Duke, Johns Hopkins, and Mizzou

No! I am focusing on my MBA; for going for a Ph.D., either Business or Information Technology. Since I don't work for the public sector, studying a Doctorate in Public Administration requires learning a fundamental subject, which I do not have time.

I am interested in learning with collaboration and group works. So, far I am pleased with the Imperial College London Global MBA cohort. So, ESCP Business School might be the program for me. I wish Liberty University's program id Ph.D, not DBA.

 

Ok. Maybe by the time you're through with your MBA, Liberty will add a Ph.D. in IT or BA. However, have you considered these programs at the University of the Cumberlands?

 

Two years ago, I started my Ph.D. in IT at the University of the Cumberlands when the program was brand new. After two courses, I dropped out because the program was too dry, lacking research at the Doctorate courses. It is more like a Master level course with direct knowledge final exam, which my brain does not design to cram the entire textbook and fill in the blank on the final exam. I hope the program course structure has changed. I am interested in the University of the Cumberlands' Ph.D. in Business Administration because of IACBE accreditation; however, I am afraid they will not accept me without an MBA. So, I plan to finish my MBA first...then make another move after. I do not see I stop learning anytime soon.

 

Update: 1st term is in the books! I had a Marketing/Strategy Final Exam that took (3) hours and it was essentially designed to test your ability to apply the frameworks and strategies to real-world scenarios. The exam did not ask questions about the course content but rather required you to utilize the course content knowledge to expand the idea of the question. I also had a Managerial Economics Final Exam that took about (8) hours and it was less real-world based and more course content based. It was questions regarding price of elasticity, price discrimination, menu-pricing, game-theory, etc. It was a very thorough exam that really covered virtually every topic we discussed this term. Finally, I had a Programming for Data Analytics and Visualization Final Project. This project required us to take the instructors coding that he did in R and translate it to Python to draw insights. We then had to take his coding in Python and translate it into R and draw insights. The final task, we got to use our language of choice (I chose R because I like RStudio much better than Jupyter Notebooks) to merge the data frames together and develop a visualization using ggplot2.

Overall, the term was VERY rigorous, VERY stressful and ALMOST overwhelming. I could not tell you how many times I thought it would be best to just drop the program and move on with life. However, I am thankful that I fought through those thoughts and finished the term! Now the tough part...waiting for final grades to make sure I passed the courses. LOL

 

This sounds like such a cool program! 66K though, ouch. At 6.8% and a 10 year term, you're looking at $1100 a month. That's a mortgage payment in much of the country.

I do hope it's worth it!

 

Update: Final grades are in and I finished with a “P” in all courses! When I say this program is hard, it is arguably the most difficult academic journey I have ever encountered. Duke has a weird grading scale as follows:

SP - 4.0
HP - 3.5
P - 3.0
LP - 2.5
F - 0.0

I am very satisfied with these grades and hope to do even better next term. They do have a grade distribution rule at Fuqua in which no more than 25% of the class can get an SP, no more than 40% can get an HP and at least 35% are to get a P.

 

Congrats! I'm curious. Why would they have a policy restricting students from achieving a higher grade? That's like saying no more than 25% can earn an "A" even if their work is deserving of it.

I'm gonna assume that SP and HP are Superior Pass and High Pass.

 

You are correct on the naming of the SP and HP. If I remember correctly, it is in an effort to prevent grade inflation. I believe this is common practice for several schools even though I may not exactly agree with it. I would think there would be a better way to prevent grade inflation.

 

Congrats on your grades. What has been your experience with recruiting? Has career services been actively helping you (other than the usual help on resumes/mock interviews)?

 

The Career Services at Fuqua are very helpful. I would venture to say that 99% of us (if not 100%) are employed and not particularly “looking” for new positions. Therefore, recruiting is not the typical process like one would have in a full-time on-campus program where employers come to campus (in-person or virtual right now) to recruit. Instead, Career Services works with each individual student based on their career goals and desire to move industries. Personally, I plan on using my degree within my current employer so I am not utilizing Career Services much. Others, however, may use them for anything that full-time students use them for. As working professionals, the best thing we can do is network.

 

How would you say the MSQM compares to the MBA you did? I'm trying to understand the differences between these two.

 

This has been a common question I have had from Prospective Students! The greatest difference is the technical aspect. Let me list the courses I took in my MBA versus the courses I have taken, and will take, in my MSQM program. This will showcase the greatest differences.

MBA Courses:

Principle-Centered Leadership and Ethics
Contemporary Issues in Management
Research Methods
Accounting for Managers
Data Analysis for Managers
Financial Management
Managerial Economics
Marketing Management
Strategic Management
Behavioral Management
Management Information Systems
Competitive Advantage and Strategy

MSQM Courses:

Programming for Data Analytics and Visualization
Applied Probability and Statistics
Managerial Economics
Business Fundamentals: Accounting and Finance
Business Fundamentals: Marketing and Strategy
Data Analytics and Applications
Advanced Data Analytics
Operations Management
Navigating Organizations
Empirical Analysis for Business
Digital Marketing
Decision Models
Financial Risk Analysis
Fraud Analytics
Ethics and Legal Issues in Business Analytics
Business Communications

So you will notice that there is some overlap in core business functions such as Managerial Economics, Marketing and Strategy, Accounting and Finance and so forth. However, the difference is in the amount of technical courses that I will be taking. The MSQM really is a much more technical MBA degree in my opinion. I think I have several classmates who said they wanted to pursue an MBA but wanted more technical courses and this program filled that desire.

 

The MSQM seems to be toward business technology versus MBA toward general business.

 

The MSQM is geared towards the use of data in making effective data-driven business decisions. It very much is a more technical alternative to the MBA for some. In fact, several of my classmates have said that they intended on pursuing the MBA until they discovered this program due to the increased technical nature of it alongside the core business courses. It does not focus on business technology currently from my experience.

 

Congrats! Do my grades look better or worse than yours? My Fall 2020 MBA grades are finally in.

 

I was so confused by this image that I pulled up a UCL grading scale and I see it goes from 0-80, do you know why the scale is squished?

 

Whoa! Weird grading scale! Lol Very nice work Tekman! I hope your program is as enjoyable as mine! Keep up the great work!

 

The British grading scale is confusing. Some consider 70% and above is an "A". While 67% is an "A-", "B+", and "B". However, the Imperial College London seems to have four different categories or 5 letter grades.

UK degree classifications are as follows:

• First-Class Honours (First or 1st) (70% and above)
• Upper Second-Class Honours (2:1, 2.i) (60-70%)
• Lower Second-Class Honours (2:2, 2.ii) (50-60%)
• Third-Class Honours (Third or 3rd) (40-50%)

URL: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/students/success-guide/ug/assessments-and-feedback/improving-through-feedback/understanding-grades/

Degree credit students Numerical mark Extra credit students
A 70% and above DISTINCTION
B 60-69% MERIT
C 50-59% PASS
D 40-49% PASS
E* 39% and below FAIL*
URL: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/horizons/exams-and-assessment/results/

While OSAS - University of London is a different scale.
URL: https://www.soas.ac.uk/studyabroad/current/file77182.pdf

So, Baylor University (US) has a different British grading scale.
UK Grade

US Grade*

75-100

A+

70-74

A

64-69

A-

60-63

B+

55-59

B

50-54

B-

46-49

C+

43-45

C

38-42

C-

35-37

D

0-34

Fail
URL: https://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/36974.doc

 

Thank you! It is an enjoyable program, especially since my team members are located all over the world. What month are you expecting to graduate in 2022?

 

May 2022 is the day I regain some freedom. Lol