Thoughts on Online MBA in a post-covid world
Curious to hear thoughts from the community about the value of an online MBA in post-covid world.
With traditional education and work going virtual at least in the near term, does the stigma of online MBA lessen? Additionally, do these programs become more valuable as you will be learning skills in virtual format which could be seen as beneficial to employers, if the work from home thing sticks around.
When referring to online mba I’m still talking about top programs tepper, Ross, Kelley, unc, etc..
From a cost standpoint alone, given what's happening, I wouldn't pay full freight for an online MBA. To me, there's no value shelling out 100K+ per year for a top program if it's all done online.
It'll be interesting to see if any class action lawsuits are filed against schools that are not reopening in full for the next semester (or full school year) that are still going to charge full freight.
Fair point it does seem like a large bill to pay when you don’t get much of the in person networking benefits. But if your are actually able to create relationships with your peers through virtual means couldn’t that be an important skill to have in the new normal today? While there is still obviously some uncertainty right now, a lot of the top native online programs have some in person components to them, so it’s not like there is zero face to face interaction traditionally.
You are correct on the lawsuits. Not sure if you saw that Harvard law students are suing the school for charging full tuition. I wonder if there will be any implications from that and if could see any grad school tuition cuts.
Networking virtually is muich arder to do than you'd think. Think about all the traditional ways of networking and how much that physical link has with things. Whether it's a phone call or coffee, the personal component is there. So, I thnk you can network, but doing it virtually over Zoom, WebEx, or whatever platform you want to use makes it a lot harder to do. Considering the group work and the nature of how MBA programs structure their coursework, I think that poses a much greater challenge for students, particularly in their 1st year. Things are structured in such a way to help forge bonds, etc. With the online only programs that have an in person component to them, the question is how will social distancing guidelines et. al. impact the ability to learn and engage in the cirriculum for those in person days.
And I'm not shocked HLS is the first to get a lawsuit. Of course, it's law students suing the school. Unlike other programs, the ABA has something called the Tucker Max rule that all accredited law schools are required to follow. In order to maintain accreditation, Law Schools are required to ensure that students maintain an attendance rate of 80% for classes. This rule came about because of Tucker Max, and the fact that he both skipped enough classes that he would have failed on premise and what he did during his time skipping classes, hence the name. When I first heard that Law Schools were going entirely online, I seriously questioned how hard it was for them to meet the requirements of this rule. I wouldn't be surprised if this comes up in the lawsuit as well. Requiring full freight while not havin the same obligations for in-person attendence is definitely an issue. Remember thouhg, part of the issue with education is the in-person omponent. Whether it's law school, business school, med school, or grad school in general, the in person component is generally viewed as a necessity.
I don't think that it stops at individuals suing HLS and really do think it becomes a class action law suit against universities as a whole.
Yes, fair points networking will be more challenging, but not impossible. The crux of what I was getting at has to do the stigma of online education. Now that all the top programs and everything has gone online, my thought is a native online MBA shouldn’t be looked down on as much by employers. While obviously doesn’t get held in the same regard full-time programs, it could be viewed more equal to evening and weekend programs.
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