add in books, and a student will pay about $13,320 for a UND MBA.
According to the AACSB, 102 of 1,744 total students at UND are MBA students (05.8%).
Friday, July 03, 2009
Top Online MBA School Profile - #9 University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs finished in ninth place among AACSB-accredited schools offering online MBAs. This article profiles the school.
UCCS was founded in 1965 as an extension of the University of Colorado system.
UCCS allows students to earn their MBA in face-to-face classes or online as they choose; the courses are identical. Degree specializations are Finance, General Business, Health Care Administration, Information Systems, International Business, Management, Marketing, Project Management, Space Systems Management, and Technology Management.
The curriculum requires 12 courses for 36 hours of work, to be taken in 18 to 60 months, but usually completed in 2 or 3 years.
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of UCCS’s MBA students is 555. UCCS says the average GMAT score for its students is 550.
Tuition and fees at UCCS vary by the number of hours taken per semester. Since the school recommends 2 or 3 years, the average of 30 months for the 12 courses, or 6 hours per semester is used here. The tuition for Colorado residents is $2,929 for six hours of courses, and $5,879 for non-residents. Therefore a Colorado resident will pay about $8,827 in tuition and fees for an MBA from UCCS, while a non-resident will pay $17,677 in tuition and fees. Add in books, and a Colorado resident will pay about $11,227 for an MBA from UCCS, and a non-resident will pay about $20,077 for an MBA from UCCS. UCCS has a $25 Matriculation fee and a $15 Student ID fee.
According to the AACSB, 402 of 1,436 total students at UCCS are MBA students (28.0%).
UCCS was founded in 1965 as an extension of the University of Colorado system.
UCCS allows students to earn their MBA in face-to-face classes or online as they choose; the courses are identical. Degree specializations are Finance, General Business, Health Care Administration, Information Systems, International Business, Management, Marketing, Project Management, Space Systems Management, and Technology Management.
The curriculum requires 12 courses for 36 hours of work, to be taken in 18 to 60 months, but usually completed in 2 or 3 years.
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of UCCS’s MBA students is 555. UCCS says the average GMAT score for its students is 550.
Tuition and fees at UCCS vary by the number of hours taken per semester. Since the school recommends 2 or 3 years, the average of 30 months for the 12 courses, or 6 hours per semester is used here. The tuition for Colorado residents is $2,929 for six hours of courses, and $5,879 for non-residents. Therefore a Colorado resident will pay about $8,827 in tuition and fees for an MBA from UCCS, while a non-resident will pay $17,677 in tuition and fees. Add in books, and a Colorado resident will pay about $11,227 for an MBA from UCCS, and a non-resident will pay about $20,077 for an MBA from UCCS. UCCS has a $25 Matriculation fee and a $15 Student ID fee.
According to the AACSB, 402 of 1,436 total students at UCCS are MBA students (28.0%).
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Top Online MBA School Profile - #7 (tie) Wayne State University
Wayne State finished in a tie for seventh place among AACSB-accredited schools offering online MBAs. This article profiles the school.
Wayne State is an urban research university located in Detroit, Michigan. Wayne State was originally founded in 1868 as the Detroit Medical College, which is now the Medical School at WSU. The school took its present name in 1956.
Wayne State offers a variety of MBA programs, traditional to part-time to Saturday to Online classes (warning – online classes require final exams to be taken in person on campus) to a dual JD/MBA degree. Wayne State offers concentrations in Accounting, Finance, General Business, Management, Marketing, Human Resource, International Business, Leadership and Organizational Behavior, Management Information Systems, Quality Management, and Taxation.
Wayne State’s MBA requires 36 semester hours, or twelve courses, byond what it calls pre-foundational requirements, which can usually be satisfied with a Bachelor’s degree in a business major.
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of Wayne State’s MBA students is 530. Wayne State says the minimum accepted GMAT score is 450.
Tuition and fees at Wayne State for Michigan residents are $414.50 per semester hour, and $846.10 for non-residents. Therefore a Michigan resident will pay about $14,922 in tuition and fees for an MBA from Wayne State, while a non-resident will pay $30,460 in tuition and fees. Add in books, and a Michigan resident will pay about $17,322 for a Wayne State MBA, and a non-resident will pay about $32,860 for an MBA from Wayne State. If foundational courses are needed, a Michigan resident will pay $25,983 for an MBA from Wayne State and a non-resident would pay $49,289.
According to the AACSB, 1,186 of 3,924 total students at Wayne State are MBA students (30.2%).
Wayne State is an urban research university located in Detroit, Michigan. Wayne State was originally founded in 1868 as the Detroit Medical College, which is now the Medical School at WSU. The school took its present name in 1956.
Wayne State offers a variety of MBA programs, traditional to part-time to Saturday to Online classes (warning – online classes require final exams to be taken in person on campus) to a dual JD/MBA degree. Wayne State offers concentrations in Accounting, Finance, General Business, Management, Marketing, Human Resource, International Business, Leadership and Organizational Behavior, Management Information Systems, Quality Management, and Taxation.
Wayne State’s MBA requires 36 semester hours, or twelve courses, byond what it calls pre-foundational requirements, which can usually be satisfied with a Bachelor’s degree in a business major.
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of Wayne State’s MBA students is 530. Wayne State says the minimum accepted GMAT score is 450.
Tuition and fees at Wayne State for Michigan residents are $414.50 per semester hour, and $846.10 for non-residents. Therefore a Michigan resident will pay about $14,922 in tuition and fees for an MBA from Wayne State, while a non-resident will pay $30,460 in tuition and fees. Add in books, and a Michigan resident will pay about $17,322 for a Wayne State MBA, and a non-resident will pay about $32,860 for an MBA from Wayne State. If foundational courses are needed, a Michigan resident will pay $25,983 for an MBA from Wayne State and a non-resident would pay $49,289.
According to the AACSB, 1,186 of 3,924 total students at Wayne State are MBA students (30.2%).
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Top Online MBA School Profile - #7 (tie) Morehead State University
Morehead State finished in a tie for seventh place among AACSB-accredited schools offering online MBAs. This article profiles the school.
Morehead State was founded in 1887 as Morehead Normal School in Morehead, Kentucky, becoming Morehead State University in 1968.
MSU offers an online MBA with concentrations in Accounting or Management.
MSU’s online MBA is a twelve-course, 36 semester hour curriculum, provided that six “foundation” courses in business are already taken; an undergraduate business degree will suffice, or the student must take these initial courses in addition to the 12 courses needed for the MBA itself.
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of MSU’s MBA students is 499. Morehead State says the minimum accepted GMAT score is 400.
Tuition and fees at MSU for all online students is $422 per semester hour, or $1,266 per course. Therefore an MBA from Morehead State University will cost $15,192 for a student with a Bachelor’s degree in a business major, or $22,788 for a student who needs to take the foundation courses. Add the cost of books and course supplies, and a Morehead State MBA costs $17,592 for a student with a business bachelor’s degree, and $25,988 for a student who needs to take the foundational courses.
According to the AACSB, 202 of 884 total students at Morehead State are MBA students (22.9%).
Morehead State was founded in 1887 as Morehead Normal School in Morehead, Kentucky, becoming Morehead State University in 1968.
MSU offers an online MBA with concentrations in Accounting or Management.
MSU’s online MBA is a twelve-course, 36 semester hour curriculum, provided that six “foundation” courses in business are already taken; an undergraduate business degree will suffice, or the student must take these initial courses in addition to the 12 courses needed for the MBA itself.
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of MSU’s MBA students is 499. Morehead State says the minimum accepted GMAT score is 400.
Tuition and fees at MSU for all online students is $422 per semester hour, or $1,266 per course. Therefore an MBA from Morehead State University will cost $15,192 for a student with a Bachelor’s degree in a business major, or $22,788 for a student who needs to take the foundation courses. Add the cost of books and course supplies, and a Morehead State MBA costs $17,592 for a student with a business bachelor’s degree, and $25,988 for a student who needs to take the foundational courses.
According to the AACSB, 202 of 884 total students at Morehead State are MBA students (22.9%).
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Top Online MBA School Profile - #5 (tie) University of Houston at Victoria
UH-Victoria finished in a tie for fifth place among AACSB-accredited schools offering online MBAs. This article profiles the school.
UH-Victoria is an extension of the University of Houston system. The University of Houston was founded in 1927, and the Victoria campus was opened in 1973, and became UH-Victoria in 1983. UHV was created primarily as a school for upper-level undergraduates and graduate instruction. UHV received approval this year to become a full four-year university for undergraduate studies, making it a full university in every respect.
UHV offers a variety of MBA programs, all of which allow some or all courses to be taken online. The Strategic MBA, UHV’s most popular MBA, allows for concentrations in Accounting, Finance, General Business, Management, Marketing, and International Business. The Strategic MBA requires 48 hours of coursework (16 classes).
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of UHV’s MBA students is 479. UHV says the minimum accepted GMAT score is 450.
Tuition and fees at UHV for Texas residents is $268 per semester hour, and $495 for non-residents. Therefore a Texas resident will pay about $12,864 in tuition and fees for a Strategic MBA from UHV, while a non-resident will pay $23,760 in tuition and fees. Add in books, and a Texas resident will pay about $16,064 for a Strategic MBA, and a non-resident will pay about $26,960 for a Strategic MBA from UHV.
According to the AACSB, 866 of 1,189 total students are MBA students (72.8%).
UH-Victoria is an extension of the University of Houston system. The University of Houston was founded in 1927, and the Victoria campus was opened in 1973, and became UH-Victoria in 1983. UHV was created primarily as a school for upper-level undergraduates and graduate instruction. UHV received approval this year to become a full four-year university for undergraduate studies, making it a full university in every respect.
UHV offers a variety of MBA programs, all of which allow some or all courses to be taken online. The Strategic MBA, UHV’s most popular MBA, allows for concentrations in Accounting, Finance, General Business, Management, Marketing, and International Business. The Strategic MBA requires 48 hours of coursework (16 classes).
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of UHV’s MBA students is 479. UHV says the minimum accepted GMAT score is 450.
Tuition and fees at UHV for Texas residents is $268 per semester hour, and $495 for non-residents. Therefore a Texas resident will pay about $12,864 in tuition and fees for a Strategic MBA from UHV, while a non-resident will pay $23,760 in tuition and fees. Add in books, and a Texas resident will pay about $16,064 for a Strategic MBA, and a non-resident will pay about $26,960 for a Strategic MBA from UHV.
According to the AACSB, 866 of 1,189 total students are MBA students (72.8%).
Monday, June 29, 2009
Top Online MBA School Profile - #5 (tie) Tennessee Technological University
Tennessee Tech finished in a tie for fifth place among AACSB-accredited schools offering online MBAs. This article profiles the school.
Tennessee Technological University opened in 1912 as Dixie College. The school struggled until after World War 2, but grew steadily after the war.
TTU offers six concentrations fot its MBA: Accounting, Finance, Human Resource Management, International Business, Management Information Systems (MIS), and Risk Management and Insurance. Distance courses are identical in content to classroom courses.
The TTU MBA is a 30-hour (ten class) regimen which may be taken at whatever pace the student prefers.
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of TTU’s MBA students is 530; TTU’s website says its minimum GMAT score for admission is 450.
Tuition and fees for Tennessee Tech’s online MBA students are $385 per semester hour for Tennessee residents and $858 per semester hour for out-of-state residents. So tuition and fees for a Tennessee resident at TTU would sub-total $11,550 for an MBA program, while out-of-state residents would pay $25,740 for tuition and fees. Add in the books and course materials and you’re looking at about $14,550 for a Tennessee resident and $28,740 for a non-Tennessee resident to earn a TTU MBA.
According to the AACSB, 236 of 1,482 total students are MBA students (15.9%).
Tennessee Technological University opened in 1912 as Dixie College. The school struggled until after World War 2, but grew steadily after the war.
TTU offers six concentrations fot its MBA: Accounting, Finance, Human Resource Management, International Business, Management Information Systems (MIS), and Risk Management and Insurance. Distance courses are identical in content to classroom courses.
The TTU MBA is a 30-hour (ten class) regimen which may be taken at whatever pace the student prefers.
According to the AACSB, the average GMAT score of TTU’s MBA students is 530; TTU’s website says its minimum GMAT score for admission is 450.
Tuition and fees for Tennessee Tech’s online MBA students are $385 per semester hour for Tennessee residents and $858 per semester hour for out-of-state residents. So tuition and fees for a Tennessee resident at TTU would sub-total $11,550 for an MBA program, while out-of-state residents would pay $25,740 for tuition and fees. Add in the books and course materials and you’re looking at about $14,550 for a Tennessee resident and $28,740 for a non-Tennessee resident to earn a TTU MBA.
According to the AACSB, 236 of 1,482 total students are MBA students (15.9%).
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
John Moore Two Thumbs Down
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.
Argh. Still looking. House and personal temperatures continue to rise.
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.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Rating The Distance MBA
It’s been a couple years since I posted my ranking of the Top 25 Online MBA Schools, so I am having another look at business schools which offer the Online MBA, where most or all of the coursework necessary to earn a Masters degree in Business Administration. That is, now that I have completed my MBA from the University of Houston at Victoria, I am looking at the degree from the other side of the road and considering what it means to earn an MBA, to earn an online MBA, what sort of path should be chosen for different career conditions, and if you do decide to go after an online MBA, which schools are the best choice.
Not everyone should pursue an MBA, and not everyone who should earn an MBA will find the online course the best path to success. There are basically three ways to earn an MBA; full-time, part-time, or online. If your goal in life is to become the CEO or COO or a Fortune 500 corporation, a lot of people will tell you that you need to graduate from a top school, which in the case of the MBA means attending a prestigious and expensive school with a huge reputation, and you have to do it as a full-time student. Of course, doing so is no guarantee that you will win that much-desired CEO spot; work out the statistics and you will find that well over 90 percent of graduates of even the most prestigious business schools never end up as CEOs of major corporations. Have a look at the people in those roles and you will not only find people who did not go to the “top” schools, but some who never earned an MBA and a few who never even earned a college degree at all (you can do that if you found and build your own successful company). On the other hand, most top executives do earn MBAs, and most of them go to well-known universities as full-time students. So if you put in the time and expense to get accepted to a prestigious school as a full-time student, work yourself silly getting top grades, you should expect to have the best prospects in general of all the MBA graduates. That is, if you have the means to get into a top school, if you can afford to go to school full-time and not have to raise a family or work full-time, if you’re still in your early twenties, and if the economy doesn’t make that student loan a killer six months after you graduate. For a lot of working people, one or more of those conditions is not feasible. And for those people, other options need to be considered. If you’re not going to Harvard or the Wharton School or something along those lines, all you really need from your school is a name that will be recognizable, an education worth the time and money you put into it, and a whole lot of work on your part. In my case, I decided to go after the MBA when I was 45, with a family and a full-time job in management. The only possible way I could do it would be to get an online degree. That’s how I chose the University of Houston at Victoria.
UHV is part of the University of Houston system (duh), but not all UH campuses are created equal. Short version, the main campus and Downtown campus have all the students they want, so there is no pressure for those schools to offer online classes. The Victoria campus is another story; it’s far enough out there that the online students make a significant difference in the enrollment size and the school wanted the best faculty they could get, which could only be justified by having a decent number of students. Two things besides the convenience of UHV’s classes I liked were the low tuition and the AACSB accreditation of UHV. The school name is no embarrassment, and I earned my MBA without going into debt.
Now, I have to mention something very important about an online MBA. If the school is any good, the MBA will be just as hard to earn online as it would be any other way. While you can turn in assignments and go to the online library whenever you want, you still have deadlines, the standards and grade requirements are the same as face-to-face classes, and the participation is much stricter than face-to-face. After all, in a face-to-face class you can sometimes hide out in the back and avoid discussions when you are not prepared, but in an online class every comment you make (or the lack of meaningful discussion) is on the record, and a professor can easily tally up just how much you really did to advance the discussion. Also, professors talk with each other, and online students who are exceptionally good or bad will be known to the faculty just as well as those who attend class in person.
The online MBA, then, is for the most part the same as any other MBA, except that you will have to be organized and self-motivated to get the work done, the school will in most cases be a more common public school (most accredited private schools do not offer online degrees) which means your results will depend more on your resume and personal work history than how glamorous your school name is, and if you have planned it right you can get your MBA without a nervous breakdown or a second mortgage. In my opinion, the online MBA will become more popular and common as it works out well for students, universities, and businesses.
The next article on this topic will examine the AACSB-accredited business schools which offer online MBAs, and the 2009 ranking of the Top 25 schools for an Online MBA.
Not everyone should pursue an MBA, and not everyone who should earn an MBA will find the online course the best path to success. There are basically three ways to earn an MBA; full-time, part-time, or online. If your goal in life is to become the CEO or COO or a Fortune 500 corporation, a lot of people will tell you that you need to graduate from a top school, which in the case of the MBA means attending a prestigious and expensive school with a huge reputation, and you have to do it as a full-time student. Of course, doing so is no guarantee that you will win that much-desired CEO spot; work out the statistics and you will find that well over 90 percent of graduates of even the most prestigious business schools never end up as CEOs of major corporations. Have a look at the people in those roles and you will not only find people who did not go to the “top” schools, but some who never earned an MBA and a few who never even earned a college degree at all (you can do that if you found and build your own successful company). On the other hand, most top executives do earn MBAs, and most of them go to well-known universities as full-time students. So if you put in the time and expense to get accepted to a prestigious school as a full-time student, work yourself silly getting top grades, you should expect to have the best prospects in general of all the MBA graduates. That is, if you have the means to get into a top school, if you can afford to go to school full-time and not have to raise a family or work full-time, if you’re still in your early twenties, and if the economy doesn’t make that student loan a killer six months after you graduate. For a lot of working people, one or more of those conditions is not feasible. And for those people, other options need to be considered. If you’re not going to Harvard or the Wharton School or something along those lines, all you really need from your school is a name that will be recognizable, an education worth the time and money you put into it, and a whole lot of work on your part. In my case, I decided to go after the MBA when I was 45, with a family and a full-time job in management. The only possible way I could do it would be to get an online degree. That’s how I chose the University of Houston at Victoria.
UHV is part of the University of Houston system (duh), but not all UH campuses are created equal. Short version, the main campus and Downtown campus have all the students they want, so there is no pressure for those schools to offer online classes. The Victoria campus is another story; it’s far enough out there that the online students make a significant difference in the enrollment size and the school wanted the best faculty they could get, which could only be justified by having a decent number of students. Two things besides the convenience of UHV’s classes I liked were the low tuition and the AACSB accreditation of UHV. The school name is no embarrassment, and I earned my MBA without going into debt.
Now, I have to mention something very important about an online MBA. If the school is any good, the MBA will be just as hard to earn online as it would be any other way. While you can turn in assignments and go to the online library whenever you want, you still have deadlines, the standards and grade requirements are the same as face-to-face classes, and the participation is much stricter than face-to-face. After all, in a face-to-face class you can sometimes hide out in the back and avoid discussions when you are not prepared, but in an online class every comment you make (or the lack of meaningful discussion) is on the record, and a professor can easily tally up just how much you really did to advance the discussion. Also, professors talk with each other, and online students who are exceptionally good or bad will be known to the faculty just as well as those who attend class in person.
The online MBA, then, is for the most part the same as any other MBA, except that you will have to be organized and self-motivated to get the work done, the school will in most cases be a more common public school (most accredited private schools do not offer online degrees) which means your results will depend more on your resume and personal work history than how glamorous your school name is, and if you have planned it right you can get your MBA without a nervous breakdown or a second mortgage. In my opinion, the online MBA will become more popular and common as it works out well for students, universities, and businesses.
The next article on this topic will examine the AACSB-accredited business schools which offer online MBAs, and the 2009 ranking of the Top 25 schools for an Online MBA.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Rumors of War
This post is intended for the eyes and minds of Christians. That does not mean no one else may read it, but the context will be difficult for someone lacking the Christian focus. For example, Christians believe in the will of God, and also the veracity of Holy prophecy. Human history can be best interpreted in the illumination of God’s will and its clear enunciation in prophetic Scripture. The lack of clear Scripture can also provide meaning and improve understanding, when contemplation is used along with reason.
The Bible is full of prophecy, but that prophecy is spotty in places and times. There’s no end of people jumping up trying to show how a certain prophecy fits a given situation, but in the main it seems obvious – to me at least – that when considering prophecy we must remember that the Lord gives it for a purpose, which is aligned with His will, rather than our curiosity or desire to feel important. When Scripture is read holistically, it becomes obvious that prophecy is issued in support of God’s will, a signpost if you will of a major point in time. We see many things which matter to us but which may well be, from the larger perspective, insignificant. Which brings me to the discussion of our present wars.
I believe that President George W. Bush was doing God’s will when he was President. Even so, things did not work out in the Middle East as he hoped. Part of this was due to the despicable way politics were played in the House and Senate, as well as the cowardly refusal of Europe to stand up for a moral cause, but in the larger sense I believe President Bush misunderstood his role to some degree; the Lord was willing that Iraq should be reformed and established as a democratic republic, but not that the whole of the Middle East should be given peace and made whole – there are many greater issues which we must understand will continue to the very end of this age. This is difficult to understand, in the same way that to us it makes no sense that disease, poverty, famine, and all the other ills of this world should continue. There is good and there is evil in this world, for purposes beyond our ken, and all our hubris and technology cannot change this.
Wars are paradox. On the surface there is nothing good about war, senseless destruction, pain, loss and death. And in too many cases the victor in war is cruel and malicious, by no moral right able to claim the rule of nations. Innocents are often the worst hurt and the first victims. Yet wars, for all their terror and destruction, have ended tyrants, slavery, established protection of the rights of the people, and enabled representative government. In many nations the army boasts the most trustworthy and honorable men, the best in character and fortitude. The best leaders and rulers, especially in democracies, most often have served in their nation’s armed forces. Such men understand the cost of war and the need to plan carefully the nation’s welfare, protecting the nation’s strength while avoiding needless violence. The Bible tells of different kinds of war. Some wars are human vanity and therefore are evil and useless, while others serve God’s will and therefore while terrible they at least happen for a better reason than human arrogance. That is, humans start wars for evil purposes but God brings good out of them so that the suffering may be limited and goodness may advance. In some cases a war may even be fought for good purpose, though without God’s help all wars must of nature devolve into chaos and evil. It is therefore of paramount importance that any leader considering war must commit his efforts to the Lord’s service, and first seek the Lord’s counsel that his course of action will be grounded in true obedience to God rather than human arrogance.
This brings me around to the current situation in the Middle East. Looking at the long view, things do change and sometimes the change can be sudden, but for the most part few things change and there are some things which seem to be very much locked into place for some reason or purpose. I am not saying that democracy, human rights, and peace should not be sought, but for all our best ideals we must realize that some limits exist, and our inability to see them does not make them illusory. Jesus warned that we would hear of war, and rumors of war. That second part is intriguing, as it reminds me that war is a subtext to human history – even in peace the threat of war, the danger of it showing up must always be kept in mind. The same Christ who warned that those who live by the sword will die by it (Matthew 26:52) also specifically instructed His disciples to buy weapons (Luke 22:36). This is a dangerous world for individuals, peoples, and nations. What will be will include war.
The chaos surrounding the presidential election in Iran should surprise no one. What remains to be seen now, is what will come of the revolution now beginning there. Iran was the cradle of resurgent Jihadism, that foul cult which seeks to control nations and people through a fascist theocracy. History shows this cult popping up from time to time, and its always bloody. Even Islam had a big problem with the Jihadists. For example, the English word assassin is derived from the word hashishin, the drug-controlled killers from the Nizari branch of Shiite Islam who killed political enemies and targets on instructions from men who would establish the Fatimid Empire in the Middle Ages. A similar Jihadist movement erupted in Sudan and Egypt against the British Empire. The region has always held the potential for intense hatred and violence, and no one, no mater how strong or well-meaning, has been able to end the causes or settle the countless feuds and grudges. Because the hatred and violence in the Middle East is noted in both the books of Daniel and Revelation, we must sadly accept that they serve some vital role in the way of things, and while some part of the region may be stabilized and made safe for decent people, as a whole this monster is beyond our strength to slay. What we may hope and pray for the people of Iran, is that through God’s grace the people may rise to establish a more democratic government, to make homeless the beast of Jihadism for a time, to weaken it and dislocate its strength. But we must not expect more than has been done before, for reason that we cannot see the limits which affect all concerned.
The Bible is full of prophecy, but that prophecy is spotty in places and times. There’s no end of people jumping up trying to show how a certain prophecy fits a given situation, but in the main it seems obvious – to me at least – that when considering prophecy we must remember that the Lord gives it for a purpose, which is aligned with His will, rather than our curiosity or desire to feel important. When Scripture is read holistically, it becomes obvious that prophecy is issued in support of God’s will, a signpost if you will of a major point in time. We see many things which matter to us but which may well be, from the larger perspective, insignificant. Which brings me to the discussion of our present wars.
I believe that President George W. Bush was doing God’s will when he was President. Even so, things did not work out in the Middle East as he hoped. Part of this was due to the despicable way politics were played in the House and Senate, as well as the cowardly refusal of Europe to stand up for a moral cause, but in the larger sense I believe President Bush misunderstood his role to some degree; the Lord was willing that Iraq should be reformed and established as a democratic republic, but not that the whole of the Middle East should be given peace and made whole – there are many greater issues which we must understand will continue to the very end of this age. This is difficult to understand, in the same way that to us it makes no sense that disease, poverty, famine, and all the other ills of this world should continue. There is good and there is evil in this world, for purposes beyond our ken, and all our hubris and technology cannot change this.
Wars are paradox. On the surface there is nothing good about war, senseless destruction, pain, loss and death. And in too many cases the victor in war is cruel and malicious, by no moral right able to claim the rule of nations. Innocents are often the worst hurt and the first victims. Yet wars, for all their terror and destruction, have ended tyrants, slavery, established protection of the rights of the people, and enabled representative government. In many nations the army boasts the most trustworthy and honorable men, the best in character and fortitude. The best leaders and rulers, especially in democracies, most often have served in their nation’s armed forces. Such men understand the cost of war and the need to plan carefully the nation’s welfare, protecting the nation’s strength while avoiding needless violence. The Bible tells of different kinds of war. Some wars are human vanity and therefore are evil and useless, while others serve God’s will and therefore while terrible they at least happen for a better reason than human arrogance. That is, humans start wars for evil purposes but God brings good out of them so that the suffering may be limited and goodness may advance. In some cases a war may even be fought for good purpose, though without God’s help all wars must of nature devolve into chaos and evil. It is therefore of paramount importance that any leader considering war must commit his efforts to the Lord’s service, and first seek the Lord’s counsel that his course of action will be grounded in true obedience to God rather than human arrogance.
This brings me around to the current situation in the Middle East. Looking at the long view, things do change and sometimes the change can be sudden, but for the most part few things change and there are some things which seem to be very much locked into place for some reason or purpose. I am not saying that democracy, human rights, and peace should not be sought, but for all our best ideals we must realize that some limits exist, and our inability to see them does not make them illusory. Jesus warned that we would hear of war, and rumors of war. That second part is intriguing, as it reminds me that war is a subtext to human history – even in peace the threat of war, the danger of it showing up must always be kept in mind. The same Christ who warned that those who live by the sword will die by it (Matthew 26:52) also specifically instructed His disciples to buy weapons (Luke 22:36). This is a dangerous world for individuals, peoples, and nations. What will be will include war.
The chaos surrounding the presidential election in Iran should surprise no one. What remains to be seen now, is what will come of the revolution now beginning there. Iran was the cradle of resurgent Jihadism, that foul cult which seeks to control nations and people through a fascist theocracy. History shows this cult popping up from time to time, and its always bloody. Even Islam had a big problem with the Jihadists. For example, the English word assassin is derived from the word hashishin, the drug-controlled killers from the Nizari branch of Shiite Islam who killed political enemies and targets on instructions from men who would establish the Fatimid Empire in the Middle Ages. A similar Jihadist movement erupted in Sudan and Egypt against the British Empire. The region has always held the potential for intense hatred and violence, and no one, no mater how strong or well-meaning, has been able to end the causes or settle the countless feuds and grudges. Because the hatred and violence in the Middle East is noted in both the books of Daniel and Revelation, we must sadly accept that they serve some vital role in the way of things, and while some part of the region may be stabilized and made safe for decent people, as a whole this monster is beyond our strength to slay. What we may hope and pray for the people of Iran, is that through God’s grace the people may rise to establish a more democratic government, to make homeless the beast of Jihadism for a time, to weaken it and dislocate its strength. But we must not expect more than has been done before, for reason that we cannot see the limits which affect all concerned.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Christ in Modern Life
One thing which every believer in Christ must eventually face is the claim that their faith is not real because it is not relevant. That is, we live in an age of increasing secularism, where every virtue promoted by Christians is also promoted by men who have no interest in receiving Christ as their Lord. The argument they present, based on decades of hearing it over and over, is that Christianity offers nothing better than what is offered through personal devotion to morality. A Muslim, for example, is capable of being just as moral as any Christian, a Buddhist is equal in morality to any Christian, even an atheist can claim the same moral bearings as any Christian. And the trick to the argument is that they are correct, but only because they compare their position to Christianity, not to Christ. What is missing in their comparison is the personal presence of Christ in the believer’s life, the one-to-one correspondent relationship between God and Man through the Divine intercession of Jesus Christ. Theocratic Muslims speak of Jesus but deny His Person as the Christ, as do orthodox Jews. Buddhists deny the personhood of God altogether, as indeed do the atheists. God is problematic for many people, so they rebel against Him without seeming to, by focusing on the imperfect human rather than on the perfect Lord. This is the same mistaken assumption used ever since the beginning, where men deny the Lord while claiming only to challenge human assumptions and imperfect claims. Those who do not accept Christ do so thinking that the fault lies in believers’ not submitting proof by human standards of the truth of Christianity, never seeing that this is rebellion against God by nature, the demand that God submit to human tests and conditions. The unbeliever commonly retorts that this amounts to a demand for submission to a claim without evidence, which oddly enough is exactly what nominal Islam demands but not Christ; the thing about the follower of Christ is not submission without evidence, but belief based on a completely different order of evidence. And therein is a hint about how eternal life happens.
I am forty-nine years old, with bad knees, slow reflexes and all the accouterments of age and a few surgeries. I live with an abdominal cancer which is incurable but otherwise leaves me alone for the most part. If I were given the chance to live forever in the nominal sense, I’d really hope for some way to significantly upgrade my physical body. Living forever with the body of a young adult or a youth is a mush different proposition to getting by with a middle-aged or senior body. Whether from hope or perspective, therefore, it would seem that eternal life is not merely extending the physical existence to an infinite duration. This by the way is also why I reject reincarnation – what is the point of repeating the same situations and decisions over and over again – simply doing something again does not mean you will make better decisions or navigate the maze perfectly, especially when you do not remember what happened the last time?
The plain fact is, we all sin. All of us. If you think you’ve never sinned I can’t hope you would understand, because you are still in denial. Most of us are able to admit that we sin, whatever definition we want to give to the word. For me, it’s about whether we do God’s will, but another meaning that can be used in a similar way is whether we hurt someone else. Everyone hurts other people, usually without intent but sometimes deliberately, which we usually try to excuse by claiming the guy deserved it. At best it runs into trouble as soon as we start thinking about it. A lot of people try to get past that by lowering the standard of good – no one is perfect, so it’s acceptable to be imperfect. That only diminishes us, however, and cheapens the virtue of those few who earnestly try to live as well as they can, seeking perfection even if it is impossible. The very meaning of heaven, to live and dwell with God Himself, means that such cheapening of goodness is impossible, it runs counter to God’s will that we should be perfect as He is perfect.
In the modern world, God is cast as irrelevant, a quaint notion from a bygone era, in the same class as fairy tales and mythology. Religion is tolerated as an idiosyncrasy, whimsy rather than an important quality to the person, while the clear exercise of faith is often harshly suppressed and attacked. This is to be expected, given the inability of the modern world to address the nature of faith, let alone its mission and demands. I wrote earlier that Islam and Buddhism, along with all the other religions and philosophies, predicates its reasoning along nominal human thought and beliefs, while Christ alone stands for personal rebirth in a new identity, not merely forgiven of sin or continuing in the same old life, but recreated in perfection where the old life not only has no punishment, but is shed forever in favor of a perfect personage. There is, quite literally, no way to explain this new reality in terms that would make sense in this world. This is one reason why faith is the essential component for the Holy Spirit.
Let me put it this way. If someone were to say to you that you could buy your ticket to heaven for a certain amount of money, you would very likely reject that notion immediately, and for good reason – a heaven based on human wealth would be no heaven at all as we understand the word. The same could be said if one were to suggest a heaven based on physical strength or attractiveness. So, it clearly becomes apparent that a heaven which some people could achieve through pure opportunity rather than virtue of something available to everyone but aligned with pure goodness rather than human avarice and selfishness. Consequently, the dogma of every religion is necessarily a false key to the kingdom of heaven, since such dogma is immutably linked to intellectual comprehension. There are no secret teachings or words of power, because if such things existed, the lucky or intellectual people would have an inside track to heaven ahead of anyone unable to receive a good education or who might have an intellectual handicap. We must, as Christ explained, become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. Our intellect, like our bank accounts, physical strength, or any other superficial quality, is only of small value, useful if the heart is aligned with God but a trap to lure the unwary towards idolatry of their own desires. The Holy Spirit moves on highways of faith and by direction from God alone.
The modern world asserts individual control and decision, more than at any time in the past. Yet the essence of human identity is our need to become something greater than ourselves, a role which we cannot accomplish on our own effort or initiative. The modern world asserts human ability to solve any problem through ingenuity in innate goodness, though anyone who lives long enough will see the fatal flaw in such claims. The modern world imagines that things progress ahead and anything from the past is inferior to the present and the future, while the hard-learned truth of experience shows the existence and precious value of the eternal and the ancient. We march ahead in pride towards finite and mortal prizes, and so never notice that while God walks along with us, we turn our backs to Him time and again, and so we also turn away from the greater goals and purpose for which we were ordained.
This world mocks the solitary lives of monks and nuns, and treats active clergy as outcasts. The believer who demonstrates an active faith will be viewed with suspicion, whether he is Christian, Muslim, Mormon, or what have you. God speaks to us all, but one to one as He did with Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah, yet speaking to all humanity through each of us. God speaks with absolute authority and power, yet is absolutely rejected by all but a few whose hearts focus outside themselves. In this, the choice is as it always ways and ever will be.
I am forty-nine years old, with bad knees, slow reflexes and all the accouterments of age and a few surgeries. I live with an abdominal cancer which is incurable but otherwise leaves me alone for the most part. If I were given the chance to live forever in the nominal sense, I’d really hope for some way to significantly upgrade my physical body. Living forever with the body of a young adult or a youth is a mush different proposition to getting by with a middle-aged or senior body. Whether from hope or perspective, therefore, it would seem that eternal life is not merely extending the physical existence to an infinite duration. This by the way is also why I reject reincarnation – what is the point of repeating the same situations and decisions over and over again – simply doing something again does not mean you will make better decisions or navigate the maze perfectly, especially when you do not remember what happened the last time?
The plain fact is, we all sin. All of us. If you think you’ve never sinned I can’t hope you would understand, because you are still in denial. Most of us are able to admit that we sin, whatever definition we want to give to the word. For me, it’s about whether we do God’s will, but another meaning that can be used in a similar way is whether we hurt someone else. Everyone hurts other people, usually without intent but sometimes deliberately, which we usually try to excuse by claiming the guy deserved it. At best it runs into trouble as soon as we start thinking about it. A lot of people try to get past that by lowering the standard of good – no one is perfect, so it’s acceptable to be imperfect. That only diminishes us, however, and cheapens the virtue of those few who earnestly try to live as well as they can, seeking perfection even if it is impossible. The very meaning of heaven, to live and dwell with God Himself, means that such cheapening of goodness is impossible, it runs counter to God’s will that we should be perfect as He is perfect.
In the modern world, God is cast as irrelevant, a quaint notion from a bygone era, in the same class as fairy tales and mythology. Religion is tolerated as an idiosyncrasy, whimsy rather than an important quality to the person, while the clear exercise of faith is often harshly suppressed and attacked. This is to be expected, given the inability of the modern world to address the nature of faith, let alone its mission and demands. I wrote earlier that Islam and Buddhism, along with all the other religions and philosophies, predicates its reasoning along nominal human thought and beliefs, while Christ alone stands for personal rebirth in a new identity, not merely forgiven of sin or continuing in the same old life, but recreated in perfection where the old life not only has no punishment, but is shed forever in favor of a perfect personage. There is, quite literally, no way to explain this new reality in terms that would make sense in this world. This is one reason why faith is the essential component for the Holy Spirit.
Let me put it this way. If someone were to say to you that you could buy your ticket to heaven for a certain amount of money, you would very likely reject that notion immediately, and for good reason – a heaven based on human wealth would be no heaven at all as we understand the word. The same could be said if one were to suggest a heaven based on physical strength or attractiveness. So, it clearly becomes apparent that a heaven which some people could achieve through pure opportunity rather than virtue of something available to everyone but aligned with pure goodness rather than human avarice and selfishness. Consequently, the dogma of every religion is necessarily a false key to the kingdom of heaven, since such dogma is immutably linked to intellectual comprehension. There are no secret teachings or words of power, because if such things existed, the lucky or intellectual people would have an inside track to heaven ahead of anyone unable to receive a good education or who might have an intellectual handicap. We must, as Christ explained, become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. Our intellect, like our bank accounts, physical strength, or any other superficial quality, is only of small value, useful if the heart is aligned with God but a trap to lure the unwary towards idolatry of their own desires. The Holy Spirit moves on highways of faith and by direction from God alone.
The modern world asserts individual control and decision, more than at any time in the past. Yet the essence of human identity is our need to become something greater than ourselves, a role which we cannot accomplish on our own effort or initiative. The modern world asserts human ability to solve any problem through ingenuity in innate goodness, though anyone who lives long enough will see the fatal flaw in such claims. The modern world imagines that things progress ahead and anything from the past is inferior to the present and the future, while the hard-learned truth of experience shows the existence and precious value of the eternal and the ancient. We march ahead in pride towards finite and mortal prizes, and so never notice that while God walks along with us, we turn our backs to Him time and again, and so we also turn away from the greater goals and purpose for which we were ordained.
This world mocks the solitary lives of monks and nuns, and treats active clergy as outcasts. The believer who demonstrates an active faith will be viewed with suspicion, whether he is Christian, Muslim, Mormon, or what have you. God speaks to us all, but one to one as He did with Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah, yet speaking to all humanity through each of us. God speaks with absolute authority and power, yet is absolutely rejected by all but a few whose hearts focus outside themselves. In this, the choice is as it always ways and ever will be.
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