Massachusetts or South Dakota?

I finally decided to enroll in an MBA program.

My background: I hold a MS in Engineering and a PE license, I work in California, I am 49 year old.

My Future plans: I probably will not change employers, I may go into consulting. I would like to teach.

My options:

A - Obtain an MBA (part time or executive) from a recognized school in my area i.e. UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, but

1 - At my age I probably will not change my career but the degree will help me to boost my chances of promotion.
2 - Cost is important to me, since I receive very little in tuition reinbursement.

B- Obtain an online MBA with the following conditions

1 - USA based school
2 - AACSB (and regionally) accredited
3 - Not very expensive

I am getting most of the prerequisites (foundation) courses through CLEPs and DSSTs (Added to my Excelsior College transcript)

With these factors on mind I have narrowed my search to three programs:

1 - University of Massachussetts, Amherst: 37 units, $750.00 per unit total = $ 27,750.00

2 - University of Massachussetts, Lowell 30 units, $550.00 per unit, total = $16,500.00.

Since I live in California I doubt the most prestigious Amherst degree will be worth the $11,250.00 difference.

3 - University of South Dakota: 33 unit program $337.05 per unit total = $11,122.65 (but I would probably have to take 2 courses = 6 units of foundations) and the program demands a 5 day residence on campus.

The real difference in price between the last two programs for me, is around $4,000.00 or less.

Questions:

1 - Do you think the Umass name in my resume would be worth the extra 4000 bucks?

2 - Do you have another suggestions or factors I failed to consider?

Thank you

 

Don't you hate it when people respond to your question with another question? Here's mine: if it was me I'd say no, go to the cheapest program but that's just because I'm poor. If I actually had the money I'd go to the more prestigious school. How hard would it be to cough up the 4K (or the 12K?)

 

If you're not looking at changing jobs, I'd go with USD. It's AACSB accredited, I wouldn't imagine you'd have a problem teaching part time with that.

I'd take the difference in cost and go on a nice vacation.

 

Just judging by names, 'U. Mass. Lowell' doesn't impress me any more than 'U. of South Dakota' does. 'U. Mass. Amherst' might, but not $16,627 worth.

Perhaps things might be different if you are thinking about consulting. In that application, where part of the degree's purpose is to impress other people and to puff you up, higher prestige degrees probably do have more utility, even if they aren't really better in any measurable way. I don't know how applicable that would be to you though, if chemical engineering is your main focus and business is additional. Others can speak to this better than I can.

Another thing that you might want to think about are the strengths and emphases of each department. Do any of them offer advanced coursework in areas of special interest to you? Are any of the schools particularly congruent with the kinds of thing's you've been doing at work?