Can you help me take a decision? I am a Project Manager in an IT Company and I would like to grow as a Vertical head/Business Head and grow further to a CEO. I have come through a technical back ground like Programmer, System Analyst, Delivery Lead, but now my idea is to attain the highest position in Management in IT Industry.
For this reason, I have decided to do Executive MBA - without having to compromise my work life. So I have chose two schools - Ross, Cornell. With Ross, I have to travel from Boston to Ann Arbor by Flight and with Cornell once a month, I will have to fly to Canada and also NY once in two/three months.
With Cornell Executive MBA, I will be taking the Video conferencing sessions and also be taking residential classes in both Canada and NY. Ross has residency sessions in Ann Arbor as well.
Through Cornell, I will get MBA Degrees from both Cornell, NY and Queen, Canada.
Being in the Boston area, I considered MIT as well. Only bad thing with them is, they need the letter of recommendation from my Current Supervisor. I am not comfortable with that. My company will not provide any sponsorship/ letter.
Can you suggest me if I should go for Ross/ Cornell ? Money is no object for me. Only the quality of education matters.
I have to make a decision in a week. Kindly help me.
There is a definite advantage to having dual degrees if you every plan to work in Canada. I did the Ross program and my cousin did the Cornell one (she’s Canadian) . That being said, the Michigan network is very extensive and eMBA group is very tight. In my class, most of the students came from the midwest , southeast, and some western states. The quality of the instructors and classmates by far the best I have ever experienced. Imagine the best people you have every worked with, put them all in one room, and multiply it by 10. You get the most senior professors who are amazingly good, and are very much oriented to executives with experience than MBA students.
The residencies are extremely interactive and task oriented and full of discussion. During the weeks you are elsewhere, you only work on one class per week. You get to know people on your teams extremely well. The Michigan program also has a semester project (MAP) and you can choose anything from a startup to a major corporate or medical initiative. Some are local, others international.
Michigan doesn’t use traditional grades, your get excellent, good, fair, etc… it does away with grade competition.
Another great thing about the Michigan program is that everything is included - hotel - food - ipad - books … and you get a program director who acts as a concierge. You also won’t have any border hassles. Detroit airport is about 35 min from Campus and there are excellent connections. There is also an LA program now.
When you are done you can attend the executive education classes free and some Ross classes as well, plus reunions and alumni residencies. Graduates are scattered all over the globe and it’s nice to be able to look someone up in most every city.
Expect to have zero free time for the entire program, except during semester breaks. They claim your only need 20 hrs per week, but that is a little low (at least it was for me).
I don’t think my cousin had the same intense experience. I’d highly recommend the Ross program.
Thank you very much, I am glad that I got this information from a Ross Alumini and who also had enough information to compare the Cornell Program as well.