mAHARISHI uNIVERSITY OF mANAGEMENT

aNY INPUT ON THE MBA PROGRAM. tHANKS - HAVING SOME KEYBOARD PROBLEMS

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Maharishi U. is a regionally accredited school, so you can be confident that the programs will meet reasonable academic standards.

I don't know anything specifically about the business and management programs, but do keep in mind that the school is a little "non-mainstream" in its approach/thought/religious beliefs, teaching everything from an Ayurvedic perspective. If you can handle that, it should be a decent option to consider.

 

I've heard nothing but good things about the academic content of Maharishi's programs, but I second Chip's comment about the nontraditional atmosphere of the school--Maharishi is unorthodox even from a Hindu perspective. But there are certainly less useful skills in the world than TM (being one of the most approachable forms of meditation ever devised), so the on-campus residencies might very well be an awful lot of fun.


Cheers,

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Tom Head
www.tomhead.net

 

I was interested in this school a few years ago (before they started a DL program) so I obtained a catalog. I was surprised by the quality of the faculty. The courses seemed very well designed as well. I was actually kind of impressed.

Nevertheless, I'm afraid that traditional academics (and employers) are apt to consider this place flaky. It got the lowest USNews academic reputation score in the entire United States as I recall, probably entirely due to the "Maharishi factor".

So unfortunately there will be considerable prejudice against it. My personal opinion is that it is little different than a conservative evangelical Christian college that tries to put a Biblical perspective in every class.

Perhaps it might be best to consider its undoubted peculiarities (yogic flying and the "unified field of natural law") as analogous to the literal inerrancy of the Bible and a six-day creation. And then to remember that Hinduism is not as well established in the United States as conservative Protestantism.

 

I hate to say this, but USN&WR is the very definition of whitebreadism. If I recall, they gave the lowest ranking in the country--226th--to Nova Southeastern, which also (correct me if I'm wrong) happens to be the school that graduates more African-American doctoral candidates than any other. And the highest national ranking? If memory serves, to Cal Tech--which, at the time, had no African-American students. So I'm not sure we want to be in the same ballpark as USN&WR.

Now, yogic flying and the unified field of natural law... I see what you're saying, but these aren't really traditional Hindu concepts, either. The unified field of natural law is not entirely compatible with traditional Vedanta, which holds that the universe is the lila (game) of the gods; and while no small number of legendary yogis are attributed with flight, this sort of neat trick is treated in most varieties of mainstream Hinduism much as glossolalia is treated in the average Baptist church: "Sure, it happened, but it can't be invoked."


Peace,

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Tom Head
www.tomhead.net

 

Tom suggests"the on-campus residencies might very well be an awful lot of fun.

Especially if they still have those "yogic flying" domes on campus, and you gain admission.

 

Accredited. Well-established. Weird.

John Gray of "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" fame got his bachelor's and master's here. He was also a personal assistant to the Maharishi for about 8 years.

Maybe you'll get to meet Doug Henning.

The Beatles studied briefly under the Maharishi, but became disillusioned when he hit on Mia Farrow. The same reason I stopped going to Woody Allen flicks.

Rich Douglas

 

I have to reiterate what everyone else has said about the general weirdness of Mahirishi, and I think that it's a school that should definitely be avoided. About 15 years ago, I was, because of my interest in historic architecture, cheered when I learned that Mahirishi had restored an old brick house from the mid-19th century. The building was practically falling down, with massive cracks in the brick facade. They lavished about half a million dollars on this old house, restoring and renovating it to a high degree. It didn't just look like a renovated old house. It looked authentically restored, and they furnished it extremely tastefully with fine furniture, dark wood floors, and oriental rugs. However, Mahirishi has since made a habit of tearing down the historic old buildings on their campus because they do not chime with their (I think, rather flaky) religious beliefs. It's sad that they purchased their historic old campus and then gutted it.

Not only should Mahirishi be avoided because of its general weirdness, but it should also be avoided because the culture of the school and its proponents is so riven with money-grubbing hypocrisy. If you want to get some sort of degree in business, you probably want to be successful and make money. That's one thing. But to overlay that with mumbo-jumbo about spirituality and the oneness of the universe is quite another. I find that kind of hypocrisy rather hateful.

I once went to the Iowa City outpost of Great Midwestern Ice Cream, which was for a time a very successful entrepreneurial endeavor by a Mahirishi graduate until it was beaten down and destroyed by over-expansion. I spoke with the founder for a moment, and the guy was just a creep, with a you're-not-there belittling stare--that combination of the purest nastiness and an admixture of flakiness. Obviously, it's not quite fair to extrapolate from this that all Mahirishi graduates are that way, but I do think they often are.

What you'll find in Fairfield, the home of Mahirishi University, is a lot of entrepreneurs who use spirituality and their membership in an allegedly spiritual community to pursue money. And most of their entrepreneurial projects have an edge of New-Age pretension. (Perhaps I should mention that the "normal" people who remain in the area hate the Mahirishis and everything that comes with them.) If you want to pursue some sort of New-Agey business project, go to Fairfield and you may find success. But you will basically have to join a cult.

 

Bill is correct, as usual. The following institutions received the lowest academic reputation scores in their respective categories in the 2001 U.S. New and World Report rankings:

www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/corank.htm


National Universities - Nova Southeastern - 1.7

National Liberal Arts Colleges - Christendom College - 1.6

Midwestern Universities - Maharishi University of Management - 1.5

Midwestern Liberal Arts Colleges - Huron University - 1.7

Northern Universities - University of Bridgeport/Univ. of the District of Columbia - 1.8

Northern Liberal Arts Colleges - Boricua/Hilbert/Touro/Unity - 2.1

Southern Universities - Fort Valley State/Southern Arkansas/Troy State - 2.2

Southern Liberal Arts Colleges - Allen University/Sullivan College - 2.1

Western Universities - City University (WA) - 1.6

Western Liberal Arts Colleges - Paul Quinn College - 1.7


As Bill pointed out, Maharishi had the lowest score of all.

Mark

 

http://www.mum.edu/students/yogic-flying.html

 

It wasn't Mia that caused me to stop attending Woody Allen flicks, but when Woody hit on Mia's daughter.

Russell

 

http://www.mum.edu/students/yogic-flying.html [/B][/QUOTE]

I saw a piece on 20/20 or 60 Minutes (one of those type shows) that covered yogic flying. The camera crew was allowed inside the dome to film people "flying". The flying turned out to be people hopping across the floor while in the lotus position. Very impressive from a flexibility standpoint, but that's about it. Also, the domes are huge, which is pretty unnecessary considering the highest hops amounted to inches in height.

Bruce

 

I did some of this in my master's program, Bruce. It was during a semester break at Six Flags over Georgia--in the children's section. I think the ride was called "Bouncy Wouncy."

Russell