affordable distance MBA

Because I've said some negative things about the acceptability degrees from DETC-accredited schools, let me indulge in an annoying practice of arguing the alternative:

A recent study by John Bear shows that 20% of admissions officials say that degrees from nationally accredited schools (like schools accredited by DETC) are not at all acceptable for admission to their RA schools. Well, that means that 80% of respondents said that such degrees were at least somewhat acceptable. Also, we don't know if the 20% figure would hold up applicant-by-applicant. It's one thing for an admissions official to respond to a survey; it's quite another to reject an otherwise qualified--not to mention tuition-paying--student because you don't like the source of his/her degree. Especially if that student will take up a seat that would otherwise go unoccupied.

As far as the employment market goes, we just don't know. There is no reason to suppose such degrees are less marketable. There is good reason to suppose that such degrees are very marketable, given the tremendous growth in the number of distance schools--DETC-accredited or not--in the past two decades. Of course, the same could be said for diploma mills, but I digress.

None of this is meant as an endorsement for folks to go out and register in DETC-accredited schools. But like most things in this field, there are few black-and-white situations and solutions, and the ones that are remain highly personal.

Rich Douglas

 

John, that is interesting. Especially in view of the fact that H-W's program is based largely on in-house training approaches, it should resonate well with many employers.

I ordered their Organizational Behavior course and find the text very well put together.

 

Remember that the comparisons in my post addressed the RELATIVE UTILITY of DETC v RA degrees. As I remember the study, RA degree acceptability rates were significantly higher than DETC degree acceptability rates where a degree was used for the purposes of admission into graduate programs.

That is what is stated in my post. I think that position is indisputable.

But this is, I'm sure you will agree, speculation. I kept focus on the relative utility of RA v. DETC degrees. And again, I think Bear's study indicates RA degrees have significantly greater utility in this context than DETC degrees. Do you dispute that?

Further, there are no empirical data of which I'm aware, that corroborate your suggestion that DETC degrees may find wide acceptance when used in submission for entry into RA graduate school (and in sum, that does seem to be what you are suggesting). That cannot be reasonably extrapolated from the available data. All you offer in this respect is speculation, is that not so?

That is simply not true.

At least some employers specify RA degrees required. That in and of itself tips utility in favor of RA degrees in terms of aggregate relative utility.

There is no, none, zip, zilch, nix, and nada, necessary correlation between growth of distance learning schools as a whole, and the acceptability or otherwise of DETC degrees for the purposes of employment. There is no good reason to suppose, based on that general growth, that DETC degrees are "very marketable". It does not follow necessarily or even reasonably.

Again that conclusion is not supported by the available evidence.

In fact, Rich, I think there are black and white situations, and those are detailed in my post. Namely, when COMPARING UTILITY, an RA degree will likely trump a DETC degree. That was the specific message in my post, in reply to the question, "why not a DETC program rather than a third-level RA program?"

There is clear evidence that RA degrees will have greater utility than DETC degrees within the contexts and to the extent detailed in my original post.

 

Hi, Jonathan.

I'm not sure. I believe that CSUDH's distance education offerings are under continuous review, both within the campus itself and by the CSU systemwide headquarters in Long Beach. So it's kind of hard to say where the impetus for a particular change came from. At one point, I think that the HUX program was talking about putting in a GRE requirement, but that never happened.

But your suggestion is certainly plausible. Requiring the GMAT does sound like the kind of thing that the AACSB would want to see. Does anyone know of an AACSB program that doesn't require it?

 

Well, duh! The notion that an RA degree is more acceptable and marketable overall isn't seriously disputed. I simply noted that it isn't a simple "yes" or "no" regarding the utility of DETC-accredited degrees.

The collected data does support someacceptance of DETC-accredited degrees by admissions officials.

I did say there is no evidence that DETC-accredited degrees are less marketable in the workplace. I meant that this question has not been studied. I certainly agree with Lawrie that these degrees are not as marketable, but no one has measured to what extent this is so. Remember, the degree has to be useful only to its holder.

"Why not a DETC-accredited program?" As usual, it depends. To not see this is simply not being willing to grasp the complexities of the issue. It is just too simple to say "get an RA degree." There are so, so many other options out there that thousands of people have been using for decades. Industries grow because customers use and enjoy their products. The proliferation of distance learning schools--including those accredited by DETC--is a direct result of the utility of these degrees in the marketplace. If this wasn't true, users would have abandoned these long ago. The increasing demand leads to greater supply.

Rich Douglas

 

Geez Lawrie, you should have become a lawyer.

 

Hi,

Columbia Southern and Andrew Jackson has good costs (about $5K). I haven't noticed any RA with such costs.

ISIM University has significantly larger cost and in this case it really isn't clear why not RA.

It looks like Regis isn't the most affordable from RA:

Total for program excluding shipping is $16,681.00.

So far Bellevue university http://www.bellevue.edu/ looks the most interesting for me from RA. Did somebody have any experience with them?

One more interesting choice is
Jones International University (http://jiu-web-a.jonesinternational.edu) that claims RA from the North Central Association: "is the first fully online, accredited university"

By the way, there are other internet universities which claims RA: Capella and Touro University (more expensive although). Perhaps it is a trend in the distance education.

Thanks!

Alex