Earn MBA Online

Terrill Cosgray, Executive Director of Kelley Direct, visited Seattle last week to host a dinner for prospective students. When asked if I would be interested in attending the dinner, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I have had a great experience working on my MBA in the Kelley Direct program so far, and I wanted to share my insights and experience with the prospective students.

The dinner was held at the Canlis Restaurant. The food was delicious, the service was phenomenal, but the best part of the evening was the great discussion we had with everyone in attendance. In addition to the prospective students, there were other current Kelley Direct students as well as alumni. It was fun to share experiences and get everyone’s perspective on the program. I really appreciated hearing the alumni speak about how the MBA they earned through Kelley Direct has helped them progress in their careers. One talked about how his degree helped him get a great promotion at Microsoft. Another other talked about how Kelley Direct Career Services helped him get a new job at Amazon.com.

I chose the Kelley School of Business because it is a highly rated business school, and the Kelley Direct program is, in my opinion, the best distance MBA program. I have been very pleased with my decision, which is good considering the significant investment I have made in the program both in terms of time and money. I am receiving an excellent education and I have already been able to apply things I have learned in my classes to my present job. 

I was asked by one of the prospective students about work-life balance in the program. He wanted to know if it was really possible to take 6 credits per quarter while working full time. I told him that it can be challenging, but it is possible. Anything of value requires sacrifice. That is true of getting a quality MBA education. I have had to sacrifice sleep more than anything else. Luckily, I have the support of my family at home and my boss at work. That makes a big difference. The flexibility of the online MBA format provided by Kelley Direct fits my lifestyle and makes it easier to keep everything in balance.

I look forward to staying in touch with the people I met at the dinner. They are all a lot of fun to hang out with. I hope the information I gave the prospective students was helpful. It would be fun to see them in one of my classes in the near future. 

Nothing can really prepare you for the first bill you get when finally start your MBA program.  It is a time of thoughtful reflection for sure as you work through the loan paperwork or dip into hard earned savings.  However, as I was recently paying that first bill of mine, I realized that my experience in Kelley Direct was already starting to pay off. 

After a very long, but engaging week at my first in-residence (C511 Organizational Development and Change), I returned to work to find a number of projects and assignments in a state of disarray, including a very large project where I am the technical adviser and a key stakeholder.  Initially dismayed at missing a week and seeing such an important project fall even further behind, I met with some other members of the steering committee to see what needed to be done to get things back on track.  As we began to discuss the issues, it was quite an exciting feeling to realize that the tactics and strategies I had just learned about from Prof. Sheri Fella were very applicable to my current dilemma.  And, instead of continuing down what would very likely have been a path of failure, I was able to apply the techniques Prof. Fella had shared with us to the change process this project was trying to manage.  Long story short, instead of weeks, even months, of fruitless work, mounting frustrations, and loss of interest, I was able to diagnose and recommend actions that have immediately put the project back on track, renewed interest and energized the project team, saving us a significant amount of time and money.

Why was I able to have this impact?  At Kelley Direct, you learn from the best faculty of any business university online.  Not only do they really know the academic side of business, but they have amazing real world experience.  Sure, I could have chosen another part time MBA college at a fraction of the cost and likely have covered the same theories and subject matter.  But world-class faculty make a difference, and that is where Kelley Direct has really distinguished themselves from other online MBA colleges.  Prof. Fella was not only one of the most engaging instructors I have ever had, she was excellent at making sure we all understood how to take the material she was presenting and turn it into something concrete and actionable.  Being able to immediately act on what you are learning is definitely key to making it pay, and is why I am glad I chose Kelley Direct.  Plus, paying that first bill was a lot easier knowing that I had already used what I had learned to save my organization time and money, earning some much valued career credits along the way.

My grandfather recently posed a question to me in an email. He wrote:

I would like to hear about the program for your Master Business Adminstration degree. My experience in grad school was that many of the professors felt that their course was the only one we took so they seemed to load us up on things to do outside class. This is not a problem for you? What do you experience?

I don't know about other Online MBA Universities, but I would say that the faculty completely respects our time. As a distance learning program, 100 percent of the students in my cohort have full-time jobs (in addition to spouses, children, pets, hobbies, etc). The faculty seems to understand the competing demands in our lives. Through the technology we use, the professors routinely poll us as to the best time to conduct virtual office hours or conduct live lectures.

So do they ‘load up’ on us? Only to the point where we learn the material. Many of the classes have group assignments so we can ‘divide and conquer’ and rely on each other’s skill sets to enhance our learning. For example, I just got off of a video conference call with my Econ C530 group and one of my team members is a financial analyst. He led the discussion on net present value and answered many the group’s questions. I believe the three of us would have struggled had it not been for the fourth’s subject matter expertise.

The professors themselves are available anytime through email (with a response time between two and 24 hours). My econ professor offered to meet with me in person (as I am local to Indianapolis) should I have trouble with some of the concepts (and by concepts I mean calculus … what is a derivative of a function, you ask? Me, too).

So far, I have been completely satisfied with the workload in my first two classes.  I am feel that I will be able to earn my business degree online without sacrificing my family or work.

Whenever I speak with prospective students I get the question, "What are you looking for in a successful application?"  I always appreciate this question as it allows me to have a dialog with the prospective student about what the Kelley School of Business expects from it's students and just as important, what they should expect from the Kelley School of Business.  Selecting an online MBA/MS program is a two way street and we understand it is just as important for you to evaluate us as it is for us to evaluate you.  With that being said, here is insight into the Admissions Review Committee's expectations from our future online MBA/MS students:

We review the transcripts from your degree programs.  We look at the courses you took and how you performed in your upper level courses.  You are not disadvantaged if you haven't taken any business courses in your previous degrees.  We look at overall quality and improvement in performance.  We do encourage our students who have not had an accounting or statistics course within the last 5 years with a B or higher to take our accounting and statistics Primers.  These two foundation courses will help you achieve success in your courses.

We review your years of work experience, types of positions you have held and look for upward mobility within your resume.  If you haven't been promoted, you can strengthen your application by taking on additional responsibilities within your current position. With this, we read your letters of reference to add value to experiences and help us understand what value you will add to our incoming cohort.

We review your complete GMAT score.  We look at quantitative and verbal scores as well as when you took the GMAT and how often.  Our average GMAT is usually around 630.  Although the GMAT is not the only aspect of the application we evaluate, it is an important component.  Please study and prepare before you take the GMAT.  We find too many students go into the test without preparation and are disappointed with their scores.  This is the part of your application you have the most control over, please take it seriously.  It is not unusual for us to see a strong application but a weak GMAT.  Often times, we may ask an applicant to retake the GMAT for further consideration.


Finally, we review the application itself, including your personal statement.  This is where you get to sell yourself to the committee.  We want you to tell us what we don't know about you from reading the rest of your application.  Why do you want your MBA/MS degree and how will earning it online assist you in reaching your goals? This is also an opportunity to demonstrate your writing skills, so please proof read before submitting.

Again, you are not alone during this process. Our staff are here to assist you through the application process.  We believe the Kelley School of Business offers the best distance MBA and MS programs and want you to be prepared to enter into this new stage in your life.  Earning your MBA/MS online will require time management, commitment to studying, and putting your best foot forward.  Your application should be no different. 

If you have any other questions about any of our online MBA/MS requirements, please feel free to contact us at kdirect@indiana.edu

What does it mean to “live the dream”? It means to achieve your goals, to accomplish everything you have set out to accomplish. It means to have it all and do it all. Living the dream can be a challenge for most of us because we have conflicting goals. For example, my major life goals include raising a family, having a successful career, and earning a master of business administration degree.   Why are those goals conflicting? They are all competing for my time, the scarcest resource I have.  I have a beautiful wife and two young sons. I love to spend time with them, but I have missed many meals and important family activities because of my hectic work schedule. 

Earning an MBA has always been one of my biggest goals, but as I have progressed in my career and my family responsibilities have increased, I began to think that I had missed the window of opportunity. I finally decided that 2009 was the year to get into business school and make my dream a reality. The challenge was to find a business school that met all of my criteria. I wanted to attend a highly ranked university that would provide a top-notch education. I also wanted a program that would give me the flexibility to meet the obligations of my current job and not become a stranger to my family.

A friend of mine at work clued me in to the fact that there are several top universities across the country that offer distance MBA programs. This opened a whole new realm of possibilities for me.  I became obsessed with finding the best online MBA program. I learned that there are several online business colleges, but I was only interested in an AACSB accredited online MBA program. Ultimately one program stood head and shoulders above the rest—the Kelley Direct program from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.

In a previous post I talked about the quality of a Kelley degree and why I consider Kelley Direct one of the best online mba programs. I want to spend a little more time talking about our faculty and why learning from these industry thought leaders will help you in your career.

It would probably be best to start with the awards the Kelley faculty has won. Our Kelley faculty has consistently been ranked among the elite teaching faculty in the world. Here is a list of some their achievements:

• Ranked 7th in the nation on faculty scholarship by The Chronicle of Higher Education
• Ranked 4th among public universities and 18th in the nation for having the most frequently downloaded research publications, according to a recent Social Science Research Network (SSRN) study
• Served on more than 30 corporate boards
• Published more than 2,000 articles in more than 300 leading business journals and 200 books
• Won more than 150 research awards and 300 teaching awards
• Received three Faculty Fulbright Scholarships

The instructors that teach in Kelley Direct are dedicated to taking their teaching excellence and applying it to our online MBA program. Students who are looking to earn a MBA online will find that the quality of the faculty is extremely important to their success in an online mba program. Our faculty are assigned instructional designers and course consultants to ensure that their course use the latest technology to help deliver the content.

Many people who are considering a distance MBA program or online mba program often have some concern about the exposure that they will have with their professors; KD faculty pride themselves on their interaction with their students. 

Here is video about student and professor interaction in KD:

Welcome my first Kelley Direct blog post. I thought it would be best to talk about our world-renowned degree and a little bit about our history.

Kelley Direct's distance MBA programs began in 1999 as an innovative way to provide the opportunity to earn a Kelley graduate degree for high-caliber working professionals no matter where they work or live.
As one of the top online MBA programs, Kelley Direct offers the highest quality AACSB accredited online MBA available today. In fact, Kelley Direct is the only top 20 business school that offers an online MBA, online degree in finance, and online degree in global supply chain management.

I will talk about our faculty in more depth in a future post but one of the things that makes the Kelley School of Business so highly ranked in our top flight and award winning faculty. Kelley Direct courses are taught by Kelley faculty; the same faculty that teach in the Full-Time and Evening MBA programs.

We consider ourselves to be leaders in business education online, and over 800 students have already earned a Kelley degree through Kelley Direct. Check out this video if you want to learn more.