Cheap MBA Distance Learning Programs for Every Student

Not every student is cut out for business school.  In fact, the vast majority of the student population is not prepared to continue their education in a similar manner, nor devote their time to such intensive studying.  However, there are many different types of MBA programs, many different schools, and many different distance learning programs as well.  Cheap distance learning programs are few and far between, but the ones that are available are some of the most appealing MBA programs around the country. 

While most cheaper MBA programs are those that either lack accreditation or are accredited by “false” institutions which tends to drive down the cost.  However, there are programs that are as low as $6700 a year, saving many students thousands of dollars for a degree which can earn them millions in the future.  Cheap online programs are more than just simply saving money, but they are a wise investment into your future in business.  What better way to start an education in business than to make wise business decisions (in education)?  While the economy is somewhat discomforting at the moment, business school still presents a wide array of future ventures in nearly every  industry, offering students successful career options.

Cheap MBA distance learning programs are more than just economically fortuitous, but are in fact a demonstration that students have learned how to conserve their resources.  Furthermore, rather than spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for a similar education at an Ivy League institution, online degree programs offer similar classes and allow students to earn the same degree, while still holding on to their houses and jobs.  Additionally, this has opened many doors for online students that had previously remained closed.  Business programs are now available for nearly any type of future, whether it be in a nonprofit organization, an independent business, or even the newfound “green” business ventures.  Regardless of the future, cheap MBA distance programs will always have a niche within both the education and online communities, making MBA degrees one of the most permanent fixtures within online education.  

Facts about Cheap MBAs

MBAs are typically known as being one of the more costly degree programs which students can earn after undergrad, which is why it is so essential for many students to find programs that are cost-efficient but still teach the same lessons.  Online MBA programs can range from $7,000 for the program up to $109,000.  This wide disparity largely depends on accreditation status; lower costing schools typically lack accreditation or disguise themselves as having accreditation from a false institution.  The costlier schools are typically online classes from traditional high-end MBA programs that altered their programs to become accessible online.  Other factors come into play in making some MBA programs less costly than others, including geographic location and funding. 

Many cheap MBA programs are either unaccredited or accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council, which keeps the cost low for many online schools.  The average school that is accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council only costs $12,700 for the full degree program.  Additionally, nine schools accredited by the Council offer MBA degrees under $10,000.  While DETC accredited schools are not as widely recognized by employers due to other regionally accredited degree programs, employers still consider these degrees to be useful, although they may look for candidates from other accredited schools.  In this case, it may be wise to look at the next option, such as Chandron State College, which is a regionally accredited school and costs a whopping $7,060 for the entirety of the degree.  This is less than most DETC programs!

Other cheap online MBA programs depend on your location within the country.  East Carolina University offers the cheapest option for accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business’, costing less than $8,000 for North Carolina residents.  However, this is exclusive to North Carolinians; out-of-staters have to pay up to $26,000 for the same degree.  Many other public universities in the south offer online MBAs for less than $12,000, although this is typically the in-state tuition price.  However, it is only a matter of searching around your region to discover the best steals for MBA programs. 

Additionally, a new type of “hybrid” degree now offers students the option of partially taking classes online and still coming into the classroom on occasion.  This is another cost-effective way of earning an MBA because schools generally lower the price when students choose this option because it is a relatively new form of MBA degree programs.  However, the burden is on you as a student to get out there and research extensively into the many schools that are in your area to ascertain which school has the best option.  Cheap MBA programs are not readily advertised (if they are highly accredited), and it is therefore up to you to find cost-efficient programs. 

Unusual Online Certificate Programs

Online certificates are becoming extremely applicable in our ever-evolving technological world with the many options they present to students.  Online certificates are now available in a nearly endless amount of fields, including that of paralegal, teaching, IT specialists, and many more.  In addition to these certificates which represent fields in which certifications were always applicable, the online community has expanded to pave the way for many certification programs which are seemingly “unorthodox”.

Almost each semester, it seems like more online schools add new classes to their online certificate curriculums.  Growing from modest beginnings of paralegals and business certificates, online certificates have now expanded to include certification in fashion and even health administration!  Only a few years ago it was unheard of to enter into a career in the health industry without years of education, but online certificates from accredited universities now allow students to take only one or two years to become certified within this community.  Besides saving time and money, this is a great help in an economy that has experienced a definite shortage within the health field.  Additionally, health administrative certificates now offer students the opportunity to get ahead in a field they are already a part of.  For example, many nurses and doctors wish to become involved in the administrative aspects of their work, and can do so after attaining this type of certification. 

One of the more popular online certificate programs is that in the fashion field.  These certificates offer students the opportunity to study the more minute details of the fashion world.  Most women assume they know the “odds and ends” of fashion, without realizing there is a vast fashion world out there which has existed for some time.  Understanding the history and mechanics of the industry helps to prepare students for potential managerial positions as well as industry positions with many high-end designers.  This has become a new addition within many arts sections of online colleges and appears to be growing every year.  The fashion/retail world contains so many different nuances that it is a wonder a similar certificate program was not previously offered. 

Many new online certificate programs exist solely in order to boost your current career.  Whether you are a business executive or even a teacher, online certificates can help you climb up within the ranks of your company.  Online certificates in educational technology give teachers new technological skills that are necessary in order to compete with other similarly educated teachers.  This program specifically caters to students who are currently teachers, yet do not have the technological “smarts” that are necessary in the education field.  Previously, we considered teachers to be holding everything but an online certificate, but thanks to these programs, many teachers are now equipped with knowledge that was not taught to them throughout their undergraduate courses.  While this may seem like unnecessary schooling, in a field that has thousands of applicants vying for a similar position, this online certificate can make a world of difference.

Online certificates are growing in prominence every year and represent the growing importance of technology in nearly every business field.  It seems that now, almost every career could benefit from the addition of some type of certification training within a specified field, regardless of the field. 

Five of the Cheapest Online MBA Programs

With all the news about “diploma mills” and the like, students are becoming more cautious of where they receive their online education, investigating deeper into accreditation standards.  More and more news articles are coming out with the intention of discrediting the entire online education endeavor, although most of the popular online universities are vastly different from the schools named in these articles.  Finding schools that offer cheap programs is additionally difficult to do, since as a student you run the risk of being sucked into a “diploma mill” that is only feigning accreditation.  However, the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) offers students the assurance that their school’s online programs are nationally accredited.  The following are five online MBA programs which are accredited and offer low rates for their programs.

Mississippi State
The Distance Learning Program at Mississippi State offers students the opportunity to gain an MBA from an accredited public university without forcing them to move to Starkville, Mississippi.  This university prides itself on being one of the “best college buys” in the nation and offers online MBA classes for $485.25 per credit hour.  Requiring 30 credit hours, this degree ends up costing students only $14,557, a low price for an education that can get you far in the business world.  Additionally, the College of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

Aspen University
While this university used to pride itself on its prepaid $4,500 price tag for an MBA, it has since gone up to $225 a semester hour (paying the whole cost up front is no longer accepted).  However, compared to many other universities, this is still a steal for an accredited MBA degree.  Thirty hours of study only runs the student $6,750 which is a small price to pay for a career which can earn you nearly $100,000 a year to start off!  Aspen is also accredited by the DETC which helps explain its low rates of tuition.

Southwest University
This school is also accredited by the DETC and offers students the rate of $250 per semester hour, requiring only 27 hours to attain the degree (9 courses).  Therefore, this rate of tuition also equals Aspen’s rate of $6,750 which helps to provide students with options of what program to enroll in. 

Andrew Jackson
Having been forced to raise its price in recent years, Andrew Jackson University offers students the rate of $300 a semester for a 36 hour MBA.  This comes out to $10,800 for the entire degree, although this school in particular stresses the importance of writing within the program.  While it is more costly than the previous schools, it leaves students with a better understanding of business.

Amberton University
As another traditional and distance learning school, Amberton offers competitive rates to students at $675 per 3-credit hour, and requires 30 hours for the MBA degree.  Offering the same rates as Aspen and Southwest, it appears that this is the cheapest rate students can get for a distance learning MBA program, running $6750 upon completion.  Amberton is additionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a licensed degree-granting institution. 

Even More Accredited Online Universities in India

India has pioneered ahead with the technology revolution and has thus made a name for itself within the online community.  With the economy slowly improving in the nation, it is no wonder that the majority of the population is now qualified for a myriad of careers which require extensive education.  In a “third-world” nation, this is very impressive and a telling sign of the globalization that is occurring around the world.  Most of this recent growth in education is largely due to the influx of online universities that have become readily available to young Indians. 

As online universities have grown within the United States, they have grown exponentially on the other side of the world, as our connections with India have increased as well.  Online accredited universities are difficult to come by due to the mass quantities of unaccredited universities that portray themselves as accredited, but many of the larger universities have their accreditation through the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC).  As this council has expanded over the past few years, online universities have reciprocally expanded as well, opening doors all around the world to students who never before had the opportunity to take such courses. 

Major universities such as the University of Phoenix and Kaplan University are now readily available to young Indian students and allow them to gain a prominent position within many large corporations.  This country is vastly different than the United States; while the economy is slowly forming a middle class, most of the country waivers between the two extremes of poverty and wealth.  This type of online education allows the country to have more of a middle class due to the increasing amount of degrees which these accredited online universities provide.  It appears that India will soon lose its title of “third-world” as a result of its connections with larger countries and the industrial ties it has formed with many large corporations around the world.

Online universities in India are one of the only choices many students have to succeed in life and have thus presented students with more options than they ever knew they had. The capacity of online universities to transcend such intercultural barriers is astounding and is a telling sign of the realities of globalization.  The fact that accredited online universities can reach across such boundaries is a result of our ever-expanding culture and only the first step toward changing much of the struggling countries around the world.   

Genetic Research and the Possibility of Discrimination

By Courtney Phillips

For a number of years, scientists the world over have been working on the Human Genome Project, a massive concerted effort to identify every single gene in the human genetic code.  While this is an effort that is laudable for a wide variety of reasons, there are detractors out there who believe that this project will ultimately end up resulting in major cases of discrimination in the future.

Genetic research has come a long way, and those with sufficient capitol are already able to make decisions based on their children’s lives before they ever take their first breath.  Many people believe that this is the best way to the healthiest possible population in the future and that it is only a matter of time before we are able to completely eradicate illnesses that are attributed to genetic factors.

For detractors, this is the beginning of widespread discrimination.  With the ability to prevent genetic diseases and eliminate people with these diseases from existing in the first place, detractors believe that those still living and afflicted with genetic disorders will ultimately be viewed as second-class citizens.

Civil liberties groups also cite that privacy will be forever breached as we continue to gather data on individuals, even before they are born, without consent.  They believe that biological and genetic data are not public property and should not be treated as such.

Certainly, a great number of discoveries have been made because of the Human Genome Project.  Genetic studies in a wide variety of ailments from Diabetes to Crohn’s disease are still being studied and deliberated upon.  There are many out there who believe that this is a noble cause, but that actually engineering people with this knowledge is not ethical.

Naturally, there are two sides to this issue of ethics: one that believes it is morally wrong to alter human genetic code and that dire complications may arise from attempting to create a race free of genetic complication; the other believes that it would be unethical to not help resolve problems before they arise.

As the Human Genome Project continues to make significant headway in the field of genetics, there is no doubt that these types of debates will continue.  For now, scientists will keep trying to learn as much as they can while mapping human genetic code.

5 Ways to Promote Sustainable Reading

By Courtney Phillips

Reading is a gift that many people take for granted and the availability of books for the masses is something that wasn’t always the norm.  Over the course of many years, the book industry has made a significant dent in forests the world over.  Although it may be considered a noble cause, there are a few things you can do to help repair the damage or make sure that you aren’t adding to the problem.

Donate to Ecolibris

Over the course of your life, you have no doubt read hundreds of books and periodicals.  Ecolibris can help you by taking your donations to help repopulate forests so that we have renewable resources with which to print more books in the future.  We cannot keep taking without giving back.  Each dollar that you donate helps plant one tree—and you can track the progress of the saplings planted by fellow donors on the blog.

Buy Used Books

Whether it’s at your local used bookstore or online at Amazon or Half.com, there are millions of books out there just waiting to find a good home.  Often, people simply read the books once (or not at all) and sell them for a fraction of the price or donate them.  Places like Goodwill and the Salvation Army have books as well, and the proceeds go toward helping people in your community.

Trade

With meet-ups becoming the newest segue between the web 2.0 and the real world, there are many groups forming regarding books.  From discussion groups to trading circles, people are getting together because of books.  Check in your community for meet-up spots and other boo-related groups.  You don’t always have to trade for good, but be willing to share and you may find something new that suits your interests as well.

Libraries

Remember those places filled with nooks that are increasingly empty because of the web?  Libraries tend to carry the latest books and are usual full of classics and hidden treasures.  In larger cities, branch libraries abound and there are many adventures to be had among the stacks.  Some libraries sell old or donated books as well.  Go get your card renewed and start checking out what’s available.

EBooks

Everything else is available on the internet, and books are no exception.  Downloading eBooks is easy, less expensive than a first-edition hardback, and doesn’t use any paper whatsoever.  Amazon.com even has an eBook reader called a Kindle that is low-glare and supposedly just as easy as reading a book.  While eBooks may not have the same aesthetic qualities, they certainly do contribute to sustainability. 

An Education in Education Reforms that Matter

By Holly McCarthy

There are few things in life that matter as much as a good education does. And that is why parents place so much emphasis on going to school initially and to college thereafter. For those of you who argue that life is the best teacher and that experience is the best lesson one could learn, I won’t disagree with your way of thinking. But there are things that a formal education can teach, not the least of which is good communication skills and the ability to get along with your peers, superiors and juniors alike. 

The grouse that most people have against formal education and the reforms that are supposedly taking place in it is that the reforms don’t seem to be having their intended effect. We want to build a nation of talented youngsters who are not just academically brilliant, but also critical thinkers, independent achievers, and most important of all, morally upright and upstanding citizens. 

Unfortunately, our educational system is not convivial to encouraging us to push our brains beyond a certain limit, to explore new options even though they are difficult or to keep trying until we succeed. Instead, there’s an unbearable pressure to score high grades at any cost, so much so that many students resort to unethical means to achieve their ends. And so we hear of students cheating in tests and assignments, students using their wiles and guiles on susceptible teachers, and even students outsourcing their homework and assignments to other countries where professional writers or brilliant students from Eastern countries make a few bucks out of the process.

Is the focus on high grades making cheats out of us all? If so, what kind of reforms can be effected to ensure that education pertains to all-round development rather than just a question of high grades? How can we move from an assessment based on grades to one that’s based on the qualities that do matter? And the most important and difficult question of all – how do we quantify the qualities that really matter? 

Practical tests are a solution, but then, the assessments are based on the perceptions of the examiners. And this means we need teachers and examiners who are exceptionally good at what they do. With education not being as lucrative as many other fields, it’s hard to find dedicated teachers who value their calling more than the money it pays. 

At the end of the day, it’s the students who are really interested in improving themselves who gain all-round skills and are able to analyze critical problems and take decisive action. The rest just do as they’re told because they want the grades or, in the case of the majority, they just want to get through high school! 

Recession-Proof Your Future When You’re in College

By Holly McCarthy

A college student’s life is a mixed bag – it’s filled with studies, fun, friends and a whole lot of other things depending on your personality and circumstances. Some of us have to contend with homesickness if it’s our first time away from home, others have to deal with financial woes as they try to handle a part-time job and student loans, and yet others have to make sacrifices to pursue the education they’ve dreamed of since childhood. The recession has added a new ingredient to the potpourri that’s in the bag – an uncertain future. If you’re a college student who’s wise enough to understand the downturn the economy’s taken, here’s how you can plan for your future in spite of the current market situation:

    * If you’re worried about not being able to find a job: because of the thousands who are being laid off, focus on your studies with more concentration than ever before. Your grades are going to matter more than ever now, and if you slack off, you have only yourself to blame. No matter how many people get fired, companies are always willing and looking to hire talented youngsters. Make sure you’re one of them.
    * If you’re worried about rising expenses: cut back on frivolous expenses for a while. Start saving every penny that you can and work part time if you have to. Earn money as a freelancer in your spare time. Remember, every dollar you make counts. It may be a little difficult when you’re not able to party or enjoy nights out like the others but it’s worth it if you don’t have to borrow to make your way through college. Debts are burdens that linger long after you’ve earned your degree, and you don’t want to start out in the red with a personal loan.
    * If you’re worried about repaying your student loan: consider services like loan forgiveness programs that allow you to skip repayment in exchange for your services in low-income and backward areas. Check this site to see if you qualify. If you don’t qualify or if you have no inclination to take up such jobs, look for employment, any kind, immediately after college. You don’t have to wait for the job of your dreams, all you need is one that puts money in your bank account and lets you repay your loans as soon as possible.
    * If you’re not satisfied with working for peanuts: continue looking for your preferred kind of job even as you stick at one that pays. You need to put food on your table and gas in your car besides being able to pay off any loans or debts that you have. Defaulting is not an option as it ruins your credit score for good.
    * If you’re running low on money: consider moving back with your parents for a while, if they’ll have you that is. Most parents are willing to do anything to support their children till they find their footing in the real world. Living with mom and dad may not be the coolest option, but it beats paying rent and shelling out money for groceries when you’re broke.

It’s going to be a tough road to walk, but if you plan ahead and stick to your plan, beating the recession and setting the stage for a secure future is not an impossible task. 
 
 

Over 100 Free Online Classes

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 6017362
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