RA MBA for $3000? Hellenic American University

Did you not need to get your transcript(s) evaluated by WES or something like that? I thought it was standard for American schools to require that.

 

I have found it to be a great experience, the synchronous component of my program. Every Saturday morning, I have live classes with my professor and classmates. 1.5 hours per class on a Saturday to do case study discussion is a phenomenal learning experience.

 

It's true, they are valuable! And I will begrudgingly have to do synchronous classes for my PhD when I get there (all the ones I've looked at require them.) But I think I will need to dial down all the other parts of my life. No double Masters, no second job, no volunteering. Just the PhD so I can make it work.

 

The school wants to grant me admission if I enroll through the Greek campus because I'm in Europe.
No discount exists for said campus.
I would have to pay 14k$.
I am going to withdraw my application because at 14k$ it's not worth it to me.

Good luck to everyone who begins soon-ish

 

I'm going for University of the People now as a next step.
I'm also considering a Harvard Kennedy school of Government program.
At 14000$ I feel like there is too little ROI for an MBA from HellenicAmerican University.
They advised that I can apply for scholarships and Yada Yada once I'm enrolled for the Greek campus, but you know how that goes with schools. Once you apply for said scholarship they tell you to try again next time and pay the full 14k$ for now. Not in for that.
What would also annoy me is having a Greek location on my diploma.
I wanted to apply because the US location would be on the diploma.
A Greek diploma just wouldn't be something I would be impressed by.
I still think that enrollment through their American campus is a great deal though for those who live in the US. It's cheap and convenient.

 

Just be aware University of the People is Nationally accredited and some employers to not like nationally accredited degrees. To be safe find a Regionally accredited degree at minimum. If you want there are business degree accreditation programs which make a business program the gold standard such as AACSB, ACBSP, IACBE in combination with regional accreditation.

 

It's something that I worried about too.
And that weird name of the school.
Both could indeed make me end up with a useless degree.
An offer that I saw and that I found also pretty appealing was Deakin University in combination with Gazhiabad MIT.
I just worry if everything will be taught in regular English or if there will also be a lot of Hindi spoken during the courses.
As I don't speak Hindi and don't know the Indian culture, it would be weird if I ended up in a class where regularly the professor switches to Hindi and that I would miss half of the course content because of that.

I was also looking at Monarch School of Business in Switzerland but apparently that program is useless from what I found online on reviews.

Here in Belgium we have a Vlerick business school but they charge nearly 35k$ for a degree which for Belgian standards is really high.

I would be willing to go until 10k$.
Around 8000-9000 euro would be affordable if it was accredited.
I could maybe make my employer pay a bit too or bring it in in my taxes.
Triple accreditation would be asking for too much under 20k$ but if it's at least recognized by 1 of the 3 golden accreditors I would be content.
AACSB, Equis or AMBA.

 

Have you considered Western Governors University, either for an American Bachelor's or their MBA? $3500 for undergrad, $4500 for grad school per 6 month period. So for $9000 you could take courses in the MBA for a year and receive an RA MBA. Or you could complete a US Bachelor's degree that would allow you entrance into all of these programs you're considering. Of course WGU is competency-based so you can speed through it, but also it's not accepted in Germany.

What programs at the Harvard Kennedy school are you considering? I don't think they offer degrees online but they do have executive education.

 

WGU does NOT accept foreigners except some Canadians. That would not be a good choice.

UMPI doesn't offer an MBA but they do have a relatively inexpensive Masters in Org. Leadership that might be worthwhile: https://www.umpi.edu/yourpace/graduate/ YourPace works out to be $700/mo ($1400 per term). Or you could get a cheap Bachelor's to ladder into an American Master's degree somewhere else. If you already have a European bachelor's degree, you should only need about the 30 residency credits and that can be done pretty quickly and easily in 4-6 months.

 

Shoot! I did not know about that. I had reached out when I lived in Canada and they didn't mention any issues so it didn't even occur to me that they would limit enrollment from other countries. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Try excelsior college, they accept international students and have a MBA program $645 a credit USA. They are regionally accredited and hold IACBE accreditation. Classes are fully online and I found my MPA degree to be quite pleasing from there.
https://www.excelsior.edu/admissions/international/
https://www.excelsior.edu/costs-and-financing/graduate/

 

7710 is indeed cheap for a AACSB accredited MBA. Thanks for sharing. I might have to do a bit more research on whether they would be open to accept EU students but if they do this would be an excellent price quality program at that price. Thanks for sharing ;-)

 

That is a reasonable goal - I had very similar goals. However, there is already a tried and tested path to your goals for international students around the world. That is a full-time MBA in a good US program.

It is very doable but requires a lot of hard work. I was born in a poor developing country and did not have the means to study in the US - that option was only available to the rich/elite in my country. Regardless, I worked my ass off to do well with whatever opportunity I was given in my local country. But I was determined to make my dream a reality and was willing to do everything it takes.

I had no choice but to aim for a full ride - I did not have any money and back then international loans like Prodigy did not exist. I studied my ass off for the GMAT (I started with a disappointing 510 but with razor focused study ended with a 710), did my research and worked to perfect my US MBA applications. I got full-ride scholarship offers to two top 40 programs in the US and two elite Canadian programs. The cheapest MBA is a free MBA and putting the effort is worth it and rewarding. Through the help of my career services office, the MBA gave me the opportunity to work in a strategy role in the US and that, in turn, helped me pivot to the Canadian HQ of a Fortune Top 40 ranked company. My bosses in Toronto were all from the US and my US degree and work background helped me get promoted faster (I think) compared to my local Canadian peers.

I am really happy about how things turned out and I owe a lot to that scholarship which I attribute to hard work. When I retire, I plan to donate some money to my MBA program to set up a scholarship fund for people from poor countries like me. I have always believed that there is no backdoor to a rewarding career - you have to put in the effort.

 

That is a very inspiring story. Really happy for you that it was such a successful one

I now work 3 months for the company and they have offices in Ohio, Texas, Florida and New York.
They also have offices in Belgium, Netherlands, UK, France, Australia, China, Germany, Sweden and Japan.
I would like to attend a full-time MBA program in the US but the thing is that I think it's way too early to ask my company to foot the bill.
At this point I even pay for programs that are directly job-related out of pocket because I'm too afraid to ask them to reimburse me, even though it directly holds relation to my job.
The thing is that my company is a bit strict in that regard. They are very successful, even NASDAQ registered, but they are very strict about educational resources.
They have people who work for them for 45k$ who have civil engineer diplomas that they could easily earn 100k$ with elsewhere.
So I'm a bit wary about asking them to foot the bill.
I try to show as much initiative as possible, even sending highly placed people in the company messages that I'm prepared to work in the teams that volunteer their time to optimize company processes after hours, but they seem to take things for granted.
So I'm not sure when the time is right to ask them to approve that I attend a top MBA program.
Most of my senior leaders have a PhD after their name or MD, but I have seen few that have a MBA so I'm not even sure if they give much thought to how a good MBA can result in skyrocketing ROI for both the employee and the employer.
My job focuses mostly on the legal side of clinical research.

I love my job and really want to keep working 40 years here but I wonder if it would be worth it to foot a 100k$ bill for a top-MBA program by myself if most of the people attending these have their employer pay for it.

At 25 I would also feel that it would come over as too '' self-righteous '' to ask an employer to fund the bill for a top-MBA program, when most of the people who attend those programs are mid-30s.

A colleague recently said :
''40 or thereabouts is the time people will start to take you seriously. Asking to be taken seriously at 25 is a bit too much. At 25 you are just supposed to do whatever people higher placed than you demand, even if you don't agree with it''.

So I feel like it would be weird to ask the employer to foot the bill when at 25 most employers still see you as a "kid that just left college".


So the scholarship route would indeed be the smartest route to take.
It's just that most M7 or T25 schools giving scholarships would expect some reciprocal action from the employer I think once the graduate finished the program, and the employer doesn't seem too keen to invest.
So if they would know beforehand that a certain employer wouldn't be open to foot at least a part of the bill, I think they wouldn't be too keen to give out scholarships to a certain foreign graduate either.

I have toyed with taking out a loan of 100k$ and foot the bill myself but if my company later on doesn't see reason to pay me more because of that degree, then I would be tied to that loan for a year or 10 and not having had much ROI.

I think they would be open to pay me more afterwards if there was a clear link to clinical research (MBA with specialization biotechnology management or likewise) but they wouldn't seem too keen to pay me more afterwards if the focus was rather general which is the case with most MBA programs.

With the online MBA programs I prefer the ones who don't mention '' online '' or something alike because people still seem to see those as lesser than the in-person-attendance programs.

I know that some schools clearly state online on the degree but that there are others that don't.

The MBA program of around 7k$ mentioned above sounds like a smart move at this point for someone like myself because it's AACSB recognized and will thus be seen as a '' real '' MBA program.
7k$ is also still quite cheap for a real MBA program. I hope there would be some kind of network too.
If I want to benefit from a high ROI after a decent MBA program I think I will have to move to one of the bigger European cities because in Europe in the smaller cities (and even in Brussels) people don't seem to give much thought to how powerful an MBA can be.
I was surprised by that too in the beginning.

 

Hi, I was thinking about something.
Excelsior indeed seems to have a great reputation.
I see that they accept credit transfers to a great margin.
Would it be possible for me to transfer in universidad Isabel I (ENEB) credits and only take the core courses to meet the credit requirement to graduate with the MBA? That sounds like a very feasible option if it's possible to do so.
Without credits transfered in, I think the total cost would be around 50k$ but with credits transfered in the cost seems to be around only 20k$.
Some who tried it?

 

Yeah they only serve US mainland and US overseas regions.
They only serve some Canadian regions (the ones close to the US).
They don't serve other nationalities for now.
My father is Canadian but we live in Belgium and I think it's more about where you live over what nationality you have with this school.

 

At Harvard Kennedy I'm considering their executive certificate in '' International trade policy that takes place over a 12 day period this summer ''.
Cost is 4900$.
I would like to combine it with a low cost MBA ( under 10k$) to boost my resume a bit and have more bargaining power within my own company to be able to pressure them a bit for a salary increase when I hit the 1 year seniority limit.

 

Thanks a lot on the comment - I appreciate it .

At this early stage in your career, you might want to focus 100% of your time in getting one or two promotions before applying for an MBA program. It benefits you in 2 ways - it will increase your chances of a scholarship and it will make your MBA experience a lot more relevant. It's always a lot more interesting to have discussions where you have previously faced the same issues at work.

If you are still really interested in studying for another degree ASAP, I would recommend a more specialized degree at this early stage in your career. In the beginning of your career, what usually gets you noticed are your expertise in a specific area/subject matter. Having that focus through an MS in Finance/Analytics/etc helps you get that expertise. That doesn't mean you forgo the MBA - that will be valuable later on when you are ready to take the next step to higher level management.

You can also consider the online MS in Management from the University of Illinois. It's less than $11K and is a very reputable US university. They also offer up to 70% need based scholarships that will bring down the price to around $3K, which is almost free

https://giesbusiness.illinois.edu/graduate-hub/management/online-ms-in-management

Just my 2 cents.