In the spirit of Skycrasher's leaving, I thought I would start a self-celebratory thread.

I have 10 classes left. That is - class sessions, 5 weeks. Barring a flunk-a-zoid in "Leadership" or "Global Strategic Thinking", I'm done.

Not sure I have gotten a lot of benefit out of it, and I have a lot less respect for the degree having gone through the program. Maybe the on-campus programs are a lot harder, but I doubt it. I guess at $35,000 for 2 years, they don't want to flunk anyone.

I've managed to sock on about 20 pounds over the last 2 years being a lazy bastard. I feel like I'm playing EQ again. Can't wait to get some free time.

Anyhoo - let the countdown begin:

10

Congrats Orme! That's really fantastic. Beyond what the paper will get you, blah blah blah, do you feel you personally got anything out of the program at all? It sounds like you don't feel that you have, which is a shame.

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Congrats mate! I'm finishing up my master's in May, and damn excited about it. I know what you mean about school taking a toll on your body, too... over the course of the program I've probably lost ten pounds of muscle mass, and gone from marathon/triathlon shape to huffing and puffing my way up the stairs to my lab. It'll be nice to have some free time to get back in shape. You have any training goals after graduation?

Are you in the MBA program full time, or taking night classes? I'm in an MBA class this semester, and man - there's no way I could finish two years of that shit. Too squishy and people-skillsey for me. Kudos for sticking it out.

I guess here's the thing - Xavier is supposedly a "top program". I get it, it's not Harvard. But, I entered it with the assumption that it would be somewhat competitive and demanding.

For entry, they do a basic score where you need 1100 (or 1150) to get in. They calc it as your undergrad GPA * 2 + your GMAT score. I only had a 3.0 undergrad, which meant I needed a 500. For whatever reason, I was nervous. I took a practice from Kaplan and only got 520ish, so I was borderline. I studied hard. Ended up getting a 670, which surprised even me.

So, when class starts, people are talking about their scores and we had people who didn't get the 1100, including some people who scored like mid-400s. They were on conditional acceptance. Basically they had to get Bs in all the math classes. It really irked me, but oh well - I assumed they'd flunk out.

Anyway, nobody flunked. In the first couple months we had 3-4 people drop because of the time commitment. But, we had Marketing, 2 Econs, stats, 2 finances, and some accounting. Everyone is probably graduating with a 3.5 or higher. I tried talking with the people running the program and they basically said "put your concerns in the class evals".

Anyhoo - I have gotten some things out of it. In reality, one of the classes helped me get my Project management cert. And, there have been some things I've learned - I just wished it would have been more.

Here's the way I see it - each person in this class is paying almost $35k - no scholarships I know of. There are 23-25 people in the class. That's $800k+ revenue. Why flunk anyone?

I want to get another marathon done in October, and then I'm going to start getting serious about an Iron Man. I have $3000 in bets against me that I can't do the full monty within 5 years (starting in 2008). I'm shooting for fall 2010.
I do night classes, 5:30 to 9ish twice a week. We got 2 Christmas breaks and 1 break last summer for 6 weeks. The time commitment is the killer.

Xavier is pricey. I looked into it a bit when I was thinking about going back to school.

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It's ridiculous pricey. $695 per credit hour is ridiculous and I think they raised rates. I have a friend going to Indiana Weslyn (sp?) and I think it is only $16k - literally half (which still hits me as too expensive). It doesn't have the AACSB acceditation which is supposedly really important. /shrug

By they way: 9

Good luck getting a job.

So what's the countdown?

Also, if you don't mind my asking - what industry do you work in, and how will the MBA improve your prospects?

6

In all honesty, the MBA almost hurts my prospects (at least in the short term). In my current role I am a hybrid project manager / architect / developer. I will work with users, get requirements, design the system, and then direct the team to make it happen.

I'm really looking for a more formal management role. I would rather have more control over what projects I do and manage more teams. So, instead of being involved in the day-to-day detail, I would like to send a team off to handle that. I have had a couple opportunities come up, but I'm currently in debt to my employer for over $25k. They will "pay it down" over the next couple years.

So, if I switch jobs I need to get some sort of help paying that down, a substantial raise, or just eat it myself. It's not the end of the world, but it's a pain.

Over the long run, I hope it helps position me to take on an upper level management job. Just depends - see what the future holds

4 classes left.

I just took something called "ETS" or something. What a joke.
It didn't count toward any grades and isn't really applicable to anything in the future.

Xavier was recently ranked one of the top off campus programs or something like that. GOd, I can't imagine how terribly the poorly ranked programs are.

Well it's over (finally) and some strange events have sorta crashed together at once.

For about a year and a half I've been a bit bored in my current position and although a couple things came up, school made it more complicated. I never hated my job, but I was to the point where I didn't want to learn a new system and run the same old project.

So, for almost a year and a half, I have been job hunting and keeping an eye on internal job postings. It gets exhausting, I can only imagine how annoying the process is if you're unemployed.

Little over a month ago, I put forward a push to get a transfer to another area of my company - just for something different. My boss started going through the process. About a week later, I got a call from a recruiter to apply for a position at a competitor that would be a significant step up.

Long story short - both processes churned for 3-4 weeks. But then, literally on the same day, I was told neither one was happening. The competitor dropped me after 2 interviews and my boss said despite interest in the other department, they couldn't get head count.

That was a crappy day, heh.

BUT... there was actually a different job posting that had came up that I didn't pursue because I already had too many irons in the fire. So, I submitted for that and just this week, I found out I got it - which is huge. Instead of an internal, lateral move or going to a competitor (which would have ultimately been a pay wash and a drive downtown), I get to take a step up in my current company.

Anyhoo... no point other than a little self-congratulations and to make the point that things work out. When everything fell flat a couple weeks ago, I was incredibly bummed. But, had either of those worked out, this opportunity wouldn't have been possible. Over the last 18 months, I have probably applied for over 100 jobs.

All it takes is 1 person to give you a chance

Congratulations Orme.

Congrats on the degree and the promotion!

I can attest to the difficulty of the job market... although I got lucky and swung a research position at a national lab (thx stimulus package), several of my classmates have applied to 50+ jobs, with plenty of second-round interviews but no final offers. And these are master's students from a top engineering department... I can only imagine how tough it must be for the philosophy majors.

Anyway, glad it worked out for you.

Hey that's really great Orme. It's incredibly frustrating to swing and miss, swing and miss, but you just have to keep swinging, as you well know. I'm glad you're able to stay within your own company as well, as the tenure there will no doubt serve you well.

Woot!

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