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PRWeb - February 27, 2008 - Essex Junction,
VT
GetEducated.com, LLC, America’s
consumer-oriented, online degree clearinghouse, has released the
results of their biennial nationwide survey of tuition costs at
accredited, distance-
learning and online MBA degree programs.
The survey included 168 distance MBA options:
62 of these offered by graduate business schools accredited by the
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) GetEducated’s
survey of 62 AACSB options revealed online learners in the United
States should be prepared to pay as little as $7,848 or as much as
$106,400 for an AACSB accredited
distance grad degree in business administration (MBA).
Premiering at the number one ranked “most
affordable” spot this year is East Carolina University (North
Carolina), a public institution with a modest cost of $7,848 for an
online MBA degree for state residents. Out-of-staters will pay
significantly more ($26,064) for the same degree. Duke University, a
private institution also located in North Carolina, topped the price
chart at an estimated price of $106,400 nationwide for tuition and
fees their Global MBA option.
The average cost for an AACSB accredited
distance MBA: $32,200.
Every school on GetEducated’s list of
Top 30 Ranked Best Buys in Online MBAs - AACSB Accredited
costs $25,000 or less.
GetEducated.com’s Top 30 Ranked Best
Buys in Online MBAs -
AACSB Accredited is archived online at:
http://www.geteducated.com/rankings/best_mbaaacsb.asp
Trends in Online MBAs: Quality of Online
Degrees Escalates
The number of AACSB-accredited B-Schools
offering online graduate degrees continues to escalate.
GetEducated’s 2006 survey profiled 46 AACSB options. The 2008
survey features 62 programs. 31% of the online graduate
business school programs surveyed by GetEducated claimed coveted
AACSB accreditation. This ratio mirrors the national average for
brick and mortar B-Schools: about 30% of traditional B-Schools are
AACSB-accredited.
“In 1989 when we began our distance learning
surveys, no AACSB-accredited B-School offered a distance MBA.
If you’d have asked them if they intended to offer such a distance
degree to the public in the near future the answer would have been a
resounding no,” comments Vicky Phillips, Chief Education Analyst at
GetEducated. “Today, consumers are being offered unparalleled
access to degrees from what most consider the elite of the business
school world.”
AACSB accreditation is widely considered the
gold standard of business school accreditation. The fact that
escalating numbers of these schools are delivering through distance
learning helps confirm elearning as a respectable choice for
learners across America.
Elite B-Schools on GetEducated’s list
of distance MBAs include Babson College’s F. W. Olin Graduate School
of Business, Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, Duke
University’s Fuqua School of Business, and Thunderbird Graduate
School’s Garvin School of International Management.
Trends in Online MBAs: Public Universities
Provide Exceptional Buys
Brand name, brick and mortar, public
universities dominate GetEducated.com’s list of highly ranked
values in online learning. “Ten years ago most distance degrees came
from universities few people had heard of. Today, the best online
degrees are being granted by universities that have been helping
people get educated for a hundred years or more,” comments Phillips.
GetEducated’s list of top ranked
values in distance MBAs includes names that have earned the
trust of consumers and employers alike. Most are publicly-supported
universities that port their degrees nationwide using online
delivery.
Many publicly-supported institutions offer
the same low tuition they offer state residents to learners
everywhere. A distance MBA from the University of Wisconsin, for
example, costs between $18,000-$19,800 for all learners regardless
of their state of residency.
“$18,000-$19,000 may sound like a lot of
money,” says Phillips, “but in truth an AACSB- accredited MBA that
costs $18,000 costs $14,000 less than the national average.
Consumers need to know that a quality MBA need not cost an arm and a
leg.”
“Shopping around for a MBA can result in tens
of thousands of dollars of savings,” advises Phillips. “GetEducated
publishes Best Buy rankings in an effort to help consumers get
educated about some of the great deals available to them if they
choose the distance learning route.”
GetEducated’s top ranked values in
distance AACSB-MBA schools include, among others, the University of
Houston Victoria, Mississippi State University, State University of
New York (SUNY), University of Texas, University of Georgia System,
Florida State University, University of Wisconsin, Colorado State
University, and the University of Massachusetts
Free Guidebook to Distance MBAs
Consumers can explore all their online
B-School options by downloading a free copy of the clearinghouse’s
2008 guidebook to accredited online universities,
GetEducated.com’s Best Distance Learning Graduate Schools,
Business, Management and Online MBAs, available at
http://www.geteducated.com/guidebooks/bdlgs_bm.asp | 
