I would like to thank you for maintaining your blog on elearners.com. I have found it to be an extremely valuable resource in my search for the right online MBA program.
Before stumbling upon your blog, I had zeroed in on Norwich, and your positive experience played a significant role in convincing me to follow through on applying. Fast forward to today, and I am in my first week of the MBA Prerequisite program. While I like what I have seen so far, I decided to take a second look at the value of accreditation, and I have question for you:
I found your posting on "AACSB vs. ACBSP", and clearly you concluded that AACSB is significantly more valuable in the job market. Having reached this conclusion, what about the Norwich Online MBA program overcame the fact that it has regional and ACBSP accreditation, but not AACSB?
Any insight you can provide on this particular point would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the comments. When I was doing all of my research, I found that AACSB was the gold standard. If you look at a list of schools that are AACSB accredited and compare it to the list of schools that are ACBSP accredited, the major thing that jumps out is the name and size of the school. Harvard vs. Norwich, for example. The larger, more widely known schools are AACSB accredited.
I narrowed my school choice down to 3 or 4, and they were all ACBSP. They were all also much respected. I found Norwich in the last week of my search, and I am glad I did. The bottom line is that if you know a school is respected and also has accreditation from one of those entities, then you'll be OK. If AACSB is something that you MUST have, then maybe Norwich isn't for you. But that means that Texas A&M Commerce, University of Houston at Victoria and a few other good school aren't either.
You have to find the school that is right for YOU. Accreditation is a factor that cannot be overlooked, but if you don’t end up at Harvard or Yale, and the program you pick is a good one, don’t worry about it. You need to make sure you will learn something and get out of it what you put into it.
I am very satisfied with my ABCSP-accredited program at Norwich. I am being challenged every day and enjoying every minute of it.