Starting Ashford MBA

Discussion in 'Business and MBA degrees' started by PatsGirl1, Jul 13, 2010.

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  1. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    I know we are a DL board, but for anyone who is willing to do this on campus, they give full ride and free dorm if you maintain a 3.5GPA. This school is in my community, and oddly, there are still students paying for classes at my college instead of taking them here for free. <shrug>
    From their website:

    Are scholarships available to transfer students?
    Yes, as a transfer student you may qualify for scholarships in athletics based on your skill level or on academic merit. First, complete your FAFSA and have it sent to Ashford. Our Financial Aid Office will determine any financial aid that is available to you. The academic merit scholarships are based on your GPA and include the following:


    The Dean's Scholarship (3.00-3.24 GPA) awards $10,000 toward your tuition per academic year;
    The Provost's Scholarship (3.25-3.49 GPA) awards $12,500 per academic year; and
    The President's Scholarship (3.5+ GPA) awards 100% of tuition paid per academic year. That amount is currently $15,720! An added benefit for recipients of this scholarship is that they may also apply for complete room and board-a $6,000 value-through completing a separate President's Scholarship Room and Board Application.

    Ashford University – Top accredited university since 1918 – Transferring credits
     
  2. PatsGirl1

    PatsGirl1 New Member

    That's a deal I would totally take, Jennifer... sadly I can't since I'm in MI :(
     
  3. rcreighton

    rcreighton New Member

    Re: Ashford MBA

    That is rather accurate as I also experienced this earlier on in my MBA classes. Wait until you get to Managerial Economics. When I started that class, there were 33 students at the beginning. Six weeks later at the end of the class, there were 18 of us left. You will definitely see a trend of those who take this degree seriously, while others are either wannabes or simply cannot hack it as they drift away and eventually disappear.
     
  4. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    >>

    LOL, well after I wrote that I thought "crap! I'm one of those people I just slammed!!" So, I'm actually meeting with an advisor tomorrow- I'm going to see if I can 'enroll' and finish out my sciences with them. That'd save me serious $$, probably about 12 grand.
     
  5. friendorfoe

    friendorfoe Active Member

    So Ashford gives a full ride to those on campus who can hang with a 3.5 GPA? Man, what a sweet deal.

    Wait, I thought these guys were an "evil for profit" school so you must be mistaken. The only way they could be doing this is by beating up homeless children and taking their milk money when we're not looking (sarcasm).

    @Patsgirl Thanks for the updates on your MBA. I agree, you will see the drop rate skyrocket once you hit the quantitative methods part, especially economics if they make it that far. Most of the ones that dropped out of my MBA program ended up going for the Master of Arts in Organizational Management degree or the "moms" as we called them. I met a few of them at graduation and had a great time picking on one of them who kept trying to convince me that his MOM was the same as my MBA. Actually he was addressing a group of the MBA grads so we were all having a good time with him. :D
     
  6. PatsGirl1

    PatsGirl1 New Member

    Is there something wrong with me that I'm kinda looking forward to the Quant Hump? I like having to actually think and challenge myself... my job doesn't use my brain and neither did my undergrad so I'm liking this whole "learning Business concepts I never thought of" thing...

    Ask me again in 6 months and I might be crying and denying I ever said that, though lol
     
  7. BlueMason

    BlueMason Audaces fortuna juvat

    Thankfully this thread will still be here and we can point everything out to you in case of any doubt :D

    Keep up the good work!
     
  8. friendorfoe

    friendorfoe Active Member

    No it doesn't make you odd, it makes you naive:D (joking, if you've got to learn it somewhere it may as well be AU, they have a very good approach).

    By the way if you haven't signed up for Introduction to Quantitative Methods prior to Managerial Econ, Finance or Accounting you should, the course plugs right into the others perfectly. I can't remember if it's "introduction to quantitative methods" or just "quantitative methods" either way it's the leveling course.
     
  9. rcreighton

    rcreighton New Member

    Re: Ashford MBA

    That is the kind of attitude and desire that will get you through those types of courses successfully. I used to be leery of quantitative classes in general due to my lack of exposure to them. I decided that I would face them head on in my MBA journey instead of avoiding them. My reward is that I have successfully passed all of them and you will too. I definitely agree with Cajun that you should take BUS 599, Introduction to Quantitative Principles. It is a good introduction to accounting, finance, and economics without getting too overwhelmed in the six week period.
     
  10. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    AND you get free dorms. But, that's only for the people who get the 3.5GPA scholarship. Clinton is kinda in the middle of nowhere, I mean unless you ALREADY lived around here you probably wouldn't move here. But, I wouldn't hesitate to send my kids.
     
  11. friendorfoe

    friendorfoe Active Member

    I thought Clinton was beautiful, right on the river and everything. I saw a police station nearby that was a 2 story house. Talk about a picturesque little town. That being said when I was 19-21 I would have been bored to tears there, but now that I'm older and appreciate tranquility, I'm going to try and send my kids to college in a town like that :D
     
  12. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    >>

    No crime, very small town. It does smell though (corn plant) and it's still about a half hour outside of the "metro" area known as the Quad Cities. At least they have a Walmart :) The college I work for also has a campus there. There certainly are worse places to be.
     
  13. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    I would consider having a Walmart a negative. But I live in crazy, crowded So Cal and would appreciate a tranquil place too.
     
  14. PatsGirl1

    PatsGirl1 New Member

    Another mini update...

    Class is 2/3 done; I have a 98.6% thus far... Even more people have dropped out... I am learning SO much and it is kicking my butt! I'm no academic slouch, but this is definitely accomplishing what I wanted, which is give me a good background in business concepts I didn't think of previously and making me use my brain.

    Only issue I've had with AU is my advisor. She sent me one (rather snotty) email and when I answered back, never bothered to respond to me. I'll continue to deal with her as little as I have to, and if she gets worse I'll just request a new advisor. No biggie; she's the only person I've come across at AU who is even slightly unhelpful. I know they're a for-profit so they have better customer service, but I appreciate it, especially because I last dealt with TESC lol

    Only 14 days left of this class!
     
  15. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Ashford is a for-profit institution that offers both on-campus and online programs. However, Ashford offers very different financial incentives to on-campus vs. online students. Good students who are willing to study on-campus get free tuition (as well as free housing). However, the attractive free tuition deal is not extended to online students.

    Now why would Ashford offer this "sweet deal" to on-campus students specifically? It seems reasonable to assume that Ashford loses money when they educate and house students for free, and this certainly seems like unusual behavior for a for-profit. And at first glance, the B&M operation doesn't seem like a key part of the Ashford system. There are only about 600 on-campus students, as opposed to some 45,000 online students.

    So what's going on? One possible explanation: Ashford may have an important reason for keeping the B&M campus operational, despite its small size.

    The Ashford campus was historically operated as Mount St. Clare College, a non-profit, Catholic liberal arts college with some online offerings. The College ultimately faced declining enrollments and financial difficulties, and was sold to for-profit Bridgepoint Education in 2005.

    The College had a key asset: regional accreditation, which it has held since 1950. It retained its RA after it was bought by Bridgepoint and renamed as Ashford. But it seems likely that Mount St. Clare College applied for and earned accreditation as a B&M school. If this is the case, then Bridgepoint may need to keep the B&M operation healthy, in order to maintain its existing RA status in good standing. So it may be a sound business decision to subsidize the relatively few on-campus students, if this maintains the RA for the much larger online operation.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 23, 2010
  16. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef


    I have no doubt this is the plan. This motive, however, works for the student. They are VERY clep/transfer friendly btw. 90 alternative credits towards a bachelor's degree is pretty generous. This is a small community, and the only other college is Clinton Community College (my employer's sister campus) and tuition is cheap. We are much bigger than Ashford, but we don't have anything other than associate degrees. Also, Ashford and CCC have articulations with many 4 year Iowa colleges. Ashford even has a few accelerated options which cut a year or two out of a BS-->MS type program. They have sports (we don't at CCC) and they have dorms (we don't at CCC). The transfer incentive, IMO is certainly geared at taking our (CCC) students. Why go to a cc when you can go to Ashford for free? There are a few down sides that kept me from registering this semester. 1) no night classes. This was a HUGE bummer for me. 2) schedule changes. You are not promised a certain class time. Again, huge bummer. I have a family/job, I can't just wing it.

    As a side note, they require you to apply for financial aid in order to apply for the scholarship. I don't know enough about financial aid to know what's in it for them. They absolutely will give this scholarship to anyone who qualifies- classes started today, and I applied on Thursday- no problem they told me. I asked if there were a certain number awarded, if i needed a letter of rec, etc. And she said unofficial transcripts to apply- official to accept. Award renewable. I tell ya, it's a beautiful thing. I still wouldn't hesitate to send my children, I don't think it's a fit for me at this time, but overall I was very impressed.

    EDIT- I wanted to add that the advisor who helped me knew less than I did about general stuff (but she wasn't an idiot) however was very friendly and did a lot of leg work for me. I figured she was building up for the big sell, but when I told her I changed my mind about enrolling, she was 100% no pressure. She told me to call her if I changed my mind. Didn't ask why/what/where/etc. They must be taking the no-pressure selling very seriously.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 23, 2010
  17. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    B&M universities (including non-profits) are sometimes accused of using DL programs as "cash cows" to help subsidize their traditional programs. Ashford may be the ultimate example of this practice. Ashford's on-campus students (who represent less than 1.5% of the total enrollment) get free tuition and free housing, courtesy of the revenue from the online students (who represent over 98.5% of the enrollment). It's an interesting side effect of the accreditation situation, and one which could clearly work to the benefit of a prospective on-campus student.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 23, 2010
  18. PatsGirl1

    PatsGirl1 New Member

    In my final week of class now (6 days to go!) and things are getting hectic. My course grade is down to a 97% due to a B grade on last week's paper :( In fairness, though, it wasn't my best effort. I'm working on my final paper for the course right now, and it's a challenge to enthusiastically write about my topic for 8-10 pages. Plan is to finish it early on Thursday night and then take a long 4 day Holiday weekend to unwind before starting my next course, Organizational Behavior.

    Fixed the issue with my advisor, who is quite helpful to me now. :D

    Also, as an aside to anyone who may want to go to AU and use Financial Aid, if you double up on courses in a 6 week term you may be responsibly for paying for the 2nd course OOP as FA covers one course. In theory, anyway. But the loan amounts they set over-disburse so you could just hold on to your disbursement check and use that $ to pay for the 2nd course (which is what I plan to do), effectively ensuring you're not really paying anything OOP. I plan to double up in one session (NOT any of the Quant sessions most likely lol) to graduate 6 weeks sooner.

    Still loving AU and still happy I decided to go for my MBA! :)
     
  19. -kevin-

    -kevin- Resident Redneck

    Heather,

    Keep up the good work. Don't forget to decompress a little between classes.

    best wishes,
     
  20. PatsGirl1

    PatsGirl1 New Member

    93% (A) final grade in my Mgrl Comm class, because of a B on my final paper :( Oh well, an A for a final grade is an A. Org Behavior started and seems to be ok so far. 29 people in this class (until some drop lol).

    Still love AU. Work load is doable, albeit requires the student to put forth a lot of effort. Still happy with my choice. :)
     

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