In the article The Merits of Online For-Profit Colleges and Universities, three main points are made in favor of “for-profit” online schools.

1. For-profit schools do a better job securing financial aid for students than community colleges or public four-year universities.
2. For-profit schools continue to be pioneers in online education and innovation.
3. For-profit schools disrupt the status quo.

So while for-profit schools continue to get a bad rap, here are some areas where they may be beneficial to society. We’re especially interested in point number 2 because what it suggests is that while traditional schools were slow to adopt the new reality of online learning, the economically motivated for-profit schools were driven to set themselves apart by building better software applications and technology to facilitate online learning.

School is more than a business. But this is proof that sometimes business (competition) results in a net-positive for society.

An MBA is one of the most popular ways to pursue career advancement. And more and more people are earning their MBA degree online. There are more online MBA programs out there than we can count, but some are better than others, and it’s helpful to know which are the best programs when applying. Since location isn’t an issue with your online education, you can get a top quality MBA education from a top ranked program without having to relocate.

The website The Best Colleges recently unveiled their rankings for the 25 Best Online MBA Programs. We think they did an excellent job with their rankings and think the prospective MBA student will find it very useful.

Here are the top 10 programs according to their list:

#1. The University of Florida, Hough Graduate School of Business (Gainesville, FL)
#2. EI Business School (Madrid, Spain)
#3. The University of Indiana, Kelley School of Business (Bloomington, IN)
#4. Thunderbird School of Global Management (Glendale, AZ)
#5. The University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler School of Business (Chapel Hill, NC)
#6. The University of Maastricht, School of Business and Economics (Maastricht, Netherlands)
#7. Babson College, F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business (Babson Park, MA)
#8. Duke University, Fuqua School of Business (Durham, NC)
#9. Penn State World Campus (College Township, PA)
#10. Drexel University, Lebow College of Business (Philadelphia, PA)

Click here to see the rest of the list

All of these programs are top-tier and high quality, and you can be sure that by going to one of these schools you will get the best online MBA education available.

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)

US News & World Report has unveiled their 2010 MBA & Business Graduate Degree rankings. We think the US News & World Report rankings are to be taken seriously as they are one of the most well researched and respected ranking systems out there.

If you are considering a graduate degree in business such as an MBA, it would be worth your time to check out the rankings here.

Below we’ve listed the top 10 Executive MBA programs according to US News & World Report:

1. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) Philadelphia, PA
2. Northwestern University (Kellogg) Evanston, IL
3. University of Chicago (Booth) Chicago, IL
4. Duke University (Fuqua) Durham, NC
5. Columbia University New York, NY
6. New York University (Stern) New York, NY
7. University of California–Berkeley (Haas) Berkeley, CA
8. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor (Ross) Ann Arbor, MI
9. University of California–Los Angeles (Anderson) Los Angeles, CA
10. University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) Chapel Hill, NC

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 →]