Top Online MBA School

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor has an online program. When you are talking about a top MBA program, I think you have to be careful when talking about the directional schools in a University system that offer the degree. The University of Michigan Dearborn is not the same entity as UM-AA.

Indiana and Duke are the only "top 25" programs that I know of that offer an online option.

 

you sure Duke offers an online option. I can't find anything on their website.

 

http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/gemba/admissions/


I believe that there are residency requirements, and it is an "executive" MBA program.

 

See Duke MBA - Global Executive. 19-month lock-step program, with international residencies. Total cost exceeds $100,000.

 

When I looked into starting an online MBA, I wanted to go to a program at a school with a fairly recognizable name. Duke was way too expensive. Indiana and Florida are often rated in the top 50 among mba programs, but both required some visits to their schools. UMass has a less-expensive price than those aformentioned schools, a well-known name and is totally online. I'm in the program now and the courses are challenging and well-designed. The same professors who teach their live mba classes teach the online classes. Most students to take a combo of online and live classes, but I am doing it totally online. I would definitely recommend UMass.

 

UMass

I am also a current UMass-Amherst Online MBA student.
Program is AACSB accredited and costs about $22k.
It requires no visits and you follow regular spring/summer/fall semesters (14 weeks each, summer 5 weeks).

Indiana Univ - is about $35k and requires 2 one-week visits. You have to take 2 classes per 12-week session and there are no breaks.

Duke - Executive program online and onsite over $100k. Not worth it.

Arizona State Univ - a new program starts this Jan/2004. Same cost as IU about $35k plus it requires one-visit to Phoenix.

UMich-Dearborn - totally online but it requires you to take 20 classes --> 4 years +.

NonUS:
Warwick - about $17k + 3 one-week visits to Coventry, UK + sit in exams at a UK consulate or approived location, different day for different exams; meaning you have to take additional days off for exams pe year. AACSB accredited.

Henley - about $17k ... one optional visit to London. No exams only papers. AACSB accredited.

Univ London - Imperial College - not AACSB. Heard mixed reviews.

I would stay away from non-AACSB programs like Touro, Capella, UPhoenix etc etc.

Good Luck ---

 

I think Touro is planning to attain AACSB accreditation according to discussions sometime back. I wish other online schools would follow its footsteps.

 

I actually take it back when I mentioned Capella.
From the web site I am very impressed by the way the present their MBA and PhD programs. It seems that they have their stuff together and they seem to be offering some great classes.

It was tough for me to decide between UMass and Capella and decided on UMass because of its AACSB accreditation.

I did not believe that I would see a difference in learning at more expensive schools like Indiana or Arizona State.

UMass Online classes are tought by the same professors that teach part time classes at night.

Another option is Colorado State Univ - only $17k or so. It is a 2-year program and its is DISTANCE Based where you get DVDs at your house every week. DVDs are taped during the night part time program .... Sounds cool - but when I think about it can I really watch TV for 6 hours+ a week. You have to take proctored exams at your local college etc ...
Http://www.biz.colostate.edu

 

originally posted by onlinephd

I am curious to know why you say to stay away from Touro, I have recently applied and waiting to start in December. Touro isn't AACSB but it is IACBE. Do you have any infomation that I should be concerned about before I start the program.

 

I have a friend who earned the MBA at Touro and he has nothing but accolades for the program. Of course CCHS offers the MBA and is only $133 per credit hour but I don't know if it's AACSB or IACBE. It is DETC-accredited but some with parochial views frown on DETC-accredited schools.

 

Originally posted by Jimmy Clifton

In addition, they only offer there MBA in the following programs

Master of Science in Health Services with concentrations in:

Community Health
Wellness Promotion
Master of Science in Health Care Administration

Master of Public Health

Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Health Care

Although they do not offer what I was looking for, if you looking for an MBA in Health care it's a bargin

 

Hi -

I have not heard anything about Touro. I have heard good things about Capella however.

My comment not to consider Touro is mainly for two reasons:
- unknown school
- not AACSB accredited

If you do not care about either then I am sure you would get the same knowledge at Touro as you would at Indiana Univ, Arizona or UMass.

My thinking was: Since I want to spend the next 2-3 years of my life studying for an MBA why not get it from an AACSB accredited school. Why should I leave the option for someone to say .. ahh your MBA is not as valuable since its not accrdited. Thats it.

If you want to learn - you dont even need to go to any school - you can just find out what books a school uses and read the material yourself.

 

Originally Posted by Onlinephd

I am aware that Touro is not AACSB, however neither is the school I recently graduated from (State University of New York at Empire State College).

Here in NY, Touro is well known and I understand it is also well known in California.

I am sorry for sounding so eager, but I thought you might have had first hand infomation about Touro.

But wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if one could actually get a degree by just reading the books a school offered. No tuition cost would be a wonderful thing.

Thanks for responding so quickly.

 

Re: UMass

You said:

"I am also a current UMass-Amherst Online MBA student.
Program is AACSB accredited and costs about $22k.
It requires no visits and you follow regular spring/summer/fall semesters (14 weeks each, summer 5 weeks)."

.......

NonUS:
"Warwick - about $17k + 3 one-week visits to Coventry, UK + sit in exams at a UK consulate or approived location, different day for different exams; meaning you have to take additional days off for exams pe year. AACSB accredited.

Henley - about $17k ... one optional visit to London. No exams only papers. AACSB accredited.

Univ London - Imperial College - not AACSB. Heard mixed reviews."....."

I'd like to email/dialogue re: what you learned about the UK programs as you did your research, and further what caused you to select UMass, etc. I'd be happy to do so "offline" if you prefer, or to talk via phone. Let me know how you'd like to proceed. I am also looking at a couple USA based MBA programs, but very much like the Henley, Warwick, maybe the Imperial Management School option, and one you didn't mention -- the Univ. of Strathclyde distance MBA/EMBA option.

I'm ok with a few days a year class attendance.

Let me know if we can connect (email or phone). Thanks.

Gary

 

No personal experience but I have heard that Portland State offers a good online MBA program with some residency requirement (a few weekends over the duration of the program). The cost I believe is in the low $20s (not 100% sure) and apparently the MBA is AACSB.

http://www.emba.pdx.edu/

University of London Royal Holloway also offers a MBA, but in the 2-3 rankings I have seen is not ranked as highly as Imperial College. I think that Royal Holloway did make 81st spot in the Economist 2002 World rankings.

 

UK BASED SCHOOLS

Hello -
Here are my impressions of Non-US school, mostly based on Warwick. I was admitted to and started studies for the MBA program at WBS (Warwick Business School). http://www.wbs.warwick.ac.uk

Their program in at least 4 yrs long. For the 1st year you take 4-5 classes each with exams at the end of the year. When I got admitted I paid $5,100 for the year and shortly after I received all the books (all published in UK and by UK authors) and 5 modules (each module was 10 chapters). Each module was for the 5 classes that you take the first year. Modules were written material / typed by the WBS school - pretty good material.

Things I did not like were:
- The online discussions were very little.
- There was very little guidance from anyone.
- I felt like I was alone and with no support.
- There were 4 optional papers that you can submit and get feedback from tutors.
- There was a sample test with answers to be given later.

Every year in Sept you are required to go to UK for a 7-8 day session to cover the material and prepare one for the exams. Each class may get a day or 1 1/2 day. I heard the sessions are good.

In December of each year one takes the exams Mon - Friday (5 days / 1 exam each) at an approved location. If you pass it good - if you dont you have ONE more chance 6 months later. I did not like that.

As a student you get a lot of access to online publications, EBSCO etc etc ... Harvard Business Review, MIT Publications and much more.

Basically I did not like the structure - here are your books and see you in 12 months. Warwick is a top30 Business School in the world and a top 3 in UK but still I did not feel like I was learning.

It is also tough to learn the material for 5 classes at the same time. Also I could not afford to take 8+5 = 13 days a year off for classes. And what if I failed one of the classes -

You have to do this for 3 years (Jan - Dec is their format) and at the end you have to do your disertation.
--------------------

Henley seems like a similar format but it is a bit shorter. I also got admited to Henley and I believe they give you access to their online modules and CD based modules / material. I dont like to read the material on my laptop all the time. There are NO EXAMS but only papers. Program is a bit shorter 2 3/4 years and easier I would think. But when you look at it closer classes are very basic (7 of them) and they dont seem to cover a lot of material that a US based MBA school does.

Henley is known internationally and a lot of studnets in India take the program.

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I would suspect the same with Stratchlyde etc. Imperial College had some changes done and it is a newly redesigned program. Not sure how good it will be - and it is not AACSB accredited.
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Why UMass and how do I like it.

I like UMass a lot. It is very flexible. I can take 1 class or 2 classes per semster. I am taking my 5th/6th classes this semseter and the experience has been consistently very good. Professors are real and they care - they even give you their home numbers.

Interactions on the boards are great with constatnt feedback from professors and students. I really feel that I am learning on my own pace - sometimes there is a lot to do but if you are organized one can handle it.

Things I do not like: their website - http://www.umass.edu/mba , you do not get an email address @ umass.edu and you get very limited resources to publications. If you take a class and need somehting you will get it but otherwise thats it. I took a marketing class and it was based on HBS cases which were all available to us.
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I dont know what else to say - I am very happy with the program and costs only $600 x 37 credits = $22,200
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I already have a BSc/MSc in Electrical Eng and wanted a degree to mostly learn about non engineering things so when I started thinking and deciding where to go I had to consider the cost/program/length/accreditation and came up with UMass as the best for me. A lot of students are professionals with majority beeing medical doctors, lawyers and engineers.

There are other schools to consider like Univ of Baltimore, Univ of Maryland Univ College etc.

More questions email me at [email protected].
Good luck -

 

Isenberg is indeed a quality MBA, and one of the few top 100 schools that actually offers an on line program.

 

FYI - UMass admissions

for those interested in the Isenberg MBA, I noticed this comment from my correspondence with the Graduate Admissions Office:

"There is no set number of students that enter into the program each year so you are not competing with other applicants."

 

Re: UK BASED SCHOOLS

I wonder why no one mentioned about Manchester as well. Their programme is good I think, though more inclined towards Finance and Engineering in their DL programme.

They have resident requirements. It is about 3 or 4 days per module if I remember correctly.

=============
I am a current student at Imperial College. I am not very familar with AACSB accreditation but as far as I know UK Schools are more inclined to AMBA accreditation with serveral got 'Triple' Accreditations. (AMBA, EQUIS, AACSB)

Anyway, I am not sure about the accreditation requirements but rather a more simple thought.... "it would hardly go wrong with the university of London and Imperial...".... at least employers know UofL or Imperial much more than AACSB, EQUIS, and AMBA...

I enjoy studying at Imperial.

1) You can schedule your own pace. Some students can finish it in 3 years while some can finish it in 5 years..... Usually 2 or 3 modules per year....

2) Access to online library at UofL

3) The Professors respond very fast...both in Intranet and email. I didn't try phones due to IDD costs...

4) Well-written materials... This is not the same as reading books. It is more like the professors are talking to you.

5) Active study community, both online and offline, and Alumni activities too. This is somewhat dependent on where you live for offline and Alumni activities.

Things I usually warn people taking a DL MBA, in particular at Imperial:

1) Commitment. DL study can be lonely, and whether you are more used to the web environment matters to the experience. And no one except yourself would really ask you to commit and finish everything

2) Workload is pretty demanding for taking 3 modules in a year. Assignments are not as easy as they said.

BTW, they would have an online information session on 30 Jun, very soon!... you can register with the following link.

http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/business/programmes/distance_mba/admissions/meet/default.html

Finally, my thoughts are biased and could be wrong but please bear with me. If you would like to know more, please feel free to post or email me at [email protected] .

 

Thanks for the informative post.

How many hours a week do you put into the program, typically? Are you working full time?

I have often looked at the Imperial College program, but frankly it is probably a bit pricey for me.