My choice to pursue an MBA was pretty different than what the “traditional” reasons for getting an MBA are. Usually, an individual is employed and somewhat settled in their career, and then go for their MBA in order to take them “to the next level”. My situation is very different from that. I don’t really have a ‘career’ per say, but have held a series of jobs. Some of these jobs were in the professional or quasi-professional capacity, but nothing that really launched any type of career for me. The closest I got to this was probably when I worked for USA Title. However I still did not function in a management position at that company; just basically a specialized position (escrow accountant).

I returned back to school to finish my bachelor’s degree, which was in liberal arts, but I had a minor in business administration. I really enjoyed my business classes, but I was only a mere 30 credits away from a liberal arts degree and I was not about to change my major (the delay had been long enough for me – I wanted a bachelor’s before I was 30!). I knew that if I wanted to pursue this further, it would need to be on the graduate school level. Initially, I considered accounting. However I ran into several problems with that one. #1 – Many programs required a minimum amount of accounting coursework for admission. #2 – Quite a few of the programs I was looking into were at private universities…so $$$. And #3 – I was worried that a M. Acc. or M.S. degree would limit me coupled with my background. So I shifted my focus to the MBA.

Some other issues I needed to be honest with were costs, location and finally accreditation. The fact of the matter is, I had a lot of things to research and learn about, in a short period of time. Because my undergraduate education took so long and mainly funded with loans, I could not fathom paying even $50K for graduate school; and even that is a very low budget. I wanted a program, where if push came to shove, I could pay out of pocket. And even at $50K, I would have a small chance of paying even that! So that pushed me towards public universities basically. Now here in PA, the state schools tend to be in the middle of nowhere. In my situation, I just cannot relocate to “the middle of nowhere”. Also there was the very serious question as to whether or not I would even be able to prove PA residency. G-d knows, out-of-state tuition at PA state schools is not necessarily affordable. So going back to location, I started to look into distance learning programs (besides, I finished my undergrad via distance learning mostly) and nearby programs. Most of the nearby programs were not accredited by the AACSB; a stamp that I was not 100% sure about in regards to selecting an MBA program.

Although I was still unsure, it was time to start getting my applications together and get set to take the GMAT. I applied to one local private school (unaccredited), one local state school (unaccredited), two FL state schools (both accredited) and one non-local private school (accredited). I took the GMAT and did not get a score in the range I was hoping for. However it was enough for two schools (may have been for more…I did not finish the application process for the rest). I was surprised. I ended up going with one of the FL state schools, Florida Gulf Coast University.

FGCU seemed like a good fit for several reasons. The main reason is that they offered the MBA via a distance learning option and had no on-campus requirements. They were a new school, so there would be little, if any, pre-established “B-School” mold to conform to. And most importantly they were cheap, about $213 per credit.

To get back to the topic of this post, my reasons to get an MBA are to refine and advance my knowledge in the study of business. There are those who may look at my work and educational background and feel that it is convoluted. Well I beg to differ. In many ways, my educational background reflects exactly who I am. I have a liking for technology (A.S. in Electronics), I respect and tend to excel in the humanities and writing (B.A. in liberal arts) and I enjoy managing and the business process (M.B.A.). My work experience has not really been able to keep pace, but more on that, and my MBA studies to come.