Now that the fall term is formally over, I can draw the line for my first term in part-time MBA program at George Washington University School of Business (GWSB). It has been rather interesting learning experience.
I had some classes that really grabbed my interest, such as Microeconomics, Decision Making. There was a subject that made me shiver all the time, namely Financial Accounting. Business Ethics was OK, with some brighter spots when I learned interesting background facts of the stories that made national headlines in the very recent past.
I had some great instructors, some good ones and one I would not want to take another class with. I learned the importance of asking around in advance about other classmates’ experiences with other professors in other classes, so I could at least try to avoid the bad learning experiences. It is not always easy or even possible, but well worth trying.
It has been very time-demanding and time-consuming endevour. The last three weeks, after the short Thanksgiving recess, have been especially intense for me. Mostly because I had two quantitative classes at the same time, and quants have always been a challenging domain for me. So preparation for the finals and the demands of the starting holiday season have collided into a very stressful mixture.
During the term, and actually from the time of starting preparation for the MBA, I have been keeping my log of expenses related to this process. To give future part-time MBA students idea about financial and other demands of part-time MBA program I am going to give a peek into my personal statistics related to part-time MBA program. Of course, it would have to be adjusted for every personal circumstances, but overall it will give you a representative snapshot of resources and efforts involved into getting the MBA degree part-time.
So here is my rundown of the results for the first MBA program term:
Academics
- Completed total of 5 classes, 1.5 credits each
- Accrued total of 7.5 credits towards my 52.5 credits required for graduation
- Maintained 3.06 GPA
Financials
Direct costs:
- Tuition and fees – $9,071
- Purchase of textbooks – $428
- Tuition covered by scholarship -$3,624
- Costs covered by accrued student’s loan – $5,500
- Direct costs paid out of pocket – $375
Incidentals and other indirect costs:
- Parking – $155
- Gas – $111
- Laptop & software – $970
- Total incidentals paid out of pocket – $1,236
Time & effort
- Required reading – over 1500 pages
- Time in class – 85 hours
- Commute time – 38 hours
- Time spend on preparartion for classes and exams – well over 200 hours, but no exact data, as I eventually lost track of it
As they say in legal disclaimers: “every effort has been made to provide accurate account of bla-bla-bla… Your results may differ due to many variables … bla-bla-bla”.
And of course, I wish Merry Christmas to everyone who cares.
