Anyone have any experience with this online masters program? Are the online classes easy to access? How flexible are they with hours in the program? I got some time and money to blow, and been thinking about doing this while on shore. Thanks.
I’m not sure if it can be done 100% online. If they tell you it can be done, just be aware that it’s usually easier to take in person classes.
Also look over the prereqs. If you need any try to take them online through SUNY to give you a taste.
What school? Are they accredited?
There are literally hundreds of “schools” out there offering degrees on-line. There are probably only a handful whose degree is accepted by anyone that matters. What’s the point in spending thousands of dollars on a piece of paper no one will recognize as valid?
I’m going to take a stab and say that since it’s posted in the SUNY section, he’s referring to the SUNY program.
You used to be able to do it all online, but it’s time consuming. The courses were only 7 weeks long - half of the semester, so the pace was quick. One of the courses I took had a new module every 3 days.
I’m not really sure of the value of the program though - if you’re sailing anyway. On my last trip, 3/5 deck officers had the Masters…and we’re all still sailing. Hopefully it’s helpful on the shoreside.
An online MBA from any school would have scant market value. There are some intensive high quality one year MBA programs. There are a couple of respected partly in class and partly online programs, like Thunderbird.
Take a look at Thunderbird. There are also some foreign schools worth considering.
A good place to start would be looking at the prerequisites. Any serious MBA program requires a good working knowledge of calculus and statistics. Without good math skills one would quickly get lost in core courses like managerial economics and quantitative analysis. Very few people have adequate research and writing skills to do well in a good MBA program. There is always room for writing improvement, and for most of us that does not come easy.
I don’t think that a MBA from a public school would take one very far in the Boston job market. There will be tremendous competition for jobs with grads from Harvard, MIT, Dartmouth, Tufts, BU, BC, Northeastern, UMASS Amherst, and several other schools that are well established in the Boston market. To get a good return on your investment of time and money, you need to either be in the top half of the class at a top national school, or in the top 10 percent of the class at a well established regional school. To be competitive coming out of a local public school, you’d need to be one of the top 10 students in your class.
Yeah it’s kind of comical how the world is flooded with people getting a lot of nonsense mba’s, to the point someday everyone will have I have one. Basically the reason I’m considering one. Won’t need one if things go according to plan, but one can never bank on that.
UMASS Amherst is a Public school. I agree that an MBA is probably kind of useless but I think an MS in a relevant field will only give you what you take out of it. SUNY’s program is, from what I hear, not to hard to graduate from. But that being said you have to look at if its money well spent or not. A big benefit of the program is if you’re taking it full-time in person you can do some good networking for jobs in the NY/NJ/CT area. Otherwise there’s not much that you couldn’t learn on your own if you really wanted to. If you want to go into shore side work any grad degree will set you above undergrad degrees and one from a Maritime School would be best, at least that’s how HR people usually look at it. But if you have a good sea-going career with relevant command time and management experience and all that jazz, then an employer is just going to look at what level of experience you’re already at. I guess it just depends on what you want to do, if nothing else you can put the diploma in a frame, hang it next to the fire plan on the bridge and tell any one who comes up to the bridge how smart you are.
[QUOTE=LI_Domer;154790]UMASS Amherst is a Public school. I agree that an MBA is probably kind of useless but I think an MS in a relevant field will only give you what you take out of it. SUNY’s program is, from what I hear, not to hard to graduate from. But that being said you have to look at if its money well spent or not. A big benefit of the program is if you’re taking it full-time in person you can do some good networking for jobs in the NY/NJ/CT area. Otherwise there’s not much that you couldn’t learn on your own if you really wanted to. If you want to go into shore side work any grad degree will set you above undergrad degrees and one from a Maritime School would be best, at least that’s how HR people usually look at it. But if you have a good sea-going career with relevant command time and management experience and all that jazz, then an employer is just going to look at what level of experience you’re already at. I guess it just depends on what you want to do, if nothing else you can put the diploma in a frame, hang it next to the fire plan on the bridge and tell any one who comes up to the bridge how smart you are.[/QUOTE]
Yes, UMass Amherst is a public school, but it is also the flagship research state university in Massachusetts. That make’s its degrees a lot more valuable than the same degree from the UMass campuses in the Boston area.
If I were going to do a MS in Marine Transportation Management, or if I were going to do it as a “grad license” program, I would choose SUNY for the same reasons that you mention. Its in NYC. Most classes will be taught by good adjunct faculty who are working shoreside in the industry. There will be much better internship opportunities, better alumni contacts, and better networking. Its a no brainer. I might also attempt to set up a joint degree program for a combined MS in Marine Transportation and an MBA at whichever branch of SUNY has the flagship MBA program.
For a mariner who is going to sea, it would be really difficult to go part time at a school that is on the semester system. If you have some control over your seagoing schedule, it would be a lot easier to go to a school that is on the quarter system. For example, Northeastern or the Univ. of Washington. Each quarter is about 10 weeks long.
I wouldn’t say Zoo mass Amherst is a flagship for anything except riots, and sexual assaults .
[QUOTE=tugsailor;154794]
If I were going to do a MS in Marine Transportation Management, or if I were going to do it as a “grad license” program, I would choose SUNY for the same reasons that you mention. Its in NYC. Most classes will be taught by good adjunct faculty who are working shoreside in the industry. There will be much better internship opportunities, better alumni contacts, and better networking. Its a no brainer. I might also attempt to set up a joint degree program for a combined MS in Marine Transportation and an MBA at whichever branch of SUNY has the flagship MBA program.[/QUOTE]
The courses are not taught by adjuncts working shoreside in the industry. Most are taught by regular faculty. You cannot combine the Maritime masters with any SUNY MBA program, and there is no SUNY MBA program, at any school, that is considered top flight.
Good stuff guys, thanks for the replies. I’m going to contact them next week and get some more information.