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Best option for part-time business school

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mrausch123
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McCombs (Texas) v Leavey (Santa Clara) v Anderson (UCLA) 04 Mar 2019, 10:38
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Trying to decide between three schools for part-time program. I live in SF Bay Area and am not planning to relocate for school. I am working in business development in tech and am interested in entrepreneurship. My decision boils down to higher ranked, more prestigious national brand names vs. a solid, cost effective regional option.

Santa Clara Evening Program - mid 60's rank program mid 30's part-time program
Pros: Most convenient/closest to my network, significantly cheaper than other programs,
Cons: way down the rankings list compared to McCombs and Anderson

McCombs (Houston) – 17th, 7th part-time
Pros: Strong entrepreneurship program, strong national ranking, largest alumni network with solid chapter in the Bay Area, can complete in 2 years
Cons: Travel and no electives.

UCLA FEMBA – 16th, 5th part-time
Pros: Strong Alumni network in Bay Area, allows electives, closer than Texas
Cons: Seems media industry focused (trying to move away from that world). need at least 2.5 years to complete program
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McCombs (Texas) v Leavey (Santa Clara) v Anderson (UCLA) 05 Mar 2019, 02:15
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mrausch123
Trying to decide between three schools for part-time program. I live in SF Bay Area and am not planning to relocate for school. I am working in business development in tech and am interested in entrepreneurship. My decision boils down to higher ranked, more prestigious national brand names vs. a solid, cost effective regional option.

Santa Clara Evening Program - mid 60's rank program mid 30's part-time program
Pros: Most convenient/closest to my network, significantly cheaper than other programs,
Cons: way down the rankings list compared to McCombs and Anderson

McCombs (Houston) – 17th, 7th part-time
Pros: Strong entrepreneurship program, strong national ranking, largest alumni network with solid chapter in the Bay Area, can complete in 2 years
Cons: Travel and no electives.

UCLA FEMBA – 16th, 5th part-time
Pros: Strong Alumni network in Bay Area, allows electives, closer than Texas
Cons: Seems media industry focused (trying to move away from that world). need at least 2.5 years to complete program
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While investing you, your hard earned huge money in education, you need to consider some important factor than your comfortability. School's alumni network, your post MBA goals, most importantly school Brand name. Anyhow it is a part-time programme, you need to adjust your work schedule based on the location, travel...
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McCombs (Texas) v Leavey (Santa Clara) v Anderson (UCLA) 05 Mar 2019, 09:01
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Hello mrausch123 ... welcome to the community.

In my personal opinion -- it's UCLA. Although the school might be concentrating on 'media industry', you donot have to. And moreover the brand name (no offence to other programs) and the Alumni Network is very important post-program.

All the best !!
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McCombs (Texas) v Leavey (Santa Clara) v Anderson (UCLA) 05 Mar 2019, 14:37
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mrausch123
Trying to decide between three schools for part-time program. I live in SF Bay Area and am not planning to relocate for school. I am working in business development in tech and am interested in entrepreneurship. My decision boils down to higher ranked, more prestigious national brand names vs. a solid, cost effective regional option.

Santa Clara Evening Program - mid 60's rank program mid 30's part-time program
Pros: Most convenient/closest to my network, significantly cheaper than other programs,
Cons: way down the rankings list compared to McCombs and Anderson

McCombs (Houston) – 17th, 7th part-time
Pros: Strong entrepreneurship program, strong national ranking, largest alumni network with solid chapter in the Bay Area, can complete in 2 years
Cons: Travel and no electives.

UCLA FEMBA – 16th, 5th part-time
Pros: Strong Alumni network in Bay Area, allows electives, closer than Texas
Cons: Seems media industry focused (trying to move away from that world). need at least 2.5 years to complete program
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Hello mrausch123

It is fairly easy choice.

UCLA is the best school, best brand and best option is your specific case.

I would not consider Santa Clara at all, I assume it is on the list just because of proximity, however that should not be the deciding factor.


Yeah McCombs is fine, but UCLA is relatively near and still stronger brand.

I vote for UCLA Fully Employed MBA Program :thumbup:

I dont see them being strictly media industry focused at all, except that of course Hollywood is near, so what ? :cool:


Plenty of companies from other non related industries are recruiting there :

Intel

Google

PIMPCO

Accenture

Bank of America

Baxter BioScience

Chevron

Cisco Systems Inc.

Ernst and Young LLP

United Technologies Corporation

Yahoo! Inc.

Abbott

AIG

AT&T

Deloitte

General Electric (GE)

Honeywell Aerospace

Johnson & Johnson

Lockheed Martin Corporation

Medtronic

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Oracle Corporation

Pacific Gas & Electric

Raytheon

Southern California Edison

Tesla Motors

https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/degrees/fu ... em-x184324


UCLA certainly has much better and greater alumni network in your area or in Cali in general, than McCombs.


Good Luck :geek: :cool:
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McCombs (Texas) v Leavey (Santa Clara) v Anderson (UCLA) 05 Mar 2019, 23:34
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Hi and congrats on your admits - PT programs are hard work as you have to work and study, and traveling does add a bit of a complexity.
I am wondering why you want an MBA if you are thinking about entrepreneurship. If you are planning to be your own boss, I feel the cheapest, closest, and most flexible program is the best one. It likely won't bust many doors open but neither will McCombs or Anderson names, though they do have more prestige per se but neither is a Stanford.

In a FEMBA, your biggest asset and network will be your classmates. Often you can recruit or they can help recruit in their companies after you ace a project at school or show some other skills. Would you benefit from networking with a bunch of folks in TX or LA? If not, then you are missing on part of the value from the experience. There are likely a few folks commuting from Bay Area to LA for FEMBA and it is a commute that you can even do driving late at night or early in the morning, though $49 on southwest or one of the LA-SF flight passes may be a better bet.

I think you should examine a bit more the underlying reasons for the MBA and what drives value for you.
Good Luck!