Western Governors MBA

[Goblue34]

I am finishing up my BS from COSC in the fall and I am looking to go on to grad school to get me MBA

I am looking at the WGU MBA program and LSUS MBA program.

Here is what I have gathered so far.

LSUS - AACSB accredited and would take two years and about 13k to complete

WGU - is Regional accredited and If I work my butt off I could get it done in a year for 7k

I was heavily leaning towards LSUS because of the AACSB, but the more I look into the more WGU has going for it. IT would only take a year, a lot cheaper and getting all kinds of good press lately. Do you guys think that being regional Accredited is a big draw back ? any word from current WGU MBA grads on trouble landing the jobs that typically come with an MBA ? Thoughts on how the WGU MBA with be viewed 10 years down the line as they expand ?

[mednat]

I am finishing up my BS from COSC in the fall and I am looking to go on to grad school to get me MBA

I am looking at the WGU MBA program and LSUS MBA program.

Here is what I have gathered so far.

LSUS - AACSB accredited and would take two years and about 13k to complete

WGU - is Regional accredited and If I work my butt off I could get it done in a year for 7k

I was heavily leaning towards LSUS because of the AACSB, but the more I look into the more WGU has going for it. IT would only take a year, a lot cheaper and getting all kinds of good press lately. Do you guys think that being regional Accredited is a big draw back ? any word from current WGU MBA grads on trouble landing the jobs that typically come with an MBA ? Thoughts on how the WGU MBA with be viewed 10 years down the line as they expand ?

What do you plan to do with your degree? Ever plan on teaching?

[txnicole]

Do you guys think that being regional Accredited is a big draw back ?

LSUS is also regionally accredited. AACSB is one of 3 types of additional business program accreditation that a school can have, and is typically considered the best of the three. You will want to prioritize a school that has an AACSB rating if you plan to become a professor of business or you plan to apply to highly competitive jobs where you need any slight advantage. Of course, in some ultra-competitive business environments, the LSUS tier-2 school itself isn't exactly going to be high ranking enough to impress anyway.

I did the MBA (IT focus) with WGU, and even after a dozen years being a business owner, I learned quite a few things. I can't tell you how the degree has directly affected any of my job searching because it wasn't for that purpose for me. I can tell you that as a business owner, I would only look to see that someone obtained an MBA, and would not be concerned about whether or not their program had an additional rating.

In business, those additional accreditations fall into the 'extras' category that might separate you from another candidate to give you an advantage, but since they aren't required for the field (unlike the types for psychology, etc...) they're only truly relevant to some employers or in the situation where you're trying to find a reason to hire one person over another.

If you're not planning to go into those two segments mentioned... then I'd suggest you get the degree done through WGU faster and cheaper. You hit the job market a year faster, which means you lose a year less potential income, and you spend less on the degree which probably makes up for the marginal benefit the extra accreditation would make.

[Prloko]

I am finishing up my BS from COSC in the fall and I am looking to go on to grad school to get me MBA

I am looking at the WGU MBA program and LSUS MBA program.

Here is what I have gathered so far.

LSUS - AACSB accredited and would take two years and about 13k to complete

WGU - is Regional accredited and If I work my butt off I could get it done in a year for 7k

I was heavily leaning towards LSUS because of the AACSB, but the more I look into the more WGU has going for it. IT would only take a year, a lot cheaper and getting all kinds of good press lately. Do you guys think that being regional Accredited is a big draw back ? any word from current WGU MBA grads on trouble landing the jobs that typically come with an MBA ? Thoughts on how the WGU MBA with be viewed 10 years down the line as they expand ?

Is LSUS a local school? Sometimes local employers are partial to local schools. Also, if it is local, I may remove some of the initial online bias.

In all honestly, after you drop below the top 50 schools, the impact of the school choice for an MBA diminishes greatly.

Also, if you go on indeed.com and enter "AACSB" without entering a location, you will return almost only colleges and universities. I think I saw maybe two employers who specified AACSB.

[Goblue34]

LSUS is not a local school, I am in the midwest (Also LSUS MBA is fairly new). I do plan on teaching if I can but at the junior college level. Am I correct in thinking that the AACSB is less of a factor at that level.

[Goblue34]

Thank for the reply, it makes total sense.

[mednat]

LSUS is not a local school, I am in the midwest (Also LSUS MBA is fairly new). I do plan on teaching if I can but at the junior college level. Am I correct in thinking that the AACSB is less of a factor at that level.

I don't believe it's a requirement at that level, however it is more likely that academics will understand the value of the accreditation, whereas most business professionals don't have a clue about programmatic accreditation. I don't believe this will exclude you, however if I had plans to teach above the high school level, I would peruse something with programmatic accreditation. I say this with no first hand knowledge, only secondary accounts of how tough the education job market is.

[Prloko]

LSUS is not a local school, I am in the midwest (Also LSUS MBA is fairly new). I do plan on teaching if I can but at the junior college level. Am I correct in thinking that the AACSB is less of a factor at that level.

If you want to teach business at the collegiate level, it is much safer to get an AACSB degree. There are some good ones out there that members of this forum already posted. I know one that I was once contemplating was Univ of Lousiana Monroe. Regardless, when I lived in the Shreveport area, LSUS was a respected school. I had applied and registered for courses there, but then almost immediately, received military orders.

There may be other cheap AACSB options in the midwest also. also check geteducated.com. It isn't all inclusive, but you can get a good idea of the programs and also filter only AACSB schools.

[mednat]

West Texas A&M and ENMU are mentioned alot here.

[Goblue34]

I am also wondering how was the job hunt with a WGU MBA ? I for sure looks like WGU is trending in a positive direction as an institution.