LoveTheGMAT
Hey
I see your signature says that Grades/GMAT are not the main focus for admission. So what do they use to assess you?
They will still use grades, but the big focus is on employability and personality. The essay you write is pretty open ended, in fact it's called a personal essay so the hint there is be personable in it. You also fill out a whole bunch of other stuff like a profile and what employer partners you think would be a good fit for you (though I don't think they use that bit to assess). Then there's the interview and that's your chance to really shine.
I think we're able to lean more heavily on the personality side of things now at least because the class size is small (50 max now, 100 later) enough and the number of incoming apps are not overwhelming (yet).
LoveTheGMAT
One reason I was interested in Brock was that it has joint CMA/MBA program. I wanted to do CMA and I could have done through three ways:
1. Take CMA accelerated program
2. Take courses at my university
3. Enroll in MBA program and take those courses there
#3 seemed best as I would be taking courses at MBA level compared to undergrad level (if I were to do #2)
#1 is just not considered best as they teach you a course in 1 day, which some students take over 1 full semester. People really don't grasp the content well in 1 day and then they struggle later on.
You are right, it kills 2 birds with one stone too because you build credits towards an MBA degree. Plus those standalone courses can cost a bundle.
Actually, Dal's friendly rival Saint Mary's University has a CMA-MBA program. They're actually holding the reputation now in the area for being "the business school" (Dal is better known for medicine). I was considering applying there before I learned of the CRMBA. If you like an East Coast experience while taking a CMA-MBA I suggest you give that program a gander. SMU is much small and us Dal jerks make a lot of fun of them but my Honours prof was from SMU, so I had some exposure to the campus and people: they're actually alright (as a Dal alum I'm not officially allowed to say anything better than that
).
For you I suggest you definitely follow your goals and I think a CMA-MBA combined program is an excellent choice. I also think with some extra effort you could pull off a similar learning experience with something like the CRMBA (it's been heralded as "
the tailor made MBA"). I mean, there's no real "social media MBA" but that's kind of what I've done with my approach to the program. However, there are aspects to this program that may not jive with or distract you from your CMA goals so you'll have to be careful to gather all the facts about all the places you look at!