Thinking of Dropping St. Joseph's College in favor of NCU for MBA

Hello All,

I’m considering switching schools from the St. Joseph’s College MBA to the NCU MBA program. I was wondering if someone could provide a sample syllabus from any one of your classes to compare the workload.

Some of you are probably wondering why I would change schools after just starting at St. Joe’s and I suppose by answering that maybe I can answer some of the doubts in my own mind.

First, I love the St. Joe’s program and curriculum and the fact that they are primarily a campus based program and title IV. Lastly, I don’t have to take Statistics.

But NCU has some heavy weight in their corner. First, they are ACBSP accreditation candidates, which I assume they will have soon.

Second, they allow me to have an emphasis in Public Administration.

Third, I only have 11 more classes after completing this St. Joe’s course vs. the St. Joe’s 13 more classes.

Also NCU has classes start every month. St. Joe’s works in a more traditional semester format with 5 starts a year.

So other than no Title IV and the Statistics course, NCU looks more obvious. Did I mention St. Joe’s announced a $75.00 per class increase in tuition effective July? That puts them at about $300 a course more expensive than NCU since I’m in law enforcement and about $3900 cheaper overall….which isn’t chicken scratch.

So how is the feedback at NCU? For instance, I’m in week 2 of my course, week 3 in coursework and still have not received any grades. Getting financial aid on the phone was a pain until my student advisor gave me the assistant director’s extension. Are the mentors at NCU responsive?

Anyone who can help I’m all ears.

 

Sounds like you have already made up your mind to me.

Feedback at NCU is really mentor dependant - I have had assignments returned 20 minutes after I submitted them and I have had them returned a week later.

 

I had asked about NCU a few months back. I was told both by people here and the school that the writing assignments are intense and long. Still true I suppose.

 

Whoops......I messed up the math.....there is over a $5,000 difference in price overall.

 

Your past posts showed your excitement over the St Joseph program and it’s curriculum. Once you started the program you realized the commitment that a rigorous program commands. Now you want to switch to an MBA-Lite from a virtual university. Big deal if you have to take an extra couple classes at St Joseph - hey you'll get to learn a little more and be more valuable to an employer. $495/cr for NCU, thats a rip off. You can get AACSB MBAs for less than that!

 

Macattack......I think it is not the intensity of the work....that doesn't bother me. I think the price is high when I first started arguing what a great school St. Joe's was they were $280 an hour. In about 18 months it has increased to $375 an hour but really no reasonable explanation as to why.

Secondly, the no "big deal" additional classes are 3 classes at about $1100+ per course. $3,300+ to the overall cost plus the $300+ cost for the other classes. It adds up.

Lastly I like the public admin concentration, I thought about getting an MPA instead of an MBA, this looks like a nice compromise.

But I haven't committed to anything yet.

Just looking at the pros and cons.

 

Isn’t public administration sort of general, kind of like business administration? You would have a general specialization. I think that is why it is unusual. Is there a specific concentration such as leadership, marketing, management, accounting, etc. that would be more specific to your career goals. CSU-DH offers several concentrations now. The school is a candidate for the AACSB accreditation. And all for only $12,000 to $13,200 total. They accept 9 credits in transfer only leaving 7-8 remaining classes. http://mbaonline.csudh.edu/curriculum.asp

 

I'll take a look. Thanks.

 

My advice is to get studying at St. Joe's and stop all this navel-gazing about your original choice. If you transfer to another school, you'll find plenty to reconsider there, too. Get 'er done!

Dave

 

Stay with St Joe

I still have my thoughts on whether NCU will be around in 10 years. They are a for profit private school and could be sold off to the highest bidder if things go bad with their building program. Take a look at what is going on with Touro. The last I heard was that they are looking for a buyer. Do you want to be explaining to employers that your school was sold? I doubt St. Joseph is going anyplace. (not that it doesn't happen with non-profit school's, too.)

If you transfer to NCU I think your tuition will be more than what you are even paying now. Why would you want to pay more? If cost is more of a factor try looking at Cal State Univ-Dominguez Hills. They offer a good program for a great price. Also, look at Wyoming's eMBA program. It is AACSB, too.

 

Although I tend to agree with Dave,

I thought you might like this curriculum. It has electives in public administration, non-profit, strategy and leadership, and others. It’s AACSB. Tuition seems reasonable. http://www.marist.edu/management/mba/mbacurr.html

They have other online masters degrees in Leadership and Public Administration. http://www.marist.edu/gce/elearning/programs.html

 

Instead of paying $495 per credit, it's only $285 per credit for "friendorfoe" because he gets a police discount. With the police discount, it comes out to $855 for one graduate-level three-credit class. That's a significant tuition reduction that puts the program within financial reach for many public safety officers.

 

It's really odd that they single out certain folks for a discount and leave others to pay more for the same degree. Where is the love for the accountants

Even so, I'd still pay about the same and to go to Cal State. Or better yet, spend an extra few grand and get an AACSB degree from Nebraska! http://mba.unl.edu/distance.html Now thats a bargain!!

 

If the love isn't currently there for accountants, then create the love.

http://www.ncu.edu/our_partners.asp

 

How much longer do you have with St Joe's? Why not just finish it and move to NCU for a PhD or DBA? Is St Joe's really that bad?

 

St. Joe's isn't bad. It just isn't great. Maybe Southwestern College spoiled me, I don't know, but I had high expectations. And as far as how many more classes? 13 @ St. Joe's and 11 @ NCU. NCU is cheaper and seemingly faster. Plus the whold ACBSP thing....which isn't much of a consideration at St. Joe's.

I'll decide before this semester is concluded. I have an emotional attachment to St. Joe's if for no other reason than the months I spent day dreaming about going there. But when it comes down to reality, an MBA is an MBA and all things being equal, the ACBSP does matter somewhat and the cheaper tuition matters a little more and the 11 classes vs. 13 classes matters a little more than that.

My wife and I are waiting until I finish my MBA to have kids, I'm almost 30 and I'm ready to be done....but a BS in CJ isn't going to cut it for me and once I stop school, I'm done, going on to bigger and better things like starting a band again and maybe a side business or two. But mostly, trying to enjoy life....and though school is rewarding, joyful it isn't.

 

If you liked Southwestern so well, why don't you take their MBA? I seem to remember hearing good things about it.

 

More advice...

Don't wait to have kids. Nobody knows or cares you are waiting but you. Don't give the business school a blank check over your life. This happens at the doctoral level, too. The professors and administration dawdle while you put your life on hold to meet their (evolving) requirements.

Don't wait a second to have kids, get the band together, or start that second business. Go for it all. Moreover, ACBSP will mean almost nothing to you compared to the rich heritage of St. Joseph's since 1912; think of the Sisters of Mercy, all those prayers that went up, and their dream being fulfilled now in this online world.

Carpe diem, my friend...!

Dave

P.S. All my free advice comes with a double your money back guarantee.

 

I'll second everything that Dave wrote. I've had two children since I enrolled at Baker College and began my MBA. It's been 3 years since, and I'm 3/4 of the way through the program. I do most of the coursework between 8 and 11 PM after the kids are in bed, but the best part of the day are the hours between getting home and the 8pm bed-time. Don't wait on account of grad-school. Have your kids. Get the degree. It can be done and it's worth the extra work.

Good luck.

 

Friendorfoe,

Which St. Joseph's College are you attending, the one in Connecticut or the one in Maine? Are they both one and the same, with two different campuses? I presume that it's the one in Maine.

Here's what I found online:

• Saint Joseph College, Connecticut: http://www.sjc.edu/
  History: Saint Joseph College was founded in 1932 by the Sisters of Mercy to provide women a liberal arts education.
  (I wasn't able to find any online degrees)
  .
• Saint Joseph College, Maine: http://www.sjcme.edu/
  History: Joseph's was founded in 1912 by the Sisters of Mercy for men and women of all faiths.
  (I was able to find some online degrees)