OT - Executive MBAs - Best programs and why...?

[aspendawg]

So my company has agreed to pay up to 85% of my MBA so I'm definitely going to jump on the opportunity. I've looked at Vandy, UCLA, University Washington, Mississippi State etc... Where have you guys gone for this and why? I don't have the bandwidth or the time to do a "weekend a month" partly because flying from Alaska for that would be near impossible and within the next year my company will move me for a new job. So I'm looking in the lower 48 for somewhere that offers like a week on campus at the end/beginning of the year. Appreciate any and all feedback.

 

[57stratdawg]

I did mine at MSU on campus and really enjoyed it. However, I have a friend who did his at Vandy. Honestly, just hearing him talk about what all they did, I can see why Vandy's program would better. They focus on strategy and decision making more, and they pull in larger and more sophisticated employers.

I would just pick out a part of the country you'd like to live in and then go from there. Carolinas, Georgia, Texas, Mississippi, etc.

 

[SheltonChoked]

I don't know if it is still true but look at Indiana. 10 years ago, they were a top ranked MBA program and the Weekend executive degree program didn't have the executive wording in the degree.

If it's still true it's worth a shot.

 

[00Dawg]

I used Kelley Direct through IU to get my full-fledged MBA back in 2005-2007. They had a weekend executive version as well, but we didn't interact we with those guys.
Pros: extremely top-notch profs, seriously intelligent classmates, very little time where you aren't learning something useful, and you only have to be on campus one week a year (packed week, though)
Cons: acceptance rate of only 50% (resulting in the classmates), seriously hard assignments, and expensive

Bear in mind that I started a decade ago, and the program was in its infancy. I'm sure some facets have changed. We also had an unpleasant conversation with the administration at one point when someone discovered they were going to list IU Bloomington-Indianapolis on the actual sheepskin. They used IUPUI for some facilities, but a number of us made it clear we signed up for Bloomington only, and that all their advertising was marketing it that way.

 

[MSUDAWGFAN]

I did mine at Arizona State online

I considered IU and actually they were my first choice, but I got accepted to ASU while trying to improve my application to IU. I figured since the rankings were almost identical, I'd go ahead and stay with ASU. Later, I heard about the diploma listing, but wasn't sure what came of that. I only had to go for one week for ASU for Orientation. The second year orientation was optional, and very few people actually came. ASU was a nationally ranked program then and I tihnk it still is. What I can tell you is that they have one of the top 3 or 4 supply chain schools in the country. What they do is put you into groups of 5 or so people and you are in that group the whole program. You are only in one class at a time and each class lasts 5 weeks, then a week for the final. After each class you have one week off. There are 3 classes per semester. Some classes are more team oriented, and some are strictly individual. Here are my pros and cons for the program.

Pros: They really put alot of thought into each group. They try to get a very diverse group not only in terms of professions, but geographically as well. I really got to know my teammates and remain friends with them today, even though I haven't seen them in 8 years, so this was really cool. The supply chain class we had was my favorite class I've ever had. I wish I could be in that class just for fun. It is a nationally ranked program that meeting the attendance requirements is very easy.
Cons: I only really got to know my team. I wish that there were better ways to interact with other classmates but all I got was the message board for the class. At that point, everyone else outside of my group was just a name. The whole program is set up for general management, so there is very little you can do to speicalize in something. There are no electives and your class schedule is set and in order. It's expensive. Close to the same range as IU I think.

Overall, it's a program I recommend.

ETA: The diploma strictly says Arizona State University. Nothing about online or some satellite campus.

 

[00Dawg]

Slight correction on my part: at one point someone discovered that the diploma was going to read IU Indianapolis. I think think they had justified it because one of the main administrative personnel had her office there and she was handling the diplomas, never mind that the profs we were taking classes from had Bloomington as their main campus (and I was introduced to Indiana's funky time zone rules because of that). In the end Bloomington was added. That was one of my first introductions to state schools with multiple campuses, and probably some of their first introductions to what happens when you piss off experienced, motivated professionals who are paying you a lot of money.

As far as groups go, IU rotated them with each class. That had pluses and minuses, as we had some classmates who had extremely busy schedules at certain times, and others that were difficult to work with. There was one tiny Asian engineer from Exxon who thought all men were trying to keep her down, and voiced that opinion at every opportunity. It took one of the other ladies laying into her to finally make her a workable teammate.
I still have a handful of classmates I keep up with, but not many.
I will say they were up to date with technology: we were constantly using interactive conference calls, chat rooms, and whatnot. There was even some video conferencing. Plus the Kelley School of Business facilities are state of the art. Our week there really opened my eyes as to how big of a gap State's school of business faces versus the entrenched academic powers.

A second word of warning about difficulty to anyone looking that way: almost all tests were open-book, but most profs made them super difficult to compensate. A few simply asked you to abide by the honor system and not cheat. The projects were rarely easy, too. You'll learn a ton, but they're US News' #1 online MBA for a reason.