Greetings one and all.  I just past the half-way point in my final term at Kaplan.  Things are gearing up for the big finish.  A lot of things have been going on behind the scenes at work that have me scrambling around dealing with change.  I am working about 10 hours a day, trying to keep up with school (I have an “A” in all three of my classes so far), and trying to keep up with the blogging at the same time.

One thing that I have also been doing at a furious pace in my copious spare time is to try and narrow down the schools I want to apply to for my MBA.  I had them narrowed down to Texas A&M-Commerce, University of Houston-Victoria, and University of Dallas.  But opportunity has a strange way of presenting itself.

I am sure that since I’ve provided my e-mail address to tons of schools requesting information that my name and info have been shared with other institutions.  A couple of weeks ago, I got what I would normally classify as “spam” from a school that I had never heard of.  That school is Norwich University.  

So I clicked on the link and I think I have changed my mind about the school I would most like to attend.  

Established in 1819, Norwich University is a small, quality university with a balance of strong professional and liberal arts programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Approximately 1900 Cadets, traditional students and commuters attend Norwich University. Norwich is known for its dedicated teaching faculty. The campus is located in Northfield, Vermont in the heart of the Green Mountains, truly one of the most beautiful locations in the world for a college campus. The combination of quality professional education, broad studies in the liberal arts, dedicated faculty, and the leadership laboratory supplied by the Corps of Cadets has generated a legacy not found in many corners of the educational map. Norwich is a very proud place and maintains deep bonds with its alumni. Norwich University is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc., through its Commission on Institutions of Higher Education.

Norwich is one of the three military academies in the country (The Citadel and West Point being the other two).  After looking at the class structure for the MBA program, I am liking it more every day.  No GMAT requirement, it’s accredited by ACBSP, and can be completed in 18 months.

The cost is about 30k, but when I consider that this program has everything I want (cohort, one-week on-campus requirement, books included, etc…), I am really leaning toward applying here.  There isn’t a ton of math (which I dispise), and a lot of it is leadership-based.  I tend to thrive on that kind of material.  So once my final grades come in, I have every intention of applying here.

I have spent hundreds of hours researching my MBA.  I want to get it right.  I want to find the program that is right for me, and provides me with guidance in the direction I want to go in.  I don’t want or need the prestige or tuition of a Harvard or Princeton.  I want to better myself and improve on the career I’ve built.  But this “spam” just goes to show you that no matter how long you spend researching something, you still may not have all the information.

I had never heard of this school.  After checking out LinkedIn, I saw that there are lots of alumni members hanging around.  I looked at the school’s entry on Wikipedia and learned even more things that the school site didn’t tell me.  This is why it’s so important to share information.  That’s why eLearners is so great.  Perhaps Norwich (or any other school) that we discuss here isn’t for you, but one thing is certain.  You will be better armed with some of the best information.


More as it happens.