I'm thinking of all my options for graduate school, and I don't know much about our Business Administration and Public Administration programs. Anybody in one of these? Have you heard if they're ungodly hard or if they suck?

2/24/2009 4:10:46 PM

welcome to tww where we make decisions for you in the real world!!

2/24/2009 4:11:30 PM

Haha, sad... i know

2/24/2009 4:12:19 PM

this definitely shouldn't be in chit chat. haha

2/24/2009 4:13:16 PM

I figured nobody would look at it in Study Hall

2/24/2009 4:13:48 PM

I'm going back for my MBA eventually

Thats what I keep telling myself anyway

but at this point its probably 50/50

I'm doing just fine without one

2/24/2009 4:15:50 PM

2/24/2009 4:16:45 PM

I'm doing a part time MBA program now. Compared to my engineering undergrad, the classes are a joke, but they do take a lot of time. There's a lot of reading, writing, and group work, which is tough to coordinate when we are all working and have families. The fact that I work 50+ hours a week and am trying to finish in a little over 2 years probably makes the amount of work seem more than it really is.

[Edited on February 24, 2009 at 4:17 PM. Reason : d]

2/24/2009 4:17:01 PM

Definitely understandable.

2/24/2009 4:18:13 PM

^^which school do you go to?

[Edited on February 24, 2009 at 4:19 PM. Reason : .]

2/24/2009 4:19:34 PM

i see you're 20. If you're serious about an MBA, I would strongly recommend getting some work experience first. You'll have real life examples and situations to relate to, and you'll be more credible once you graduate. An MBA grad without any work experience doesn't really garner the same kind of respect as one who's put in some time.

^R.H. Smith Business school (univ of maryland)

[Edited on February 24, 2009 at 4:22 PM. Reason : d]

2/24/2009 4:21:59 PM

I personally have some interest in getting my MPA, but that's due to my own personal interests. Isn't there a stark enough difference between the two that you can pick which one is more in line with what you want to do?

Quote :

"I'm doing a part time MBA program now. Compared to my engineering undergrad, the classes are a joke, but they do take a lot of time."

Just as I suspected.

I remember taking a master's level history class as a fun GPA booster back during my M.E. undergrad.

[Edited on February 24, 2009 at 4:25 PM. Reason : afds]

2/24/2009 4:22:00 PM

I already work in athletics, and I want to be an administrator (i.e. - an AD). So both are appropriate as one deals with business and finances, and the other with administration in a public academic institution. Really, I'm just tired of Sport Management, which is my Bachelor's.

2/24/2009 4:24:55 PM

I know someone that slaved away for two years at their MPA program and basically turned into a recluse. They had a tougher time than most people I'm guessing. Their job is also very secure and doesn't really feel the economic downturn. I personally would go for an MBA, simply because I've had real world experience. You have a better chance of making more money with an MBA, and sometimes more job security with an MPA.

2/24/2009 4:25:31 PM

MBA's are a dime a dozen. You need to have a very marketable degree first, then add an MBA.

2/24/2009 4:27:41 PM

^ Yeah see that's what I was worried about. I know they're awfully competitive.

2/24/2009 4:28:40 PM

Quote :

"MBA's are a dime a dozen. You need to have a very marketable degree first, then add an MBA."

depends a lot on the school

2/24/2009 4:41:14 PM

Depends on what you want to do.

Administratrate da biznass

or

Administratrate da public

?!

2/24/2009 5:57:06 PM

the nc state mpa program is absolute garbage, if you want an mpa look elsewhere

2/24/2009 6:01:31 PM

What kind of gpa do you need for the NCSU MBA program and MBA programs in general?

2/24/2009 6:04:30 PM

6.7

2/24/2009 6:49:22 PM

I thought it was more typical of MBA programs to work for a few years first. I thought they preferred people who have worked first.

Quote :

"Their job is also very secure and doesn't really feel the economic downturn. I personally would go for an MBA, simply because I've had real world experience. You have a better chance of making more money with an MBA, and sometimes more job security with an MPA."

i know three, count them, three people in their 30s with MBAs who had great, amazing, profitable jobs for YEARS who have been affected by the economic downturn. do not for a minute think that an MBA will make you "safe." these people graduated from UNC and Duke as well, like the "oooohhh touch you" type of MBA programs that everyone hates hearing about. seriously, the people you know are lucky because with businesses failing left and right and wall street sucking ass, i don't know how anyone in the business world is secure. i guess don't go into banking, or up on dat wall street. that seems hard to deny when people are flashing 100,000s of thousands of dolla dolla bills in your face though.

[Edited on February 24, 2009 at 6:58 PM. Reason : .]

2/24/2009 6:51:13 PM

M&P

2/24/2009 6:51:34 PM

Quote :

"the nc state mpa program is absolute garbage, if you want an mpa look elsewhere"

what they hell are you basing that on? RAWR RAWR.....the program is still relatively new and goes up in ranking every year

an MPA makes you infinitely more marketable in the public sector

2/25/2009 12:19:50 AM

MBA

MPA

MOB

FTW

2/25/2009 5:56:53 PM

I'm doing MPA right now at Appalachian.

Like sober46an3 said about MBA, the classes aren't hard, but there is a lot of work, lots of writing, lots of presentations, etc.

But really, it depends on what you plan on doing I guess. I'm going into local government management, so I'm getting an MPA.

2/25/2009 6:30:22 PM

I agree with those who are urging you to get a few years of work experience before jumping into these types of grad school. The knowledge you gain from work experience is invaluable in grad school as it gives you a different perspective of things.

I suggest this as well since you mention that you are sick of your major. While an MBA or MPA may not be particularly difficult, they will keep you very busy. My graduate program was orders of magnitude more demanding than undergrad but I didnt find it incredibly hard. The reason being because I was very interested in the subject of the program and through my work experience, I knew what to focus on that would benefit me the most.

2/25/2009 6:47:50 PM

Quote :

"You need to have a very marketable degree first, then add an MBA."

That is absurdly false. I mean I can't even begin to tell you how wrong you are on that. Unless somehow you mean the undergrad degree has to be marketable, and even that isn't the iron-clad rule

MBA's are obtained for a number of reasons. The top 2 being 1) a career switch and 2) advancement in your profession.

I fell into #1. I was a PoliSci major at the Naval Academy and got out of the military after my commitment. I knew the PoliSci market is tough at best, so I went for my MBA. Having no prior corporate experience (or even marketing experience) other than an internship, I was hired to work at a Fortune 50 company as a manager of a marketing group.

#2 include people who do consulting and investment banking. You simply can not advance at firms without a MBA in most cases. I had people in my class who were kick ass consultants, but came to get their MBA's because you can't get the top jobs at a consulting firm without an MBA.

If you don't have a lot of work experience, you're not going to get into a good MBA program (Top 30) without some other factor blowing them away. The youngest person we had was 3 years out of school. The average work experience was 6 years.

As far as difficulty of classes - I found the core classes to be a breeze - it's when I got into classes like Forecasting with Synthetic Neural Networks, Strategic Decision Analysis, Game theory, etc, that they became challenging.

[Edited on February 25, 2009 at 7:22 PM. Reason : .]

2/25/2009 7:18:26 PM

Sorry guys, I've been working all day. Thanks for keeping this thread going... this is helping.

2/25/2009 9:08:40 PM

How about a JOB?

2/25/2009 9:09:14 PM

i am thinking about an MS in OT or SLP

2/25/2009 9:31:30 PM

goalie - I didn't say a MBA wasn't ever good enough - but in a lot of sectors an MBA just isn't enough. An MBA is a very marketable degree especially if you have an undergrad/grad degree in the field in which you wish to find work. Sure, if you are going for a generic management position and MBA is fine.

However, in fields such as engineering, manufacturing, design, etc. your primary degree needs to be/has to be in that field - then an MBA is what can put you over the top.

2/25/2009 9:57:44 PM

^What other fields do you have to have a specific degree for?

2/25/2009 10:04:32 PM

Just to let ya'll know, I've actually decided against MBA, and now I'm going to decide between MPA and MEd.

[Edited on February 25, 2009 at 10:10 PM. Reason : ]

2/25/2009 10:10:07 PM

I just graduated with a Master's in Economics from NCSU in December and can tell you first hand many people have an obsession with MBAs. They seem to be on their own tier above the MA/MS in the business world. I was doing an interview with someone over a financial research/stats position and he goes 'uhhh ever think about going back for an MBA?'. Seriously? People certainly have some false impression of what an MBA is, but regardless, it is a very marketable degree that will get you in the door at many places. You learn good stuff for the real world and employers like MBAs. The MBA v MPA argument shouldnt be looking at the diff programs, you should be looking at what you want to do. You would be in finance/management or policy/govt. Two very different environments/course work/pay. Look at what you want to do first, and if that takes a year or two of work, Id highly encourage doing that.

2/25/2009 10:40:57 PM

MBA's arent really worth much these days. Not like they used to. they've become pretty devalued.

unless, of course, you go to a top-tier business school. I'm sorry to say, NCSU's Jenkin's School of Managment is *not* in that list.

U Chicago, Harvard, Penn, Duke, Indiana, Michigan, Stanford, Columbia, MIT are where you need to go for an MBA to mean anything ... maybe, even, U Virginia or Kenan-Flagler at UNC, down near the bottom of the top-20. but even that's pushing it.

Fact is, jobs for MBAs have been disappearing even prior to the economic chaos. If you want a masters that means anything, go get an advance degree in your primary field.

2/25/2009 10:59:56 PM