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Admt RobertSmith School of Business Univ. of Maryland PT

by matu007 » Fri Feb 25, 2011 4:57 am
I am awaiting Georgetown and NYU Stern.

Profile:
GMAT: 640 (Q48, V30)
Exp: 7 years in US Software Engineer
MS GPA: 3.34

MBA Goal: First of all get a great business education. I am interested in Strategy and Management Consulting. I am ok with moving up in IT as well.

Maryland is not ranked as high as Georgetown and NYU Stern. But Marylands tuition is the highest ($1600 approx.) Why is that the case? They are even more expensive than Stern!!!

After doing all this work I now wonder - it is so expensive - is the price really worth it? I will be in a truckload of debt..
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by ershovici » Fri Feb 25, 2011 6:46 am
Hey,

I am not sure whether they really deserve such a high tuition, but I know that the program is very good. I am an MBA at GW and we discuss a lot other BS, so think about it: Georgetown is not so good for MBA (it is more known for other programs), while many students suppose UMD as a good school.
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by matu007 » Mon Mar 28, 2011 2:38 am
My focus areas are:

- Business Analytics ( a sub area of the Information Systems Department at Smith) and
- Strategy ( A Sub area of Management and Organization).

I know that it's going to be a little hard breaking into these areas without an M. B. A.

My questions are:

1) How do I know that I will get a great/excellent background in these areas at Smith? It seems that they have many "elective" courses to offer in my focus areas. But a major portion of entire course work is/are the core courses.

2) Why precisely is their tuition SO high?

3) It seems of the 54 credits around 35 credit hours are spent on core courses. Is this too high a number of core courses.
This leaves roughly 20 credit hours for electives, which are what I think the most important component of M. B. A. courswork - because electives will build my speciality. Is it that around only 20 credit hours of electives is a negative in the Smith's part time M. B. A. program.

How would you think about this?
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by ershovici » Mon Mar 28, 2011 6:08 am
I am working on my MBA at GWU and we have very similar situation, we have about 32 credits in core courses. In my opinion it is not the best way to study because I spent 1 full semester on HR management, Business ethics, Business an d Public policy and other not important subjects like these, but unfortunately not much can be done as soon as you get into the school. I also want to have more elective courses, so I suggest you to think twice before accepting the offer.
However I think that your decision should depend on whether you suppose core courses you will study to be relevant to your MBA. Like in my case for example, if I want to concentrate in HR or business ethics - this is an excellent situation for me, otherwise no. So my idea is that it is all up to you, you should look what core subjects are and how do you feel about them.
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by matu007 » Mon Mar 28, 2011 7:07 am
Do core courses comprise a major chunk of the entire course work in most M. B. A programs?

Will the larger community on this forum also weigh in on whether a heavy load of core courses can be a negative if the core courses do not align well with the area of specialization sought by an M. B. A. student.
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by Lisa Anderson » Mon Mar 28, 2011 9:06 am
Dear matu007,

For most MBA programs, core coursework makes up at least 50% of the credit hours of the degree. At some programs, core coursework can make up as much as 75%. The reason behind this is that an MBA is intended to be a general management degree that educates the students in all functional areas of business and how they are interrelated; thus as you progress into the executive ranks, you understand the different functions of a company and how they work together. If you truly want to just take courses in one functional area, then a Master of Science program might be a better option as the coursework is narrowly focused in that one area. However, many employers feel the MBA has more value due to the core coursework because a general management foundation serves the individual well as he/she progresses up the corporate ranks. The best way to determine which degree program is best (MBA v. MS) is to research the companies and firms you wish to work at and uncover if they have a preference for MBAs or if they tend to hire from both types of graduate programs.

On a related note, core coursework does usually include strategy and business analysis--even if those words might not be in the title of the class. The reason a core curriculum is still around is because there is value in the students having the strong foundation across the disciplines and gaining an understanding of how they work together. As for whether or not Smith is the right place for you, that is a question only you can really answer based on what you seek from your MBA program. You need to determine if Smith meets your expectations in terms of curriculum, career opportunities, and culture.

Good luck,
Lisa
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by matu007 » Mon Mar 28, 2011 9:15 pm
Thank you Lisa!
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by Victory_GMAT » Tue May 24, 2011 5:35 pm
matu007 wrote:I am awaiting Georgetown and NYU Stern.

Profile:
GMAT: 640 (Q48, V30)
Exp: 7 years in US Software Engineer
MS GPA: 3.34

MBA Goal: First of all get a great business education. I am interested in Strategy and Management Consulting. I am ok with moving up in IT as well.

Maryland is not ranked as high as Georgetown and NYU Stern. But Marylands tuition is the highest ($1600 approx.) Why is that the case? They are even more expensive than Stern!!!

After doing all this work I now wonder - it is so expensive - is the price really worth it? I will be in a truckload of debt..

You mission MBA admission should stop here, in my opinion. If you really want a challenging street trader type life then go for CUNY etc. Otherwise UMD will give you stable middle class career post graduation that you can bring a nice paycheck home and live a average life in DC area. World Bank. IFC, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Federal Agencies, Non-Profits are filled with UMD alumnis. As long as you are not an international student who are always running behind work rights, SSN, green card or Citizenship, you will really get a stable life after UMD MBA.
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