RA MBA for $3000? Hellenic American University

Oops. Yes, I was trying to duplicate this meme from memory but I didn't remember it very well. Glad my point got across anyway.

 

Worth 10k$ significant?
10k$ is 0.1% of what one earns over an entire average career so I'm trying to assess the ROI of paying my hard earned euros for this MBA from Deakin through Upgrad.
Upgrad says they can place you and that the degree will have worldwide respect but it seems too good to be true.

 

How well someone is served by a particular degree depends on individual circumstances, to such, um... degree that general advice is nigh-meaningless.
For example, my University of London Master's degree, given current career trajectory, is increasingly unlikely to be relevant. I still consider it "worth it" on account of experience and the fact that my employer at the time accidentally agreed to pay for a chunk of it, but the pure PV of the degree is near-zero. For others? I'm sure it paid for itself in under a year, for many people.

 

Well, we are networking and enjoying it. It's NOT a big class and that limits things, but the format does as well. if you want networking to accelerate career growth from a MBA you do a "butt in seat" FT or PT at a local university or you pony up to a top 10 Internationally recognized program full time where 80% of your classmates are headed for the C seats in the fortune 500, come from everywhere and will go everywhere. The other option is take an online from a top 10 MBA program and then stay local where the pedigree of the school makes you a big fish in small pond, but you will still have to work and develop local networking. The Deakin will somewhat work for that last, but will NOT be very likely give you in class networking that will "accelerate career growth". That's on you.

You are looking for an online inexpensive MBA with the wrong expectations quite frankly.

 

Deakin is an Australian school. I thought your goal was to get a US qualification to move up in your American company? I don't think a single American expat in your company will see any difference between an Australian MBA and an MBA from anywhere else in the world. They're all non-US schools and are thus outside the known world for most Americans LOL .

 

To the HAU MBA, my finance course has a prof that graduated MBA at Columbia University in NYC (an IVY), massive experience in mergers and acquisitions, business development globally and so forth. The other students in my class, one is a Phd and former VP and Chief diversity officer and professor at another university with numerous books and publications, one is a doctorial candidate and also has published extensively. then there is me, I'm a dive bum.

My point being, there is real value with the HAU MBA program.

 

Yes, THIS.

Your European colleges working for a US company will be more likely to have heard of Deakin than any US employees/management/HR will have. At best they will google it, and that may make them say "seems like a solid school" and that's it. The same they will get when they google HAU and see it is RA, teaches from a US global framework program and has a campus in Athens as well.

 

Correct but as it has Equis and AACSB, I think American board members will just accept it as is.
Upgrad said that WES recognised it as a real master.

It's mostly the AACSB and Equis that made it interesting to me. Not really the Deakin university itself. Very few schools have both Equis and AACSB. That's basically reserved only for the bee queen of the business schools.

AACSB means you could give lectures at a university in business matters and be paid let's say 100$ an hour for that as a side job.
That's what made it so interesting to me.
That it would allow me to and grow in my company and have the opportunity to make big bank as a teacher on the side bringing me into that sweet 100+k$ range in no time.

But the University of Illinois degree you recommended me, which I have an interview for, will only cost 3k$ because I got an email that they found my scholarship essay interesting and that we will go over this during the interview on the 18th.

10k$ for Deakin is not bad either.
I believe Deakin is Tier 1.
Upgrad sad that they had Deakin graduates who were considered for teaching positions at Duke Fuqua after the program.

Only thing suspect about it was that Upgrad called me 300 times (figuratively) and was very pushy.

The networking at this point is the most important for me. Being able to say '' Hey I know so and so at Novartis and they could do X, Y and Z for us ''.

At this point I'm a contract specialist and I want to grow into a contract manager or into a regulatory submissions manager.

I think for those functions they will look closely at whether it has AACSB or not.

The only thing that bothers me about the company is that even CRAs make only around 50k$ start salary.
So as a Contract Specialist => Budget manager, growing into that sweet 100k$ range will be difficult.
So that's why I want to be able to somewhat pressure the company into increasing my salary based on AACSB and Equis. Basically putting myself in a position of being able to make a statement of : " I'm the expert now, I deserve 75k$ and I have offers from Novartis and Johnson and Johnson so you better match up or I'm outta here '' when I'm asking for that pay raise at the 1 year mark.
And then at the 2 year mark earning around 25k$ on the side as a teacher / faculty member of a small business school.

Those are basically my immediate goals that I'm hoping to realise with the MBA.

I know a lot of people say a degree is but a piece of paper but some degrees are magic in that they are a catapult for your career.

I see M7 candidates consistently brag about it.
Some of them have 200k$ offers.

 

"Enjoy your new position with Novartis or Johnson & Johnson, Mr/Ms So and so from HR and Mr. XXX from security will accompany you to your desk to clear out personal items, explain your severance and that we will not provide any reference and escort you to the door."

That is the American business response to what you outlined above.

Good luck with that.

 

No online MBA is doing that, really.

Anyhow, you are not taking any advice..and frankly you have hi-jacked the thread on HAU MBA program with many folks trying to be helpful for too long IMHO

 

Networking and career growth are what you make of it.

I signed up for an undergrad class to get some college credit, not to make friends. Class content sucks but several of us are going to keep in contact indefinitely. All because I reached out to a few people first. But chris richardson is right: You're not really listening and taking advice from the Americans who know the American system (educational & corporate). To be honest, I'm pretty sure at this point that even a Harvard MBA wouldn't do everything that you seem to expect that an MBA can/should do.

 

There are 94 postings on Indeed that mention Equis in job postings in the US. Most of those are not related to business at all (e.g. Ticket Taker at the Dos Equis Pavillion.) Of the few that are left - Professorships at various institutions, they ask for AACSB or Equis. If accreditation is mostly useless as far as the job market goes, double or triple crown accreditation is doubly or triply useless.

There's no pressuring employers for a raise based on the prestige of your credential. Employers want to know what you can do, and what value you create.

I can't really reconcile the gnashing of teeth over getting into an American program only to decide at the last moment that an Australian school largely unknown in the US would do it.

 

This is quite true, but I'd be lying if I said I haven't been thoroughly enjoying the show. More unexpected twists and nonsensical turns than an M Night Shyamalan film!

 

So, I read through most of this thread and there was a lot of stuff I wanted to respond to but it’d take me FOREVER if I responded to every single post I wanted to.

I saw a lot of talk about Wharton, Harvard, Columbia, Duke, Yale, MIT, so on and so forth in regards to GSW, Illinois, etc. I even saw a post where someone lost a connection on LinkedIn for putting their ENEB credential on their CV.

As a current Duke University Fuqua School of Business student, let me start by saying I do not care where you get your degree from, I’m just glad to see people furthering their education. If you have $66,000 to spend on a Masters from Duke University like I did, GREAT! Do it! However, if you have $66,000 and want to pursue a degree that cost $10,000, GREAT! Do it! Whichever you choose, do it because YOU want to do it, not because of what you think others may think. Unless they want to pay your tuition, their opinion is completely irrelevant.

In regards to AACSB, ACBSP, IACBE, EQUIS, AMBA, etc., I would definitely make sure you pursue a degree at an accredited program. There are so many sub $10K MBA programs right now that anyone who wants an AACSB MBA should be able to earn one.

This is the great thing about online education is that there are far more options due to not having to worry about relocating. Want to spend $100K+ to pursue an MBA at Ross, Kenan-Flagler, Tepper, Marshall, Foster, Jones, etc.? Great! There is a program for you between one of these! Want to spend $10K or less? Great! There is a program for you!

 

Exactly like my thread I created a few days ago!

 

No degree guarantees anything. It's just an education - usually the "price of admission" to certain opportunities - but it is up to you to DO something with it. All degrees are WORTHLESS if you don't DO anything with them. And all degrees are PRICELESS if you learn something that helps you pursue your goals.

 

I agree with that let's take a second and look at the University of Phoenix for example... The price tag for a degree from where is pretty pricey and yes it gets you the degree or "piece of paper" you need to get the qualifications to get a job but it really all depends on you. What knowledge you attained, networking, work experience, character, personality, and connections you bring to the table. No company is required to give you a job or even interview you just because you got a degree. At the end of the day, the chooses you make are solely yours and you will have to be the one to apply all your skills into finding that perfect job for you. Don't let the name or price tag of a school determine your future outcomes. A degree is a degree at the end of the day although some degrees from big schools look better than others. I think this is why they created an accreditation system to place everyone on a fair playing field.

 

Finished my first course. Not bad I enjoyed it just the classes are very small...

 

That's great! I'm so glad someone was able to take advantage of this. Can you give us an example of what the coursework was like? Was it on par with any other graduate work you've done or other online experiences? What would you change about it if you could? What were the best features? Does it seem to be worth the investment?

Congratulations on completing the first class,
Cheers!