Studying for the California Bar exam? Have an extra $1000 burning a hole in your freshly-law-degreed butt-pocket? Then by all means check out BarMax: California Edition. One of the only iPhone apps to cost that much money, its creator, Mike Ghaffary, a JD/MBA ‘06 Harvard grad, says it has everything one might require to study up for the bar.

Ghaffary has an MBA and as of December 2009, is a member of the California Bar; so he’s got that whole I’m business savvy and I studied for and conquered the bar exam thing going for him.

As with all things iPhone, it’s portable and weighs a lot less than the fifty pounds of books you’d be buying and dragging around town if you were to go the dead-tree route. So handy! Also, if you contact BarMax, they’ll send you a free trial version so you can evaluate the materials before forking over a decade’s worth of ramen money.

BarMax: California Edition, available now in the iPhone’s App Store for $999.99, is a study guide for the California Bar Exam. Harvard lawyers oversaw development of the app, which weighs in at 1 GB and includes outlines, lectures, a study calendar, and real questions and essays from previous exams. The only comparable app available now is from BarBri, but you must be enrolled in the company’s $3000 to $4000 classes to use most of the features.

TechCrunch reports that Mike Ghaffary, a former law student and current director of business development at TrialPay, envisioned BarMax as an alternative to BarBri’s pricey classes and digital offerings. Ghaffary partnered with successful app developers in Los Angeles, and enlisted some fellow Harvard Law alumni to guide development. More…

Posted by Alexa Harrington

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School has a new video microsite up for anyone who might be researching MBA programs. If you go here, you can watch what recent graduates of the program have to say about how well UNC prepared them for the business world.

Further Reading:

UCLA Anderson MBAs Go Global
The Cheapest MBA Program for Computer Science Students…
UC Davis Working Professional MBA Program
UA’s Two New Dual-Degree Engineering and MBA Programs
Washington State University Announces New Online MBA Program
Consider a Well-Rounded MBA
MBA Programs
Business Schools

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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Having a home base to call your own is good. And as in love as I am with travel, one of the best feelings ever is the moment you get home and walk back in the door. It’s strange and new and comfortably enveloping and familiar all at once.

As marvelous as coming home to the place that’s yours in the world, the most profound bit a trip abroad can offer is a better understanding of a whole new group of humans. I don’t care how educated someone is or isn’t, or how much political-correctness training they’ve had; leaving home base and finding yourself among people you don’t consider familiar or anywhere near your own will open your eyes a smidge and will wedge some new information and thought processes into your noggin.

It doesn’t have to hit the “It blew my mind!” level of experience intensity; subtle works too. The more we humans grok the fact that the planet is full of other humans who are basically just like us, the better things will be. Global knowledge and understanding is good.

Even if their reasons aren’t planet-saving or brotherly love, I’m still glad UCLA’s Anderson School of Management will have an international requirement for their MBA students. Starting with the Class of 2012, students will have three requirement-fulfilling options:

1) Take an international elective.

2) Spend a term abroad at one of more than 50 premier global partner business schools.

3) Complete an international Applied Management Research (AMR) project.

It’s possible the business types are hoping to use their powers for global economic rule, but they’re still going to gain insight into other earth-dwellers—in non- business-y ways—whether they want to or not.

Further Reading:

UCLA Anderson: Compare MBA Programs
Business Week: UCLA Anderson School of Management
The Cheapest MBA Program for Computer Science Students…
UC Davis Working Professional MBA Program
UA’s Two New Dual-Degree MBA and Engineering Programs
Washington State Univ. Announces New Online MBA Program
Saving the Planet is a Solid Career Choice
Consider a Well-Rounded MBA
AllBusinessSchools.com

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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Big dreams and no money. Such is the situation colleges, universities, and the students who attend them are struggling with. The schools want to teach students to think outside the box, to be able to look ahead and improve the future of humanity. The students want to learn how to think wider and deeper and bigger and more. The President wants the schools to kick some researching butt and find ways to get us out of this mess (pick one).

Too bad there’s a global economic crisis, and the recession our country is experiencing is sucking the life and the funding out of everyone’s Big Dreams balloons. Now the schools and the students are walking around carrying sad little limp and deflated aspirations, jettisoning the deeper-thinking, big-picture courses and degrees for the more utilitarian/practical ones.

I won’t bore you with numbers, but there are an astonishing number of folks doing pre-professional undergrad work, and a ridiculous number of business degree holders in this country. I think we’re good on the ‘future of money’ front; someone learn something that’s helpful in a different way. Think outside the box, people. Don’t give up on the idea that knowing how to think in non-linear directions is conducive to the survival of mankind.

Read this piece in the NY Times:

The world economic crisis and the election of Barack Obama will change the future of higher education. Even as universities, both public and private, face unanticipated financial constraints, the president has called on them to assist in solving problems from health care delivery to climate change to economic recovery.

American universities have long struggled to meet almost irreconcilable demands: to be practical as well as transcendent; to assist immediate national needs and to pursue knowledge for its own sake; to both add value and question values. And in the past decade and a half, such conflicting and unbounded expectations have yielded a wave of criticism on issues ranging from the cost of college to universities’ intellectual quality to their supposed decline into unthinking political correctness. More…

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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…It costs $99 and it’s called the App Store. This post over at the FairSoftware Blog starts out funny, but ends up making sense. If you’re working toward a degree in Computer Science, you’ll be writing (one hopes) cool and useful programs. Unless your future plans for world domination necessitate a separate MBA degree, consider the quick and dirty (and extremely practical) business lesson that selling your iPhone app at the App Store will provide.

You’ll be out the $99 fee to become a registered iPhone developer. That’s less than a textbook would run you, and you’ll have the chance to make that cash back, assuming you learn your MBA lessons well and write a kick-ass iPhone app that people will want to buy.

According to FairSoftware, here’s what you’ll learn by doing:

Marketing: How do users hear about your app? How can you create some buzz to attract more people? You will learn that having an amazing technical product is nothing if you can’t communicate its value.

Customer support: You will be forced to look at your product with the eyes of your end user. Is the app really intuitive? How come every user seems to be making the same usability mistake? You will learn to respect your end user and project yourself to code for what they need, not what you think is neat.

Economics: By now you should be having fun. Some money is coming in. You’d want more. How can you manage that? Maybe it’s time to bring on board another student to help with support or graphics. How much will that cost you? Is that a good return on investment? You will learn to make your own business decisions.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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Aaaaahh…back from vacation. I apologize for the technical difficulties (it sucks when one’s fear that controlling less and relaxing more will surely lead to everything going to hell turns out to be a well-founded fear). But now I’m back and have alerted the technical people and we can move on.

Here’s an informative higher education tidbit I came across: Will Sitch gives anyone interested in a working professional MBA program a thorough break-down of UC Davis’s version. The classrooms are located off-site, thirty minutes east of San Francisco, and because the course schedule is designed for working professionals, it requires in-class time only every other weekend. Mr. Sitch is three quarters in, and seems pretty happy with what the program has to offer.

In the post, Mr. Sitch answers questions about the caliber of the program, professor quality, student quality, how well the schedule works for a working professional like himself, and why he chose UC Davis’s program over Santa Clara’s or UC Berkeley’s programs.

Being a huge fan of higher education and the college campuses that go along with it, I could still see his point regarding why he’s fine with missing out on campus life while earning his third degree:

“…the reality of the part-time MBA program is totally different from a full-time program. Believe me: you wouldn’t benefit at all from having class on campus (assuming the campus was closer). A part-time MBA is so much work! You’re not going to have ANY free time for any extra-curricular activity.

When I did my M.A.Sc. full-time at Carleton University in Ottawa, I really liked being on campus. I lived on campus. I knew all the Profs, chilled with all the other grad and post-doc students, ate at the cafeterias and worked out at the campus gym. I occasionally left campus, but not very much. It worked for me then, but I couldn’t imagine trying to attend a real campus while working.

Listen, when you go to class you’re going to be speeding because a morning meeting ran late. You’re going to get there, do the non-essential reading while you scarf down lunch/dinner, and as soon as class is over you’re going home. Maybe, if you’re one of the cool kids, you’ll get an adult beverage with friends before you speed home. There’s no time to hang out. There’s no time to talk to profs. There’s no time to hit the gym or go to the library or walk in the park.

The Profs at UC Davis WP-MBA come to the campus. They teach. They have an office hour. They go home. They’re all available through email (and some by cellphone), but you’re not going to need them much. Maybe it’ll be different in upper-year courses, but there’s so much instruction provided in course notes, books, textpaks, and course websites that you’ll have everything you need already.”

Further Reading:

UC Davis Bay Area Working Professional MBA Program
UC Davis Sacramento Working Professional MBA Program
UC Berkeley Evening and Weekend MBA Program
Santa Clara Univ. Working Professional MBA Program
Business School Resources
Distance Learning MBA Programs
Will’s Thoughts On His First, Second, and Third Terms in the UC Davis Program

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Most folks, when faced with a sucky economy, panic in the face of economic downturns. There are some, however, who come up with an innovative twist and offer an elegant solution to a problem. The University of Alabama is now offering a combined engineering and MBA graduate degree program, so students can multi-task their little hearts out and end up ready to kick business-minded engineering booty as soon as they graduate. Less time in school, better prepared for their future careers.

Engineering and MBA graduates from The University of Alabama will now offer more than just technical knowledge to their future employers, as they will combine essential financial skills with engineering through two new innovative dual-degree programs.

Beginning this fall, students can earn master’s degrees in engineering and business administration in two years, and the programs are specific for civil engineering and mechanical engineering.

As Alabama’s automotive, manufacturing, energy, construction and civil engineering industries continue to expand, financial business skills are more essential to guiding engineering projects. Students will be able to immediately impact their future employers through both engineering technical knowledge and the bottom-line financial goals.

“With the mounting costs to rebuild America’s aging infrastructure and with the need to continue the American leadership in the world economy, the need has never been greater for engineers with a strong education in the financial, public funding and economic aspects of major projects,” said Hugh Mathews, president of England, Thims & Miller Inc., a leading civil engineering firm in the Southeast. “This program offers the opportunity for future engineers to prepare themselves to meet this challenge.”

Further Reading and Resources:

UA Announces Two New Dual-Degree MBA and Engineering Programs
MBA Facts and Figures
Accredited MBA Programs
Consider a Well-Rounded MBA
Washington State University Announces New Online MBA Program

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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Washington State University is rounding out their already-successful business degree program with an Online MBA degree starting Fall 2009. It’ll start out as a part-time program for the first year, but by Fall 2010, it will be available as a part-time or a full-time degree program.

The program is geared toward professionals already working, so WSU has a day-job-friendly system set up for students who work all day and would have inevitable scheduling conflicts:

The Online MBA program consists of 39 semester credit hours and is comparable to WSU’s Accelerated One-Year MBA offered on the Pullman campus. Like all WSU College of Business academic programs, the Online MBA is accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Courses are offered completely online, with no campus visits required.

[Mark] Fuller noted that WSU Online MBA courses are accessible 24/7 in an asynchronous format, allowing maximum flexibility for working professionals. “We use a variety of online tools, which allows significant interaction between faculty and students,” he said. “Those same tools allow students to participate in group projects and team presentations.”

In addition to 24/7 course access and tech support, Online MBA students will have support services, including advising, financial aid and career counseling, registration assistance and help maneuvering the WSU system.

Further Reading and Resources:

WSU Online MBA Degree
Online MBA Programs
Consider a Well-Rounded MBA

Posted by Alexa Harrington

“MBA” is a wince-worthy term these days. The NY Times is saying MBA programs are in need of a major overhaul. Jon Stewart just cleaned Jim Cramer’s clock using only words and logic. And then there’s the whole tanking economy, which some folks are blaming the MBA-havin’ money guys for.

In light of all of the above, my advice to anyone wishing to earn their MBA degree is to please think a little bit outside the business-school box and maybe get yourselves a slightly more well-rounded education than the current population of MBAs seem to have done. I see nothing negative about earning an MBA; having an understanding of the inner-workings of money, finance, and business theory could only serve one well. But dig deeper and think bigger, people.

Further Reading and Resources:

MBA Facts and Figures
In Bad Economy, MBA Degree Beckons
New Accelerated Green MBA Degree
How Does a Second-Grader Beat Wall Street?
AIG Fiasco
Auto Bailout
The Daily Show: Jim Cramer

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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Some (unfortunately not all) colleges and universities offer career advice and practical, in-depth assistance to their alumni, regardless of how long it’s been since they walked across the stage. More recent and less-than-recent college graduates can receive free career help for life from their alma maters.

Not all schools offer this incredibly helpful perk; medicine, nursing, law, and journalism schools tend to lack in this arena. Which is unfortunate and probably not in their best interest—nothing says Academic Excellence like unemployed alumni.

If the economy is affecting your career and you require some wisdom and advice, call your school(s) and find out what they have to offer with regards to pearls of career wisdom.

Further Reading and Resources:

Back to School—For Career Advice
Business Schools Gird For Wall Street Woes
College Alumni Get Career Help, Sometimes For Free
Career Advice From Your Alma Mater (30 Years Later)
How to Find Job Search Help
Weighing a New Industry For a New Job Outlook
Graduates Return to Warwick Business School For Career Advice

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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