I am looking for a budget online MBA program ranked among the top 50 in USA

[ThatBankDude]

@shrekr, if you want to pursue a rather prestigious MBA program, you’ll need to look at the following:

•University of Michigan, Ross School of Business
•Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business
•University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Kenan-Flagler School of Business
•Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business
•University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
•University of California-Berkeley, Haas School of Business

There are a few more than offer Online MBA programs. Having said that, as you said, they will not provide you with the ROI as most all of those I listed above are running about $100K total.

If you do not want a prestigious brand on your resume, then I would go with the cheapest AACSB program you can find.

@ThatBankDude: Thank you for your response.
I want a prestigious brand (within a certain budget) on my resume and I am trying to figure out "how does one know which are the top 50 or 100 prestigious MBA schools?" 
I though US News ranking determines if a school is prestigious or not. Let me know if I am barking the wrong tree.

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For online MBAs with great prestige relative to cost, also check out Boston University Questrom and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Gies.

Hi Jonathan,
How did you figure out Boston University and UILUC are prestigious? Is there a website ranking them?
Thanks

Both are highly ranked schools. 

Edurank will give you a decent idea.


For business schools I don’t think it gets a ton better than UIUC. 
I like Boston cause it’s 30 credits vs UIUC’s 48 

Program wise. It will be hard to find rankings that actually mean anything.

If you base it on rankings like he seems to be, there are quite a few better than UIUC.

[smartdegree]

I am 50 and currently a senior manager in a fairly large company. There may be one more promotion left in me and I would like to equip myself with a MBA degree to enable it. I don't thing an expensive MBA adding a lot of value for me, at this stage of my career, from ROI point of view.

One quick way to determine the best program is to observe individuals who currently hold the position you desire. For instance, if you aspire to move into a director or VP level in your firm, consider checking their LinkedIn profiles to see which MBA programs they selected. If everyone appears to have graduated from a top-ranked program, that gives you an indication of which program to explore. Alternatively, if 50% of the directors graduated from a local state school nearby, you might target that program. On the other hand, if only 10% or fewer have an MBA at all, you might realize the MBA has minimal to no impact on how those people secured their positions.

I am sure you are aware, but at age 50 and aiming for a director/VP role, the emphasis on whether someone has an MBA diminishes significantly - at that juncture, it's about who can deliver results. You are probably a hiring manager at this stage - would having someone on your staff obtain an MBA make it more likely for you to promote them over someone who dedicated their time to building their career by delivering excellent results for you?

[Imbanewbie]

@shrekr, This is what I would recommend, narrow your list down to the top 3.  Narrow down the list of the entire thread to another backup 3.  There is the 6 you can and should apply to.  You're ultimately going to see what courses are offered for each one to decide, in addition to cost, time of completion, programmatic or secondary accreditation, and other factors.  We can only advise, but you're the one deciding, everyone would have their own view and will go in all directions...

Good point. My final 2 are
University of Massachusetts - Amherst; Ranked -12; Tuition-$33300
Oklahoma State University (Spears); Ranked -27; Tuition-$17490

One of the reasons for my post is to understand if the rankings bear any relevance out there. I brought up this topic with few of my colleagues & Ex-colleagues. They recognized UMass as a reputable institution, but were surprised that OSU figured in my top 5.

Also you should consider MBA specialization. It will help to be different than other MBA only.

[shrekr]

@shrekr, it looks like you're over-relying on a clickbaity list of online MBA programs with ranking numbers that don't really reflect relative prestige among hirers.

Please don't get me wrong, I am not well versed with how the B schools are rated as prestigious. If you can suggest me a way to find out that will be greatly appreciated.

[ss20ts]

At 50 years old, I wouldn't spend anywhere near $35K on an MBA. You should already be in a senior role and moving up the corporate ladder. Experience will be far more valuable than a $35K MBA from a top 50 (Who decides top 50? Everyone and their grandmother has made a list.). What industry are you in where you need these accreditations?

[shrekr]

but at age 50 and aiming for a director/VP role, the emphasis on whether someone has an MBA diminishes significantly - at that juncture, it's about who can deliver results" 
Well! this was my predicament, that kept me from doing a MBA in the first place. Finally I concluded that a Business degree might just add cherry on top the cake for me. I want to make most out of this opportunity, a decently prestigious school with an AACSB accreditation and under $35k.

[Courcelles]

At that price point, and wanting a name brand, it’s pretty much Illinois or Boston University. More prestigious universities offer online MBAs, but not in this price range.

How do you know those are prestigious schools? They’re on this list: https://www.aau.edu/sites/default/files/...202023.pdf

[Pats20]

At that price point, and wanting a name brand, it’s pretty much Illinois or Boston University. More prestigious universities offer online MBAs, but not in this price range.

How do you know those are prestigious schools?  They’re on this list: https://www.aau.edu/sites/default/files/...202023.pdf

This ^^^

[Pats20]

@shrekr, if you want to pursue a rather prestigious MBA program, you’ll need to look at the following:

•University of Michigan, Ross School of Business
•Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business
•University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Kenan-Flagler School of Business
•Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business
•University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School
•University of California-Berkeley, Haas School of Business

There are a few more than offer Online MBA programs. Having said that, as you said, they will not provide you with the ROI as most all of those I listed above are running about $100K total.

If you do not want a prestigious brand on your resume, then I would go with the cheapest AACSB program you can find.

@ThatBankDude: Thank you for your response.
I want a prestigious brand (within a certain budget) on my resume and I am trying to figure out "how does one know which are the top 50 or 100 prestigious MBA schools?" 
I though US News ranking determines if a school is prestigious or not. Let me know if I am barking the wrong tree.

---

For online MBAs with great prestige relative to cost, also check out Boston University Questrom and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Gies.

Hi Jonathan,
How did you figure out Boston University and UILUC are prestigious? Is there a website ranking them?
Thanks

Both are highly ranked schools. 

Edurank will give you a decent idea.


For business schools I don’t think it gets a ton better than UIUC. 
I like Boston cause it’s 30 credits vs UIUC’s 48 

Program wise. It will be hard to find rankings that actually mean anything.

If you base it on rankings like he seems to be, there are quite a few better than UIUC.

Quite a few for $35k ?

[IReallyNeedADegree]

Hello all, found this forum last weekend, found lot of useful information. I learnt more about certain programs in just half a day compared to what I learnt in the past week of digging online. Thank you very much for sharing.

I am 50 and currently a senior manager in a fairly large company. There may be one more promotion left in me and I would like to equip myself with a MBA degree to enable it. I don't thing an expensive MBA adding a lot of value for me, at this stage of my career, from ROI point of view.

I am looking for a budget online MBA program, with no specific specialization in mind. My main expectations are:
1. Online only 
2. Budget, willing to spend a maximum of $35k
3. the school should be accredited (AASCB is my preference, I might go with ACBSP if there is a compelling reason)
4. I want the school to be ranked among the top 50 in USA. ***
5. I am willing to spend upto 2 years on this program

Most of the MBA programs listed in this thread are definitely within my budget, however most of them do not fare well in terms of US News rankings. 

***I compared rankings for schools offering online MBA, I tried "US News", "Princeton" and "Poets and Quants". These 3 companies have similar results for top 10 schools, and somewhat aligned on the next 10-20 schools, however beyond 20 the rest of the schools were very different by these three companies.

1. It seems me that "US News" has better recognition for their rankings compared to the other 2 companies. Is this a fair conclusion?
2. In the absence of standardized ratings for schools offering online MBA, I would like to understand, how valuable is the Ranking provided by "US News"? Am I chasing something that is not valuable?

I found the below schools satisfying my criteria

University of Wisconsin MBA Consortium; Ranked -9; Tuition-$29700
University of Massachusetts - Amherst; Ranked -12; Tuition-$33300
Ball State University; Ranked -19; Tuition-$27040
University of South Florida (Muma); Ranked -19; Tuition-$34200
Oklahoma State University (Spears); Ranked -27; Tuition-$17490
Rawls College of Business; Ranked -33; Tuition-$23058
University of Massachusetts--Lowell; Ranked -35; Tuition-$35370
University of Memphis (Fogelman); Ranked -45; Tuition-$25308

I will appreciate different insights and thought processes.

I would go with UIUC or BU