Advising for MS Finance or MBA Finance Options

Hello all!

As many of you know, I am a full-time faculty member at a community college. I also advise students, and I'm looking for some advice from our great DL experts.

This student has bounced around some, overcame some difficulty in her life and is on pace to graduate with an AS-Business Administration in May 2011. She is projected to earn 80 credits at my institution. She has indicated to me that her long-term plans are a Masters Degree in Finance, and due to distance from a B/M campus and being a single mom, she wants earn her BA/BS and MBA/MS online.

Because she has so many credits from our CC, I believe her best BA/BS option is the BSLS from Excelsior. She could choose the Major Option 1 (Business) with Depth Requirement 2 - Mathematics (Needs a 300 level math course).

With that in mind - assuming sucessful completion of the BSLS, would you recommend an MBA - Finance concentration, or an MS in Finance. Thanks!

Shawn

 

First of all congratulations to this student for aiming high and overcoming obstacles. A few thoughts:

1) it's easier to find MBA in Finance programs than MS in Finance programs, and the MBA has better name recognition
2) If she does go for the MBA, which is the slightly safer choice because of its more general nature, she should be certain to meet any prerequisites the MBA program may have so she can avoid having to take leveling courses
3) Most important-what is (are) her career goal(s)?

I'd go with an MBA in Finance, and I have an MS in Finance from the UK's University of Leicester (which is a fine program).

 

Some MBA programs require up to 48 semester units whereas an MS usually requires 30 to 36 units.

The AMU MBA requires 39 units and has a finance option - cost is around $11K.

Note also that many MBA programs have prerquisites that can be filled at the BS level.

 

A couple more things to consider. The first areas is about your student's math aptitude. MS finance programs are typically quantitative. If there is doubt about your student's math abilities, the MBA route with a finance concentration may be a way to hedge the aptitude risk. After starting a program, if s/he cannot handle the maths, an MBA program more offers options to shift to other areas of business and complete the degree whereas an MS in finance has relatively few options out of quantitative areas.

The second item s career related. There are fewer jobs in finance now and many jobs may never return. Other things being equal, an MBA seems like a 'safer' employment route for many people. An MBA holder is often perceived as a generalist and MS finance is perceived as a specialist. MBA programs are usually multi-disciplinary leading to this employer perception. If your question came up 10 years ago, I would give the opposite advice in this area. But now, finance jobs are thin and the career risk is higher because the financial sector is much different than it once was.

 

I've been thinking about this all evening, and I believe that the Excelsior BSLS is the right choice - and she can use some of her Exclesior Credits to fill the MBA Prerequsites.

Having said that, I believe she needs to do a Brick and Mortar MS/MBA. Hayward, WI is very rural, and my concern is that while she can do the online work for an MS/MBA - she'll have the degree with very little networking opportunity...and then what? The student in in her early 30's with 4 kids, and while pulling up and leaving is a scary prospect, she'll have far more opportunity if she goes away.

Shawn

 

I obtained my BS in General Business at Excelsior and almost went the BSLS route. I am so glad I didn't do BSLS since I am working on my MBA now. When I took Corporate Finance at Davenport, I noticed some people who didn't take enough math and other finance or accounting courses were struggling. I would recommend that if the student wants to get an MBA in Finance should consider Excelsior's Business in Finance or Accounting. Reason being, I was in the same boat where I had over a 100 credits from different schools and SCLA designation. I noticed the business degree at Excelsior was not that far off from the BSLS route. Also, your student would have more options on getting a business degree because they will meet many of the foundation courses.

 

She could stay put in Hayward and take MBA classes at UMD on evenings and weekends. And I know one person who told me he was taking a UMD MBA course via internet. Duluth is only 75 miles away.

https://lsbe.d.umn.edu/mba/mba.php

 

I forgot about St Scholastica. They have an MBA concentration in finance. I believe some classes are offered online.

http://resources.css.edu/Academics/MGT/docs/MBACurriculumRevisions2010.pdf