MBA Learner Again: From St. Joe's to Ashford U.

Okay,

I pulled the trigger today on Ashford University. I narrowed it down to them and Bellevue. The deciding factors were in the little details but the largest of them was at Ashford I can do an MBA with an emphasis in Organizational Leadership (which as you guys know was my whole reason for choosing St. Joe's) and at Bellevue my only or best option was an emphasis in "Interdisciplinary Studies".

So I guess once I finish my Econ class at St. Joe's, I'm out for good.

The thing with St. Joseph's is, it's not all their fault or mine necessarily. It all comes down to money and aid. They feel that my employer contributions to my education made me ineligible for fin aid. But without fin aid, I cannot do the program due to the stipulations and details of my reimbursement policies here. I still love the curriculum and regret that I cannot be a student there, but alas, it's not in the cards. Maybe somebody else can experience their school and tell us about it.

As for the good news, I'm excited about Ashford University, I cannot wait to start and will certainly give you guys a report on how things are going. So far there is very limited knowledge online that is student provided regarding their school, so maybe I'll be a trendsetter here. Maybe not.

Either way.......Go Saints!!!

 

Good for you. Good luck!

 

Good for you, buddy. Believe it or not, I was following your progression for some of the same reasons you gave for selecting the program.......I'm really wanting to do an MBA with a strong leadership or organizational leadership core, and St. Joseph's seemed a great avenue. To answer the obvious question, I'm doing the Touro ITM graduate program because it's the quickest, zero cost option option I have prior to retiring from the military.

The info you've provided on all the different programs and the care you've taken to relate the reasons is much appreciated, and will be invaluable when I can undertake the MBA at a later date. So in addition to congratulating you, I also wanted to say thanks.

Dave

 

Good for you! I'm glad you landed on your feet. I was immensely saddened to hear about your troubles with St. Joe's. They looked like a good school. DesElms sure did like them. But their financial aid policy, whatever it was, seemed a bit screwy. Hope you didn't lose too many credits in transfer. Best of luck in your new program.

 

Hey, great to hear. I'm glad I could help. I feel like if it helps someone else, then I'm not wasting my time doing......as Dave puts it....."navel gazing".

I'm glad to see that my itemized and much agonized line of thinking has been useful to someone. It almost makes the whole struggle worth it.

Regarding St. Joe's, I only have this one class to go off of, but you should be advised that if you are considering the independent learning method, you will receive very slow and very limited feedback, although you do get feedback eventually. Also they only use adjuncts for their online or independent learning MBA rather than faculty...if that's important to you.

A couple of unique and really neat things about them is that all of their assignment go to a standardized grading group, so your work is consistently evaluated from one assignment to another.

Secondly, the admission staff are super friendly and EXTREMELY helpful. Mine even helped me buy used books from a 3rd party unrelated to the school in the interest of saving me money. They really are great people (most anyhow) and it breaks my heart not to be a part of it, but they have policies...and I didn't get a heck of a lot of options from the financial aid folks, it took me about 6 calls to figure out every one of my options and a lot of research. As you can tell, none of them worked out. Their hearts seem to be in the right place though.

Lastly one more warning, if you are left leaning or democratic in your political views you are really going to hate the Econ class I was in. I don't know if the rest of the program is like that...but thought I'd throw what I do know out there.

 

I know, DesElms and I love the school for the same reasons and though I am certain he and I are different politically, we are much the same in demanding accountability from CEOs and businesses. Ethics and leadership are sorely lacking in todays business world and St. Joe's provided a little beacon of light that's hard to ignore by those of us so inclined.

I certainly don't feel slighted by them, just regretful of how it pans out.

As for Ashford, they started off as Catholic and their MBA offers a Leadership concentration. While not as "soft skills" approach as St. Joe's, they certainly prepare you for management positions.

As for the ethics and character building stuff, we'll see I suppose. But nothing will change who I am and what I believe. I will always work to be a better leader and person, whether it comes in a degree program or not. I suspect that Ashford is a very good program however and cannot wait to report on them. With 4 out of 12 classes based in Leadership....1/3rd of the program, it's gotta be a winner.