JFKu flexcourse vs WGU for MBA

I have been researching two schools to complete a competency based MBA. My goal is to complete the program in less than a year. Wgu is so well documented, I feel I have a good understanding of their program, and like it. But I am very interested in John F Kennedy University's flexcourse MBA program, which was a rebrand and revamp if Patten University's platform created by University now. I heard some not great things about the platform under Patten, but that JFKu would be updating the curriculum. I like that JFKu is non profit, regionally accredited and has a physical campus. (Really the fact that they have a physical campus is the only leg up on WGU, simply because it may cause employers to have less doubt in the degree) . Has anyone here gone through the program? Or does anyone know where I may find information about their platform or assessment process?

 

I don't know about the program or, in fact, JFK itself at all, but I seem to remember that the school "taught out" the defunct New College's law students when that institution collapsed. I was always kind of impressed by that. Currently, JFK's J.D. program is CalBar accredited but not ABA approved and the J.D. costs a minor heart attack causing $84,000 or thereabouts. About half to a third what a private ABA program in California would cost but still a frightening sum. The school itself is definitely for real.

 

Hmmmmmm . . . The question is: Where are you from? If you happen to be in or close to Pleasant Hills or San Jose, California, you've got it made in terms of trading off on JFK's brick-and-mortar campus. But if you're from, say, Podunk, Texas, a JFK credential will simply look like one more online degree. It's all relative . . .

 

That certainly is jaw dropping. I attended "Birmingham School of Law" for 2 years, which is a state of Alabama accredited law school, not ABA. The total cost to complete that JD, had I completed it, would have been around $25,000.

 

I am in Birmingham Alabama. But I am a federal employee, so it would be difficult to know where I have lived unless any specifically asked. Its not a very big deal to me, just a slight leg up that when you search JFKu, it doesn't immediately come up saying "an online university".

 

But Dr. Levicoff's point is still well-taken. Even after all these decades of distance learning, there seems to be an attitude that there's something inferior about not sitting in an actual classroom. You have to explain how it is that your degree is from a California school when you've never lived in California. No one is EVER called upon to explain a degree from the University of North Dakota when the student was actually and demonstrably resident in Grand Forks (or wherever it is). Frankly, it's tiresome. Had I actually intended to work as a tax practitioner for a major law or accounting firm, I'd have had no choice but to complete my LL.M. in residence at known school. Even doing NYU's premier D/L version would have left me at a disadvantage. I'd still have had to "explain".

 

It's unfortunate, because for many types of learners, a distance program is far superior. For someone in my circumstance (ADHD, but obsessive learner) learning in a brick and mortar school was difficult. Getting distracted for even a moment can cause you to miss a vital piece of information and lose track of the full class. Competency based let's you go right back and re-read when you get distracted. Ironically, half of my distractions were caused by the class getting bogged down with dumb questions about simple concepts. Distance and competency based learning eliminates both of those. I've learned more about business from coursera's "specialties" than I took away from my brick and mortar bachelor's degree .

 

Oh, the attitude is completely disconnected from the quality of the education. I read and wrote vastly more for almost any one of my tax degree courses than for an entire semester of my in-residence J.D. program. I learned more in greater detail, too, as you might expect.

 

True, but it's still on the opposite coast. The logical place to look, of course, is UA in Birmingham, but don't bother - they have online MA and MS programs but not an online MBA.

But you may want to check out Faulkner University down in Montgomery, which has a one-year Executive MBA program. Faulkner has a solid reputation even if they're a bunch of crazy Restorationists (an inside theological term). Like Birmingham S/O/L, the Jones School of Law at Faulkner was non-ABA for years, but they ended up going the ABA route (one of my doctoral profs taught there).

 

AFAIK, WGU has no physical campus. It is a completely online school with one main website and 8 state-specific websites.
It doesn't make WGU any smaller. I have huge respect for their model, and I agree with rest of your points.

 

The place in Alabama that gets to most frequent attention for their online MBA program is North Alabama (in a town called Florence)

https://www.una.edu/distance/index.html

 

The teaching and nursing programs mandate physical work. However, with the nursing programs the thing is that you have to already be working as a registered nurse. They have pre-licensure programs too but they're only available in a few states.

 

After speaking with a second JFKu flexcourse advisor, I've come to the realization that none of them are on the same page. I've heard 2 different things from two different advisors and neither of them match with what is advertised. The first told me that the program was no longer being offered. The second told me that you cannot finish the program in less than a year, because you cannot move on to another class until the end of the term (even though the site advertises it as an "all you can eat for $8500 a year" competency based program. Unfortunately I think what could be a good program is being clouded with too much internal confusion.

 

When I contacted them last year for more information, about a month passed and nobody could tell me whether or not the Patten price was still being honored. They kept passing me BY EMAIL to other people. Finally, I just told them to forget it and stop emailing me. If they can't even tell me basic information it's obvious they don't have their stuff together. Sounds like you're experiencing an example of that. I had no intention of enrolling like you've had so your situation is likely more frustrating.

 

Most people probably aren't aware of WGU's physical offerings and that's because they've never done much to communicate all of their services to the public. They still don't even post the different payment plans they offer. Sometimes this happens at places where services are still in a pilot phase, but given how long some of these things have been offered at WGU I don't think that's the case here. I think it's just that they haven't made these things a priority to share. Of course, if they at some point decide to pull those services for one reason or another at least there won't be an immediate public reaction of panic.