Half way through her doctorate in interdisciplinary studies, Shannon Decker realized something was missing.
Decker, a former teacher turned operations manager for Health Net, a Fortune 100 company, was pursuing her degree, when she decided to switch her focus and follow her dream of opening a private high school in Scottsdale, Arizona.
She wanted to gain additional business knowledge, so she switched to Arizona State University‘s online MBA program, where she opted for an emphasis in finance, later adding a second emphasis in marketing after she realized she need more training.
Being able to customize your degree offers great freedom, says Decker, a mother of four. “For someone like me, who is older and has the experience of working in the corporate world, I could choose what classes would apply to what I wanted to do.”
[Compare online and on-ground top business schools.]
Decker isn’t alone. More students are opting to customize their online MBAs to save money, time and accelerate their career path. Online students are adding additional areas of emphasis, fast-tracking their education with competency-based offerings that allow students to test out of certain classes based on workplace-gained knowledge and pursuing dual degrees.
One example of a customized MBA is the physician-based MBA, a popular choice among doctors looking to bolster their business knowledge.
Susannah Gawor, the program director for the Indiana University Kelley School of Business physician-only MBA program, says many veteran physicians are turning to online or hybrid MBAs as they adjust to new, business leadership roles encouraged by portions of the Affordable Care Act.
“Physicians are trying to be in the patient advocate role, but they don’t always have the vocabulary and the skills they need to lead the discussion and bridge the gap between administration and clinical practice,” Gawor says. “If you don’t understand the business issues behind decisions in the industry, how can you properly advocate?”
Indiana University is one of at leas t three universities in the country — the other two being University of Tennessee and Auburn University — to offer physician-based MBAs, Gawor says. Online students in Indiana’s program take core MBA classes the first year and have the chance during their second year to select from different specialties, including health care-related topics.
Indiana’s business school is also offering other customized programs tailored to specific student populations, including online-only classes for current and former NFL players, and a program for General Electric information technology employees who are working toward a certificate program that can be applied to an MBA or Master of Science degree.
“Customizing is a growing trend,” Gawor says. “We have to customize graduate education because many students have been out long enough that they know what they do know and what they do not know.”
[Discover why online MBA programs offer an easier admissions path.]
Another way for online students to customize an MBA is by shortening the experience, a move which can save students money as well as time.
Schools such as the nonprofit Western Governors University, an online university, offer competency-based degrees where credit is given for knowledge gained in the workplace. WGU, the first university in the U.S. to offer competency-based degrees, charges a flat rate of $3,250 for a six-month term of MBA classes.
Students can take as many or as few credits as they want for the same price, says WGU President Bob Mendenhall. According to WGU, the average time to complete an MBA is 22 months, which costs approximately $13,000.
That’s helped online students like Kristin Mote, a 40-year-old mother of three who works full time as a respiratory therapist in Willard, Utah. With 20 years of experience in the health care industry, Mote, who started her MBA in health care management in April 2014, was able to quickly test out of some of her course work and plans on earning her degree by March 2015.
“With a competency-based program, I don’t have to relearn things that I already know,” Mote says.
[Explore the online business schools with the lowest out-of-state tuition.]
Online students can also tailor their MBA experience by pursuing a dual degree, an option that allows them to gain more expertise and share credit requirements from both programs.
Mary Swaffar, a 25-year-old government contractor for the Department of Defense, is earning dual degrees online — an MBA and master’s in industrial engineering from Arizona State University — to fast track her career. The dual program shares 26 credits, so the Virginia resident can save time and earn both degrees in two and a half years.
“An MBA is a very common master’s degree, but the engineering degree gives me an edge and advantage,” says Swaffar, who works full-time as an operations research analyst for Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc., a company that focuses on national defense and homeland security programs. “I’m going to be qualified to do anything I want to do in the industry because I’ll have technical credentials and managerial credentials. I’m not going to be limited, because I’ll check every box that someone would want.”
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Online MBAs Starting to Offer Customization Options originally appeared on usnews.com
