Update on my MBA progress

[ryoder]

I started this MBA back in March as a non-degree seeking student because I hadn't received my diploma from TESC yet.
I think I am on track to complete all courses some time mid-november.

BTW, I love this format. I wake up Saturday and Sunday mornings ready to work and make a lot of progress on these days.

Completed courses:
Business Ethics - A
Strategic Knowledge Studies - A
Foundations of Graduate Studies in Business - A
History of Management Thought - A
C# Programming - A
Human Resources Management - A-

In progress:
Business Statistics - in progress, B+
C++ Programming - in progress, A

Planned:
Computer Graphics - planned
Computer Science Capstone - planned

[skyfall123]

Great job!!!

[ShotoJuku]

...BTW, I love this format. I wake up Saturday and Sunday mornings ready to work and make a lot of progress on these days...

It's 0932 Hours on a Saturday - get up and get to work!!

[ryoder]

Ug statistics is not my cup of tea.

[Merlin]

Congrats!

Starting on grad school classes before you enroll to get a leg up seems like a good approach. Did you have any issues matriculating to a regular student from a non-degree seeking one once you had your BS?

[ryoder]

No issues. They treat the 2 courses as transfer credits and the MBA only allows 6 credits in transfer so I had to stop after 2 courses.
The nice thing was that I was able to work on other courses prior to enrolling in them because NCU's syllabus system allows you to download a syllabus for a course you are interested in and the course basically is the syllabus.

[burbuja0512]

Ryoder I have a question for you about the MBA you're in.

Now that I'm wrapping up week three/semana tres of my program, one of the things that I am enjoying most and learning the most from is the forum posting. I love that I get to not only learn from the text and my weekly writing assignments but also from the discussions that I have with my classmates. I didn't feel like the discussions I had at the undergrad level in my Capstone class were all that enriching, but the level of people I'm interacting with at the graduate level is totally different. I feel like I'm learning so much from their experiences and they're learning from mine.

Don't get me wrong, if I hadn't found the MBA program of my dreams, I would be doing what you're doing and trying to get through it quickly, but now that I'm doing it, I'm glad that I'm going down this path. Do you feel like you're missing out on anything with the program you're in?

P.S. One interesting thing I just learned this week in my class.. You know that my MBA program is bilingual and my classmates are mostly outside of the country. The topic of outsourcing came up and I was honestly the only person that was viewing it as a negative. In fact, no one in the class ever had heard anything but positive comments about it. They were genuinely surprised that I would refer to it as being controversial... lol very interesting discussions this week as you can imagine.

[bawhitsett]

The topic of outsourcing came up and I was honestly the only person that was viewing it as a negative. In fact, no one in the class ever had heard anything but positive comments about it. They were genuinely surprised that I would refer to it as being controversial... lol very interesting discussions this week as you can imagine.

They've likely never had a position outsourced, either. This has happened to me and at the time I was pretty bitter about it, but I can now also see the business value in it and don't see it as something to take personally. It's also motivated me to work on making myself the most attractive, skilled candidate possible, so that I can compete for those positions that are harder to offshore.

[ryoder]

I don't know if I am missing anything. I probably am. However, the amount of solitary research skills I am gaining puts me in a very good position to complete the dissertation process of a PhD. The faculty that grades me at NCU are all PhDs for the most part and the syllabi I am graded by often make comments like "writing at the doctorate level should...". It is obvious that the curriculum was designed for PhD candidates. So I am not learning so much as a student but as a budding scholar.

As far as outsourcing goes, it is a transfer of wealth from the developed countries like the US and European countries to the developing and 3rd world countries like Mexico. Take NAFTA for example. This legislation was the bane of the working man and liberal in the US. But it provided hope and good paying jobs for Mexicans who often live in poverty.

I have seen so many people lose their jobs due to offshoring to India too. The Indian economy was opened up in the 1990s and it is now sucking up all of the IT and other service sector jobs in the US. These people have been poor for years, just scraping by and now they have servants, internet access, American engineered cars, etc. They are the future. We are the past. Of course outsourcing of American jobs would not be a negative for them. They are the benefactors.

I just have to keep myself educated and 3x more productive than a person making 1/2 or 1/3 of my salary. For me that is easy. For most, it is not.

[dcan]

That's incredible.

Interesting to see you use "transfer of wealth" in a positive light... hilarious

Funny: What do you think about illegal immigrants working at below-market wages? "Taking American jobs" so to speak, outsourcing right on our own soil?

I suspect the response will be "they are working at market wages that are below artificially-inflated wages set by a capricious government"

I also expect you would like the entrepreneur who wanted to buy a fleet of freighters, fill them with cubes and an internet satellite downlink, and park them in international waters right off the Cali coast and fill them with workers from South Asia for six month tours. All the benefits of outsourcing, within a quick helicopter or boat ride for meetings. I thought it was brilliant.

Also, I know you are looking into a PhD or DBA. Where are you looking and what are the price ranges?