The 2012 Student Exit Benchmarking Survey, which was designed to investigate the investment-worthiness and quality of various EMBA programs, unveiled that the EMBA graduates of 2012 saw a 17.3 percent increase in their salaries—from the beginning to the end of their EMBA programs.

The average compensation package for graduates, which was initially $140,587 at the start of their EMBA program, increased to $164,845 upon completing their EMBA programs. In 2011, students saw similar results, increasing their salaries by 16.3 percent after graduation.

The 2012 Surveyors included 3,072 students from 98 different EMBA programs in the U.S.

While EMBAs can give you the tools to climb up the ladder in the professional world and hopefully gain a higher salary, remember that not all EMBA programs should be treated the same.

That said, here are essential factors that you should consider before deciding on a particular EMBA program:

• Quality of Curriculum
• Quality of Teaching Methods: Lectures, effectiveness, etc.
• Quality of Faculty

Do as much research as you can so that you can properly evaluate your EMBA program of choice. The internet is a good place to start for teacher biographies and credentials as well as review sites from pervious sites—but don’t depend on these resources too much. Sometimes you have to really dig and get your feet wet to really see whether the EMBA program you’re looking into is really right for you.

For example, a really smart way to go about your research is to see if you can get in touch with a current student or alumni to get their personal opinion on the program—does he or she recommend you enroll in the program or run for the hills?

You can also see if you can audit the class, so you can get a firsthand account of how the instructor teaches and interacts with the class. The is the best way to determine if you like the way your instructor(s) teach and if the program is a good fit for you.

Kate Willson is a freelance education writer that covers everything from traditional to alternative learning programs. She welcomes your comments.

Read more at: EMBA ranking 2012 – Financial Times

I open up the discussion on any thoughts or opinions on the sad state of affairs in how times have changed. Here are some questions you can ponder.

Should corporations even get a deduction for employee education?

Should corporations get a larger deduction or given the debt crisis this is one deduction the nation can afford to lose?

Given the mobility of our economy why should corporations be stuck with a bill given the employee could seek employment elsewhere after graduation?

Why is education becoming so expensive and with a drop in sponsorship programs and potential risk in cuts in backing student loans, what could ultimately happen to our state of affairs?

1. Public vs. Private:

One of the biggest differences when it comes to education costs in the United States is whether or not a school is public or private. Public schools receive money from taxpayers and additional government funding in order to stay running. This is why public school tuition rates are so much lower than private school rates. Look into whether or not the schools you are considering are public or private institutions. You could save a large amount on tuition by looking at similar programs at public schools, rather than private schools.

2. Online vs. Traditional:

There are three main types of schools that offer online degrees: schools that are completely online, schools that are mainly online but also offer campus courses at various locations, and schools that started as traditional universities but now also offer online courses. Schools that are completely online have the lowest amount of overhead and can charge much less than the schools that need to maintain campuses. Don’t disregard an inexpensive program just because it seems like the more you pay, the better your education will be. Online schools charge less because they can, not necessarily because their degree programs are less valid.

3. Technology Costs

If you are looking into schools that are just starting out in online education, you may end up paying more than you should, because you are also covering the costs of those universities’ integration of the necessary technology into their current curriculum. Also, figure out if there is tons of money being spent on new technology for some disciplines, while others remain overlooked. Make sure you are putting money into a school that is also putting money back into your program.

4. Course Materials and Student Fees

Course materials and students fees are not always factored in to the tuition rates advertised by many online schools. Traditional universities tend to list tuition costs that cover everything you will need to study at that institution, including living expenses, while many online universities simply provide base tuition rates. Make sure to do your research and look into how much course materials ad technology fees will run you for your online MBA program before comparing costs.

By-line:

Alvina Lopez is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/. She welcomes your comments at her email: alvina.lopez@gmail.com.

• You are looking to study an MBA program at one of the world’s best business schools
• You are interested in talking directly with admissions officers from the most prestigious B-Schools
• You would like to take or improve your GMAT score
• You would like to meet Ivy League MBA Alumni who can give you advice on their MBA experience
• You are interested in MBA scholarship opportunities and funding advice
• You would like to know what career opportunities are available after your MBA

In selected cities MBA Alumni Panel from Wharton, Harvard, Columbia and Stanford hosted by Admit Advantage

CLick here to see the QS MBA Tour Schedule: World MBA Tour Comes to North America

What are the top ten reasons to attend business school and consider the option of the Executive MBA? Does it have to do with a global debt crisis or something else in the macro economy or more personal like career growth and job strength? For example, the context of Greek debt may seem remote from New York City, London, Beijing, or wherever you may sit, but its implications are far reaching in this increasingly connected global marketplace and may impact your company or more directly your lifestyle, more than you may think. Government policy, the business community, your employer, your competitors, and you are not immune to such impact. Where else can this be fully grasped than through an MBA?

The Executive MBA is a learning model to deliver coursework over a two-year period while not disrupting fulltime employment. Nearly 300 schools worldwide offer an accredited EMBA. The disciplined education is organized in a lock-step progression with your schoolmates over a twenty-four month period. The reasons to attend an EMBA are significant and below are the top ten to consider by EMBA World.

Top Ten Reasons to Attend an Executive MBA

10. Highly Practical Rather Than Just Theoretical

The Executive MBA is hands-on business training. The course work, the projects, and even the case studies are real life scenarios with real time application. By definition, the EMBA is designed for working professionals with a minimum of seven years work experience. Five of those years should be managerial level. It is highly likely that a case study on going IPO or the devaluation of a currency or any other business fundamental has already been experienced by your classmates. As we say at EMBA World, the best time to return to business school is after you’ve experienced successes and failures in the work place. Only then does one have the professional resources to take theory into practice. And only then are you prepared to contribute to the class discussions.

9. Network with Classmates

Job dissatisfaction is high. The middle manager squeeze is on full time. More work, higher cost of living, less compensation when adjusted to inflation. Some of your fellow students will be looking to change careers. Others may be looking for opportunities. The alumni network is one thing but the class networking is another. Your fellow students have hiring authority or connections to an inner circle that may enable you to tap into hidden resources.  Your peers will experience first hand how you interact with others, gauge if you are team player, and determine if can make a good impression.

8. Residency Programs

Most Executive MBA programs offer a residency and often the case these are held internationally. Georgetown University holds lessons in London, Fordham University teaches classes in Beijing, Wharton to South America, you get the idea. A residency is more than just a group project but the opportunity to learn outside of the brick and mortar campus. Indeed most EMBA programs are held at executive conference centers and a semester or two may include course work overseas. How does this make for a better education? Learning about the airline manufacturing industry at Boeing headquarters with employees is far different than  from a text book or case study.

7. Hermetic Study Environment with Top Professors

The student body is comprised of highly motivated business professionals. They have elected to return to school and the motivating factor is not to make more money but for the love of learning. Combined, the classroom becomes a sealed environment of intellectual discourse. Professors compete to teach the EMBA class. They know first hand that this is a special group of individuals and that teaching to experienced professionals with successful careers is a far cry from teaching young minds that have not been fully shaped yet for the business world.

6. Accommodates Works Life with School Life and Family

Let’s face it, not everyone can stop working for two years to attend business school. The option is simply not open to a majority of people with careers and family considerations. The EMBA is designed and structured to accommodate this lifestyle.  The rigors of the education are no different than with a traditional MBA but coursework and class schedule is designed to meet those professional and personal needs.  Classes are typically held one or twice a month over an entire weekend or during week long schedules every six or eight weeks. The EMBA calls for sacrifices and taps into vacation time, but this tends to be a trade off easily accepted when one’s career is on the line.

5. Provides Credibility and Credentials

A doctor knows medicine, a lawyer knows law, and an MBA brings to the table a degree of respect and foundation of business knowledge. An MBA does distinguish you from those without the degree and does provide a discreet set of skills that only comes from the classroom. EMBA World strongly advises applicants to consider that one’s success in life is mainly independent from having the degree or the institution that it came from, however, the practical and theoretical lessons and practical experience can take you further along your career path.

4. Thinking Critically and Applying a Business Mind Set

From Porter’s Five Forces to Taylor’s Scientific Management, an MBA will get you thinking critically on how to view the marketplace and your company’s position in this marketplace. The EMBA will hone your business writing skills, integrate the poet side of you with the quantitative side, and emphasize leadership with crisis management. Thinking like a business professional starts with base theory then applied to practice. The education and training will open your eyes and get you thinking on how to solve business problems on a grander scale than you posses today.

3. Understand Business Statements

Unless you are a CPA, knowing how to read a financial statement can serve as a competitive advantage. The Executive MBA does not turn you into an accountant but does break down cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements to help you understand the significance that is essential for a business manager. By interpreting the meaning behind the numbers will help you identify the strengths and weakness of the business plan and the organization’s overall operating environment. These are practical skills that will help move you and your company along.

2. Apply Lessons from the EMBA Directly to Work

Ask any graduate to share an “Aha” moment in business school and most likely you too will become inspired.  Working with Beijing MBA students, my class developed a go to market strategy for a computer company. Their goal of reaching Fortune 500 by the end of the decade was ambitious and the road map we wrote as the project thesis was taken seriously.  Indeed, it seemed like the Wall Street Journal had dictated our entire business plan. We delivered a paper, a market analysis presentation, and defended our thesis to a board of computer executives. The clock rolls forward five years later and our go to market strategy is being implemented. The same is true for the class work and case studies we learn in school and take back to the work place. The EMBA is the purest form of practical business education.

1. The Love of Learning

Choose the Executive MBA not to run the next Fortune 100, but attend for the love of learning. Two years of your life is significant and coupled with the high cost of the education makes the endeavor much more meaningful and the education more enjoyable if its to for the love of learning. There can only be 100 CEOs for the Fortune 100 but for the rest of us, there must be higher aspirations. Whenever we present to audiences and speak to aspiring students, we always emphasize that the Executive MBA is to satisfy an intellectual desire not to simply make the million-dollar salary.

About EMBA World 

EMBA World is a New York City-based organization dedicated to helping employees and employers understand options regarding graduate level business education and in particular the Executive MBA. Jason A. Price, MS, MBA, is Director of EMBA World and author of The Insider’s Guide to the Executive MBA (2011).  Jason is a frequent speaker to media on graduate business education issues and publishes industry articles periodically on the subject. The Insider’s Guide can be found at online bookstores or at  www.EmbaWorld.com. You can reach Jason A. Price at Jason@embaworld.com.

“We didn’t want all of that work to simply end up in the professor’s filing cabinet,” said Austin Cline,
one of the group’s members. “We knew that Habitat for Humanity Hillsborough needed help and we
wanted to contribute to their mission.”

The team consisted of first year Executive MBA students Sarah Arnold, Austin Cline, Andre
Kirwan, Tighe Sefcik and Bob Woerner. Together they developed a plan that centered around 28
recommendations focusing on four key units of the non-profit: the ReStore, Donors, General Awareness
and Operations.

“The goal of our plan was to raise awareness of the organization and drive sales in the organization’s
ReStore,” said team member Bob Woerner. The ReStore accepts donations of new and used furniture, flooring, cabinets, Tools, Paint, Plumbing and
a number of other items that are then refurbished and resold to consumers and businesses at affordable
prices. The profits are then put back into operations and projects with which Habitat Hillsborough is
involved.

The team members individually interviewed executives within
the organization to gain insight into the operations. Since
Arnold was the only member with a significant degree of
familiarity, the rest of the team members visited the various
facilities several times to get an idea of how they operated.

The group split up the work according to their professional
specialties. Arnold provided all of the preliminary information
about the organization and orchestrated all of the meetings with
staff. Kirwan’s background in the financial industry allowed
him to deal efficiently with fundraising and donor efforts. Woerner dealt with internal process and
software, and Cline and Sefcik concentrated on the “guts” of the project as well as the overall strategy
focus.

After enduring sleepless nights, countless hours of compiling data, and juggling personal, professional,
and academic responsibilities, the effort finally paid off. The presentation to marketing professor Paul
Solomon was a success, but the group members were not sure that gaining an audience with decision
makers at Habitat Hillsborough to present their findings would be as simple a task.

Fortunately the team had a secret weapon. Sarah Arnold’s position as the head of the construction department at Habitat Hillsborough gave the team
the opening that they needed to persuade the CEO and his colleagues to listen to the group present their
findings. Through her connections the team was able to gain access to aspects of the organization that
only an insider could.

“Sarah could give us unfettered access to the staff and other pertinent material that would have been much
more difficult to obtain,” said Cline. As the project progressed, Arnold was working behind the scenes to secure a meeting with the CEO Brian
Hastings, Board Chairman Rob Martin, and Retail Director Kent Bell. It turned out that the executives
were as eager to hear what the team had to offer as the team was to present to them.

“At their request, Sarah provided them with copies of the main document,” said group member Tighe
Sefcik. “They then requested to meet with us to discuss our findings and ask follow-up questions
regarding our analysis and action plans.”

The team organized a meeting outside of class to go back over the original presentation that they had
given in class. Tweaks were made to shift the focus from presenting for a grade to presenting a plan to a
group of executives that were interested in potentially incorporating the concepts into the organization’s
actual marketing plan.

Arnold opened the presentation with a summary of the group’s objectives and an overview of the topics
that they would present. The rest of the members took turns, each presenting a different section of
material to the panel. The response was very enthusiastic.

“Our presentation drove a lot of discussion and it became very interactive and was very well received,”
said Sefcik. “They talked about making our plan a working document, which they would market the
business around in the future.”

Funding for non-profits can sometimes prove difficult to acquire. The development of a marketing plan
can be too time consuming and costly a project to undertake and is not always feasible, especially to
produce a workable plan with the care and expertise that the students put into their project.

“Based on the feedback, our plan will become their operating marketing plan,” said Cline. “They really
didn’t have one prior to this.”

The combination of the knowledge that the students gained while involved in the marketing course and
the years of professional experience that each offered allowed the students to turn their project into a
working marketing plan for a respected non-profit organization. Not only did the success confirm the
validity of their findings, but it provided the hope that their efforts would help raise awareness of the
work that is being done by Habitat Hillsborough and bring joy and hope to other’s lives along the way.

This article was brought to EMBA World by its author Anthony Gaenzle writes for the University of Southern Florida Executive MBA. You can learn more at: http://business.usf.edu/programs/emba/

EACH year, the Financial Times (FT) creates an interactive guide to the world’s best executive MBA (EMBA) programmes. Its headline figures are the result of a weighted formula – average alumnus salary contends with diversity indices and career progress rankings — and schools make proud use of these findings in their marketing. Described as a list of the “best management programmes available”, it is a useful tool for applicants to find the right EMBA.