Hello, I am having difficulty choosing between UOP and National for my MBA program. Which program or school is more respected and why?
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December 26th, 2009 at 2:36 am
Neither is “more respected” but National might be considerably less disrespected due to being lesser known.
Part of the reason is that UoP is a private for-profit university and many people seem to have a real problem with the idea that a college exists to make money. They feel that the non-profit model provides a better learning environment – one in which making more money isn’t the main motivator.
National is a private non-profit and a fairly large one (though not as large as UoP). On only the merits of “non-profit is better than for-profit”, National would be the winner.
Accreditation: both are regionally accredited – neither is AACSB accredited. On that measure, equal.
Both have pretty low/open admission standards and that in itself places them in the same group in many people’s mind. We tend to like the idea that the harder a college is to get into, the better it must be. Sometimes that’s a valid assumption – sometimes not.
National’s is a 63 quarter hour program. UoP is “36-54 semester hours”. National will tend to require more classes and therefor take longer and ultimately cost more than UoP.
In terms of cost (since you’re doing an MBA, cost is an important consideration for you when you manage your own affairs), UoP MBA courses will cost you $2100 per course (3 hours at $665 + $105 fees) while National will cost you about $1521 per course (4.5 hour upper grad course). In terms of cost, National will be about 3/4 the cost of UoP. Compare those to AACSB accredited Jacksonville State’s online MBA at $324 per semester hour ($972 per 3 hour course) and you see that your two options are massively overpriced.
— Note: Jacksonville State is regionally and AACSB accredited, is a 54 semester hour MBA, is a state (public) university, and is 100% online. http://www.jsu.edu/distance/degrees/inde… —
Much depends on why you’re getting this MBA. There are some businesses out there that frown on degrees from UoP while others won’t care very much. Generally, the higher up the Fortune 5000 you go – the more likely they won’t care for UoP (or even National) and will insist on a degree from one of the big names. That makes these two equal in reputation as “not a big name school” in this case.
If you’d like to teach post-secondary level then an AACSB accredited MBA is going to be required by most and neither of these are it – they are therefor equal as “not AACSB” by reputation.
Bottom line – neither has a great reputation but UoP has a negative reputation. Most people have never heard of National. An AACSB public U would probably be a better option reputationally – and cost less.
There are a lot of options out there – be sure you’ve considered them all and picked the best possible one for your individual circumstances.
December 26th, 2009 at 7:41 am
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