Fastest route from AA to MBA?

I have an AA from a traditional community college and have not had much spare time to study after work or on weekends to go further.
I'm planning to take a year or so off from work and will have about 10 hours per day I had been spending at work to dedicate to completing a BS and MBA via self study, testing and online courses.
I was considering stopping after the undergrad degree and doing the MBA later, but I figured it would be better to get it all out of the way now since I probably will not be able to take an extended period off again and would be back to trying to study in spare time that may never come if I work long hours.
I will be working in an IT-related field and completing MCSE and other certifications, so I'd like to either complete a BS degree in IT or a BS or BA in Business or MIS.
If I do the IT degree program at Excelsior, I will get credit for the IT certifications, but no credit towards the business prerequisites to MBA programs. If I do a Business or MIS degree, the opposite is true so I don't know which is the most beneficial.

Also, which regionally accredited undergraduate and graduate degree programs are most conducive to completion at a rapid pace?

 

You've covered the BA/BS issues and constraints fairly well. But you haven't really talked about what, beyond the MBA, will happen. As is usually asked around here in situations like this, what will you be doing with these degrees -- especially the MBA? Is this just something you want so you can have the credentials after your name and on your resume? Or are serious promotions in store for you if you get them? Or are you planning on quitting your current job (about which I would think twice, by the way... after all, you're apparently able to take "a year or so off" from it and still have it when you return... that's got value) after you get your degrees? Or are you planning further education... perhaps a PhD or something... someday?

These are terribly important questions that must be answered because, for example, if you just want the initials "MBA" legitimately behind your name and on your resume, but you're fairly sure you'll never really need to rely on the MBA to get you the top job in a highly-competitive situation, then the Ashworth College MBA (accredited by DETC, which is a USDE/CHEA-approved accreditor) would be cheap, fast, and I have the feeling, fun.

On the other hand, if that MBA is really gonna' be your stepping-stone to hugely bigger and better things in life; and if you really want to compete with the really big dogs out there, then that MBA is not only gonna' need to be regionally-accredited; but it's probably also gonna' need to be AACSB-accredited, too... among other qualities about you that you'll need to really compete.

It would be kinda' hard for anyone here to meaningfully advise you until they knew what your plans for the degrees actually were.

 

I would guess that one of the fastest routes to that MBA destination is through Heriot-Watt. Admission requirements to their MBA program do not include a Bachelors degree.
Jack

 

Don't forget....

www.BAin4weeks.com

If you are focusing soley on your studies, you should look at the above website. You could likely finish your BA in under 4-6 months, and your MBA in another year.

If you look at DesElms point, a DETC degree could be cheaper, and possibly quicker. If you don't need your MBA to move up, you might even consider California Pacific University which is state approved.

Good luck

 

Nationally Accredited Grantham University offers an undergraduate business administration degree & take it from me you can complete ONE course per week if you work at it. I did that working 40 hours a week too. With that much time you could go even faster. The Grantham degree would be good enough to get you into some solid MBA programs. As previously mentioned Ashworth College would accept it (both accredited by the DETC) with a minimum GPA of 2.5. RA schools such as the University of North Alabama & University of Phoenix would accept it as well. Additionally, American Intercontinental University Online would accept the degree and their MBA can be completed in 10 months, HOWEVER, the current price tag of the AIU MBA is $30,870 USD. Not cheap by any means considering it is RA only. Well, Phoenix is only RA accredited as well, but North Alabama is accredited by theAssociation of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) regarded as the "silver medal" of business school accreditation. North Alabama's price tag is about $11,000 and they offer the traditional 16 week terms or accelerated 8 week terms.

AIU: www.aiuonline.edu
UNA: www.columbiasouthern.edu/una
Phoenix: www.phoenix.edu

Best of luck!

 

I'm planning to quit the job with no plans of returning to that employer. I decided this is going to be the best time to take the time off and get these degrees out of the way rather than jump into another job without completing my education.
I won't need an MBA right away, but I may need it for future advancement and could use the business knowledge if I ever start my own business.
I'll look at DETC MBAs, but I would rather not take the chance that it may not be meet employment requirements in the future. I think many employers see DETC degrees as unacceptable or even fraudulent.

 

One scenario where you could complete both an accredited Bachelor/MBA in less than a year:

First, enroll in Heriot-Watt's MBA program (Which does not require a bachelor's degree for admission). This could easily be completed in less than a year with around 40 hours a week of studying.

Then, transfer over the 36 credits from the MBA degree to Excelsior college. This, combined with your AA degree, and IT certifications, and maybe a few easy clep tests will probably give you the 120 credits needed for a Bachelor's degree.

 

Online Student:

I put it to you that your statement about DETC degrees being considered fraudulent by employers as untrue. Education is primarily what you choose to make of it. You can graduate from Harvard University like President G.W. Bush and still fail miserably at every business venture undertaken. Alternatively, you can be successful in business and create an empire without benefit of a formal education beyond public school such as J.D. Irving. An education from an RA and an NA accreddited institution is NO guarantee of anything other than the person spent time pursuing a degree.

 

And at being President... as should be painfully obvious, right about now.

So, then... you're saying that Machiavelli was right, right?

Hmmm. "Guarantee." Hmmm. I think you mean "indication," as used in your sentence.

But you're still right, in either case.

Yes, I, too, found the characterization of DETC-accredited degrees as "fraudulent" a bit over the top.

 

Re: Re: Fastest route from AA to MBA?

That's interesting.
It might seem odd to have a MBA degree dated earlier than the BS. I thought a Masters degree always required a bachelors degree or Heriot-Watt was providing a BA also.

 

Re: Re: Re: Fastest route from AA to MBA?

It is an intriguing idea to transfer the Heriot-Watt MBA credit into a BBA but consider that some schools specifically state that transfer credit is given for courses not already applied to another degree.

Dave

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Fastest route from AA to MBA?

Is the case Excelsior College or TESC?
In my case, if the credit can be applied to Excelsior, it would make sense since I'd also get credit toward core requirements of the Information Technology degree from the Microsft, Comptia and Cisco IT certification exams I'm going to take anyway. I don't need any elective or "free" credits. I have over 80 units of lower division units due to changing my major when I was in the community college. I only need core and some GE courses since I'm already over the max of electives.

Maybe I could enroll concurrently and not formally graduate Heriot-Watt until all the transferrable courses had already been applied towards the Excelsior program.
This would be great if I could realistically graduate both programs in under a year.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Fastest route from AA to MBA?

You might also want to check out Charter Oak State College. You could contact each of the big 3 colleges to find out which one will take in the most of your credits. I would think most of the colleges would let you apply the credits toward a second degree as long as the second one has a different major.

Enrolling concurrently is a good idea. I don't see any reason why this couldn't be done in a years time, especially since you are taking a year off.

The nice thing about the HW-MBA program is that it is completely self-paced. You can study as fast as you want. In fact you could theoretically complete the entire program in a week, if you could pass all 9 exams at one time. It will probably take you a bit longer than that though, assuming you don't have a vast amount of business experience.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Fastest route from AA to MBA?

Has anyone previously transferred graduate level courses from Heriot-Watt into an undergraduate degree at Excelsior or TESC?
I want to be sure it can work that way before enrolling in either school.
I'll also need to find iout about the math requirements for the MBA since I have only had math up to intermediate algebra and don't remember any of it now. I'd need to refresh on algebra before going any further in math.

 

I don't know about TESC or Excelsior, but I know a former EBS student (Deb Cooper) got her BA from a B&M RA school this way. I think the details on how she did it is somewhere on the watercooler. http://forums.delphiforums.com/hwmba/

If not, you can probably contact her directly through there.

As for math requirements, I wouldn't worry about them. If you can add, subtract, divide, mulitply, and understand compound intrest, you are 99% there. Also the courses themselves do a good job on reviewing math before they get too hairy.

QM was the most math intensive course, but now that has been replaced by project management.
Plus, you can use a calculator on the exams.