ERPadmin's Grad School Journey

swild

erpadmin wrote: »

I don't see myself as a student; I see myself as a customer, wanting quality customer service.

This.

Few colleges are non-profits. It is a business. I am paying for a service or I can take my business elsewhere.

erpadmin wrote: »

you qualify for the Academic Common Market.

I did not know about this. GA Tech just jumped up to my short list.

petedude wrote:

Ya know, it's not like a curse or something.

Take a look at Minot State's MSIS.

It's not a curse, but I want the whole experience. I can't help but to be frugal so I am considering cost, but it is far from my top concern. I would rather have a little more debt than a second rate education. I expect that I will be required to take some remedial courses wherever I go.

Minot State isn't quite what I am looking for. I am looking for a security focused degree.

petedude

swild wrote: »

It's not a curse, but I want the whole experience.

Can't say I blame you.

swild wrote: »

I can't help but to be frugal so I am considering cost, but it is far from my top concern. I would rather have a little more debt than a second rate education. I expect that I will be required to take some remedial courses wherever I go.

Minot State isn't quite what I am looking for. I am looking for a security focused degree.

There are two more reasonable schools I can mention for being inexpensive, I just can't remember if they have any security focus-- U of Illinois and Dakota State.

erpadmin

Well, our team case is all but done for ISP. It's gonna be submitted by our team lead sometime today.

I've already began work on our last discussion and at some point, I gotta work on the extra credit, which is due in a couple of weeks. It's gonna depend on how well my team case paper is received though. If we get a 28/30, I'm probably not gonna bother and just hinge my hopes on the final quiz. I'll know I guess by the end of the week how stuff is gonna go.

Registration for Fall 2012 will be on 4/20 for me. Unfortunately, the classes I need/want to take are not available in the summer term. However, I'm not exactly going to be taking a break. I have to take an undergraduate accounting course before I fully matriculate into the program. Otherwise I have to spend $3K to take a bullcrap accounting and finance course that offers zero credit. I had initially planned on paying for an accounting course at LSU. Seemed cheap enough and I would only have to take a day off or two to take midterm exams at the closest approved proctor site. However, I then found this site: Principles of Accounting. Apparently, between the youtube videos this professor has put up, PLUS his online textbook, I probably have everything I need to take the CLEP exam (which would be accepted as credit.) I saw his first five videos and was impressed with both the level of detail PLUS his easy to follow style. I had read elsewhere that a few weeks of following the website, and I will be 100% ready to pass the CLEP exam. This guy is the Professor Messor of Accounting....offering great knowledge for FREE! I can't beat that. I have nothing to lose but the CLEP exam fee.

I took Accounting I years ago, but thanks to my lack of maturity, I got a D in that course. However, when I was sober enough to show up, I pretty much got what was being said. Between getting Cs and Bs and missing too many courses, the D was pretty much a done deal.

So rather than let this thread die...I will begin my accounting adventures the second my grades are posted. My goal is to take the CLEP exam by between end of June to mid-July.

My current term officially ends 5/9. So I'm guessing grades won't be posted for like a week or so. Pretty much a month to go....yay! I would have usually crashed before the midterm.....can't believe I'll have 6 graduate credits under my belt.

erpadmin

Well, it's official--I hate team projects. Yay! LOL.

Got a 25 out of 30 on my team paper for ISP. The only good news in that was that we were not the lowest grade, but we were not the highest either. Only one group got a perfect score. The funniest thing was I was invited to be on that team, but I had already commited to the team I was in. Still though, I don't hate/dislike the people on my team, but I did develop a lessons learned. For starters I should have paid more attention to those who were in my class that were last semester folks. Senioritis is bad no matter what level of schooling you're in. Also, I should have done each section I wasn't responsible for as if I had to do it myself. But f-that....I'm gonna do all the work and let everyone else skate? I can't do that, even if it's at my own detriment. Well, we got a B, but a low B...but a B nonetheless. That means I gotta do the last extra credit plus kick ass on both my final discussions plus the last quiz. The extra credit involves BI...I gotta make this paper count like no other.

Powerfool, I understand what you mean now about As and Bs. I always maintained that if I was doing B work, I'd have been happy with a B. But when I do A work and end up with a B, that kind of sucks. But ever since the beginning all I was shooting for was a B. But a "B" sucks when I've been getting As and seeing nothing like "this is excellent work" and all that ----. At this point I'm at a B+ average now in ISP.

Org. Behavior I'm at an A, but I have not gotten much guidance on the discussions portions except for the last one. I re-did my discussion on that (career management). I just don't want to be dinged on something stupid like that either....but I would be floored if I got a B in that course because of discussions. I'm almost positive I'll end up with an A on the class though because I have to contribute to a minimum of 5 discussions. I've done all of them and I might as well keep doing it, just to stay on his good side. I would totally take this guy again...really is one of the good ones.

A whole month to go....really can't wait until it's over. Truth be told, I could use the break the summer provides. Even though I plan on doing the accounting CLEP, I have weeks to do it and I plan on taking it easy with that. Then I can go into the Fall with a renewed energy.

Excellent1

You're making good progress--congratulations on all you've achieved so far. I can totally identify with your comment on team projects. Being responsible for the performance of others, while being unable to really control it, is a bitter pill for anyone who wants to excel rather than settle for mediocrity. It's certainly good training for the real world, but I would definitely prefer an educational experience that graded more on individual performance than penalizing those who happened to wind up on a less-motivated team. Obviously collaborative experience is valuable and a necessary skill, but I don't think my OCD could handle that if I were being graded on it. It's frustrating enough dealing with it daily at work.

Keep up the good work and make sure you pace yourself. Not trying to mother-hen you, but from your posts you've been hitting it pretty hard. Definitely follow through with your plans for down time.

erpadmin

Well, this post is gonna serve as a place holder as what I gotta do within the final month;

ISP--perform a final response to a fellow "lucky" student based on "exams" and "other." [Professor gave us eight topics and there are four responses that I have to do for the discussion part of the grade, on top of the initial comment. The initial and three comments have been done, but I can't write more than two comments a day. So I'll write my next comment either by the end of the week. Everyone has to be done with their initials by Wednesday, so I have time to wait for a particular student... In truth, there isn't a student I'm waiting for, but a type of response I can respond to....someone will make it.]

ISP--Final Quiz to be done first weekend of May.

---

Org Behavior--continue weekly readings/lectures and post based on the lectures.

---

I've also already handed in my extra credit assignment for ISP....being this caught up on my classes allows me to focus more on work and future planning of intended course work. This first semester experience, thus far, as been a great proof of concept that I can hack a B&M education post-WGU. As long as one gets in contacts with professors, reaches out to them early and shows them that you're serious about doing the work, a minimum of a "B" is seriously attainable. Of course, if you can get an A, so much the better. I wasn't initially concerned about properly matriculating because I wanted to know if I could do the work first and not be stressed out. I look forward toward the continuation of this journey.

erpadmin

Well, Org Behavior is done...there was nothing else after the Change Management lecture and he pretty much said best of luck and all of that. The course pretty much continues on to those who didn't finish their required required papers, which folks have until like the first week of May. Since I have my A average, and I did my requisite contributions in the discussions we had throughout the semester, I'm pretty much done with that course and expect an A. The professor was pretty much awesome and I definitely want to keep in touch with him throughout my tenure in my program. In fact, I have a meeting with him this week where I'm hoping he'll help me beat the need to take the bridge course. He was a dean in my intended program (that position rotates) so I'm hoping that will pan out. I still intend on prepping for undergrad accounting in case that won't pan out. The jury is still out if I pay $403 to LSU's distance learning program to take ACCT 2001 OR I plan on my own for the CLEP using that principles of accounting website I posted earlier. I'm most likely gonna gun for the latter.

As for ISP, the only thing I have left to look forward to is one final quiz. It is up in the air on how stuff will be graded, but he's hard to pin down. I'm hoping that the extra credit I did will be able to bring me up to an A, but I could very well finish the course with a B or B+. He hasn't graded my initial response yet so I'm a bit concerned....it's gonna be a week on Tuesday but he's usually been wrapping it up by the weekend. The final quiz will be taken on Cinco De Mayo though. I figure before I do some drinking (it might happen to celebrate) I could take the quiz, get my 90-100 and then do what I gotta do. Really looking forward to the Fall. If I'm not matriculated by Fall 2012, it will happen by Spring 2013 for sure.

powerfool

If it were me... and this is just based on my own experiences... I would shoot for the CLEP. The main reason for me is that I didn't do much of that for my undergrad, and I really wish I had, in retrospect. Before I get into a path, I tend to psych myself out and let it intimidate me... I have gotten much better about that as I have so many exams under my belt. I took the "Here's to Your Health" exam to cover my 1 credit hour requirement in my undergrad and I didn't even study... it was essentially the same content from a sixth grade health course. After dealing with that, I really wish that I would have taken the examination route for at least Marketing and Finance, if not all of Econ and Accounting...

Anyhow, if I had the opportunity to do something like that in my graduate pursuits, I would jump on it... even if it were for a remedial requirement.

erpadmin

Well I got my extra credit back from ISP. I'm 100% on all the extra credit offered. Assuming this guy applies those points to the stuff I was deficient in (the team assignment and the subsequent quizzes) I'm expecting an A in this course. If he wants to be a ----, it'll be a B+ or at the very worst a B.

I'm also meeting up with my org behavior professor tomorrow as well in person. The guy is one of those "cool" professors who really understands how the management game is played, and I want to pick his brain on a myriad of issues (how to best succeed with my intended degree post graduation, how to deal with a future doctoral program, and to see if I can really avoid the GMAT if I can pull another rabbit out of my hat the following semester, among other things.)

Also, my Texas Instruments BA II Plus Financial Calculator will be coming in tomorrow. Even if I can somehow avoid that bridge program that would have me pay $3k for no credits so that I can take Managerial Accounting at the graduate level, I'm still going to CLEP the Accounting exam. Much of that stuff is just jargon found on CNBC, as well as some math problems that I have to contend with. That math is just business algebra and I can deal with that once I know what to do. I'm hoping to sit for that exam by either end of May or sometime in June. Then I can focus on either getting an early start on the PMP OR perhaps starting some work on the SQL certification (most likely it'll be the former...we'll see.) But for sure, I'll be doing Accounting; I have no reason why I can't pass the CLEP with the required score and then send that off to school.

Zartanasaurus

I'm joining in here late, but I 2nd the call for taking CLEPs. The ROI is ridiculously in their favor. I've taken some of the easiest and hardest CLEPs and DSSTs that are out there. Anyone of average intelligence can study for most CLEPs over the course of 3-4 days and pass about 70% of the time. Above average IQ and it's 95% of the time. So it's either $70 and 4 days or $400 and 4 months. I got Mrs. Z to skip an entire year of college due to CLEP/DSST tests.

I've never taken LSU's accounting course, but I have heard that LSU is generally more difficult than other colleges offering similar programs. Good luck either way.

erpadmin

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

I'm joining in here late, but I 2nd the call for taking CLEPs. The ROI is ridiculously in their favor. I've taken some of the easiest and hardest CLEPs and DSSTs that are out there. Anyone of average intelligence can study for most CLEPs over the course of 3-4 days and pass about 70% of the time. Above average IQ and it's 95% of the time. So it's either $70 and 4 days or $400 and 4 months. I got Mrs. Z to skip an entire year of college due to CLEP/DSST tests.

I've never taken LSU's accounting course, but I have heard that LSU is generally more difficult than other colleges offering similar programs. Good luck either way.

Going the LSU route would have been a pain, personally. Even if I was so inclined to pay the $403, I'd have to go to an approved proctor site. The closest one to me would have been William Paterson University (WillyP), which is about an hour drive (not to mention a PITA to get to...even with GPS.) I'd have been ok with this, except that during the summer, most (if not all) NJ state colleges are closed on Fridays, and when I called them, they'd only have a M-Th schedule (no Saturdays either...). Only time I take off during the summer is the week of 4th of July, but I'm probably going to skip that this year as I'll be doing post go-live production support for our upgrade. However, with the CLEP option, I should be able to take on a Saturday or Friday. I gotta see but that will be the route I'm gonna take.

While I'm no idiot (at least I'd like to think I'm not), I doubt I'll spend four days on an exam....maybe two week at a minimum, but I'm giving myself a maximum of eight weeks. I'm gonna download the study guide for the Financial Accounting CLEP and work on that this weekend, for sure. I do know that I need a minimum of 50 for NJIT to accept my score.

erpadmin

Really sorry for the long post. Tried breaking it up as best I can. Some good stuff in there though, I promise.


Ok...I'm gonna frame this post around one of my favorite organizational behavior topics: organizational culture--specifically from the context of a B&M school.

Today was the day I was allowed to register for my classes in the fall. However, I was not allowed to register for some reason. Can't see how that is as I've paid the bill, and as far as I know, I don't have any academic holds.

Well, what should have been a routine uncheck whatever my hold one that doesn't take anymore than three minutes (even with Banner) turned into a practically all day affair with me contacting two deparments, plus this guy's boss (who decides to call me back at the end of the day when I'm having an update session with my boss...) For starters, my community college transcripts never made it to this guy's office. I politely suggest to him that perhaps they ended up at the admissions office, and knowing this community college, it's probably at undergraduate admissions. This...guy figures it's my job to contact that place and find out for sure. I'm like "really, guy? You know those people a lot better than I do...you can probably call these folks directly." to which he replies, yeah but I'm the only guy here...to which I then say "it's Friday...we both know you're not that busy...especially when you're so quick to pick up the phone and the department is a few feet away from you." Nonetheless, I still make the call but I'm friggin heated. The young lady who picks up the phone (after two other women pass the buck to get to her) confirms that my transcripts, in fact, made it to her but she does not know who they are supposed to go to. I tell her dude's name and she's like "oh yeah, he could have just picked it up himself..." to which I exasperate quite loudly...in any event, I call dude up and tell him that young chick says hi and to go get my transcripts from her. In the middle of all this, my hold was also lifted, so I was able to register for my two courses...

I can tell you right now that many B&Ms suffer from this (not all of them, but a great number.) I can tell you that a good number of B&Ms do in fact put students first and bendover backwards. Many do not, and that's pretty much why enrollment in them are declining. Customer service can make or break any organization, and if that's not part of an organization's culture, there won't be an organization left. If the product you're selling is just "ok" but the customer service is excellent, organizations will succeed. But when the product is great and the customer service sucks, that will turn off enough people to just use something else.

Before I get into the next part, I'm gonna backtrack to yesterday. I spoke to my organizational behavior professor in person. Took a personal day just for a 30 minute meeting (but it was a good 30 minute meeting). The professor just asked me why I'm in MSM. I told him the truth, because I've been doing this for so long. He told me that's not a good answer. Pretty much explained to him that I've been doing what I've been doing for so long, that I am longing for a change of scenary but that IT was pretty much all I knew. I don't hate IT that much that I want to leave it, but I have grown quite bored with the implementation aspect. I want to be the guy that's at the table driving strategy and how IT can be implemented. He then told me "you need an MBA" and stated some pretty good reasons why. (Reasons I had stated earlier on techexams itself.) The dot-com bust pretty much ruined it for tech people who want get to C-level positions. Tech folks during this time was spending money on IT equipment for the sake of spending money on IT equipment. Upgrading infrastructure when it wasn't immediately needed. Implementing software when there was no buy-in from business folks, but rather cause a vendor told him "this is the future of business...." I didn't read about this in some business article--I've seen this first hand (and second-hand from folks at other shops during that time. ) I've always known that when business hasn't bought into strategy OR even when it doesn't include IT properly in their strategy, it would fail. When ROI isn't carefully calculated (and not just what a vendor says is ROI....it has to be calculated according to true ROI) it will fail. He saw that I understood that, and told me that an MBA background, mixed with a technology background, will get me a seat at the table. An MBA program at NJIT is 48 credits (because of concentrations like MIS, Finance and Marketing, but I obviously would have gone with MIS.) After I slept on that, I decided that I will pursue the program. Thankfully, the credits I've earned thus far and the credits I will earn in the fall will apply to that.

So now, getting back to today, I really didn't like how I had to do all this running around. Normally, I would have just told this guy to go ---- himself and moved on to a different institution. However, I would have just been copping out. But at the same time, going through this is not right for anyone. Stupid crap like what this guy pulled will lower rentention rates. I had to figure "if he's like this, how is everyone else." So it had me thinking of how the organizational culture is like not just at NJIT, but B&Ms in general. It would take an MBA that is mindful of culture to make customer service a core focus, something I'm sure is not even part of the vision statement.

In any event, I got to register for Project Management and Technological and Managing Technological and Organizational Change (another HRM course, but it's part of the MBA.) But I am now firm in my resolve...I'm gunning for the MBA. The only issue I forsee with going this route is that not all of the courses I need to take is offered online. Also, with only 12 credits out of 48, I might be in school for quite some time. (could be 3-5 years...depending on the availability of courses, and how many courses I can reasonably take.) I initially found just two courses to be rough. I think what I'm gonna end up doing is taking the summer to analyze what I did this semester and avoid pulling unnecessary all nighters. If I'm gonna dedicate myself to an MBA program (that's AACSB-accredited to boot. ), then I am going to need to plan a lot better than I have been.

powerfool

Well, frustrating days make for learning opportunities. It sounds like it was quite eventful for you and will have a significant impact on your life, both in relationship to school itself and your career.

My long-term goal is to do an MBA. Before you get too far down this path, you may want to look at other institutions, just to either find one that will fit you better or to reaffirm that you are going to the right one. I firmly believe that out of all the programs out there, an MBA is one where the clout of the school makes a huge difference. There are tons of folks out there with MBAs from average schools that just went through the motions and got their paper...

You may consider Executive MBA programs, as well... they are offered by B&M schools, but traditionally meet once or twice a month over extended weekends and then have a few full-week sessions throughout the 18-21 months of the program.

Ultimately, I want to pursue the EMBA at Notre Dame... we will see. Once I finish the MS in Cybersecurity Policy... I can complete an MBA at UMUC for just 18 more credit hours. I highly doubt it will benefit me much at all to do this, besides having the paper... I want a great learning experience that will benefit me for the rest of my career. I have to imagine that you are in the same boat.

Best wishes!

petedude

erpadmin wrote: »

Stupid crap like what this guy pulled will lower retention rates.

Yep. Do yourself a favor and check a few other AACSB programs as well.

erpadmin

powerfool wrote: »

My long-term goal is to do an MBA. Before you get too far down this path, you may want to look at other institutions, just to either find one that will fit you better or to reaffirm that you are going to the right one. I firmly believe that out of all the programs out there, an MBA is one where the clout of the school makes a huge difference. There are tons of folks out there with MBAs from average schools that just went through the motions and got their paper...

If my goal was to eventually become a CEO at a Fortune 500 firm, I would be inclined to agree with this. That's not to say that I disagree with this though; it just means that up until three years ago, I didn't think getting any degree would be worth my time. I was already seeing a salary that is very respectable by both my family and friends' standards. However, I grew unhappy that I would potentially be stuck in my position. I don't want to feel like I'm stuck, especially when I have 20 years left before retirement. (And by retirement...I mean working the jobs I want to work...not because I have to, while enjoying retirement checks that equal what I would have been making thanks to pension and my supplemental 457(b)...I very much plan on being active, but on my own terms.)

But getting back to an MBA program, I have researched MBA programs before I started even thinking about an undergrad program. My own conclusions had been that if I were to get into an MBA program from a non-Wharton, "Hahvahd", Stern (NYU) program, the best way I can leverage the MBA is with my own experience, plus a PMP certification [once the PMP is done, I really do want to look into the CISSP as well. Being part of a shop that thinks everyone should have local admin rights on their boxes personally infuriates me and that would be a priority if I'm ever running a IT shop. The PMP would help me organize a project to secure a shop under CISSP domains--having both of those certs can be very complementary.] I don't want to stop working in IT...I just want to stop working in IT where I don't have any management control over what goes on. Experience can be leveraged in that respect. When the experience is meaningful, based on my personal research, having "the paper" can be just as good as having the paper with no experience but paper comes from those top-level B schools like Harvard and Wharton.

petedude wrote: »

Yep. Do yourself a favor and check a few other AACSB programs as well.

Believe me, my friend, I have. A lot of AACSB programs are now getting into cohorts--where your success is determined by others. Sometimes the cohort is standard, sometimes the cohort has to vote Survivor-style what electives you, as individual takes so that all of you in the cohort are always together. I like the spirit of what a cohort is--you always have the same group of people with you and you are pretty much best friends for life. But I like to choose my best friends for life, not have that chosen for me. I've already seen how teamwork happens at the grad school level and to have that imposed during a grad school experience is something I don't want to do. One AACSB school requires a trip to some "emerging market" (read: poor country that is either a part of the G-20 OR that will be a part of the global market based on an emerging middle class with burgeoning business) to study how business has taken off there. That's not optional, neither...that's mandatory. While that sounds exciting (and it is) that can be terribly inconvenient depending on what's going on at work.

I have looked at the following schools within my immediate area (and in no particular order):

Fordham (NYC)
Seton Hall University (South Orange, NJ)
Rutgers
NJIT
Montclair State
NYU

The initial appeal to NJIT's program was that many of the courses could be done online. Of secondary concern was that if there was a course I needed to take that wasn't offerred online, I could run over to the campus every week to take it.

The online delivery of courses is hated by academia throughout the country...that much is clear. The opposition in your state to WGU moving in (and the rest of the left coast for that matter--Washington and Oregon) is a good example of this. But why academia hates online learning in their own universities (and this I've heard first-hand) is because the powers-that-be will offer a course, like Project Management, and allow, for example, 60 students to enroll in that course. How does this side-step a faculty-union's contract? The B&M will just break-up that course into two courses (even though "both" courses are the same as one course...both courses will have the same work, and it will be treated as part of their load.) B&M administrations are recognizing that online delivery will be a way to bring in that revenue (because state governments are telling state schools that the well has run dry...NJ and CA are examples of this.) One of the things I like to do is help startegize, legitimize, and innovate online delivery for a B&M and I want to leverage my knowledge of higher ed processes, with the use of Student Information Systems (SIS--the college ERP), Learning Management Systems (WebCT/Blackboard, Moodle, "Taskstream..." [I don't know of any college that uses Taskstream aside from WGU. Even then, Taskstream is only used for the delivery of papers...not papers and quizzes.] Having an MBA with a Project Management background from a school like NJIT will tell folks that I not only have an academic background from a technology perspective, but I have the real world experience that can be leveraged when I discuss financial advantages into delivering an online model coupled with the legitimacy of a B&M. In essence, I don't want to just benefit from an online education, but I want to help both sell, lead, implement and manage online education as well.

Up until recently, I did have a clear goal into how I wanted to move to the next phase....the above example is my first real example of something I am willing to work towards. I was never trying to get another job (that I can do right now) but moving toward the phase of my career. After much soul-searching, that's what I came up with, and I actually like it. The beautiful part of my plan, is that there is thousands of colleges and universities to choose from to make this career choice happen. I only need one.

powerfool

ERPADMIN,

I certainly understand where you are coming from and give you my best wishes.

I am sort of in that situation myself... I am in my very early 30's and I like what I do and have the admiration of my colleagues and a paycheck that I thought would be difficult to attain that is tops with my family. That being said, I can't sit still... I am like a shark, I have to keep moving or I will suffocate.

I have been thinking of an MBA for at least eight or nine years. I was originally clued into it when I worked for a small-ish private equity shop whose owner was a Harvard MBA/JD and went to school with GWB (POTUS 43). Since I have always wanted to attend Notre Dame, originally for Architecture back in my grade school days, it made since for me to investigate the business school, and they have a good ranking... not Harvard, Chicago, or Wharton, but up there. That pretty much set it for me. I have looked at other schools, including my undergrad alma mater, Bulter, and Indiana University, since they are local...

If I weren't already stoked on a better school and hadn't been thinking about it for several years, I would probably be in your boat.

I guess my advice would be to keep thinking about it before you are locked in. As you stated... you have 20 years or more to go... it's hard to predict the future... do you want to potentially be held back?

Either way, you will make the right decision for you... and not that it matters, but I think whatever you decide will be fine.

My intent with my current program was simple to use my tuition reimbursement monies (instead of losing them), get a graduate piece of paper, and cover my continuing education stuff for my CISSP for a few years. Check, check, and check. I certainly am not ready to drop $20k/semester on Notre Dame... and work will only cover about 12.5% of annual tuition. So, this was a good holding place for me while my wife finishes nursing school. When we finally have dual incomes, it will be much more palatable. And who knows... maybe instead of the EMBA, I can attend the single-year version of the full-time program (it is open to business undergrads).

All in good time. I need to focus on the career for a little while, now. I just finished my review and the outcome was not satisfactory from my perspective (although I did get the highest marks and maximum raise). I thought I would be a shoe-in for a promotion... but since my boss is at the same level as me, I could see them wanting to wait to give me a promotion until he has had one. It just stinks because a promotion means an extra 8% raise... and since I turned down a higher paying job last year, I was hoping to get much closer to that number.

sheckler

I'm blown away by the tuition prices for the top schools. Notre Dame at $40k/yr, and all the top schools like Harvard and Wharton are above $50k/yr. Stanford and Columbia are at 55k. I know it's worth it though for investment bankers and such who will go on to make ridiculous money.

powerfool

sheckler wrote: »

I'm blown away by the tuition prices for the top schools. Notre Dame at $40k/yr, and all the top schools like Harvard and Wharton are above $50k/yr. Stanford and Columbia are at 55k. I know it's worth it though for investment bankers and such who will go on to make ridiculous money.

Another consideration, these are "list" prices, as highlighted by many regular college entrance pontificators. These schools offer internal financial aid that is substantial to a majority of entrants, even in graduate professional programs (MBA, JD, MD).

However, yes, these schools are quite expensive. I am hoping to get at least 25% knocked off, when the time comes... that should allow me to only have to pay 2/3, when including my tuition reimbursement. If I could do the one-year program, I would easily knock off 50%... but I would miss out on most, if not all, of my income for that period of time.

UnixGuy

I'd like to add three points to what you guys said.


1. About the cost, as pointed out by "powerfool", usually there are many scholarships and financial aids available, so you don't always have to pay this much. And it is an investment. If such a degree gets you to a higher position, then you can earn the money you invested quickly.


2. Those fancy MBAs aren't just about the course content, one major factor is the connections you will make there. Those schools have a very strong alumni groups, and usually get many job offers because of that, so don't just think in terms of course contents.


3. Universities like Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, ..etc have the advantage that big companies go there to recruit the grads! Companies come and look for you to convince you to have a job instead of you looking (ok it depends on your experience and overall profile too, but it happen). So this is another major advantage and plus point if you think in terms of ROI.

JasonX

ERPadmin,

Good luck with your pursuit. I completed both my Undergrad and Graduate degrees at NJIT. I'd be fairly certain some of the courses for your graduate certificate I may have taken. If you have any questions, let me know.

erpadmin

powerfool wrote: »

ERPADMIN,

I certainly understand where you are coming from and give you my best wishes.

...snip

Power, I can totally relate where you're coming from. I grew up as a Seton Hall Pirates fan...I remember that championship game against the Michigan Wolverines where we lost by a friggin foul shot! I was about 11/12, but I cried really hard. It made me want to go to Seton Hall as an undergrad. Sadly, because of money and grades, I didn't make the cut (though two of my friends did...let's just say that while they both graduated from SHU, they had some pretty wild times....they had access to some real high end friends and real high end parties....lmao. I can almost imagine how the Fightin' Irish are. Of course, I'm a lot older now, so even if I were to have considered SHU, I know I wouldn't have gotten sucked in to the bullcrap. Though I might consider doing their Doctorate program in Higher Ed leadership....but that's something people are going to have to pay for (that won't come out of my pocket... )

One thing I know about Indiana is that they have great schools...Purdue, Norte Dame, Butler, and even Indiana State....all schools I've heard of. But Notre Dame is a definite favorite (I do like Catholic Schools...and the women who attend them. LMAO )

You sound like you would do well there, should you ever attend. I wish you well in that endeavor, should it become realized. The only thing that I can add is that you and others have written some great posts and make great posts. The only thing I can add is that while having access to companies that recruit at the big-boy schools are nice, they tend to attract those who are going there full time. At Stern, for example, many of those fairs can only be attended by full time students. Part time students are treated like second-class citizens (when those job fairs are available.)
That makes sense though, believe it or not because part-time students tend to be people like us who are already in a career and we're not looking to change careers outright...just change the path in one's career (I'm not trying to be an investment banker...lmao.) Still though, excellent points were made in this thread and it is always appreciated.

And to JasonX, thank you kindly. I would definitely want to keep in touch. It'd be nice to use a resource other than ratemyprofessor to see who the cool professors are (though I tend to ignore them outright. While a course like ISP would have been a pain to some (especially with the professor I have), I can't see myself ignoring professors just because they're hard graders. However, I am sure I can manage a difficult professor just by making myself known (which I've done with both of the professors I have now.)

erpadmin

Well, I am done with my final quiz with ISP. (I knew I wasn't going to wait until Sunday...) I figured tomorrow is Cinco De Mayo, and a bunch of friends invited me out so they're dragging me out of the house. I'm like F' it, as long as I don't have to drive, I'm ok.

Assuming I got above 10 points (out of 15) I got my A. If I got 13-15 points, I'm really ok, because then that would mean that the final discussion (the initial and final which is worth a total of 10 points) are moot because the extra credit will ensure I got the A anyway. Not even a B+, but an A.

Yup, Lessons Learned: I'm always gonna do extra credit when offered.

Org Behavior is all but an A as well. Professor will post the grades next week. I'm hoping with me he does it early as I was done with the bulk of his class several weeks ago. I only had to do the discussions. If I get anything less than a A, we're gonna have problems but I don't think it's going to go there.

When the course is over, I plan on posting a sampling of articles from each course that might be relevant to discussions that go on throughout the forum (not all of them...just a few.) I will also write up more lessons learned. Suffice it to say, grad school wasn't as bad as I thought. Then again, I only had these two professors. I'm gonna have two other professors I don't know yet. I'm sure it'll be all right.

Had a blast though. Two courses at a popular B&M at the graduate level....yeah, I'm a bit souped up.

erpadmin

Final grades got posted for ISP:



The grading to the naked eye is very confusing. In fact, my classmates' confusion led to my own confusion. The second column after the assignments represents the number of points I earned. The third column represents the the total range that assignment was worth and then perecentage is such was my earned points over the maximum points multiplied by 100. When you add up the maximum number in the range that aren't the EC assignments (extra credit), they add up to 100. In my case, I earned a 91 (a B+). Add up the 15 points to that number, and I have a 106 total. Which means I have my A in ISP. The reason it's confusing is because the LMS (Moodle) can not separate extra credit assignments from actual assignments. What is supposed to happen is that the extra points are supposed to be added to the assignments where one was deficient in. So for example, in my case I have 25 points out of 30 for our team case. I can subtract 5 points from 15 and have 10 points left over. Those extra points then goes to my quizes, which I have 13, 14, & 14 out of 15 each. So out of 10, I subtract 2, 1 and 1, respectively. That left me with 6 remaining extra points.

As for Org Behavior, the professor will post the final grade in the SIS sometime this week. I expect an "A" since I've done the required discussions and they were in line with what he was looking for. He doesn't give feedback on the discussions so I'm assuming they were ok.

As of today, the semester is over. Technically, it's over on Wednesday, but it's a wrap for both courses.

Later today, I will post some articles.

Psoasman

Very nice! Looks like you have some solid scores here.

UnixGuy

Awesome grades, good job man

LinuxRacr

Keep up the great work! GO celebrate!

powerfool

Awesome. Keep it up.

erpadmin

Org Behavior posted! (ISP did not, but when it does, I will just update this post with the updated image. The ISP professor had a lot of students and a bunch of students and is going to go over current event discussions to see if it helped out some of my classmates who did well. There were a couple of those I did, PLUS I had started my own [which other classmates didn't do until well into the end of the course.] In any events, a lot of professors like taking their time, so I'm not too concerned with it.

EDIT: ISP Posted as well. As expected, got the A!!

erpadmin

Last post has been edited to reflect both As in my courses. Now I will write a review on both courses.

I'll start with ISP. This was pretty much a textbook course. Much of the course content came from Wiley Publishing. The professor added very little of his own personality into this course. Whenever he did, it was very brief. The only time we deviated from the textbook was when we discussed articles. These in particular:

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: IT doesn't matter, part 1 [I strongly recommend you read that article. Whether you agree with Carr or not, it is important to understand the argument.]

Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference - Harvard Business Review This counters Carr.

Speed Demons Good article. I had fun ripping it to shreds. That was obviously allowed, but I had to respect the theme of this article: innovation.

This course was about how IT can tie into business strategy and innovation. It's a required MBA course as well as IS, Management, etc. I plan on taking the sequel to this course in face-to-face format, taught by the same professor next year. He was a bit unclear in the beginning but then opened up at the end. I really thought I would end up with a B in this course, but thank God I was wrong. LOL.

Organizational Behavior: This course was worth the price of tuition! There was so much useful nuggets that one could apply to one's career. We started with coalitions, then moved on to organizational politics, then organizational culture. Out of the five papers that I had to do (Coalitions, Power as it relates to organizational relationships, Culture, Decision Making, and Corporate Strategy), my favorite was Culture, because we had to do a write up on Microsoft's corporate culture. That paper kicked my --- because while I support and know Microsoft's products, I didn't know crap about their internal corporate culture, but my professor said that's where the fun laid in. I had to utilize the NJIT elibrary, Google, Microsoft itself, a bunch of business articles to find out the answer, and the format of the paper was very specific. Needless to say, I had a 95, but I had to work for that 95. But after I was done with those five papers, I could just chill and do the discussions.

This semester was rough, and I was seriously expecting Bs. And I know for a fact that As were not given out like candy in either course. I could tell that a lot of students were struggling with either class. But just by following instructions and handing work in on time, I was able to get my As. I can't wait until the next semester...and I can't believe that it's over! Now I can fully mentally concentrate on Accounting. Hopefully, it'll be within a few weeks that I take the CLEP. I will document my progress here.

petedude

Well, so far it looks like you're moving at a good CLEP.

:: ducking eggs and ketchup bottles ::

Sorry, couldn't resist.