TheBizClass

Gibbs College Offers Specialized Degree Programs

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:13:40 -0700

Gibbs College in Livingston, New Jersey, offers specialized college degrees that can help you get ahead professionally.

Have you ever wanted to learn about computer programming? Do visual communications interest you? How about criminal justice or business administration?

Then Gibbs college programs might be just right for you.

Although I didn't attend a small college, I know quite a few people who have. One of the strongest reasons my friends have cited for attending a small college like Gibbs College is the greater chance for student-teacher interaction and classroom discussion.

If you're in need of financial aid, Gibbs offers a variety of options to help you afford your college education. I know I appreciated the Pell Grants and Stafford Loans that helped me through higher education!

Gibbs College also offers career services if you'd like some help deciding what to do for a career or would like to find good job options while you're in school.

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ClearViewEducation.com Connects Students With Colleges

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:58:11 -0700

Want to earn an online college degree?

It's so easy nowadays to get free information from online schools. Just pop open a Web browser, go to your favorite search engine and type in a phrase like "online schools" or "online MBA."

Thousands, if not millions, of relevant search results will likely meet your eye in an instant.

But the ease of finding information about online degrees creates a new (and more annoying) problem - overload. After all, you don't want to just find tons of colleges, you want the right college. Right?

Thankfully, Clear View Education has experienced employees who really know how to help students find excellent colleges. The Clear View promise is to help every prospective student find the right accredited online college to help her reach her educational goals.

Whether you're scouting out the top online business schools or merely perusing the intertubes in search of a decent art program, Clear View Education can help you find what you're looking for.

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Strayer University has accreditation problems

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 06:33:01 -0700

Strayer University is a private, for-profit institution that has a large online division (Newington, Virginia) and numerous mini-campuses located in various southeastern states. It is a genuine money-making institution; its stock is selling at an all-time high, and growth prospects continue to look good.

However, all is not as it might appear. Strayer's bread-and-butter degree programs are in business administration and public administration. The latter diploma is especially popular with state and federal bureaucrats who whish to pad their resumes. The problem is in accreditation of these two programs.

Strayer's BSBA and MBA programs are not approved by AACSB--the recognized professional accrediting association in these two fields. Additionally, Strayer's MPA program lacks professional accreditation by NASPAA.

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"Management" run amok

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:32:13 -0700

BSBA students learn in their Principles of Management course that managers have to promote the twin goals of effectiveness and efficiency. Many students just nod and include this statement in their class notes, but in doing so they miss an important point: these twin goals are often inversely related!

That is, we can increase effectiveness by hiring more people, perhaps at higher-than-normal salaries, spending more to develop new products and perhaps also by increasing advertising. But if the dollars going out will not dramatically increase the dollars coming in, efficiency suffers.

A classic example of "management run amok" is the U. S. Department of Defense (DOD) under Robert McNamara in the 1960's. His background was in manufacturing (Ford Motor Company), not in military operations. Yet he and his "whiz kind" advisors thought that every decision could be evaluated through a cost-benefit analysis.

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Superior business students pay attention to details

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:02:29 -0700

The best advice I can give to BSBA students nowadays is to pay attention to details. This habit, if mastered, will greatly assist the grad after he or she enters the world of business.

Few things are more annoying to college professors than students who simply don't take the time or make the effort to prepare assignments correctly. Students are expected to follow guidelines in the syllabus and to submit assignments on time and in the correct format. Not a day late. Not something that is "close" to what the professor wanted. It must be done right.

My personal pet peeve is misspelled words. Why is it that young adults can't remember "i before e, except after c" and similar rules? And why do they think that they can create a possessive version of the pronoun it by adding an apostrophe and the letter s? The word it's means "it is"; it is not a possessive form of anything. Why don't students use dictionaries if they are unsure about words?

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Business students must learn to ask tough questions

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 04:16:20 -0700

BSBA and MBA graduates must learn to ask tough questions when they finally get jobs as managers. Perhaps they can develop this trait in business school, but in other cases they will have to acquire it on the job.

The expression tough questions includes asking "why are things done this way"? and "isn't there a better way to accomplish this"? In other cases, the question may be as simple as "are your workers trained and qualified for their jobs"?

I suspect that newly minted BSBA and MBA degree holders are reluctant to ask tough questions on the job site because they don't want to embarrass anyone. So they meekly nod and continue to look around, maybe taking notes.

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Business schools must improve courses in auditing

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 05:57:20 -0700

Students who major in accounting are normally required to take one or two courses in auditing, but other business administration majors can skip these courses. That's too bad, because a knowledge of auditing can often mean the success or failure of the enterprise.

By auditing, I mean more than pushing pencils and clicking keys on a computer keyboard. I mean the auditor must go into warehouses, count boxes, check serial numbers, check model numbers and so forth. When it comes to evaluating fixed assets, the auditor must be rigorous in determining the value of the physical plant. He or she must ignore the opinions of plant managers and others who would like to see the audit go a certain way.

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A new MBA faces the "real world"

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 13:41:41 -0700

In the mid-seventies I earned my MBA from California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, courtesy of the U. S. Marine Corps. The Marines were glad to send me to graduate school at full pay and allowances, but I, in turn, was expected to then serve as a senior management analyst at the Marine headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

I was put in charge of the Administrative Programs Section, which was responsible for all forms, reports, records and micrographic systems used throughout the entire Marine Corps. I had a dozen or so career civilians to run these various programs, and all were classified as "343" management analysts.

But dealing with these civilians put me through culture shock. First, I discovered that not one was a college graduate. Most held a GS-12 rank, but one, an old guy named Dan was a GS-13. He was the "forms" specialist.

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Posts to The Biz Class in September 2007

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 09:22:07 -0700

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Date Topic

30 Index

29 Confessions of a college professor

28 Accredited online business degrees

26 Avoid Ashwood University

25 Beware of bogus accrediting organizations

25 University of South Dakota gets a "thumbs up"

24 More on management theory

23 Submitting comments to The Biz Class

20 Arizona's best business schools

19 Virginia's top business schools

19 Management theory - part 4

17 Management theory - part 3

16 Management theory - part 2

14 Management theory - part 1

12 Management theory - introduction

11 Avoid Bedford University

9 AACSB accredits Adelphi University

6 Drexel University Online is "okay"

3 Ever heard of DeVry University?

1 Avoid Everest Online and Florida Metropolitan University

Confessions of a college professor

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 05:58:30 -0700

Teaching at the college level can have its rewards, but it also has a downside: teaching introductory classes to freshmen and sophomores.

I've been teaching college courses off and on for over 20 years, usually as an adjunct professor. At first I was enthusiastic and grateful for every teaching assignment that came my way. That began to change for two reasons. First, the constant repetition involved with introductory courses was boring; second, with seniority I was able to teach more and more classes designed for advanced undergraduates. The older, more advanced students made classes interesting and challenging, not only for me but for other students in the class as well.

It should not come as a surprise to you that Teaching Assistants (TAs) teach most of the introductory courses at big universities. Senior instructors and professors are, in many ways, wasting their time teaching Business 101 or Marketing 105. Those courses focus on the terminology and concepts that the students need before taking more substantive courses as advanced undergraduates.

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Accredited online business degrees

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:00:00 -0700

If you thought you'd never see the words accredited and online used in the same sentence on this blog, you should think again. While it is true that I am not a fan of online instruction in any form, I am willing to give credit where it is due.

The University of Wyoming at Laramie, accredited regionally and by AACSB, has developed online business degree programs for undergraduates and also for graduate students. Here is the way it works:

A person who wishes to earn an online BSBA from the University of Wyoming must first complete two years at a local community college or other accredited university. He or she can then enroll in the online BSBA program for the final two years of undergraduate work. Note: there are no shortcuts. Do not try to pass off other online credits in lieu of actual study at a brick-and-mortar institution for the first two years (60 credits) of academic work.

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Avoid Ashwood "University"

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 03:47:34 -0700

Ashwood "University" is one of the worst diploma mills I have ever encountered. It exists principally in cyberspace, though there is a connection to Pakistan, since one investigator bought a phony diploma from Ashwood and it was mailed from that country.

Ashwood claims to be "accredited" by not just one, but two accrediting associations (see my post for Sept. 25). This is further evidence that so-called accrediting associations are invented by the same people who invent the bogus colleges.

Ashwood selected its name because it is very similar to Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa. Ashford is an accredited liberal arts residential college. The Ashwood people are hoping that no one sees the difference.

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Beware of bogus "accrediting" organizations

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:37:41 -0700

We all know that we should avoid colleges and universities that lack regional and professional accreditation. There are only six legitimate regional accrediting associations, and you can find them easily enough on the Internet.

Professional associations are also easy to locate. In business programs, the only one that counts is the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

So how do diploma mills and other fake colleges handle the accreditation issue? Simple. In most cases, they invent an "accreditating body" that exists only in cyberspace. These accrediting bodies may have impressive names, but they are just as fake as the bogus colleges.

I've done lots of research on this issue, and I have come across four "accrediting bodies" that in my opinion are as fake as a three-dollar bill. They are:

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University of South Dakota gets a "thumbs up"

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 05:00:00 -0700

The great state of South Dakota, population 781,919, boasts one business school that is both regionally and AACSB accredited. It is the University of South Dakota at Vermillion.

The Beacom School of Business offers undergraduate degrees in business plus the following graduate degrees:

MBA - Master of Business Administration (various sub-specialties)
MBA/JD - MBA plus Juris Doctor (law degree)
MPA - Master of Professional Accountancy

To be admitted to the graduate parogram, prospective students should score at least 450 on the GMAT and have a 3.25 or greater GPA. Note that these are minimums. Better qualified students will always be admitted first.

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More on management theory (control function)

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 07:33:17 -0700

On Sept. 19 I posted a short article about the "control" function that is part of the management process. If you have already taken your Principles of Management class, then you have an appreciation for the points I was making.

You may remember that I said control functions apply to many aspects of the enterprise--budgets, production, quality control, etc. To illustrate just one of these I suggested this situation:

Your factory fills containers with catsup. The individual containers state that they contain 12 oz. of product. Your equipment, however, does not always dispense exactly 12 oz. into the containers. In fact, there is a statistical variance of plus or minus 0.1 oz. in the process. Question: what is the correct setting for your equipment?

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