Errata

I went back and looked at the aacsb.edu web site as I was trying to make my decision and noticed that if you try to lookup distance programs at Indiana University you will be disappointed, because none show up. I notified Kelley Direct and the AACSB, I'm sure they can sort it out.

Narrowing Down the List

In my previous post, I listed what I thought were the top online MBA programs. Somewhere I saw it advised that one should apply to at least 8-10 business schools. I think that is pretty excessive. Application costs can be close to $100 per application, plus transcript costs and rounding up people to act as references for your application. I narrowed down my list to three schools and applied to those:

• Indiana University - Kelley
• Penn State - Smeal
• Thunderbird

Looking through all the rankings and program materials, I felt that Arizona State, Penn State, and Indiana have program that are somewhat similar programs to each other. Arizona State's application deadline was a little earlier than I was ready to commit to and I felt that I would get into a similar program by applying to one of the other two schools.

Brief pros and cons of each:

Penn State:
Pros: portfolio based application process, rolling admissions, rigorous curriculum, variety of payment options, distance is drivable.
Cons: Perhaps not as well known.

Indiana:
Pros: well known program, dual degrees offered, some choice as to elective coursework.
Cons: pay by the credit hour

Thunderbird:
Pros: very well known for international focus, very large and active alumni organization, program includes international coursework
Cons: less quantitative curriculum, known for international focus, expensive application fee ($120)

All of the applications were online, pretty simple to complete.

The Best Online MBA Programs I Could Find

After doing a lot of research on the various programs, I identified what I think are the top Online/Distance Education programs out there. I am excluding from this list distance education programs that require you to drive to a predetermined location and attend lectures via satellite or video conference. I also exclude distance/online EMBA programs. These are listed in no particular order. I will write up a little blurb on a subset of these later.

• Instituto de Empresa - One of the world's top business schools is in Spain. They have an online program. This school's programs rank as high or higher than some of the Ivy League schools.
  
• Indiana University - Not to dwell on rankings, but this program is offered by the Kelley School of Business, which is one of the highest nationally ranked schools to offer a distance program. This is offered via IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis) although all the faculty teach in the MBA program at IU.
• Arizona State University - Offered via the W.P. Carey School of Business, which is quite well regarded.
• University of Florida - As mentioned in a previous post, you may need to make multiple visits to Gainesville. If you live in Florida maybe it's not such a big deal.
• Penn State University - The online program which is delivered through "WorldCampus" shares faculty with the full time program at the Smeal School of Business. My employer endows a chair there. Although referred to as the iMBA, it meets the requirements of my previous post.
• Thunderbird - The Thunderbird School of Global Management seems to be quite well known in the international business arena. In common with Instituto de Empresa, they are an independent business school. They don't confer undergraduate degrees, and they are not affiliated with a university.
• Babson - Well known in the entrepreneurship field, Babson offers a "Fast Track" MBA which is similar to the other programs; most can be completed in about 24 months. The residency experiences occur on campus in Massachusetts or Portland, Oregon.
  
• MIT - Offers up the Sloan School of Management curriculum for free, notes, lectures, etc. Sorry, no degrees conferred.
  

The GMAT

A few thoughts on the GMAT.

• You're going to have to take it. It's required by any AACSB accredited program (see previous post regarding wasting your time and money).
• The GMAT score is important. If you're going to apply, you're going to have to face the fact that there is an element of gamesmanship to the applications process. Schools are competing each other for applicants (and their money). To attract applicants they play in the ratings game which publishers like Businessweek use to sell their books, people use to pick schools, and graduates use to tout the quality of their degree. There are plenty of study resources for the GMAT. I took a Kaplan class. It was a pain in the neck, time consuming, expensive, and tedious. I did feel in the end that it did help my score.
• Don't procrastinate. Prepare and take the test. Don't put off persuing your degree because you're afraid of taking the GMAT and getting a bad score. Although the score is important, it isn't the only factor considered. If you have good grades and recommendations then don't spend too much time worrying about it.
  

What to Look for in a Distance/Online MBA

When I first started looking at Online MBA programs, I identified a number of factors which are important to anyone considering this type of program. In this post, I identify the key factors to look for in an online or distance MBA:

1. I started off with schools that are AACSB accredited. Anything else is a waste of money. Why put in all that time, money and hard work for a degree that's not accredited by the AACSB? This is the initial filter which lets you sort out the weaker schools from the better ones. I have a link to the AACSB school profiles which only includes the accredited schools. Resources such as the Businesweek school profiles, although used heavily, include non-accredited programs.
2. The diploma has to say "Master of Business Administration" without saying "distance education", "online" or denoting how you got it. I was originally very interested in the online program at UMass and had heard good things about it from people in the program. It does meet the test of being AACSB accreditation, but the degree is "Professional Master of Business Administration" or PMBA rather than MBA.
3. Delivery method is important. Several schools I looked at were accredited MBA programs, but the delivery method of the courses was correspondence school style. Rather than having a facility for online instruction, these programs ship you out a DVD of the lectures the day after class (an example of this kind of program can be found here. Then you sit there and watch the lecture being delivered when you have time. This didn't seem too effective to me, although I suppose if you are in the military or in a position where you can't get to a computer you don't have too much of a choice. I preferred to find schools where there was some online instruction.
4. Residency requirement. I was originally thinking that I would like a program that was all online. Programs have varying residency requirements. Some, like UMass, have no residency requirements. You can complete the entire program without going on campus. I wasn't able to find any programs that met requirements #1 and 2 which didn't have some sort of residency requirement. This normally means being on-campus about one week each year of the program. Some programs, such as the University of Florida, require that you travel to campus several times a year. I wasn't really interested in that type of arrangement.
   

What's This Blog About?

For the past couple of years, I have been thinking about going back to school for my MBA. I have a good job, so I didn't want to take a two year hiatus. By the same token, traditional part time MBAs can take up to 60 credits and 3-4 years to complete.

A few years ago, I heard that some business schools actually offered the MBA program via an online or mixed-mode format. I checked out several programs and decided that this would be a great option for me. I didn't really want to sit through hours and hours of lectures or travel out of my way to get to class.

This blog is about how I went about investigating and applying to online MBA programs. I did lots of research and checked out the top distance MBA programs in the country. To prepare to apply, I did the traditional things like taking the GMAT, writing essays, and filling out applications. I'm now receiving my acceptance notifications to these programs.