Greetings all,

I have received offer letters from Bradford and JMU. The reason I applied for JMU is its location in Virginia where my company's headquarter exists. Now, I have two options; the first is choosing the highly ranked MBA in Bradford and spending all my savings on it. The second option is going for two years MBA in JMU but paying less money or in fact making more money from my work in the headquarter over the program's duration. However, I will get much less ranked MBA from JMU in return. I have good relationships with my managers who promised me to take care of my work papers if I chose JMU. After the MBA, I am planning to live and work in the country where I studied or the gulf countries due to the fact of having my native Arabic speaking. Please help me in choosing the right program.

Your help is highly appreciated!!

Thanks,

Osama

JMU seems to make sense given these choices. It's an AACSB-accredited part-time programme that covers all the basics, mostly through on-line tutition (http://www.jmu.edu/cob/graduate/innovation-mba/index.shtml#link) but, because there's no full-time graduate programmes there, the careers services and alumni networks will be weak.

Why are these the only two options? Is there another part-time MBA there? George Mason? George Washington? American University?

Thanks Duncan.

JMU is the only accredited college in Virginia which is affordable to me. GMU is much expensive.

keeping job in my company after graduation may or may not take place. I don't know how the global market demands for MBA's are met in terms of the program location and quality. JMU may have lower ranking and weaker alumni network but has AACSB accreditation. I am not sure how far I can market my degree from JMU worldwide. The interesting part of choosing JMU for me is having two solid years of work experience in US in my CV by the graduation. However, I still need to figure out how all these factors operate together. On the other hand, Bradford has better job opportunities in UK and also UAE thanks to its program offered in Dubai which results in bigger network there.

I would pick two years in Virginia ;-)

Duncan,

What does mainly influence your decision?

Reduced risk, and reduced opportunity cost.

Thanks Duncan!