Vanessa is a 24-year-old stay-at-home mom, wife, military spouse, and veteran. She started her online education while she was still in the Navy. After receiving an honorable discharge, getting married, and having two beautiful girls in two years, she is still going strong with her education at Ashford University. She is currently doubling up on classes with hopes to attend graduation December 2009 with a Bachelor's in Business Administration.
BUS 644 Operations Management
Operations
Management was a pretty straightforward case study and research based
course. There were no real surprises
here other than my final project grade was a tad lower than I felt it should
have been, but then that’s life isn’t it?
The material was pretty easy to understand and the course was formatted in
such a way as to be able to easily reference the material. I personally believe that there is a lot of
applicable stuff taught in this course and while a lot of it may seem like
common sense at first it’s really a class on big picture thinking. For example, for years manufacturers believed
that a certain margin of error in manufacturing was acceptable and that to
address quality issues would be too expensive.
The paradigm has shifted however and we are now to be told that handling
quality issues up front is less expensive in the long run. That kind of stuff…
Ashford gets an
A+ for the course being easy to follow and in my opinion highly practical in
the real world.
Difficulty was about a 5 out of 10.
BUS 650 Managerial Finance
Managerial
finance…hang on a second here, I’m trying to think of a tactful way of saying
that I hated this course. Hmmm…..nothing. I guess I’ll have to just deal with the
writer’s block. The reality is that this
course was challenging from the word go.
In fact “difficult” doesn’t seem to do justice to the 6 weeks of
sleepless nights and anxious days I had to suffer through to get an “A” in this
course. It was a sheer testament of will
power that I was even able to do that.
The material was necessary but difficult. The assignments were detailed, in depth and
quite honestly frightening to look upon after the fact. I’ve gone back and read some of my homework
assignments and been thinking ‘what the heck was I talking about’? Oh sure I still understand the principles of
the course but if I had to do it all over again? Well, let’s not think about that shall we?
Ashford gets an
A+ for the course as they really taught me about Managerial Finance. You wouldn’t believe the amount of crap you
can learn in 6 weeks. Amazing.
Difficulty was
about a 9 ½ out of 10 with 10 being akin to actually understanding one of Alan
Greenspan’s quarterly addresses to Congress on the state of the economy. (hint, nobody understood that guy but then
nobody wanted to look stupid by asking “I’m sorry, but what the heck are you
talking about”). Classes like this make
me wonder how the heck George Bush actually got his MBA? I’m just saying….
BUS 670 Legal Environment
Ah yes, the
Legal Environment. This class was a bit
of a shocker and was probably the first class that I encountered that let me
know that this was a full blown, no holds barred graduate MBA program. The professor was a Judge Advocate General,
military lawyer who was retired and really had lots and lots of time to
scrutinize your work on what I considered to be a nuclear level (as in to the
smallest finite end) and our grades reflected such. The program started off in criminal law,
which is right up my lane but then started getting into ethics, case studies,
business obligations and liabilities.
You think you know ethics?
Hah!!! Wait until you have to
view ethics from the eyes of a lawyer…(I have so many jokes right now I can’t
even tell you but I’ll refrain). We did
do a ton of case studies and argued our positions based upon performing legal
research. I learned a ton about business
law and what’s more important I decided that I do not want to earn a law
degree, which is saying a lot since at one point I sincerely considered getting
a JD at a local brick and mortar school.
Ashford University gets an A+ here but
beware, when they say you will learn about law then that’s kind of
misleading. What you will learn is how
much you don’t know about law. Great
huh?
Difficulty was
an 8 out of 10 for this course. It’s not
nearly as easy as it sounds and honestly this was the first course where I saw
students weeded out.
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About Cajun
Cajun is 31-years-old and currently employed as a Project Analyst for an Information Technology department at a major financial firm. He has recently changed careers after spending 7 years in Federal Law enforcement of which he spent 5 years as a supervisor. His management experience combined with the MBA he finished in October, 2008 allowed for a career change even in the face of these uncertain economic times.
Cajun was introduced to the concept of distance education while working full-time as a law enforcement officer with a demanding and unpredictable schedule, obtaining an Associate of Science degree in Criminal Justice from
Ashworth College, a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Southwestern College of Winfield, KS graduating Magna Cum Laude and a Master of Business Administration with an emphasis in Organizational Leadership from
Ashford University. To further his new career Cajun will be working towards a Master of Science in Management of Information Systems with an emphasis in Project Management from
Bellevue University.