Cheapest/Easiest Master's? Hellenic, WGU, UMPi?

[ss20ts]

I agree with Jonathan. I believe it is better for him to stick with the same study environment at UMPI for his master's degree. I know some students who transferred to WGU, and they did not perform well because the learning environment is totally different.

I also went to WGU for a term and hated it. It's soooooo different than UMPI. Yeah, they're both CBE programs, but that's all that they have in common. You don't have a professor at WGU. Instead, you get a Course Instructor who doesn't actually grade or evaluate your assignments. I didn't find them to be overly helpful as they couldn't tell me what I was doing wrong when I needed help with the assignments because they're not grading the work. It was very frustrating.

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UMass Global MAOL is cheaper than UMPI if he plans to take more than 6 months with it.

But the diploma will also say Global so it will scream online degree which everyone' isn't comfortable with. It's also not really UMass.

[Imbanewbie]

I agree with Jonathan. I believe it is better for him to stick with the same study environment at UMPI for his master's degree. I know some students who transferred to WGU, and they did not perform well because the learning environment is totally different.

I also went to WGU for a term and hated it. It's soooooo different than UMPI. Yeah, they're both CBE programs, but that's all that they have in common. You don't have a professor at WGU. Instead, you get a Course Instructor who doesn't actually grade or evaluate your assignments. I didn't find them to be overly helpful as they couldn't tell me what I was doing wrong when I needed help with the assignments because they're not grading the work. It was very frustrating.

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UMass Global MAOL is cheaper than UMPI if he plans to take more than 6 months with it.

But the diploma will also say Global so it will scream online degree which everyone' isn't comfortable with. It's also not really UMass.

WGU does not have professors. You need to find alternative ways to learn the material. We have other learning resources available such as LinkedIn Learning and Udemy. Students have the flexibility to learn at their own pace, which is one of the key benefits of WGU.

[ss20ts]

I agree with Jonathan. I believe it is better for him to stick with the same study environment at UMPI for his master's degree. I know some students who transferred to WGU, and they did not perform well because the learning environment is totally different.

I also went to WGU for a term and hated it. It's soooooo different than UMPI. Yeah, they're both CBE programs, but that's all that they have in common. You don't have a professor at WGU. Instead, you get a Course Instructor who doesn't actually grade or evaluate your assignments. I didn't find them to be overly helpful as they couldn't tell me what I was doing wrong when I needed help with the assignments because they're not grading the work. It was very frustrating.

---

UMass Global MAOL is cheaper than UMPI if he plans to take more than 6 months with it.

But the diploma will also say Global so it will scream online degree which everyone' isn't comfortable with. It's also not really UMass.

WGU does not have professors. You need to find alternative ways to learn the material. We have other learning resources available such as LinkedIn Learning and Udemy. Students have the flexibility to learn at their own pace, which is one of the key benefits of WGU.

Yeah I said WGU doesn't have professors which is a huge difference with UMPI. The CI's were not helpful at all when assignments were returned. They couldn't point out what I missed and I thought I covered everything requested. Happened in both of the degree programs I was in at WGU. The professors are handy when you have questions because they're the ones doing the grading at UMPI. Anyone can use LinkedIn Learning and Udemy so that's not really something to get excited about with WGU. Anyone can watch the same videos.

[nykorn]

I'm in my first term at WGU and loving it. All the assignments and most of the learning is geared towards real life and are more about the application of the knowledge to real work life than about the knowledge itself, so it is similar to trade school in that sense. Unlike what someone else wrote in here, every time I get an assignment sent back for revision it is extremely clear what I need to revise, and in every case so far it has actually just been me spacing out or misreading the instructions (stuff like it says "Write 2 examples" and I only wrote 1). In my case, averaged out I am passing about 1 CPU per day. A Master's degree is around 50 CPU so you can finish in 2 months, provided you aren't getting an internship. Customer service has been excellent and my mentor really, really knows what they are talking about with everything to do with the job field and the WGU degree itself - my mentor checks to see what I made a mistake on in my assignments, and a couple days after a revision has been requested if I haven't sent in the revision yet my course instructor sends me additional info, unbidden, about what to do for the revision.

I have not needed to use any outside resources to learn, needed to get any tutoring or talk to any instructors. The WGU course material is clear and in the few cases where I feel it is lacking details I just briefly check out Wikipedia and then I'm good.

My degree does not contain anything from LinkedIn or Udemy, a lot of the course videos are made by WGU instructors themselves (sometimes every video in the course). They do use quite a few resources from Edutopia, some legal websites (we are supposed to read the actual laws, not just read ABOUT the laws) and occasionally show short Ted Talks, which of course anyone can access (the Ted Talks are always just illustrative of the principles we are learning, and never actually "experts", vital information or explanations of theories etc). Aside from that they show unscripted classroom recordings from schools across the US which are hosted on some kind of private website only Education students have access to (aka not stuff on YouTube), and there is a 3D virtual classroom service you use for a few assignments where hired actors play the part of students. I found out a few Education degrees use that kind of virtual classroom service, including some schools in California.

That said, I have no idea how UMPI is.

[FireMedic_Philosopher]

With regard to Hellenic, while it is a brick and mortar school, the MBA is an online only program and would not provide an immigration visa.

[bjcheung77]

Canadians and other non-American or even US PR/Citizens currently outside of the US are able to get into the program, are you using the MBA for immigration purposes or something? I am confused where all this immigration visa talk came about...

[nykorn]

I have a question regarding the Hellenic MBA; I know it is RA, but does the lack of business school accreditation affect it a lot, potentially for immigration purposes?

No. In the case of evaluating US schools for immigration, foreign countries (immigration offices) usually look at regional or national accreditation. What matters is if the school or what it is accredited by is on the national or state Board of Education's list (the state the school itself is registered in, not a random state) as a recognized, accredited school. These state lists usually do NOT include any sort of business school only accreditation. So you can be a "Business School" accredited by a business agency/alliance but not be on the state list, in which case you usually count the same as an unaccredited school.

There are some countries which don't even check accreditation, they just check to see the school is real (has an actual address, website, etc) or check to see that the diploma actually came from the school. And there are a few countries that would accept Business accreditation despite the school not having state/national accreditation. Some countries accept national accreditation, and others only accept regional. But I have never heard of a country that would reject regional accreditation just because you are lacking Business accreditation - this is especially true because in most countries Business is not a field requiring an exclusive license (unlike, say, surgery).

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With regard to Hellenic, while it is a brick and mortar school, the MBA is an online only program and would not provide an immigration visa.

Incorrect, online only degrees certainly provide visas, most countries do not see them as separate from brick and mortar schools and the fact that it was an online program is not usually noted on your transcript or diploma in the first place. The only country I have heard of so far that rejects online schools is India, if you are thinking of immigrating to India you should note that as it is an extreme minority in immigration practices. Japan, Sweden, Taiwan, etc all accept online degrees for immigration purposes.

[mohelena02]

Canadians and other non-American or even US PR/Citizens currently outside of the US are able to get into the program, are you using the MBA for immigration purposes or something?  I am confused where all this immigration visa talk came about...

Sorry for the confusion. My brother has the interest of living in Canada and Europe, so my questions around immigration are from that frame. Thanks~

[bjcheung77]

Sorry for the confusion. My brother has the interest of living in Canada and Europe, so my questions around immigration are from that frame. Thanks~

No, the lack of programmatic or secondary accreditation in business doesn't affect the application for immigration in the future. It only affects entry into institutions that have stringent requirements for entry, example are some prestigious ones may/would require AACSB or ACBSP for entry to their Masters programs as they have a Masters/Doctoral degree that has AACSB or ACBSP.

[FireMedic_Philosopher]

I have a question regarding the Hellenic MBA; I know it is RA, but does the lack of business school accreditation affect it a lot, potentially for immigration purposes?

No. In the case of evaluating US schools for immigration, foreign countries (immigration offices) usually look at regional or national accreditation. What matters is if the school or what it is accredited by is on the national or state Board of Education...

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With regard to Hellenic, while it is a brick and mortar school, the MBA is an online only program and would not provide an immigration visa.

Incorrect, online only degrees certainly provide visas, most countries do not see them as separate from brick and mortar schools and the fact that it was an online program is not usually noted on your transcript or diploma in the first place. The only country I have heard of so far that rejects online schools is India, if you are thinking of immigrating to India you should note that as it is an extreme minority in immigration practices. Japan, Sweden, Taiwan, etc all accept online degrees for immigration purposes.

Sorry,

I was answering with regard to the USA... The US State Department will not commonly issue a student visa to a foreigner come to the US  if what they are enrolled in is an online-only program.
Many colleges will even state on their websites that such and such degree does not qualify someone for a visa, if taken online.

I have no idea what other nations do AFTER the degree is earned.