What do you think about MBA program at UCR?
I was wondering if anyone can give me info based on their experience or based on what they hear about the MBA program at University of California Riverside? I got accepted to that program, with no scholarship or financial aid offer, so I would have to depend on loans only, at least for the first year. Should I study more for GMAT and try other UCs next year? (I'd love to get into UCLA or UCI, but I need better GMAT score. I didn't apply to those this year). Or should I just stick with this one, since my work experience won't get any better in the next one year? (I'll be unemployed for a year, but had 2 years of great work experience prior to that). I know where UCR stands compared to other UC's, so I'd appreciate information about UCR's MBA program only. If you went there, how did it impact your career, how was the whole experience, professors, students, etc? Thanks everyone in advance!
Don't bother. Advance your career. Top MBA programs don't want repeat MBA's.There are plenty of degrees you can leverage to get into a top MBA program (Engineering, MD). A weaker MBA is not one of them.
Can I apply for MBA program if I have a BFA degree?
MBA programs accept students with a bachelor’s degree in any undergraduate field. They prefer students who do not have a business major because they give you the business training but they cannot provide the broad background that managers should have. The best majors are in the sciences, technology, engineering, or math, but other majors are also suitable. Any field of endeavor can use good management. The reason for avoiding a business undergraduate degree is that it results in too much duplication with the MBA and leaves you with a narrow focus. On the other hand, companies hiring MBA graduates are looking for those who earned the MBA but can also communicate with the people that they have to manage as they advance in their jobs. You have enough work experience for an MBA. Take the GMAT and then look for a school that is AACSB accredited. Stay away from private for profit schools with no reputations. I have taught MBA students whose undergraduate degrees were in English, History, Psychology, Law, (JD), Medicine (MD), Dentistry, Music (Ph.D.) and many others. There is no reason you should not do well.
Applying to grad school AT just a 3.0 GPA?
First of all your GPA is not bad at all. I would say it critical is it was under 3.0. In addition, for MBA graduate school applications many other criteria have more importance than the GPA. If won't recommend you to apply directly to an MBA. Most of the MBA programs require a few years of work experience. I am afraid you might be rejected if you don't have enough work experience. I have a friend who has an MBA with a concentration in Marketing from Miami school of business administration (https://www.bus.miami.edu/graduate-programs/full-time-mba/concentrations/marketing/index.html) and she had a really good experience there. Also you might know that every school don't accept the GRE but the GMAT so double check the school that you want. The GRE score around 320-326 is a good score! But the score requirements will also change for each school. Don't rush you application. Make sure that you know everything about schools, application procedure. There a lot resources online like the gmat club forum, gradschools.com which has resoruces related to MBA http://www.gradschools.com/search-programs/mba And they have this cool infographic about MBA: http://www.gradschools.com/search-programs/business-mba/expensive-vs-affordable-mba
II think that is fine and a good use (or non-use) of a busy applicant’s time. In most cases these schools use other criteria, such as undergraduate credentials, coursework, and grades to determine likelihood of success in their programs. In my case, RPI waived this examination for my graduate Business degree based on my BSME degree and very high GPA.
In earlier days of computer programming, the people did not have any idea on the power of “computer” so it was considered as “black box” & left everything to the programmer to understand the process & workflows & then decide on the computer programming. This resulted high costs of engaging a “programmer”As the non-IT people understood the process of developing a software & its micro steps, different versions of “programming” (software developoment models) emerged - Agile - Scrub - Rails - REST - all moved away from the “Waterfall” model. Waterfall model is still relevant for military applications, which has fair amount of “hard coding”In each of these programming styles, the role of “programmer” got reversed or reduced to 20%. Rest all documentation is done by non-IT persons & a specific instruction “small” given to the “programmer” to work on & delivery - this reduced the “programmer” costs.It is now responsibility of the “idea originator (who wants to automate or develop a software)” to defined the process flowcharts & break it in to multiple micro modules, with complete logical diagram & “trigerring instances” including “data elements & data structures” & just give the part of “computer programming - also called as coding” to the “programmer”.The computer programming world has come a longway from the erstwhile Fortran IV / dBase IV to latest AI language.ConclusionIt is irrelevant for an MBA to learn programming, but essential to learn the strengths (merits) & weakness (demerits) of each programming language plus knowledge of software architecture, development models can be of immense help & provide insight to the “idea originators”.MBA subject / topics are “architectural” topics, whereas programming is hardcore micro level activity. Both cannot go together. So better keep the MBA students to remain at architectural plane of thinking.
As a successful business school applicant coming from a startup, I can say that there are very few students that come from small (< 100 employee) startups.Although I am not aware of the inner workings of admissions, I think that companies can be used as a frame of reference to look at applicants. i.e. Some large firms have very stringent and known hiring and retention practices, so candidates from those firms can be initially filtered as strong potential candidates. When business school applicants come from largely unknown companies, candidates need to put in extra effort to show their strengths and explain their accomplishments. Being at a startup with alumni from top-tier MBA programs can be very advantageous.The more successful a startup is, the more likely it will be that your application readers and interviewers (who typically are not tech-savvy) will be familiar with your company and industry. This familiarity can be very important, especially in the interview stage. Otherwise, you will spend valuable time explaining your business or risk losing your interviewer.Another significant challenge as an MBA applicant from a startup is that startups are typically not structured in a way that is application-friendly. You will usually not have the opportunity to earn multiple official promotions and awards like peers from large firms. There will be fewer, if any, extracurricular organizations at work within which you can make an impact (although your impact could be greater if you join or make an organization). You will possibly work long hours that prevent you from completing meaningful activities outside of work. And lastly, your potential recommenders will not necessarily be very experienced in writing good recommendations, in comparison to supervisors from more traditional MBA feeder industries.With that being said, I highly recommend exploring the startup opportunity (or any opportunity, for that matter) if you are passionate about it, rather than worry about how it affects your admissions chances. Being passionate about work will allow you to perform to your best ability, which will ultimately drive a successful application. If and when you do matriculate to school, having startup experience will be quite valuable - startup veterans are highly desired by large technology employers.
Can an MBA program rescind admission?
Call and ask them to be safe, but most likely since you have already been admitted they will not be doing any more validity checks. And as long as your reason for quitting is legitimate and beneficial and you're not being fired you have a case. By traveling around you can claim you're experiencing other cultures which allows you to get a better understanding of these cultures which is becoming more and more essential in this current period of business globalization.