part-time MBA in NY - Fordham vs Pace vs Baruch?

[Nick Dolgov]

you might want to check this out http://www.vault.com

Thank you for the reminder. Unfortunately, despite all its analysis and examples literature similar to Vault's Career Guides lacks the very feature I am talking about here. First-hand experience of people with a Soviet background and knowledge of, in this particular case, of the aforementioned b-schools cannot be substituted with a general overview aimed at the target audience of real Americans.

BTW, your English is very good.

They say one's English can be regarded as truly fluent as soon as native speakers cease to complement on it. Thus, your remark might be construed in a way a trifle different from the one you intended

your MBA will become useless very soon after you get it unless you use it immediately

Any chance you could elaborate on this statement? Somehow I am used to the idea that education is rarely in vain. Especially in the country of the best higher education in the world. Moreover, it looks like in this century a lot of middle class people embark upon a second, part-time degree in their late twenties. I dabbled with business books on a few general topics (e.g. corporate strategy, accounting/finance 101, OB) and I believe this is a whole new world for people from R&D. Consecuently, I am surprised to hear that business education has such a depreciation rate.

Of course if you just want to learn for fun, you can. It's just that most of us here look at business education as an investment

I am strongly inclined to look at ROI of my efforts as well. But honestly, I do not have a precise idea of what I want. The lame excuse I can cite is that the US market is supposed to be drastically different from this godforsaken place and as a result I can be mistaken in my estimations. Probably the sceptical responses in this thread are an indication of my ignorance in this respect.

BTW Toto, thanks for the real life cases, exactly the stuff I hoped to hear about.

[Komissar]

С таким written English Нику надо в law-school, a не МБА.

[Primavera]

Nick, there is no lateral ideas. I will make my point as clearly and short as possible.
I can't tell you exactly what path you should take, because I am neither IT nor finance professional. I don't know all opportunities and specifics, which are more important than general rules.

I don't say that second tier school are useless, I graduate from Pace and I am happy with that. (going today to the ceremony ). I have friends who are finance/IT majors and I know that it is very difficult for them to find a job. They have to work very hard networking, participating in some contests to get noticed. Everybody tells that employers take people from NYU, Colombia and don't want to look at second/third tier.
Another case is when people already have a position in a good company (UBS, Moodies, etc.) and get second tier MBA, this is not your case.

It is true that you have to use your MBA soon or it looses its value. Business strategies, the reauirements for management change every two years, after four years you will have to know other things and something you studied is not relevant anymore.

Examples from the real life:;
1 person from IT background in senior position in good company wants to be promoted to higher position, he needs a managerial education. He get's an MBA paid by the company in Pace/Fordham.
2 people from russian bachelors who don't have local experience/education, accounting major, at the end have a job with the salary range 45-60K for start.
3 people with student visa going to finance, trying hard, GPA 3.7-4.0 participating in all financial contests, competitions and winning get good job. (5% of graduates) the rest doesn't have a job yet.

If you need sponsorship it is more difficult to get a job.

[makay855]

Nick,
I see pretty much 2 options:
1) if you choose to go to an expensive program, go to Stern. At least, this program has a brand name recognition in Finance.
2) if you can't, at least you can go to an inexpensive one (Baruch).

Fordham and Pace are both ok, but they cannot compete with Baruch on price, and they are no competition to Stern in terms of reputation. Those programs are on the map for the sole reason that they are in NYC. Noone heard of them outside of NYC. And look at the location of both schools - Pace caters to Brooklyn/Staten Island/Downtown crowd. Fordham caters to people from Westchester/CT. Either than location, I don't see what the competitive advantage of either school is.

[Кусака]

Nick,
I see pretty much 2 options:
1) if you choose to go to an expensive program, go to Stern. At least, this program has a brand name recognition in Finance.

This can be a smart move. Stert is the only school among top-15 (?) that has a part-time MBA program. If you want a real life story - here it is. One of my co-workers (Russian software developer) has just graduated from Stern part-time MBA program and got an offer from Lehman Brothers. Of course, he had a lot of connections there. We develop financial software and LB was one of our clients. Go figure.

[makay855]

Nick,
I see pretty much 2 options:
1) if you choose to go to an expensive program, go to Stern. At least, this program has a brand name recognition in Finance.

This can be a smart move. Stert is the only school among top-15 (?) that has a part-time MBA program.

Actually, some other top schools have very strong PMBA programs (Kellogg, Chicago, Wharton). Stern has one of the largest PMBA programs in the country. Obviously, it is overpriced, but it has the name recognition + an expansive network (due to the program size). I believe, Columbia may have a PMBA program, so he can look into that also. If not those two, Baruch offers a much cheaper version, with the support of NYC taxpayers.

[Слоняра]

Stern part-time MBA is ranked as #1 .. (see other topics regarding MBA and law).
But, that is expensive. Nick, where your tuition will came from?

[makay855]

Stern part-time MBA is ranked as #1 .. (see other topics regarding MBA and law).
But, that is expensive. Nick, where your tuition will came from?

Stern is expensive, but Fordham and Pace are not cheap also. And they are not that good. So, if it is not Stern, my vote is for Baruch.

[Кусака]

not only that, Stern has one of the largest PMBAs programs in the country. Obviously, it is overpriced, but it has the name recognition + an expansive network (due to the program size). I believe, Columbia may have a PMBA program, so he can look into that also.

No, Columbia doesn't have one.

[makay855]

not only that, Stern has one of the largest PMBAs programs in the country. Obviously, it is overpriced, but it has the name recognition + an expansive network (due to the program size). I believe, Columbia may have a PMBA program, so he can look into that also.

No, Columbia doesn't have one.

ok. Columbia has some other options (MS, etc). Besides, it definitely has this strange hybrid part-time (weekend) program, called Executive MBA. I knew a couple of people who did it, and they were not at an executive level by any means.

[Слоняра]

Stern part-time MBA is ranked as #1 .. (see other topics regarding MBA and law).
But, that is expensive. Nick, where your tuition will came from?

Stern is expensive, but Fordham and Pace are not cheap also. And they are not that good. So, if it is not Stern, my vote is for Baruch.

It's really hard to get into Stern part time MBA - TOEFL has to be somewhere between 820-850 and you must have solid business background before applying to this program (ask me how do I know)

[Кусака]

Stern part-time MBA is ranked as #1 .. (see other topics regarding MBA and law).
But, that is expensive. Nick, where your tuition will came from?

Stern is expensive, but Fordham and Pace are not cheap also. And they are not that good. So, if it is not Stern, my vote is for Baruch.

It's really hard to get into Stern part time MBA - TOEFL has to be somewhere between 820-850 and you must have solid business background before applying to this program (ask me how do I know)

Слоняра, максимальный GMAT score - 800. Ты конечно имел ввиду 720-750. Индусы такие скоры пачками получают.. ask me how I know. Другой мой коллега недавно сдал GMAT на 740 (вторая попытка). Я сдаю 5-го числа, посмотрим на что вытяну с первой попытки

[Nick Dolgov]

Stern is out of question - PMBA at the price of a top-10 full time program must be for people better rooted in the US. Whatever you might think of me I 'd rather go to Baruch on the mentioned ground of the price tag.

The real surprise for me is the consensus on the minuscule long-run value of such education. I seem to have dramatically overestimated the depth of the provided knowledge.

Thank you once more for stories, they are pretty instructive. Speaking of alternatives, are their any einvigorating stories about people with part-time MS in Financial Engineering or something comparably useful/challenging?

[Кусака]

Thank you once more for stories, they are pretty instructive. Speaking of alternatives, are their any einvigorating stories about people with part-time MS in Financial Engineering or something comparably useful/challenging?

Nick, all MSFE programs are highly quantitative. It is unlikely that you'll manage to get to the business side with such a degree; a research position looks more feasible. I personally don't see how such job is different from IT except that it pays more.
Besides, it is extremely expensive, it costs more than an MBA.

[makay855]

Thank you once more for stories, they are pretty instructive. Speaking of alternatives, are their any einvigorating stories about people with part-time MS in Financial Engineering or something comparably useful/challenging?

Besides, it is extremely expensive, it costs more than an MBA.

again, not if you go to Baruch
The only reason why Baruch is relatively "cheap" is because it is supported by the NYC via our tax dollars Their facilities are good, and I like their new building. MSFE is definitely more challenging than an MBA. There are currently lots of IT people who are getting a MSFE degree there instead of an MBA.