This week is a little different than the other weeks I’ve had at Ashford. For some reason I have 1 discussion question where it is normally 2, I have 2 case studies where it is normally 1 and I have a final paper outline with topic to turn in of which there is normally none, save for the last class. It’s kind of interesting because I’ve only seen the whole outline thing done in this class and the last class and in neither does it count towards the grade of the course. I’m kind of now beginning to wonder if my final course in 3 weeks will hit me with some surprises that these two are prepping me for. Like if there’s just going to be one gigantic project or something and that will be the whole grade for the course, like a thesis or some such. Yeah, I was promised that this is definitely not a thesis MBA, but then I was also told that the math really isn’t that tough or that that there’s not as much math as it looks like. To lend credence to the last statement, there really wasn’t as much math as it looked like, there was more actually.
So far everything has been very familiar from one course to the next, the layout and format are comfortably familiar however there will occasionally be a little changeup here and there to watch out for. I’ve decided to hang on to my leadership books and not sell them back because they tend to be so useful. The whole “Managing Organizational Change” isn’t my cup of tea but the “Leading Change” book rocks.
I’m still not 100 percent on what to do next, but I’m leaning fairly strongly in the direction of getting a CAGS from Northcentral University to be applied towards a PhD or DBA if I go that route. Really the only other doctorate that would even mildly interest me at this point would be the one from Harrison Middleton University. Neither doctorate would do much for me professionally though the NCU one will help me to teach part time. A second masters degree would be more useful professionally but I’m just so non-committal on things, which is why I love certificates and graduate certificates. They don’t cost as much so I don’t feel like an idiot leaving them off my resume.
Victoria pointed out that project management was an interdisciplinary degree and I’ve since looked into that, to say that the Boston University Master of Science in Project Management is tempting is an understatement as is the Master of Science in Management and Systems from NYU, the Master of Project Management from Penn State and the MPA from California State U (DH). If I get another masters degree I’ve decided that this time I would bite the financial bullet and get one from a major, well known and highly regarded school. Not that I regret Ashford University, I surely do not, but the only way I can see another degree actually enhancing my resume after this MBA is for that degree to be from a household name school.
As far as the Master of Science in Management from Liberty, I’ve pretty much eliminated that as an option because it simply follows my MBA too closely to really impart much else. I guess I just have to wait to see if I will be working in government, operations management, finance or technology. Either way I’m almost done at Ashford…