RA MBA for $3000? Hellenic American University

Edit: Whoops! DI strips out the "start at x seconds" part of the video link. Less funny that way, but still.

Reminds me of this

 

Sounds fair

 

I followed your advice and handed in my application for the online master of science in management from Gies.
Was a very detailed application process but I did my very best to present myself as the ideal applicant.
Let's hope I get granted admission.
Although it's a super competitive program and I'm not making myself any illusions.
I asked 3 supervisors at work for a recommendation letter and 2 professors at school.
If only 2 react then I would still make a good case for myself.

I'm nervous though.

 

The master in organizational leadership seems interesting.
UMPI seems indeed good value for money, but their admissions process seems quite complex for overseas students.
Toying with the idea to apply though.
Few schools offer the possibility for a master's degree under 10k$.

 

It looks pretty standard to me. Actually, it looks even easier than most that I've seen.

 

Although $10K is not a lot for a Masters (and might alone justify a higher salary that pays for itself), we've had lots of threads about this particular major, and lots of commentary on how it's a "check the box" major that doesn't qualify you to do anything in particular which can limit its utility.

There's also this thread, from someone who got a PhD in Organizational Leadership from Argosy: If I could live my life over again...

A little different of course, a PhD has different goals than a Masters but something to consider.

 

I can see why. Leadership is just too abstract. It's like a theology degree. It's nice to have and admireable but not directly applicable.

The thing is, and I know this sounds super pathetic, I would already be happy if there was a US school that wanted to admit me.
For some reason or another associate's degrees are seen as trash, postgraduates are little known and tituli propii seem to barely tick the box either.

I would almost pay HellenicAmerican college those 14k$ that they proposed.
But then you think to yourself: why would I pay 14k$ for a diploma that will also not be accepted by everyone because not AACSB accredited.
Think I'm a bit desperate at this point.
But I know I need to keep hope.
I was thinking about something :
Would it help if I paid ENEB for that validation from MCA Business school with a business authorization in Florida?
I know that school is not properly accredited and everything but you never know that that might be able to do the trick.
Or would that give schools the impression that I try to mislead them with a diploma from MCA that looks '' mill-ish''?

 

No, it would not help. Yes, it would look like a diploma mill qualification. Since you are in Europe, perhaps you would be interested in a more local degree: https://www.international.unitelmasapienza.it/academics/academics-english About 3000€ for Master's Degree in Economy, Management and Innovation. (The "Master in "International cooperation, finance and development"" is not a degree.) You would need to travel to Rome for the exams, though they are apparently doing exams remotely for now.

 

It sounds like even if that would convince a US employer (and I agree with Rachel8az that it would not), you won't be satisfied with less than an RA Master's degree and if it's an MBA than an RA degree with ACBSP or another business school accreditation. So I wouldn't settle for an NA degree, or an ENEB program, or a mini-MBA or whatever the route around the degree might look like, because at the end of the day you need to feel proud of your credentials.

 

You nailed it very well.
That's why I hesitate so much to apply to university of the people.
Even if the program is cheap, at the end of the day I would still feel like having settled for a cheap snapshot of the real deal.
It's NA and not RA plus that weird name, I think I'm going to do more damage with an MBA from university of the people than that it's going to do good.

I'm honestly at this point even hesitating to take up Hellenicamerican on their offer to admit me for 14k$ if only they admit me through their US campus.
But I wonder whether it's even worth its 14k$ when Fayetteville State University, NC has an MBA for only 8k$ that is regionally accredited and they accept international students if I'm not mistaken. Maybe better to put my hopes on that one.
University of the People will again be a degree that I will put more energy in to convince people that it's real than anything else.
DEAC indeed doesn't seem to do it.

Oh no, I wasn't talking about fooling the employer with a degree from MCA. Wouldn't want to risk that.
Was thinking about adding the MCA '' validated '' MBA to make a stronger case to be granted admission for a decent master's program but if they then interpret it as a degree mill, I may be blacklisted all together from applying.
So need to be careful with that as well.

And while I'm happy to be able to list it on my cv, at the same time I feel embarrassed to list the Isabel I degrees.
It's like, on one hand you are happy to have them and on the other hand you put yourself in the head of an HR recruiter and think to yourself : '' No, this is not quite the same as a real two year master degree ''.
Damned if you, damned if you don't. That's why I need to fix it now.
I don't want to ever end up in the embarrassing position that I get proposed a higher function and that people upon a bit of googling discover that my highest listed degrees come from '' Mickey Mouse universities '' to steal Steve's words.

I soooo hope that Gies will admit me.
Even though it will be a miracle if they do.

 

Best of luck!

 

Best of luck!

I will tell you, when I applied to Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, I was not confident that I would get admitted. I had already been admitted to a couple of other programs so I figured I’d throw a Hail Mary. Surprisingly, I was admitted to both snd had to make the decision to turn down the Johns Hopkins offer (never thought I’d be in that situation).

All of this to say, put your best foot forward and often times, you will surprise yourself.

 

I was not expecting my Quantic admit either. It was a rather pleasant surprise, even though I felt very qualified.

Were you going for the MBA at Hopkins or another program?

 

Your UI1 degrees are real and worth something. MCA is worthless and would being everything else you have into disrepute.

The number of institutions in the US that are worthy of even minimal respect, lack accreditation recognized by the USDOE or some specific utility like being qualifying for the California Bar, and aren’t in the very specific business of training clergy for a real, actual religious body is rapidly approaching zero. After WorldQuant and the Buddhist Institute got accreditation this year, the last two I could readily think of have moved into the “has legitimate accreditation” category.

Edit: What I’m saying is this; Isabel 1 might look strange but it is absolutely defensible and worth something. Covering it up with garbage isn’t enhancing anything, it’s literally taking something serviceable and buffing it with garbage. Don’t do it.

For 14k you couldn’t an MBA from Southeast Oklahoma, LSU Shreveport, Louisiana-Lafayette, Eastern Washington, Georgia Southwestern, Emporia State… lots of really good options in that price range. If ECE is still recognizing UI1 degrees as bachelors, you ought to be able to get in one.

 

I was going for the Master of Science in Finance at Johns Hopkins and the Master of Science in Quantitative Management at Duke.

 

In case you want better odds of getting in, you can ask them to consider your application for the Performance-based admissions track (PAT). I looked at the Coursera website and the iMSM is in the list of the performance based admissions programs.
https://www.coursera.org/collections/pathway

The PAT admissions will allow you to take a few courses from the program and guarantees admission if you get a B average on those courses. You might want to ask the admissions staff how this works on the application. The PAT for the iMBA is on the website, but not so clear in the iMSM website.

Hope this helps . I am rooting for you!

 

Neat, reminds me of the UC-Boulder MS in Data Science admission, or the Harvard Extension School where you can earn your way in.

 

Agree. Performance based admissions is a win-win for everyone. The university gets more applicants/students (higher $$$ revenues), while maintaining rigorous admission standards (because people who get the B average have proven they are capable enough). And students get a second chance in case they did not do so well in undergrad or have a less traditional background (e.g. lack quant background, come from another country, etc).

If I was a university executive, I would certainly consider implementing it across more programs. If it's good enough for Harvard, Penn (e.g. LPS) and other schools, it should be good enough for everyone else.

 

Great news :
I had a very good talk with the head of business / dean of business from Georgia South-western University.
If I don't get admitted by Gies business school, then I will enroll with GSW.
GSW couldn't say definitively if the case but they were confident that I meet the requirements to be admitted.
So good news finally, I have options!