Good Afternoon, Find MBA Community:

This is a follow-up post with a more focused question.

I have now heard from Indiana-Kelley. They have waived the GMAT and strongly encouraged me to complete an application while stating there is a strong possibility of a partial scholarship. I’m already accepted into Florida-Warrington. Both schools are highly ranked (Top 5) per their online MBA. I think Indiana-Kelley is likely more well-regarded per their overall MBA Program.

The question is whether or not there’s enough difference to choose Indiana-Kelley over Florida-Warrington when Warrington is $58k and Kelley is $72k? It may be a harder choice if a partial scholarship makes them both around $58k. The Indiana MBA Program is changing this fall to include more electives which can be chosen and less required core classes plus three more hours overall to complete the MBA. That’s a plus, IMO. Otherwise, I don’t see a big difference between the two schools per what I’m looking at. Yet, I’d greatly appreciate input from any of you.

Thanks in advance!


A little background on me:

I’m a full time minister in the Methodist church with 18 years of experience of leading churches (from 80 to 2300 in membership) including budgeting and outreach, marketing, Human Resources management, visioning, and the expected weekly work of planning worship, preaching, teaching, and pastoral care. I am also a Veteran having served as a Commissioned Officer and Chaplain in the USAF then Navy (Marines) Reserves for nine years. Basically, I want to be a mediator between and collaborator with both the for-profit and nonprofit worlds to assist people and agencies in better serving in-need individuals and agencies (like Boys and Girls Club) with monetary and hands on gifts to help grow healthier communities where kids grow up with skills to build even better realities via work with for profits and nonprofits. On a more personal level, I also want to be better equipped to run a counseling practice as part of my ministry duties.

[Edited by RisingSons on Apr 25, 2019]

If you get an admit to Warrington, that would be a tough choice. They are both stalwarts in online learning. Salaries for the Kelley program look better ($143k vs $123k in the most recent FT ranking), but some of that may be due to the fact that Kelley tends to recruit more experienced students.

Perhaps because of that I'd lean toward the Kelley program (assuming you'd make the average salary upon graduation, you'd make up for the difference in tuition costs within a year).

If you get an admit to Warrington, that would be a tough choice. They are both stalwarts in online learning. Salaries for the Kelley program look better ($143k vs $123k in the most recent FT ranking), but some of that may be due to the fact that Kelley tends to recruit more experienced students.

Perhaps because of that I'd lean toward the Kelley program (assuming you'd make the average salary upon graduation, you'd make up for the difference in tuition costs within a year).

[Edited by RisingSons on Apr 29, 2019]

Good luck, both are good programs. Yes, your ROI would probably be lower if you continued in nonprofit, in either case.