NCU or Salve Regina

I am currently attending MBA at Chancellor University and most likely planning on transferring to NCU or Salve Regina University. I really enjoy my experience with Chancellor, but for the school to go from probation to "ordered to show-cause," has me very concerned. At 43 years of age, I don't have the luxury of time and money to take any chances. I don't want to be in a position of waiting until next year to find out they are no longer accredited and have my units become non-transferrable.

Right now, I'm currently on my second MBA class and pushing hard to complete my CPCU designation. I have three exams left and hoping to complete my CPCU by August. I am looking at the MBA in Finance at Northcentral for several reasons. For one, it has a specialization in finance and I can get 18 units completed. The second thing that is important to me is that the courses are self paced. Meaning, after I complete my CPCU, I can put 25 to 30 hours per week to finish these courses every 4 to 6 weeks. NCU mentioned they can accept the 2 graduate courses from Chancellor, so I could need 10 classes to get my MBA in Finance. The tuition would be 30 units x 475 for $14,250.

I have spoken with the people at Salve Regina University, and they will accept up to 12 units for my CPCU courses and MBA classes at Chancellor, and would need 24 units to get an MBA. 24 x 405 for $9,720. The only issue is that it's not a finance degree, and I don't want to look for another school to get 18 units in finance.

I have looked at APU and everything sounded great but they changed the core to 27 units, so I could need to get 45 units at APU to meet the 18 graduate credits in finance.

 

Joe, which school moved from probation to "ordered to show cause"? Was it Chancellor, Salve or NCU? Are you talking about accreditation issues?

 

Chancellor is the school that went from Probation to "Order to Show Cause" which is really sad because it's a very good school. I'm only into my second class and everything from the initial contact to enrolling, financial aid and learning environment has been the best experience I've had had with any school. One of the main reasons why I looked at the school is the Jack Welch's involvement, and the guest lectures that is being implemented. In the back of my mind I still want to get a finance specialization, which they don't' have. After working with the advisors and financial aid, it was such a great experience that got me to go with the school.

Bottom line, do I want to take a chance and keep going to the school with the possibility that the school could lose their accreditation? I don't know if I want to take that chance. Granted, the inspection of the school was done in Oct 2009 and the MBA program and other hiring of additional staff didn't come into play until after January 2010. Also, now that I'm into my second class, I can still get credits sent over to NCU and still get the MBA in Finance. Err, I'm so confused!

 

The schools was accredited at the time you earned the credits, so you should be able to transfer them if you decide to attend another school. In effect, don't rush into a decision based on transferability of the credits. That's a separate issue.

 

I agree Dave and the reason why I'm looking now because most of the schools accept 6 to 9 units. If I keep taking classes the rest of the year, I will have 18 units and not all of the credits would get accepted. If I make the move after this semester, I will not lose any momentum and NCU for example would accept the two classes, and I can study my butt off to complete the degree by next summer. My goal is to start studying for either the (CFA) Chartered Financial Analyst or (FRM) Financial Risk Manager designation once I complete my MBA.

 

joel66,

No doubt there’s some risk. However, it’s unlikely Chancellor (formerly Myers U) will lose its accreditation; those things just so very rarely have happened. The Show-Cause Order (dated 2/25/10) gives Chancellor until Dec. 2010 to provide its response. The university is accredited and will remain so, at minimum, through Feb. 2011. And Chancellor’s previous sanction of Probation (dated 10/2008) was removed 2/11/2010 by HLC-NCA; show-cause (a procedural order) isn’t a sanction. The Myers U ownership change, university name change to Chancellor, and going from a nonprofit to for-profit status was in Sept. 2008. The very next month (Oct. 2008) and under new 'private' ownership with a new university president in place, the sanction of Probation (since removed) was issued by HLC-NCA … merely coincidental; perhaps?

Note: “Following the 2005 comprehensive evaluation visit, the Commission was monitoring enrollment and finances at Myers when the institution signaled that it might close.” (Notice ‘enrollment and finances’ – nothing regarding academics or student outcomes).

 

Just to make everyone clear on this. When the show cause order for Chancellor was issued, I discussed this with a colleague who is an HLC Consultant Evaluator and has been in Ed for a very long time.

According to my colleague, show cause is worse than probation. What HLC is telling Chancellor is that you didn't address our concerns while on probation, therefore you have to explain to us why you should stay open.

The school remains accredited, so as long as that happens, credit should transfer. But since a limited number of credits would transfer anyway, what to do?

If you like the program at Chancellor, a letter, followed by a phone call, is in order. I'd want to see the specific action plan to address HLC's concerns. If the action plan is in place, and it looks reasonable, I'd stay with it. If not, transfer.

 

Hi joel66,

I am also considering CFA or FRM. What kind of work do you do? In order to become a CFA charterholder, one needs four years of investment experiences.

 

I've been handing general liability and personal/commercial auto claims for 18 years. I want to transition from claims into Risk/Financial analyst. I'm at the point in my career that I want to move away from claims. One of the main reasons why I'm doing CPCU because management is paying for it and it has some finance and risk management.

The reason why I selected Chancellor because I read and listened to some of the articles from people like Steve Kerr, who was former dean at USC, Noel Tichy from Ross School of Business and former head of GE's leadership development center, and Jack Welch who are working on the MBA program. They also hired a lot of staff over the past few months. Also, entire MBA is $9,000 including books for veterans. My reasoning at the time was the MBA has 6 units in finance, and I can take 4 additional classes and still save money. The dean at the school has mentioned he wants to get more graduate finance courses added to their curriculum. It's just that I was surprised that they school is still being looked at.

As for CFA and FRM, I'm still undecided. I want to do FRM because it seems to be tied in closer to what I want, but it appears that CFA would provide more opportunities if I can pass the first two exams and MBA to get my foot in the door in the finance field.

 

Shawn,

Here is the Announcment that came out after HLC posted their report.

 

Shawn I stand corrected; thanks for this information.

P.S. I would still suppose that loss of accreditation is essentially not likely; but an authoritative wake-up for Chancellor U nonetheless.

 

Here's an important question, how did Chancellor get into this situation in the 1st place? HLC's criteria are readily available, and with the money that the school has, why the heck didn't Chancellor hire a consultant with expertise to assist the school with the process? I work for a small tribal community college, and we hired a consultant to assist us with the development of program outcomes assessment.

Joel,

That press release wouldn't do it for me. I'd want an explanation of how Chancellor got into this prediciment, along with a draft of the action plan to get the situation fixed.

 

I'm thinking before Chancellor (then Myers University) was purchased by Michael Clifford and Jack Welch's donation, the school was in a decline mode with enrollment and just lost sight of their vision. Looking at the registration page, I'm seeing about twice to three times enrollment for 2010 graduate session 2 compared to 2009 Fall semester graduate session 1. I noticed when I checked my professor's LinkedIn page, it says she was a HLC and ACBSP evaluator/consultant and former dean with another school I know they are bringing more people on board. Maybe I'm just jumping the gun on this and wanted to get everyone's feedback if I am overreacting or not.

 

Schools do lose accreditation occasionally. Two schools in So. California that ran into accreditation issues in the last decade or so are:

Cal State University Dominguez Hills managed to avoid losing its accreditation but was placed on "warning" in 1999 by WASC and it took a tremendous amount of time and money to resolve the issues by 2002. I could not find the 2002 WASC report but a copy of the subsequent WASC review in 2006 is available here:
http://www.csudh.edu/WASC/Documents/PDF/WASCVisitingTeamFINALReport.pdf
A quick review will show you what accreditors are looking for when they re-accredit a university or college.

Compton Community College was told in June 2005 it would lose its accreditation and subsequently lost it in August 2006 - but the facilities were taken over by nearby El Camino College so student studies were maintained.
http://www.compton.edu/campusinformation/CampusHistory.aspx

 

In the Los Angeles area two schools went out of business (both due to financial issues):

West Coast University was a well regarded RA engineering oriented school that folded. I knew a professor who lost his job and several fellow employees were studying there.
It reopened under new ownership and now offers nursing programs and is now ACICS accredited (not RA). I think their web site is misleading when they talk about their 100-year history.
http://www.westcoastuniversity.edu/content.aspx?id=126


Northrop University closed in 1993
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_University

 

Not necessarily accreditation issues, but closed college listings by State:

http://www2.westminster-mo.edu/wc_users/homepages/staff/brownr/ClosedCollegeIndex.htm

 

Nichols College has an online MBA program, with an option for self-paced courses (that can be started on any Monday), or there are 7-week accelerated classes. Accounting/Finance is one of four disciplines offered.

http://www.nichols.edu/eveningonline/academics/graduate/Traditional_MBA_Curriculum.html

 

I've been reviewing the NCU website and found some syllabus on the net on some of the courses. The books are expensive! Some of the books are custom only to NCU, so I can purchase them from chegg or amazon.

Also, it appears my professor in my MBA class Dr. Turner was the prior dean of NCU's business dept. and noticing more new faces coming on board. I'm starting to think I should take my chances with the school. When I check the price difference by adding the books to the tuition, it's like 10,000 more to get my degree at NCU.

I want to get a finance degree, but it seems I would be better off getting my MBA at Chancellor and work on taking CFA exams, mainly the first 2 exams to show prospective employers my finance knowledge. I noticed books, exams and videos for around 150 dollars, plus 1,100 for the first exam. I noticed some really good material for CFA at Kaplan/Schweser which I'm using for my CPCU studying.