From Ashford Online to Brick and Mortar MBA

I have been pursuing my BA in Business Economics from Ashford. My intent was to gain my undergraduate studies while I in the military and after my exit I planned to attend a brick and mortar institution. Ideally I would hope to stay in Texas and attend Baylor (Hankamer) or move back home to Indiana and attend I U Bloomington (Kelley) with my third and fourth choices being U of L and U of K. Has anyone who attended Ashford made a transition back to a brick and mortar University for there MBA? I understand that it "can be done" but in all honesty can it really be done? Do you know anyone who has done it? Can it be done to the higher ranked schools or will they give the side eye to my degree as it is from a for profit school?

I have done my research on the MBA programs and as of right now I am focusing on keeping my GPA up (currently a 3.9) while balancing a 70+ hour work week. This seems like a fairly solid forum so I hope someone has had either a similar experience or has found out what I am hoping is not the truth and that I will be forced to get my MBA online.

 

For the sake of this forum let's assume that I graduate with a 3.9 and I have a solid GMAT/GRE, resume and entrance essay. Will my degree effectively hold me back or will the MBA programs see that attaining a Bachelors at an accelerated rate (I take two classes at a time= 6 SH every 6 weeks) while working 70+ hours of week as a good thing?

 

I did not do what you are wanting to do, (did my MBA at Ashford) but I know it can be done. I applied for and was accepted into a Project Management graduate program in North Texas and transferred an Ashford MBA credit to the new program, so I know it can be done. I don't know about Baylor but then...why not?

 

I am wanting to decide to either
Complete my degree at Ashford or Transfer to another school if it will hold me back from getting into my top picks of MBA programs.

Know whether or not anyone has or has not gotten into a MBA program from a nationally ranked MBA program with an undergrad from Ashford?

 

That's my theory I just want to see if it has actually been done yet by anyone here.

 

I would contact the school at look at the entrance requirements. I have never heard of a school not allowing admissions because you graduated from an accelerated program...but I do not know everything (even though my wife calls me a know-it-all)

 

My guess is that an Ashford degree would be a liability for acceptance at a nationally ranked MBA program. Not saying that it could never happen, but the odds may not be great.

Top MBA programs are competitive -- they typically get far more applicants than they can admit, so they have to reject most of the students that apply. So it's necessary to beat other applicants in order to get in. And in this situation, a degree from Ashford -- which is a non-selective, non-AACSB institution -- may not stand out.

For example, Baylor-Hankamer rejects most (61%) of their full-time MBA applicants. If you look at the students that do get in, the top five undergraduate "feeder schools" are:

Baylor University
University of Texas, Austin
Texas A&M University
Brigham Young University
Southwestern University

So for anyone who wants to attend Baylor, that's the level of competition. And in this situation, a degree from Ashford may be perceived as less competitive.

Of course, school name isn't everything -- an applicant with high GMAT/GRE scores, or unique work experience, or stellar letters of recommendation, could still stand out. But school name is part of the package, and in this case it probably doesn't help. Nationally ranked graduate programs naturally want students from nationally ranked undergraduate programs.

 

That is what I was thinking. I have been kicking around the idea of transferring to Ball State my last year because the school is Nationally Ranked and accredited by the AACSB. They have an online Bachelors of Business Admin. I have spoken to Baylor, Texas A and M CTU (Killeen Branch) and I U Bloomington. They have all said that because it is regionally accredited that it qualifies for entrance into their program. I just want to know if anyone has legitimately gone from online to a top 20 or even top 100. As far as work experience... I have 8 years in the military and I am a E-6 so from my understanding that will be taken into consideration. I appreciate all input on this.

 

Every MBA program in the country -- including the most prestigious and selective business schools that you can think of -- will cheerfully accept an application from anyone with a regionally accredited bachelor's degree (or the foreign equivalent). At this stage, they don't care where an applicant went to school. They just want to collect as many applications as possible, because:

more applications = lower acceptance rate = higher business school ranking.

But when it comes to picking winners and losers out of that applicant pool, then the rules change. At that stage, they do care where an applicant went to school, because:

students from top undergraduate programs = more prestige = higher business school ranking.

So a student from a low-ranked, but regionally accredited, school is fully eligible to apply to any top business school, even the highest ranked ones. But that doesn't necessarily equate to a realistic chance of admission.

 

For example, the most widely used business school rankings are those of US News and World Report. Selectivity is 25% of a school's USNWR score, and that factor is based in part on acceptance rate.

 

This really has little to do with online vs. ground. This has more to do with the reputation of the individual school. If you attend a school school with a physical campus that also offers online degrees, in most cases, the transcripts for online students will look identical to those of on campus students. My PhD professors at Texas State University assumed that I attended Angelo State University on campus when I've never even been to San Angelo. My program at ASU is not even offered on ground, but nothing on my transcript indicates that it's an online program.

 

I can see how this would be an issue of the physical school's reputation. So what I am taking from this is that I should look at transferring to a school with a more solidified reputation if I have my doubts?

Yeah. I guess more and more of you are confirming what I thought. I have kicked around transferring. When picking a potential school to transfer too.. How could you potentially even guess what they will count for credits and what they will not?