Hi beyonder--

There's lots of moving parts here but we're gonna take a stab at your questions.

First off: All that matters with your college record is the cumulative GPA. And, while a 3.2 is a little low, it's not too low. Yes, you may want to write a very short optional essay to explain to the adcom what happened with the move between schools, but you are in the running for a competitive program with the 3.2 overall GPA. And, the upward trajectory is what counts; you ended strong at CUNY. If you are worried about the academics, then it wouldn't hurt you to take a class to boost your profile, but it may not be necessary if you do really really well on the GMAT. You can read this for more on the topic of GPA: https://essaysnark.blocked/2010/05/ ... -days.html

OK, on to your questions:

It's unlikely anyone on this forum is gonna be able to help you with the question about what degree is best for the insurance industry. It's a little unusual to be going to bschool for an insurance career; not unheard of, but not all that standard. You should do more networking within your company/industry and ask that question of people who are in a position that you aspire to, and/or ask HR managers, and/or ask C-level execs. That's the best way to know what educational path you need to take to get to where you want to go.

Finally, to try and actually answer the question that you posed:

In a vacuum, as a general bit of advice that we could offer to anyone globally, we'd recommend going for the best-ranked school you can get into, in ANY of their programs (online, part-time, EMBA, whatever). So, from the choices you laid out below, we would STRONGLY prefer UNC or Duke over any of the others.

The reason is this:

Your MBA stays with you for life. In most cases, you will cite the degree you earned on your resume, and the institution you earned it from - but you won't necessarily need to say that you did the online program (or P/T or EMBA or whatever). We've never seen a school that requires alumni to differentiate; in fact, most insist that the MBA degree that anyone earns through any of their tracks is equivalent.

Once you're 5 or 10 years down the road post-MBA, the institution that you went to, to earn the MBA, will matter A LOT more than the track that you went through to get it. The alumni network tends to reflect the program (higher-ranked programs by and large have people that go farther - this is a gross and perhaps unfair generalization but it's one of the realities of this game) and a program with a stronger reputation can open more doors for you.

You need to take a long-term view.

Duke is just on a different playing field altogether than, say, Pace/Fordham or even BU/UF/Penn State.

Sure, all of these schools can offer a good education, and you definitely get out of the experience what you put into it -- you can come out of any of the schools/tracks with a great knowledge set that you can go places with, if you're motivated. But the opportunities available, both short-term and long-term, can be QUITE different based on the school you attend. It can literally change the trajectory of your future.

We're not dissing any of these schools, they are all quality programs but some are in a different league. The cost is also relative (somewhat); your earning power coming out of a program like Duke is going to be higher than Rutgers. So you need to look at lots of factors when you evaluate ROI.

Now, the MS in IM from BU may be the right specialized program with the right industry connections that it trumps everything laid out above. Nobody but you can decide that. These are just rough generalities that are often, but not always, true. And this post is chock-full of our snarky opinion. YMMV. Other disclaimers and limitations apply. Etc.



Hope it's at least marginally helpful.

EssaySnark