Taking Stock

Just wrapped up MBA 560 – Enterprise risk, ironically I may end up with an 89.9 as per my projections. Well .9 points closer to and A than my last B.

Two things I learned in this class.

1. Participation makes A’s and lack-of makes B’s. With work being hectic, the end of year coming around the corner, lack of sleep, being sick, the holidays and moving into a new place. I barely participated in class. The reason why I think this has context in this blog is the following – in a B&M environment, you can get away with being quite in class and not put 24 points at risk (4 points per week for participation and discussion questions).
   
   Well at least I don’t have to travel to “school” in the freezing sub zero temperature outside!
   
   
2. You really start to appreciate the value of an MBA. I covered (in detail) corporate governance, employment law, agency principle, law, body of lay, process, SOX, compliance, internal controls and much, much more! Granted that my entrepreneurial experience makes this experience richer, but Hello! Now I know what our C-Levels at Lehman know that I don’t know!
   
   So you would have learned this in B&M also right? Well at least I am only paying half of what I would have to pay at a B&M for my online degree.
   

So onto to the genesis of this blog… measuring the value of an MBA earned online against the value of a B&M earned MBA.

Let us begin with the basics, as I have only four classes left. Let’s set some parameters.

One cannot simply measure an Online Degree with and MBA from say Harvard or Wharton. I mean common!

Ancillary, I meet individuals who are earning their Masters art Baruch (CUNY) or Queens College, hey! Don’t start sending me hate mail; I earned my undergrad at York College (CUNY), can we measure those?

So…

What B&M MBA are we measuring the UPOX Online MBA against?

Ahhhhhhhhhh I will defer to the following link http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/02/full_time_rank.htm

I will pick three colleges, three that I know. For this blog when I say B&M MBA I am referring to MBAs earned from colleges like FORDHAM, HOFSTRA or RUTGERS. Please stop the hate mail!

OK, the stage is set :-)

The question is if I had an opportunity to go to NYU, would I have taken it? My answer is NO! Because my MBA is a means to an end, not an end.

I will be 31 in a few weeks, I have enough time to go to a good Law School (this is my calling) since that school will be last mark on my resume, it should be good. My MBA was simply an attempt to legitimize the steps of my career. It was to crystallize my experience over the past 10 years. It was not to define me. Law school will define me.

Does your MBA define you or not?

More conclusions to follow, Happy Birthday to me for I may not post until after being 31.

Richie