Wharton Online

Discussion in 'Business and MBA degrees' started by Kizmet, Sep 2, 2015.

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  1. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  2. major56

    major56 Active Member

  3. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    It might not hurt to splash the Wharton brand across your resume.
     
  4. airtorn

    airtorn Moderator

    Agreed.

    ...
     
  5. major56

    major56 Active Member

    Wouldn’t necessarily hurt my résumé; nonetheless, unclear as to this particular certificate (even with The Wharton School brand) being an obvious benefit at this stage of my career objectives… :thinking:
     
  6. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    An attention grabber, perhaps?
     
  7. major56

    major56 Active Member

    Perhaps... :smile:
     
  8. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    Johns Hopkins offers a 10 course certification in data science (very very hot field) through the same third party provider, Coursera. About $50 a course.

    Why stop with adding Wharton to the vita? Why not Johns Hopkins as well?
     
  9. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    Can certificate graduates access the Wharton and/or UPenn's alumni network?
     
  10. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    No idea whether they have access to the alumni network. I do know that Wharton is touting the program big time in news releases and on their website under Wharton Online, so since they're owning it like that, maybe. But either way, I can't believe the value and if one can get a legit certification from arguably the best biz school in the world for $600, good gosh, why not? BTW, I just registered for the Wharton Biz Analytics certificate program. We'll see if I can balance this with taking Intermediate II accounting, teaching four courses in law and two courses in intro to accounting (yes, I know, an extreme overload for an academic, I do the overload to try and pay the bills, feed the kids, service the mortgage). Either my GPA, student evals, family life or sanity has got to give.
     
  11. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    No reason. But I expect what will happen is that those who earn this credential will waaaaaay oversell it on their resumes, occasionally to their embarrassment and detriment.
     
  12. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    ^^This.

    I had a classmate who managed to work into almost every conversation that she graduated from Harvard. At graduation, her undergrad degree was listed as "A.L.B. Harvard Extension School".

    A HES degree is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but she made it sound like she was a regular at the Harvard Club for high tea with the Harvards, Leveretts, and Brattles.

    I was just pissed that that little tidbit didn't come to light until it was too late to use it to shut her up.
     
  13. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I hate to snipe when you were agreeing with me, Bruce, but your example is completely different from this situation in that your classmate really did unambiguously graduate from Harvard.
     
  14. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    Anyone who doesn't tout it as what it is, i.e., "Certificate in XYZ, Wharton School, Penn, via Coursera", deserves any humiliation they get.

    Reminds me of Sutton Turner, the former General Manager of a megachurch out west who listed his education as "Harvard Business School" on Linkedin (profile apparently now removed after the megachurch imploded for alleged financial misfeasance and abusive practices). The guy's only connection with HBS was an open admissions, short term exec ed program that anyone with enough money in their pocket could attend. The guy has a great academic bio with an SMU-Cox MBA and a second masters from Texas A&M, but because he tried to overplay his greatness, he comes across as utterly ridiculous.
     
  15. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    HES is legit, and I can't knock anyone who has the intestinal fortitude to work their way through an HES program and get the minimum grades from Harvard profs, but it's not HBS or Harvard College or Harvard Law or any of the above. It's not like this HES grad has rubbed shoulders with future presidents and CEOs and gotten something out of those associations, "paaaked their caaah on the Haavaad Yaaad" or anything like that. It's a great accomplishment and I've suggested it to students and even, a decade ago, considered it myself, but again, it isn't exactly the same thing.
     
  16. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    CORRECTION: It's Zoominfo, not LinkedIn, and his listing, which still exists in somewhat outdated form, claims he is "an alumnus of Harvard Business School". Total lie. You are not an alumnus of any university by dint of taking a short term exec ed course. He might be able to claim alum status of the particular open admissions exec ed program he took (though that would be an odd use of the word), but if so, one might as well refer to themselves as an "alum" of Princeton because they took an exec ed course in ethics from Princeton via Coursera.

    Academic charlatans are so boring and so easy to spot to all but the uninitiated.
     
  17. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I took an incredible executive leadership program at Harvard a few years ago. I learned from some of the best around and was challenged all day and all night throughout the program. It was truly a life-changing event. That said....

    I am not a Harvard alum. I don't even list it on my resume.
     
  18. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    Nothing wrong with Harvard programs, can't imagine a downside to attending one. I've never even set foot on campus, but if I had the jing you bet I'd go to any program they have at HBS. Hey, I'd list that leadership program on my vita, heck yes.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 11, 2015
  19. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Mine: https://exed.hks.harvard.edu/Programs/apl/overview.aspx
     
  20. edowave

    edowave Active Member

    Having a degree from HES may make you eligible on paper for the Harvard Club, but I hear not too many make it past the interview process, especially if they get the sense you only want to join to be a show-off.
     

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