For those of you who have been keeping up with my blog you know that I have recently found out that my company has agreed to pay for another masters degree for me, which was great news because I’m a little overwhelmed and underprepared technologically in my new job. I’m not hired to be a technical person, I was hired to be a business person who interacts with both technical people and business people and though I understand and speak the language of business, I have recognized a lack of needed knowledge in the area of information technology and management information systems.
I decided that I needed a program which is a mile wide and an inch deep, something that will show me the various aspects of how technology can be utilized as an enterprise solution for a business need. Something that will teach me the basics of how technology fits into the corporate framework and of course how to speak “techie”.
That being said I started on a wide reaching search for an online degree that would help me fill this need and I’ve done a lot of research. The first level of screening had to do with price, I eliminated quite a few schools based on this alone, Baker, Boston University, NYU, etc. After that I began to look at various degree program descriptions and eliminated a few others. I was left with:
Bellevue University
Texas A&M Commerce
Tarleton State University
University of Maryland University College
The University of Management and Technology (DETC).
I eliminated the University of Management and Technology right out because they were the same price as Bellevue roughly and more expensive than the regionally accredited Tarleton State University. In short, good program but not the best value.
Then there was Texas A&M Commerce, the school is ambiguous on how exactly their programs work but after some very deep digging I came to find out it was really 100% based upon the desires and whims of the professor. While this is fine and Texas A&M Commerce is largely researched based (which I like) I found it to be structurally unpredictable and a little light on the technology. I would rather focus on the material covered and not have to spend half my time figuring out how my professor wants this or that particular paper formatted, etc. Plus they really gave my brother the run around when he was a student and I was very disappointed in how the school handled it and accepted constructive feedback dismissively.
Then came the University of Maryland University College. They look like they have an excellent program, tailored towards adults with a sound project management emphasis. The down side was price and also there was a management class or two thrown into the mix that I did not feel was necessary. But these guys were in my final three, so close.
Tarleton State University had the best price hands down. However they remind me in feel a lot of Western New Mexico University. The deal breaker for me was that to be considered ½ time I would have to take 2 classes at a time for 16 weeks long. Compare that to Bellevue’s and it was a no brainer.
Bellevue wins for the same reason I chose Ashford over Bellevue two years ago, I get to take 1 class at a time for a shorter period of time. Two 12 week semesters and two 10 week semesters per year, whereby I can take 1 up to 3 classes depending upon what I want to do, using a proven format with a system tailored towards working adults and of course I was very impressed with how Bellevue handled my MBA queries a couple of years ago. In fact I deal t with Sarah Kallenbach, an admission rep who has made such an impression on me that tomorrow morning I’m going to give her a call and inform her of my intentions to join their MS program in Management of Information Systems with either an emphasis in Computer Information Technology or Information Security. I’m leaning towards the latter because it will tie my criminal justice background and IT background together nicely and diversify my skill set into a specialization rather than general IT. But we’ll see.
Now there’s only 1 more hurdle, that of getting my new boss to sign off on the whole idea. Wish me luck…