[Anonymous]

I want to complete an online MBA after completing my CPA. Will any online MBA programs accept me with a 2.3 GPA undergrad?

[soyanks]

I think you will get better value for your money if you go with a traditional (non-online) MBA program.

If you still want to go for online MBA, I am pretty sure University of Phoenix and Devry will accept you as long as you can pay them.

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[Anonymous]

You might have good luck looking with smaller universities, too…like there's a university 40 minutes away from me that has an online MBA that I'm pretty sure will take anyone (or at least it's mostly online – ucumberlands.edu if you're interested). No one where you live/work will have heard of it, but sometimes that can be a good thing. IMHO, a degree from a school no one knows about is better than one from University of Pheonix or even Devry, because their reputation isn't the best in the circles I've been in.

My degree was very un-traditional, but I want to get an MBA, so I've been seeking programs that are more flexible as well.

[PurpleK]

Are you getting a MBA to make yourself more marketable or just because you want to learn?

If it is to make yourself more marketable —

When I was at the Big 4 (think major west coast and east coast cities), we saw plenty of resumes come in with people having their MBAs. They were never given preferential treatment over those who had passed the CPA exam, because someone with an MBA adds very little to no additional value as a staff or senior in public accounting.

However, if you considering something like management consulting or buy-side investing, a MBA is a great idea. You just need to graduate from one of the top MBA programs in the nation, not an online MBA program. To be honest, the present value of the debt you would incur from going to a MBA program that is not one of the top programs, would significantly outweigh the future cash flows from most jobs you would be considered for.

If you just want to get an MBA to learn, then by all means go ahead.

[Anonymous]

MBA is also valuable in management positions in industry, and for smaller companies in industry the size of the school doesn't matter as much, so an online MBA from an unknown school can still be valuable. For public accounting and/or consulting, though, I don't imagine it'd be too useful, since you want your consultant to have some high-level impressive credentials, not a no-name school.

However, for smaller companies in industry, the additional cost for a top MBA school would never repay itself.

[Anonymous]

I live in Pennsylvania. Does it look bad if I take a mba program with eastern arizona university. Compared to a a university with a generic name.

[Anonymous]

It will be clear that it was online, but if that's OK with you, then go for it. I graduated (undergrad) from a college in NJ while working in KY – clearly it was online etc., but no one has questioned it beyond that. Personally, I believe that online college is where the world is heading – unless you're doing clinicals or playing sports, there's virtually no need to be on campus. Even face-to-face MBAs are becoming hybrid because they recognize there's no need for students to be on campus. Faculty are hesitant to embrace this change because it takes fewer faculty to teach the same students, but from everything I've seen, it's the future of higher ed, especially for Master's level programs. So, I would think that any stigma associated with an online degree will decrease substantially in the years to come.

If my assumption on that is correct, then a state school should look better than a no-name local-ish school, at least in my mind.

[gg2929]

I would say it depends on your goals and how you learn. I am not built to learn in the school environment. I'd say I have learned much more from reading books on my own time than school. You are able to do it at your own pace and select information that you believe will be useful to know. In my opinion, there is too much terminology created by the author of textbooks in school for it to be my path of choice.

[Anonymous]

@gg I learned far more from my textbooks than my professors in all my classes, so I totally get you on the school environment not being ideal for learning. However, I'm curious – do you feel that the CPA exam prep materials are less “useless terminology” than the textbooks? And if so, what materials did/do you use? Mine seemed very similar to my textbooks, so not sure if my textbooks were better or my review materials very textbook-y. 🙂

[Author]

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