Canadian Grad School after Excelsior

Hello everyone,

Have you heard of people's experiences getting into a Canadian grad school (e.g. McGill or Concordia) after completing an Excelsior (or other Big 3) BS degree? Is it doable or will I be seriously disadvantaged because I don't have a traditional degree?

I've asked this question in a previous thread, but I'd like to post it here to hopefully get input from people who have had that experience, or know of people who have.

Thank you!

 

McGill said outright that ANY distance education degree would not be accepted for entry into their MBA program, regardless of accredation. That's pretty surprising, I don't know that university were still this rigid about DL.

 

Here in Montreal, McGill is known for its rigid and arrogant administration. Although I wish I had gotten a different answer, this one falls in line with what I've heard about them before.

 

Would this apply to distance learning degree from a regular B&M school?

 

I didn't ask her about that, but I wouldn't think so. I know that most Canadian institutions offer SOME coursework by DL, so I don't think that they would disqualify anyone just because they took DL courses.

 

This does not surprises me. McGill is pretty strict for its admissions. Even if you have a traditional degree, the required GMAT is 600 or more.

You may have a better shot at Concordia, Concordia is not as strict as McGill and the GMAT requirements are lower.

 

That's interesting. I was given to understand that the GMAT requirement at Concordia was higher than McGill, while the GPA requirement was lower. On their website Concordia advertise the GMAT requirement as minimum of 600 (as in absolute minimum, not definite acceptance minimum). From memory I though the Concordia GMAT average for admitted students was around 650, and McGill was something in the 620-630 range, and GPA average around 3.3 for Concordia and something close to 3.7 for McGill.

 

You are right, it used to be 580. I'm a McGill graduate but when I applied the requirements were 580. The trick at Concordia is to apply to the M.Sc in Administration that has a lot less competition and less points required for GMAT (550).

In general, the problem with schools like Excelsior is that
If a students shows up with a degree earned in one year, the admissions official would think that there is some kind of a problem with the degree and possible fraud.

Admission is not as straight forward as having an accredited degree from a RA school. Officials normally check for the reputation of the school and check the transcript for inconsitencies (like a degree earned in a year).

The best way to secure admissions is to get a degree from a goverment based institution as officials tend to feel these are more reliable. A UNISA degree wouldn't raise any eyebrows given that is goverment based but I wouldn't think the same for private school.

There are so many private schools that have goverment accreditation that hand degree with little effort over the world that Universities are always more careful when they see a private school.

 

I agree about the MSc in Administration. It doesn't have the cachet of an MBA but it's a great degree for a BComm graduate, and as you say not as competitive for entry as the MBA.

Of course the John Molson MBA is now a lot more competitve that it was even 5 or 10 years ago.

If one must have an MBA from a Montreal English language school then my advice is get together $55,000 and do the Concordia Executive MBA.

 

I have the opportunity to complete a General 3-year BA in Liberal Studies (no major) from the University of Waterloo in 2 years, since I've already gone to school there and have completed a full year of coursework.

Would that route make it easier for me to get into McGill or Concordia MBA (if I get a great GMAT score)? Is a "general studies" degree looked down upon?

Thanks,

 

From what I've read, the three year general bachelor's is not the ideal degree for someone hoping to go to grad school.

 

Thanks Steve & Ted.

Steve: I have been contacting them, but their responses are horribly slow. I still haven't received a response for a question I asked 10 days ago . I figured I'd ask people who might have experience in the area.

 

Although I went to Concordia and feel this makes me an expert on all obscure points about Concordia I really have no idea. I wouldn't think they would have a big problem with a 3 year degree but I really have no idea. I would expect that you might need a bit higher on your GMAT and maybe a bit better than average resume to compensate.

I would suggest forget emailing and just pick up the phone and give them a call at this point, this is definitely a point you would be best off clearing up with the school directly.

Why Concordia or McGill? Depending on your circumstances you might be interested to know that Universite du Quebec en Outaouais runs some English MBA programs and is only 1.5 to 2 hours from Montreal. I know they offer a joint MBA/CMA program with no GMAT required (5 years work experience and the ability to write a $20,000 cheque required). I believe there is also a MBA project management. Note these are not distance learning programs.

 

By the way, Concordia degrees are also 3 years as the CEGEP is required for admission and this counts for 2 years after high school.

I don't see a problem with a Bachelor's degree in general studies. My suggestion is to do the GMAT and apply to the MBA and M.Sc. I have seen few students that register first in the M.Sc and then transfer to the MBA. The M.Sc has a lot less competition as it requires a thesis and GMAT requirements are only 550.

There are Montreal programs that are in English but more expensive as the one year MBA at HEC.

Just be careful about a school named Managment Institute of Canada (http://www.micanada.org/). They offer an English MBA in one year, the program actually is similar to the Concordia's MBA but the program is not recognized by the minister of education of Quebec. The problem is that in this province is not illegal to offer MBA programs as long as you don't claim that they are recognized by the Minister of Education. I know this opens the doors for degree mills although I'm not saying that the Management Institute is one as I don't know the program. There are other few MBAs running by private organizations in Quebec as the MBA business is very lucrative. The problem is that I doubt that graduates from these schools could be absorbed by the local market that does not recognize these schools.

 

Good call on HEC, I've heard about that program but never looked into it and had really completely forgotten about it.

Do you know how the admission standards vary for Concordia between the full time and part time MBA programs?

 

I’ve heard that the HEC program is excellent, but the English stream is only available in the accelerated 1-year full-time mode and not in part-time.

 

True, but I didn't do CEGEP so I would have to complete 3 full years at Concordia, since my previous university work will only be used to waive the CEGEP requirement. At Waterloo, on the other hand, my existing coursework would account for 1 year, which means I would have another 2 years to go only. Mind you, I'm sure that in terms of knowledge and skills acquired a BComm is a much better idea than a General BA, especially as a preparation for an MBA.

What do you guys think?