Best master's degree to get if my ultimate goal is Ed.D

[manley0702]

Your options or recommendations depend on various factors.  What job/title do you currently have? What bachelors and where did you get it from?  What's your ultimate goal, the Univ Admin or the Ed Tech Sales?  I assume you're looking cheap/easy/fast Masters degree as long as it provides you a great ROI in value...  Which schools/programs have you looked at so far for your Masters?

Thanks so much for the reply, BJ. Answers to your questions are below:

1. My current job/title is Account Executive. Essentially, I am the sales rep for a territory of states selling software to provosts and deans at universities. My base salary is $85k, and I get commission on top of that averaging a total earnings of ~$120k-~130k per year.

2. My bachelor's degree is from Auburn University with is an AACSB-accredited college. The degree is a B.S. in Business Administration. I got that degree in 2009 when I was 22 years old.

3. My ultimate goal is probably to stay in the ed tech side. Currently I'm a sales rep for a fairly large, well-known company. As a next step, I'd probably look to get a CMO or VP of sales position at a smaller company OR a sales manager or implementation team manager at a larger company. As an ultimate goal, I'd like to end up getting a CEO-type role with a smaller company or a VP sales role at a larger company. The university admin position would be something I'd be interested in later in my career (maybe in my mid-50s), hopefully after already having made some money on the ed tech side. 

4. Yes, I would be looking for something cheap and easy and fast for a Master's degree because

a) I'd be doing it mostly to fill the requirement of getting into an Ed.D program (though certainly a masters in business helps in the ed tech side) and

b) I'm currently making pretty good money and don't want to have to give that up to pursue a top-level masters degree. On top of that, I'm married and have 2 children under the age of 5. My wife stays home so we can't manage without me working.

5. So far I'm focusing on the following but am certainly open to others:

WGU MBA
WGU MSML
Capella Flexpath MBA
Purdue Global ExcelTrack MBA
Walden Tempo MBA

The reasons I like these programs are that:

a) I think I can finish in 18 months. I'd like to finish in 12 months, but 18 is the absolute longest I want to spend. I have no illusions that this will be easy and that I can finish in one term, but I do hope I can keep it to a year and a half at the most. I'm no genius, but I'm above average intelligence (got a 25 on my ACT in high school) and can dedicate probably 12-18 hours per week.

b) They're ACBSP-accredited. That's a bare minimum I'm willing to accept. 

c) I think (correct me if I'm wrong), there are no GRE or GMAT requirements. I have a fairly strong preference to avoid taking either.

d) I very much like the CBE aspect where I can use information I already know to move through more quickly 

e) working a sales job where I'm on the road a couple times a month, I like the flexibility to go at my own pace instead of having a hard deadline which may at times conflict with my work schedule.

With that said, I'm not entirely ruling out a more traditional, term/semester-based method, but it's certainly not preferable. In other words, if I choose a more traditional path, there would have to be several reasons in that program's favor that outweigh the negative of not having the flexible, CBE option. I've seen LSU Shreveport offers an MBA for <$13k. They're also AACSB-accredited which is a plus. Are there other more respected universities that offer MBA programs for <$15k?

Again, thanks for your time in helping me make a decision.

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If your ultimate goal is an Ed.D. then why not just focus on that?

In many cases, you don't need a master's degree to start on a doctoral degree. For many, you earn a master's along the way to the doctorate. For those, they still require you to have completed a bachelor's degree first. The idea is that if you end up failing to complete the doctorate, you still come away with something. This is particularly popular in research-based degrees, which I'd imagine an Ed.D. would be, as opposed to professional doctorates.

I know there are Ed.D. programs out there that expect you to already have a teaching-related master's degree prior to applying to their doctoral program. But my point is that you don't have to limit yourself to those programs. Why waste the time and money to complete a master's degree that you don't need and where the credits are not guaranteed to be applicable towards your doctoral degree unless you have to?

Alternatively, you can work backward. Just figure out what doctoral program you want to pursue and then figure out what the entrance requirements are. Those will often suggest what degree or experience you need in order to get admitted. You could also try emailing the faculty member responsible for the program and ask for recommendations.

For professional degrees, it doesn't matter as much since you generally have to do them independently anyway, but it varies.

That's just my $0.02 after spending a few months researching graduate degree programs.

Thanks for the reply, Merlin. From what I understand, Ed.D isn't considered a research-based degree. The Ph.D in education is research-based, but the Ed.D is not. 

From the research I've done, it seems that VERY few institutions offer an Ed.D without first having a master's degree. The ones I've found that do offer the Ed.D without a master's are so expensive that it's cheaper to just get an MBA for $15k or so.

I like your suggestion on working backwards. I might do that. From what I'm seeing, the Ed.D is much more expensive than an MBA. Have others found that to be the case? I'm finding MBAs for $15k, but I can find an Ed.D for less than $30k. Am I missing something?