BellaOnline Forums Education Distance Learning Need Help Finding Online BS in Management Degree

I'm looking for a "real" school that has an accredited fully online program for a BS in Management. I want something that will help me get my management skills to a polished level. It's very important to me!

So far I've found -


Penn State world campus - BS Organizational Leadership #38 on 'Best Undergrad' BusinessWeek report

CUNY (Univ NY) - BS Business

Umass Lowell - BS Business Administration

Northeastern - BS Business Management #27 on 'Best Undergrad' BusinessWeek report

Any other ideas for fully online degrees from brick-and-mortar schools?

Lisa -

Do you already have a BS Degree in something else? You might look at Graduate Certificate programs. I'm currently doing a Software Engineering Certificate at Stevens Institute and it's fabulous. They also have management certificates (and degrees.)
Graduate Certificates Available Through Stevens' Web Campus

Juli

Julie - no, I dropped out and got married after my first year at college.

I looked at BusinessWeek's list of top schools and went one by one through them to figure out which had online degrees. Here's the status I could find:

All of these do NOT have a fully online BS degree. The numbers after them are their rankings from BusinessWeek.

columbia ?
univ virginia cert only online 1
univ penn has online, no ps 3
cornell has online, no bs 8
villanova has online, no bs 11
washington university 16
boston university 17
miami university 18
carnagie mellon online no bs 19
indiana only gen stud bs 20
USC cert not bs 21
univerit texas mba only online 22
babson no online 23
georgetown no online 24
univ washington foster - mba only 25
lehigh univ - mba only 26
(northeastern is 27th)
American Univ 28
Univ San Diego - none 29
William & Mary - none 30
southern methodist - grad only 31
santa clara - none 32
bentley - none 33
Texas Christian 34

My sister Jenn sent along these candidates, but I found that each one didn't provide a full online degree:

Brigham Young courses only
Notre Dame courses only
NYU must have 40 credits
Michigan State U grad level only
Indiana University says must have credits first

So, so far the only four I've found that show up on "good business school" lists with full start to finish online degrees are these:

Penn State world campus BS Organizational Leadership
CUNY (Univ NY) BS Business
Umass Lowell BS Business Administration
Northeastern BS Business Management

Lyn gave me this list, here are my research results!

U Florida proctored testing IN FL
U MD looks good
Drexel degree completion only (must have initial credits)
U Phoenix I avoid this one
Virginia College iffy courses
U Illinois can only complete (not start) online
U Mass YES on my list already
UC Berkeley courses not degree
SUNY looks good
Indiana State completion programs only
Cornell grad level only

My concern with these is that they don't show up on any "good business school" listings. My aim here isn't just to get a piece of paper. It's going to be a HUGE investment for me in terms of time and money, both of which are in very short supply.

So if I do all of this I want there to be an instant return in the teachers being top notch and being able to actively help me with BellaOnline. In essence I'd want them to be a board of directors for me, to bounce ideas off of, to help with guidance and so on. I want these four years to be a high powered learning experience.

If it's just about for example a local community college level of "here is basic accounting, here is basic HR" out of a textbook, then that is not worth it for me. It would require a ton of time out of my over packed schedule, and have little meaningful result.

OK so here is where I am with my research. I have 7 contenders, and I am feeling more and more comfortable with the thought that I've really researched this a ton and I'm not missing (hopefully) an obvious option. I have eliminated scores of schools. So we are left with these that DO offer fully online degrees in BS-Business.

SUNY - VERY basic courses, $51k total
UMD - OK courses, not great, $60k total
UMass/Lowell - takes **7 years** to complete, $42k total

So those three are off the list. They fell below the yellow line That leaves 3 left in contention:

CUNY - OK courses, not great, $18k total
I'm not fond of the courses on CUNY, but it is super cheap. So I need to leave that in there as something for me to consider. But as I've said, I'm not in this for "the paper". So to "waste" four years of my life - plus money - just to get a piece of paper wouldn't be worth it to me. I would rather pay a local mentor for one-on-one advice in this case.

Northeastern - solid courses. $50k total
#27 on BusinessWeek's list - i.e. the "top school" on their list that offers a fully online degree. So this is the most money, but also the most highly rated school I can go to. I like their courses.

Penn State - solid courses. $45k total
#38 on BusinessWeek's list, i.e. the "second best" school on their list that offers a fully online degree. I was really in love with Penn State's program when I saw it. It is for "Organizational Leadership" and is all about leading a company, vs accounting/business types of stuff. It would provide very directed coursework that immediately helps me. Plus they have summer courses so I can progress more quickly.

So to clarify now, I am looking at the "Leadership" Bachelor's of Science at both Penn State and Northeastern. Not the "Business" degree. It looks like the leadership courses are perfect for what I want to learn in both schools.

Penn State -
Great courses. They do two LONG sessions a year, with 6 courses running parallel the entire time. So a lot to keep track of and juggle. Each half-year is a mix of heavy and light courses.
Also, fairly far if I *did* want to go in for some bizarre reason.

Northeastern -
Great courses. They do four SHORT sessions a year, with 4 courses running parallel. You focus on 4 topics, finish them up, take the final, and move on. You take almost all of the serious courses in the first 2 years, then take electives. It's right in Boston so I *could* drive in if I wanted to. Also rumors are that they have great financial support so it could end up being cheaper than Penn State.

Lisa -

Another possible idea for you. Portland Community College (pcc.edu) does an online Management and Supervision AS degree. I only did the certificate (I have a BS degree) but it is FABULOUS. (For my BS degree I had courses with nationally known professors, most of these instructors were just as good or better.) The professors were excellent for bouncing business ideas off of (as were some of the other students, many of whom were themselves professionals looking to improve their skills.) It's quite inexpensive and then you have the first 2 years to use at one of the programs that only lets you finish a degree online.

Julie

I think I want to do everything straight through in one location. It's enough chaos for me this time around; I'd feel happy knowing I was settling in somewhere and all set for 4 years. That's me being stodgy I imagine

Not stodgy at all Lisa. Some of us like to have a lot of change at periods in our lives and others prefer everything to remain at least in some ways settled for a while. It all depends on other things going on in our lives at any given time. Only you know what's best for you at the moment.

I think it's because I am so overwhelmed with all the rest of my life right now. It's bad enough I'm adding a degree into this mix right now. I need it to be as simple as humanly possible