Category — Business Degrees

The Best Degrees have unveiled their 2010 rankings for the top ten accredited online business degree programs. The list consists of six undergraduate programs and four graduate programs (MBA). While we don’t thinking rankings are the be all, end all of choosing a school, we do think they are important, especially when choosing an online school because there are so many sub-par programs out there. If you’re going to go the online route, it’s very important to choose a regionally accredited business degree program – not just a nationally accredited program. While “national” might sound better than “regional” it turns out that regional accreditation is much more difficult to attain and says a lot more about the quality of education that you will receive.

Here are the top 10 online accredited business degree programs according to TBD:

• Bachelor of Science in Accounting (Southern New Hampshire University)
• Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (University of Nebraska at Kearney)
• Bachelor of Business Administration – Management (UMassOnline)
• Bachelor of Science in Marketing (Grand Canyon University)
• Bachelor of Science in Business – Human Resource Management (University of Phoenix)
• Bachelor of Business Administration – Organizational Management (Tiffin University)
• MBA (The University of Scranton)
• MBA (Sacred Heart University)
• MBA (Quinnipiac University)
• MBA (Arizona State University)

This is a guest post by Dee Barizo. He operates The Best Degrees, an online degree site.

We’ve heard the dire predictions and alarming statistics for people starting their own businesses. Most operations fail within a few years and leave the entrepreneur deeply in debt. Sadly, this leaves the business major with a difficult decision in this uncertain economy. Do you play it safe by specializing in accounting or marketing, or do you study the broader field of entrepreneurship and eventually start your own company? With a business degree focused on the wide-ranging areas that form an entrepreneurship program, you may be able to beat the odds and grow your business well into the future.

Pros and Cons

First, let’s examine some pitfalls of entrepreneurship. Many people enter the world of startups with a great idea and no clue how to get it to market and turn a profit. They may be brilliant in their field but lacking in necessary business skills such as planning cash flow, developing merchandise, maintaining staff, and marketing products. Some owners may have the luxury of learning on the job, but even the best idea can collapse if there is no business foundation to support it. Those are some of the strictly business risks; your personal life may be in similar peril if you spend every waking moment dealing with your business.

[Read more →]

When you think of an art student, what comes to mind? Funky outfits and piercings? Alternative music and idealistic dreams of making  it big? These may be stereotypical tags for artistic young people, but the truth of our consumer society is that every product you buy requires a team of artists to design the logo, labels, packaging, and even the product itself.

Artists are in demand and whether they plan to work in Corporate America, or open up their own gallery or design shop, the more business education they can get the better.

The First ‘Business of Art’ Degree

The Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida has launched a new BA program that combines art studies with business schooling. Believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, the Business of Art and Design degree was created for students who want to pursue art and intend to run their own businesses or work for others.  

According to Ringling, there are more than 1.25 million people working in art and design in the United States alone. They point out that in addition to the actual creative aspect of the work, there is more and more business skill required in this sector of the global economy.

Creatives Are a Valuable Commodity

Ringling President, Dr. Larry R. Thompson, says that individuals who have great creative ideas, and also the ability to organize, plan, and successfully lead and manage others are going to be a ‘valuable commodity’.

Lead faculty Dr. Wanda V. Chavez agrees:

“The new program is the first to integrate the study of business and the study of studio art and design — marrying the right and left brain into one practice. With a solid grounding of business skills, an understanding of the creative process, the reputation of a world-class art and design institution, and the ability to work effectively with other creative individuals, successful students will be able to take advantage of design concepts and design practice as integrated parts of strategic planning, as well as leverage learned leadership skills with the confidence to think creatively themselves to realize their own visions of success.”

What Students Learn

The program is a four-year curriculum leading to a Bachelor of Arts Degree in The Business of Art and Design. Students majoring in the new program will be equipped with a solid foundation of business skills, an understanding of the creative process, and the ability to work effectively with other creative individuals.

Business courses focus on case studies in industries such as arts management, advertising, video production, and art-and-design entrepreneurship. Students also participate in traditional studio classes to learn to think creatively and to understand how artists work and apply art and design in today’s market. 

Now all we need to do is get the MBA students into the art studio and we’ll have a fully integrated workforce!

When you are ready to commit a significant portion of your time and money to getting an MBA, you want to make sure you’re getting an education that’s going to transform your talent and ambition into a solid set of skills that deem you irresistible to the best employers. Business schools are competing to make their MBAs the most relevant to your success.

This month the MBA Roundtable released the results of its 2009 MBA Curricular Innovation Study indicating that 69% of MBA programs have significantly revised the curriculum in the past four years to improve the relevancy of the degree in response to criticism that they are not preparing graduates for today’s business challenges.

What Is Relevance?

Among the 69% of MBA programs making significant revisions to their curriculum, the most common change was the addition of ‘applied content’, or project-based courses. In addition to giving students more opportunities to take their learning out of the comfortable lecture hall and into the demanding real-world business simulations, respondents also reported that integration across topics and disciplines, as well as interdisciplinary content were popular changes.

MBA Programs That Get Into Details

MBA programs have traditionally focused on equipping students with big picture concepts, eschewing fine details of specific industries for personal leadership and decision making skills. Apparently that’s changing. The MBA Roundtable data reveals that 25% of MBA degree programs have added an industry specialization in the past three years. Common emphasis areas are healthcare, biotech, medicine, and entrepreneurship. Another change: about half the programs reported that they had added a focus on leadership development (as in, developing others) and global perspectives to their offerings.

Change is Good

And the changes just keep coming. 89% of all MBA programs surveyed are planning additional curricular changes.

“I think this is very promising news,” said Rodney Alsup, president of the MBA Roundtable. “It shows that there has been a concentrated effort among MBA programs to innovate and make changes that increase their relevance to both students and employers. Furthermore, this has been done in an educational environment that can be resistant to change, or, at the very least, has approval processes that make it difficult to make changes in a timely manner. Some schools need approval from their state boards of education prior to revising their curricula, for example.”

The motivation for these changes comes from both internal and external sources, according to the study. The most common motivator by far was internal quality improvement initiatives, with 64% of participants selecting it as one of their motivators. Among external motivators, “competitor schools” was the most commonly chosen answer, with 34% of respondents choosing it as one of their motivators.

If  you want to know more, check out all the results at www.mbaroundtable.org/events_preview.html.

Looking for a great international business program at a public school? The Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina has been recognized as the top international MBA program at any public university in the United States. This is the result of the U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Graduate Schools 2010.

A History of Excellence

Moore has been ranked among the top two in the category for the past twenty years. This year, in terms of international business, they beat out all these heavy hitters:

• University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
• University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (Ross)
• Columbia University
• Duke University (Fuqua)
• New York University (Stern)
• Harvard Business School
• University of Southern California (Marshall)
• University of California-Berkeley (Haas)

In addition to the top marks for their international business program, the Moore School also moved into the Top 25 among the top business schools at the nation’s public universities.

New International Programs at Moore

The latest ranking comes on the heels of the Moore’s announcement of two new international business programs for the fall.

The Master of International Business (MIB)
This a unique one-year graduate program will be offered jointly with the political science department and the School of Law to provide students with an advanced understanding of the interaction between business, government and society. Courses are approached from an interdisciplinary view so that students gain practice in applying socio-cultural, political and economic perspectives to a rich variety of international management issues including overseas trade and investment and the operation and role of multinational firms in the global economy.

International Business and Chinese Enterprise (IBCE)
This collaborative program partners with the Chinese University of Hong Kong for undergraduates and includes two years of study in Hong Kong, along with intensive language and cultural training.

“These new offerings are continuing evidence of the Moore School’s innovative leadership in international business education,” said Moore School Dean Hildy Teegen. “We are pleased that this leadership is further recognized by U.S. News and we look forward to building on this position with the development of new international programs in the future.”About The Moore School of Business

The Moore School of Business is a comprehensive business school with more than 4,200 students in its undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs, and 38,000 living alumni around the world. The Executive Education program last year provided approximately 90 programs for 2,500 executives and government leaders. The Moore School’s undergraduate program in International Business is ranked #1 by U.S. News & World Report and, in the category of “international experience,” the School’s MBA program is ranked second among all business schools globally and first in the U.S. by the Financial Times.