Today my wife told me she was seriously contemplating an MBA. She completed her BS in Business Administration from my undergrad institution in 3 years while taking 18+ credit hours per semester. We have the desire to move to the Oklahoma City or Dallas area within the next 2 years and she is wanting to make herself more marketable when coming out of this recession. Her requirements are: AACSB Accredited and under $30,000 as she is currently student loan free and wants to minimize debt. I have recommended the following: Oklahoma State University - Spears University of North Texas - G. Brint Ryan Both are good regional programs. I am looking at other programs as well but was going to get some ideas from you all! Thanks!
My first recommendation would be UNC as Tar Heels vs Blue Devils at the dinner table during NCAA Basketball season would be fun to watch. However with a $126K price tag that's not doable. I've always seen folks give recommendations for UT Permain Basin. The accelerated MBA program can be done online for under $10K. https://degree.utpb.edu/programs/online-degree-master-of-business-administration.aspx
I am no fan of ranking but have you already checked U.S. News' top online MBAs? Do any of these programs fall within the 30k budget? https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
I know that some of the lower ranked programs are under the $30K and that would likely suffice. I know she is researching Oklahoma State University Spears School of Business and their program is a little over $17K.
Oklahoma State is actually 21K if you're not an Oklahoma resident. Still might be a decent price for that kind of name recognition.
My recommendation: Boston University through EdX. $24K https://www.edx.org/masters/online-master-business-administration-mba-bux
Another possibility: The University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign through Coursera. $21K https://www.coursera.org/degrees/imba
Is the expected outcome of this (being more marketable after a move) vs just focusing all that time on her current career to begin with actually worth it? I'm not really trying to dissuade people from grad school, but depending on her undergrad rigor, she might not learn much during the MBA since she already has a business degree. I say this just because a lot (although certainly not all) of MBA programs are sped-up versions of undergrad programs. For example, an MBA corporate finance course will cover an entire CF textbook in a single semester, while the undergrads at that same school will be required to take Finance 1 and Finance 2 courses for their degree during a fall/spring semester. They'll use the same textbook, do the same assignments, cover the exact same material, just at 50% speed. Heck, they often take identical exams (undergrad CF1 final = MBA CF midterm and undergrad CF2 final = MBA CF final). Same goes for a ton of the other required courses for an MBA at most schools (HRM, project management, accounting, leadership, economics, etc...). Whenever I see somebody with a business degree talking about getting an MBA, I usually ask them if they honestly think NPV>0. I mean, just do some excel/sheets projections as to what you think your salary would be after vs before, the cost of the program and also compare to what you think your salary would be if you simply put that much effort at work busting your *** for a promotion or switching jobs anyway to get a raise or new position anyway. The answer may actually be in favor of the MBA, and that's great. You just need to make sure that it is worth the income forgone and the cost of the program, but I am always skeptical of the worth of an MBA from a not top program (Harvard, Penn, Stanford, LBS, Ox/Bridge, etc...) when somebody already has a solid education in business. It makes perfect sense to get an MBA if you have an undergrad degree in Psych, English, Math, Biology, etc... but yeah, not so much if you already have a degree in business. Also, it makes sense too if it's just for fulfillment and pride of having a masters. Nothing wrong with that either. I mean, I ended up getting a 2nd masters degree part-time just because I wanted to take 1 course/semester as continued learning and the tuition was heavily discounted because I was alumna.
I certainly believe the M7 and E7 have clout...heck, I would not have applied to Duke Fuqua otherwise. Lol However, I believe that beyond the Top 15 MBA programs, most are regional. For instance, SMU Cox dominates the Dallas/Ft. Worth market. OU Price dominates the Norman/Oklahoma City market. I spoke with UC Berkeley Haas before applying to schools but they have little alumni in Oklahoma and Texas. Virtually zero benefit of going there if I want to end up in OK or TX. Better school than SMU Cox, UT Dallas, etc. but Cox and Naveen have those ties to the North Texas area...therefore, your statement that an MBA outside of the top programs is virtually useless is not necessarily true... Her goal though is mostly self gratification. We have the connections due to networking. She will have no issue landing a good job. She Welcome to DI and thanks for your response. I know several people who believe an MBA from anything other than the M7 is useless. However, when we actually take into account the fact that outside of the Top 15, most business schools are regional. Do you want to live in Dallas, TX? Your best bet is SMU Cox or UTD Naveen. Want to live in Oklahoma City? Best best is OU Price. Where the difference is really made is San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston and NYC where most placements come from Top 15 business programs and those outside of the Top 15 will sprinkle a few here and there. When it comes to business schools, in my opinion, a person should select a program based on 1) where they want to live and 2) placements in that persons area of interest. Personally, I am in a situation in which I am debating Duke Fuqua and their online MS in Quantitative Management and SMU Cox and their full-time On-Campus MS in Finance...seeing as how my wife and I want to live in Dallas and I am interested in Venture Capital and Private Equity, I am leaning towards Cox. Fit > rankings. In terms of my wife though, she just wants the MBA for self-gratification.
Self-gratification is definitely a solid reason to look at more school. In that case, the cost/benefit is almost moot assuming it's not going to lead to financial ruin. I don't in any way think MBAs from lower ranked schools are useless. Far from it, actually. Sorry if my previous post made it seem like I was saying that. In my opinion, virtually any accredited MBA program is useful if you don't already have a degree in business. I just think, in general, most people who have a degree in business would be better served focusing on other areas of career development rather than getting another degree in the same field unless the program is guaranteed to get you a significant salary boost immediately upon completion that you couldn't achieve any other way for less money/time investment. I also agree with you in that program considerations should be highly influenced by where you want to live and the opportunities that the specific school will afford you. I know you said she wants to minimize debt, but maybe she should also consider just going to SMU-Cox too for her MBA since the MS program seems like it is a great fit for your career goals anyway. Why not tag-team SMU, haha.
