Yet another case of a school discriminating against a for profit school

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by bpreachers, Jan 6, 2011.

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  1. major56

    major56 Active Member

    Another online AACSB MBA link (you’ll need to locate your concentration area of interest); however, I think Cleveland State offers the MBA in Healthcare Management /administration (?):
    AACSB-Accredited Online MBA Programs. Official AACSB International Student Website.

    P.S. I'm in agreement with AUTiger regarding GWU and Suffock in comparisons with SJU.
     
  2. Ike

    Ike New Member

    That's not entirely true. A school that has ABET accreditation in computer science or information Technology might not accept a student who graduated from an unaccredited computer science program. Besides, it is the target school that decides what to accept and what to reject.
     
  3. dlcurious

    dlcurious Member

    At one point I was interested in ODU's MS in CIS program, which is under the school of CS, and they required some accreditation for undergrad degrees to qualify their holders to attend. It wasn't AACSB or ABET, hell, at this point I don't care what it was, but this was the first example of program accreditation being a factor in the decision making process that I was ever exposed to.
     
  4. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    The part-time MBA program at SJU is relatively popular; they have many more applicants than they can take. So this means relatively competitive admissions. The acceptance rate for Fall 2010 was only 63.6 %, which is a low rate for a program of this kind. So on average, they reject more than one applicant out of three.

    How do they decide which applicants to reject? One factor that they almost certainly consider is the selectivity of an applicant's undergraduate program. Since they can afford to be selective at the graduate level, they would like to enroll students from schools that were selective at the undergraduate level. If you went to an unselective school with "open admissions", then realistically you are at a disadvantage in this situation.

    I would suspect that the SJU MBA program probably discriminates against all unselective schools, whether they are for-profit or non-profit. In other words, an applicant from a third-tier state school with relaxed admissions standards probably wouldn't have a good chance either. But it's harder to generalize about non-profits: some are selective, but others aren't. In the case of for-profits, it's reasonable to assume that they are all unselective.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 6, 2011
  5. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    The ODU MS-CS program currently looks for the following in admissions:

    CSAB is essentially a division of ABET that handles CS accreditation. So basically ODU is looking for applicants that have undergraduate degrees with appropriate programmatic accreditation by ABET or AACSB (not just RA).
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 6, 2011
  6. NorCal

    NorCal Active Member

    I had a feeling these types of things would happen eventually to for-profit schools. Its too bad for the good ones, buts that is why I never looked into a for-profit school. Its not the school itself, but the negative perception in general.
     
  7. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    It may not be fair or even reasonable but, it is a fact that some people hold for-profit schools in low regard. We've had a number of people that have posted in this forum that have had such an attitude. I have the impression that this kind of attitude is more common amongst those employed at not-for-profit schools?
     
  8. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    I think the majority in the general population have a negative view of for-profit education. Like it or not, it is viewed as inferior, and several of those school's antics as of late have done nothing to help change the perception.
     
  9. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    How often does this happen? I thought that these types of schools generally boded well for their alumni, while the discrimination was more of an exception. I also thought that grad schools looked at much more than just your undergrad degree or where it came from :confused:
     
  10. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Which would not necessarily be a problem, except for one thing: the higher ranked, best accredited, more selective, and more prestigious schools are virtually all non-profit.
     
  11. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

    Umass-Lowell?
     
  12. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Harvard Law School posts a list of the undergraduate institutions represented in its student body. For 2010-2011, there were 261 schools represented.

    How many for-profit schools do you see on that list?

    Sure. For example, top grad schools are also very interested in standardized test scores (GRE, MCAT, LSAT, etc). But that doesn't help graduates of for-profit school either. Most for-profits don't require standardized tests (SAT, ACT, etc.) at the undergraduate level, so there is no assurance that a graduate of a for-profit school will get a decent score at the graduate level (GRE, GMAT, etc).
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 6, 2011
  13. truckie270

    truckie270 New Member

    Program accreditation is different from regional accreditation. A school may not accept a CS or IS degree towards their program holding a specialized program accreditation, but they cannot act as if the person has not earned a regionally-accredited BA degree. The person in effect would be just the same as someone applying without a degree although they probably would be considered to have a met GERs and have a bunch of credit that could not be applied to the program. At that point, it really is immaterial because the leveling coursework would make it cost-prohibitive.

    I would suspect that SJU is not the only school with this philosophy, they are just stating it overtly which is odd in my view. How many people with FP degrees are denied for this reason at other schools but told otherwise? If a person is told that his/her GMAT is not high enough to be considered for admission, does he/she really know that is the reason for denial or is it because the UG degree was from Strayer, UoP, et. al. and the GMAT score is a more denfensible and less-problematic reason to give?

    For a competitive program, schools are free to reject candidates for any number of reasons in favor of ones they would rather have.

    For the OP, there are other alternatives. You should not waste your time on a school with that type of attitude towards FPs.
     
  14. lawrenceq

    lawrenceq Member

    Piss on them!
     
  15. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

    Well, I can't blame non-prof schools with serious research programs if they poo-poo for-profit schools that don't hire research faculty. The logic goes something like this:

    If I am a student at a non prof and Im ass in chair, sure I may have an adjunct or six teaching me during my lower level classes. However, it's just as likely that Ill have teaching assistants who do research teaching and when I get to capstone courses it's likely that Ill get to learn from people pushing the boundaries of knowledge in my field even if just for a course or two.

    That same student going to a for prof will get loads of adjuncts and full time faculty that will be far less likely hired for research and the quality of education will not be the same. Note that I did not say better or worse, just not the same. Take it for what it is.

    So if I can't get in to Harvard with my WGU diploma even if my mentor got his Ph.D from Harvard (he did) I should expect that. Both are non-prof but there's a huge culture difference and little guarantee based on evidence that WGU students will do well at Harvard.

    Maybe SJU has some data backing up their position in regards to for profits in general, however biased. I agree that the bluntness of message from an academic admissions office is a bit off.
     
  16. okydd

    okydd New Member

    In a recent topic the worth of online degree were being discussed. Maybe this could be an isolated situation with SJU, but it could be very dishearten if it becomes a trend. I place the blame with the few unscrupulous FP management who have brought bad press to online for profits schools. Managements of those ethical for profit schools needs to condemn the few bad schools. Millions of Americans are aware of the issues with for profits, so this is not is not a degreeinfoer hype. How any decision makers view PBS, CNBC and CNN; everyone few months there is something negative about for profit online.
     
  17. funInSun45

    funInSun45 New Member

    I'm sorry if there's something obvious I'm missing, but wouldn't UMUC be a better idea? I don't see what value AMU provides over any other distance-learning option (AMU has absolutely no official connection to the military that I know of).

    That is quite sad that the OP won't be considered just because their school is efficient enough to be profitable. Good luck in your search.
     
  18. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

    If you're a regular here I think you know full well that making that statement in that way pulls the covers over the core problem with some for-profit schools.

    As to HBS taking in a person with no undergrad degree, it's not unheard of for that to happen at outstanding schools, provided that the candidate has an exceptional record exhibiting greater than equivalent skill in the field of study. My guess would be that the person was either wealthy from business already or a known speaking figure. (ie. There are more than a few under 20 millionaires in this country).

    But I think we both realize that the OP is not one of those types of people if they're posting here complaining about admissions standards. (no offense meant)
     
  19. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    The Harvard student was actually George W. Bush's former assistant. W is an HBS grad and I'm sure some strings were pulled, but if a student with no bachelors degree can get into HBS, regardless of his contacts, SJU must think pretty highly of themselves to simply write someone with an RA degree off.
     
  20. bpreachers

    bpreachers New Member

    No offense taken. I am over it and no longer care. One good thing happened from this I found a ton of programs that I am interested thanks to you all.

    As to admissions standards at SJU, they actually aren't that hard to get into at all. Their blocking for profit degrees could possibly have something to do with their moral code (being a jesuit school)
     
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