difference between BBA and MBA courses?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Dennis, Mar 13, 2005.

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  1. Dennis

    Dennis New Member

    Hello,

    I'll be soon graduating with a Bachelor in Business and I'm thinking of enrolling into a MBA program. As far as I can judge, the textbooks I've used to prepare for the undergraduate exams are often the same as those required for the MBA courses.
    Can I expect to learn something new during the MBA program or will it come down to mostly regurgitating the stuff from the undergraduate business degree?

    looking forward to your feedback,

    Dennis
     
  2. w_parker

    w_parker New Member

    I have noticed a significant difference. You are expected to know the subject at the basic level. You will learn the material much more thoroughly than during your undergrad/principles classes. I have enjoyed my MBA courses and they have given me a much stronger understanding of the material. Enjoy your courses.

    William
     
  3. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member


    During my MAS degree, my meteorology class (non-DL) included both BS and MAS students. We all used the same text, had the same assignments, and the same exam. The lecturer informed the class that his scoring method was at a higfher level for the graduate students.
     
  4. Dan Cooper

    Dan Cooper New Member

    It really depends on the MBA program. Some programs require specific prereqs in business and math to prepare you for more advance level courses, and some require no prereqs at all. The ones that require no prereqs often are more intermediate in content than the more rigorous ones.

    Also, the MBA programs that let you pick a concentration (i.e. Management or Marketing), often go deeper into a specific subject area. You will end up learning something new if you pick the right program.
     
  5. Andy Borchers

    Andy Borchers New Member

    I can understand your question. Many of the textbooks used in the junior/senior year of a BBA program are the same as introductory level MBA courses. Note that MBA students often come with non-business undergrad degrees.

    What's the difference? In my masters level courses, for example, I expect students to read more than just one undergrad/grad book. I may assign a standard textbook and then add Harvard case studies, journal articles or other sources.

    To me part of the rigor of graduate level study comes in the reading material faculty assign. Graduate students should be expected to read and apply material from original sources. Textbooks are fine for background - but grad level work has to go beyond.

    Regards - Andy

     
  6. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    I found the biggest difference was that the undergraduate classes focused on the 'mechanics' of the subject area's, while the MBA classes focused on the 'application' of the subject area's, from a managerial perspective.

    So for example, in Micro Economics you had to know the definitions and characteristics or the four types of markets, in the MBA Managerial Economics class you had to be able to say, 'given that we're competing in this type of market, what should we do to be competitive. Prove it.'
     
  7. dis.funk.sh.null

    dis.funk.sh.null New Member

    well...

    You've posted a really good question Dennis!

    Though I have worked on my MBA, I do not have a BBA to compare the studies with. however, I can say that comparing my engineering bachelors degree with the engineering masters degree, I saw a bit of what dlady and Andy just said.

    Though my undergraduate degree focussed on the application of principles (yep I wrote that correctly)... the graduate degree placed emphasis on the state-of-the-art instead of the classical, where the textbook didn't cut it, though it was a required reading material; rather, one had to really rely on research papers to see what advancements had been made in a particular subject area or application; the degree also had a research oriented direction. Now, the latter part could be different for other masters degrees since mine was research based, with a 100 page long dissertation... compared to the MBA, my MASc was definitely a bit more advanced and, at times, tested my patience!
     
  8. Dr Rene

    Dr Rene Member

    From my experience, my BBA courses taught the "principles" of the various business disciplines--such as Principles of Accounting, Principles of Marketing, and so forth. The textbooks we used often had titles reflecting the "Principles" focus. My MBA (AACSB)courses were all "application" level courses, using business case studies. We spent most of the class time presenting case studies and then being critiqued by the professor. A major research paper was always required--applying the principles to a specific case study. Our textbooks in the MBA program were always books of business cases for that specific topic, such as "Cases in Finance." I remember my MBA finance professor telling us "if it’s been a while since you have taken "principles of finance", I suggest you get a current principles text and study it, because you will need the principles knowledge to use in this course." My DBA courses (not including the research courses) focused on the current issues and philosophy of the various business disciplines. We used "current issues" textbooks and lots and lots of business journal articles.

    I currently teach in an AACSB MBA program, and the teaching philosophy seems to be the same as from my own MBA program.
     
  9. iquagmire

    iquagmire Member

    I graduated with a BBA and went on to Nova for my MBA. I did notice that some of the books and materials were similiar but the level and kind of work was different. There was much more analysis and writing involved.

    I still felt that the course work were going to be too similiar for my taste, though (I was getting bored with the same old stuff) so I switched to the Master in International Business Admin. and I've been more excited learning something "new" - business from an international, multinational perspective.
     

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