Patten MBA in 4 months???

[mednat]

The "stigma" is the stigma that is attached to private for-profit schools. While it's unfair to lump all of the schools together, the failure of Corinthian Colleges (Heald being the most well none brand) is a strong reminder of the possible issues.

Patten falls in the same group as ITT Tech, DeVry, Heald, University of Phoenix, Kaplan, Strayer, Capella, etc. While I am not commenting on the quality of the education, you should realize you will run into people who will have a negative view on the school. You will run into the same challenges in both the professional world and the academic world, long after people stop caring about your GPA.

Also out of curiousity, what 'opportunities' are you running into outside of grad school that require a 3.5 GPA?



MBAs tend to be the second graduate degree you get, not the first, if you are intending on having more than one graduate degree. There is no wrong way to do it, but a MBA is considered a professional degree. Generally it's the degree people go back for to add practical acumen to their more academic pursuits from a traditional graduate degree. Why are you doing the MBA before the other graduate programs? Why are you doing two graduate programs?

I agree with you in principle. If I had little industry experience, I would be looking at a state college MBA program. I have over 15 years of experience in my field and really want an MBA for these reasons:

1.) I just completed my BSBA coursework and it makes sense to take similar classes to take advantage of the material overlap.
2.) To check a box on job postings for "Graduate degree preferred"
3.) I believe I can do it quickly and cheaply.

Without #3, I would just forego the MBA, because the material is not particularly interesting to me.

My interest in other graduate programs is mostly just from a desire to learn and to allow for the possibility of a career change in the future. I intend to pursue these at traditional schools (probably using an online format).