Certificates, Stanford vs Cornell

Hi all! I'm a newbie to this forum... I've been lurking recently and havent really seen anything that would help so i figured I might as well ask than to keep on waiting! I currently have a BS in Finance and I'm currently taking a "break" before I do my MBA. Right now I'm only an Administrative Assistant and this is not the position that I want. My career goal is to be a risk analyst. Do you think that obtaining a certificate from Stanford, Cornell or University of Notre dame will be worth it and the way to go? I'm interested in the Financial Management certificate from Ecornell or the Strategic Decision and Risk Management at Stanford?

I'm leaning towards Stanford but the cost of Cornell is much cheaper and it seems like Cornell is more popular.

 

While I do not know the two cert programs you've mentioned I can tell you that, ingeneral, I am a big fan of cert programs. I think they do add skills, they suggest ambition and initiative and they provide a relatively affordable way to take a step forward on a career path.

 

Go with the one where the material covered is most online with your professional goals. Stanford has a stronger brand name, but both are excellent schools.

 

Plus, you get Stanford, Cornell or Notre Dame on your resume. The name recognition might help you get the job you want. I'm considering doing the same thing one of these days just to get a top tier name on my vita.

 

I agree with AUTiger. I am not an expert, but I don't think either of those are that in line with your goals. If I understand correctly, I think statistics courses are going to be more in line with your goals. And if you are sure you are going to get an MBA, those degrees are going to be somewhat redundant while stats courses are not.

Penn St and Texas A&M both look to have excellent applied statistics certification programs (and master's degrees) and have very good reputations.

Penn State | Certificate in Applied Statistics
Distance Education Statistics Certificates

 

UF and FSU also have graduate certificates in Risk Management (UF - Healthcare and FSU - Insurance). They could be worth exploring.

 

I would go with Stanford.
eCornel not all certificates are even accepted by Cornel in to Masters degree. They have CEU's and for additional fee and proctored exam can be ACE evaluated.

Stanford from what I'v seen actually cary credit toward MBA or Masters degree.

 

Thanks for the reply! Well the main goal for these certs is to open doors for me since I do not have an MBA. I figured getting certs from these schools will add a little "pizazz" on my resume considering I didn't get my BS from a top b school. Plus, the cost is more affordable than an MBA and I can get these certificates online and quicker. If I was to get a certificate for about the same cost as the statistics at Penn state I would prefer Cornell, Stanford, Columbia and etc simply because of the name. I've taken statistics courses before and as you say, it can be redundant. MBA is somewhere in the future, when exactly? I don't know...

Is this the right move? Or should I truly focus more on statistics to do risk analysis/banking?

So far seems like the votes are for Stanford, does this have a stronger brand name reputation than Cornell? Maybe it's just me but I feel like Cornell is much more popular, not only in the US but almost worldwide.

 

It depends: professional certificates are only valid for CEUs, but graduate certificates are valid for academic credit.

Strategic Decision and Risk Management Certificate is professional certificate, so it is not valid for credit.
Graduate certificates are much more expensive than professional ones.

 

I'm not sure that would apply in this case. Stanford seems to have master's degree, graduate certificates, and professional certificates. This is a professional certificate. The classes are cheaper and shorter.

On the graduate certificate page, it is clear the courses would count toward a degree.
Certificates & Degrees - Graduate Certificates | Stanford University Online

On the professional certificate page, it does not seem like they would as it only talks about CEUs and PDUs.
Professional Education Certificate | Stanford University Online

 

Hmm.. I also just noticed that Stanford has a risk analysis graduate certificate. Is this certificate better than the strategic decision and risk management professional cert? Then again the cost of this grad cert is 10-15k which could be put into the MBA instead... BLAH!

 

There is also a Quantitative Methods in Finance and Risk Management Graduate Certificate

 

It's just you - :yup:

FWIW - Stanford is ranked 5th on U.S. News and World Report college rankings for Tier 1 National Universities and Cornell is ranked 15th. My choice would be Stanford without a doubt.

 

Stanford has a much stronger global reputation than Cornell. If you ask people from other countries they tend to know 4 or 5 US universities; Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT and Stanford. beyond that, for what you want to do Stanford is much stronger. Stanford puts far more people into high level finance than Cornell does.

 

I second that - those are pretty much the american universities that people know abroad. I'd also throw UC Berkeley in the middle for pop culture reasons (as I explained in other post).

About the Stanford certificate:

My brother is completing the Strategic Decision and Risk Management certificate and he had a great experience so far (he's a mechanical engineer working in the oil industry right now).

The great thing (besides the Stanford brand) is the fact that the online and the oncampus certificates are exactly the same. You can actually mix some online classes and some oncampus classes (that's what he's doing).

 

Good to know!!! Now.... shall I stick with the Strategic decision and risk management or do one of their grad certs for twice or three times the price? I mean one of the reasons that I'm doing a cert is cuz it's affordable, so the less expensive it is the better (budget wise). But if that cert will not suffice (opportunity wise) then I guess I don't mind digging a bigger hole in my pocket...

 

All the schools are great, but I would go with Stansford.

 

With the differences pointed out between the professional and grad certs, I would personally choose the grad cert at the higher cost. While yes, it is more expensive and as you say 'using money that can go towards the MBA', depending on where you go for your MBA, you may be able to use some of the credits from the grad cert as transfer credits into the MBA program. (I haven't looked at the grad cert composition and haven't paid attention to MBAs or what they consist of lately, so YMMV, and I could be totally off base.) But ultimately, I think the grad cert would pay off in ways that the professional cert won't.

Good luck!

 

Thanks! Yeah, good point. I'm gonna talk to the schools that are my options for the MBA. Even though I'm not really sure when I'm going to do the MBA... this way I can get an idea whether or not theres a chance that the difference cost will be counted towards the MBA. If not, I guess I'll go for the prof cert.

Sounds like a good plan?

 

All that being said, think like an "MBA" and look at the return on investment. Is a certificate program worth the cost of an MBA? I would say no, but that's just me. To me the risk is too great because realizing a positive return on investment on say a $15K certificate program is much less likely than realizing a positive return on investment in a $3K one. There is also the opportunity cost to consider, if you took the same amount of money and time and actually earned an MBA, what is the benefit of that vs. the certificate program? What if you save time but still spend the same amount of money? Is your time that valuable? To me this is a money and opportunity game, though Stanford is better known, Cornell is still an Ivy school and it's not like you are weighing degree programs here. Certificates are valuable for all the reasons Kizmet gave plus they denote a specific skill, but their greatest value (to me) is that they provide low risk in specialization due to low cost and less time to earn (in most cases). Thus if the certificate becomes antiquated and no longer adds value, you've already milked the benefit (hopefully).