What are hiring managers looking for in a degree?

To answer the Title Question:

Certifications hold much more weight than the degree. They have to be recent though. An MCSE in NT is nice but would be of little value in my workplace. An A+ earned 5+ years ago falls into the same category.

 

I think both still hold value, especially in any Enterprise Environment that still utilizes legacy applications that are required to run on older operating systems. This still holds true in governmental instutitions.

What is dizzying is the new 2008 certifications, there are so many now, its pretty crazy.

MCTS --> MCITP --> MCA

I guess Microsoft wanted a comparable certification to the CCIE in terms of requirements, so they came up with the Microsoft Certified Architect, which is interesting, but I don't plan to go that far because I want to head toward Management. I guess I can tackle some MCTS and MCITP to keep ahead of the curve however.

 

At this time, the overall answer to accepted NA MBA vs RA MBA in my area is RA.

I've decided to pursue a BSBA in Management Information Systems (Excelsior or Thomas Edison) and then pursue an AACSB MBA through Jacksonville State University. Their 2 class per semester, 5 semester MBA for under $7000 tuition sounds VERY promising (especially as it is touted as a top 10% school through the Princeton Review).

For the last several weeks, I have been pursuing my Microsoft and CompTIA certifications as they count as credit toward both Excelsior's and Thomas Edison's MIS Programs.

I've decided against Liberal Studies, I feel that the BSBA MIS will show a gradual progression from IT to Management and the AACSB MBA will seal the transition.

From there, if I feel more education is needed, I might look into Graduate Certificates, but I think the MBA will be more than sufficient for my professional needs.