Did the WGU MBA help you move up

[dmar001]

Hello Everyone,

I was taking a drive with my older brother who mentioned he wants to get his MBA. He has been working at a community college for the last 14 years and now the head of finance dept, with a multitude of lateral promotions, which has him managing just about every department. He said everyone who he started with got there Masters and moved on to working at 4-year schools which he ultimately wants. Working at a 4-yr will provide better pay, better longevity to retire there, and so his daughters can get a free or discounted education at that school. The requirement he does not meet for the same position at a 4-year is having a Masters degree.

He mentioned sending an application in to Strayer and Phoenix. I cringed once he said Phoenix since I know they have a bad rep and notoriously expensive. He got a little defensive and said well they're online schools I don't have time to go to classes at a BM. I reminded him I am no stranger to online schools lol. I told him there are other options I didn't know much about Strayer but I said don't rush into anything quite yet. Instinctively I wanted to immediately recommend WGU since I got my BS in IT and I liked the entire experience but I know the MBA is a whole different field. I didn't want to mention the great cost and he does it and gets burned in the end and blames me.

Has anyone with years of real world experience use the WGU MBA to help them move up into a position they wouldn't be able to get without a MBA?

Thank you

[Prloko]

read the following thread:

http://www.degreeforum.net/graduate-scho...mba-2.html

WGU is also discussed in different threads throughout the forum.

Years ago, the only choices for truly online schools were limited. Phoenix was basically the king of online school. Nowadays, the for-profits are losing market share to all the traditional and non-profit online programs springing up. There really is no need for UoP anymore unless they let you go for free. Tell him that basically any school will have some sort of adult program to complete his masters, some in as little as a year! Cleveland State had an one year masters online with all books included, but it costs about $37000 for the year.

There are many others. I believe the site degreeinfo.com has a better grasp of the various Master's programs out there.

[rebel100]

I would fear an anti online bias in the scenario you put forward. The one place my WGU degree (and my COSC bachelors) wasn't well received was for possible employment at a brick and mortor land grant school.

In his case WGU might make the list, but not the top of it. I would at least consider all the traditional schools first.

[sanantone]

I attended a state university a few hours away from where I lived, but since it's in the same state, no one has yet to assume that I attended online. I'm not trying to hide it; it's just that no one ever asks. I don't think HR and hiring managers go out of their way to match employment history with school attendance. A lot of people aren't familiar with TESC; therefore, they don't know it's an almost 100% online school. At an interview, one of the interviewers saw NJ on my resume and assumed I was from there despite my light Texas accent.

[Yanji]

I would fear an anti online bias in the scenario you put forward. The one place my WGU degree (and my COSC bachelors) wasn't well received was for possible employment at a brick and mortor land grant school.

In his case WGU might make the list, but not the top of it. I would at least consider all the traditional schools first.

I think this is good advice. I'm not sure I would characterize it as an anti-online education bias (many great universities are very enthusiastic about distance education) or more of a bias towards reputable research universities though. I've never met administrators who were more passionate about online education than I did during my 2 years at IU. These days, even traditional full-time undergraduates usually take at least a couple of online courses during their program. I think there will always be some degree of suspicion towards applied studies oriented schools from traditional comprehensive/liberal arts schools, online or not.

[rebel100]

Fair enough, I like the way you put it.

I applied for a university job in Texas once. The recruiter seemed really excited till he took me before the Dean responsible for hiring....the Dean shot me down out of hand due to the nature of my academic credentials. Only time I know of that happening.

I think it matters a lot less with any sort of B/M presence. Academia may be one of the last bastions of this sort of thinking oddly enough

[Exfactor]

There is a bias to online education. I think its more so projected by an older generation of people. My aunt is friends to a couple deans at a couple colleges & universities, and they have all projected a dislike for online education. Most colleges and universities really don't care about online learning at all. The majority only have online programs due to the extra financial resources it provides, so that they don't have to pinch more money from their "On site" students, as a means keep their brick and mortar campuses afloat. School's such as Southern New Hampshire University and Peru State College have basically been saved from closing due to its online division's.

I think if online education is a problem, attending a brick & mortar school within your state maybe the best way to alleviate that problem. There are so many state schools nowadays that are offering MBA's; many with no GRE requirement. No one will question if you attended school online, I don't think. Thus far I have received no complaints about my degree from Excelsior College; to be honest most people have never heard of the college, I think the same can be said for all of the BIG 3; however, I did see a commercial for Charter Oak State College here in Florida, and for graduate school I decided to attend a brick and mortar locally, that offers an online division, so if that "online education" question were to ever pop-up.

[Yanji]

The majority only have online programs due to the extra financial resources it provides, so that they don't have to pinch more money from their "On site" students, as a means keep their brick and mortar campuses afloat. School's such as Southern New Hampshire University and Peru State College have basically been saved from closing due to its online division's.

There is a tremendous difference between schools in rural Nebraska offering online programs to keep the doors open and highly ranked MBA programs offering online alternatives to their full-time programs. There's very few quality part-time MBA programs in the country, and they're pretty much all in either LA, Chicago or the East Coast, so for people in the rest of the country or perhaps Americans working abroad, a good online program could be exactly what they and their employer are looking for. Just how much respect would an MBA do you think an unranked in-state MBA would get from an educational administrator at a research university, regardless of the mode of delivery?

I think if online education is a problem, attending a brick & mortar school within your state maybe the best way to alleviate that problem. There are so many state schools nowadays that are offering MBA's; many with no GRE requirement. No one will question if you attended school online, I don't think.

If avoiding bias is the goal, attending an MBA program without a GMAT/GRE requirement is not the way to go.

[Exfactor]

There is a tremendous difference between schools in rural Nebraska offering online programs to keep the doors open and highly ranked MBA programs offering online alternatives to their full-time programs. There's very few quality part-time MBA programs in the country, and they're pretty much all in either LA, Chicago or the East Coast, so for people in the rest of the country or perhaps Americans working abroad, a good online program could be exactly what they and their employer are looking for. Just how much respect would an MBA do you think an unranked in-state MBA would get from an educational administrator at a research university, regardless of the mode of delivery?

I wouldn't say the difference is tremendous; at the end of the day their both offering "online education." The only thing a top program has is their name recognition, and perhaps accreditation. The University of Nebraska at Lincoln offers an MBA online, so for an individual from Nebraska they can still pursue an online degree locally.

If avoiding bias is the goal, attending an MBA program without a GMAT/GRE requirement is not the way to go.

Do you have experience with HR checking to see if an individual's school required the GRE? As I was telling Kittenmittens a while back, my cousin works for a huge health insurance company based in San Antonio, with an MBA from Strayer University (No GRE was taken), and is currently making over 150k a year, while her co-workers with MBA's from state and private universities are making way-less.

[Yanji]

Do you have experience with HR checking to see if an individual's school required the GRE?

The purpose of my original reply was regarding respect from senior university administrators, not paper pushers in HR. We've already covered that HR generally does not care.