Backstage With Syracuse, Northeastern, Dayton & American Kogod’s Online MBA by: Nathan Allen on August 21, 2020 | | 518 Views August 21, 2020 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit Allen: Great, thanks, yeah. All great advice and good to know about the structures of these programs. So I wanna do a followup though on this, and for the students who do have a really demanding job, or personal life, when and how should they start framing these conversations with employers, with their spouses, with their families? Any advice on that side? And Amy, I’m gonna put you on the spot and start with you. McHale: Sure, I mean, I think that you really need to start to have those conversations with your employer and with your support network at home when you start to consider applying to schools, because it is gonna be a commitment. And I’m also really happy to see when our students do graduate, that they reach out and they thank their family, and their support network at graduation. We’ve been thankful that when we were holding graduation on campus, that roughly 50% of our online graduates would come to Syracuse for the ceremony, and oftentimes they were giving that shout out to family, or, “Hey, Amy, come take a picture with myself and my family because they’ve been so much a part of this journey.” So yeah, having those conversations early is important. And again, there is that flexibility, take the summer off and have that vacation with the family ’cause they wanna see the student as well. Allen: Yeah. Okay. And Brandon, how about at Northeastern? What are some things you think that students might not think of in terms of those conversations that they need to have early and often with employers and their personal connections? Bennings: Yeah, I couldn’t agree with what Amy said more, the flexibility of the program, definitely making sure you understand that if you have busy seasons at work, or if there’s demands that your employer’s gonna require of you, speak to your Student Services Advisor, that’s exactly what they’re there for, they’ll help you do that degree plan and make sure that you’re successful in the program. Again, we’re not looking to just have students admitted to the program, we want you to be successful, we want you to graduate, and we want you to represent Northeastern University very successfully, but it goes back to mutual fact-finding conversation that you’ll have with your enrollment advisor as well. So understanding, do you have enough time for the program, is your employer gonna be supportive, do they have a tuition reimbursement program that requires a certain grade, things like that, all things that are gonna set you up for success. And then, of course, the support system at home is very crucial. It’s not an easy thing to get an MBA, and having that in your back pocket is definitely gonna benefit you throughout the entire program, but speaking to your Student Services Advisor and game-planning that is crucial as well. Allen: Great, thanks. Scott, how about you, any advice to add to that? MacDonald: I’d say the place you start, just sit down with yourself and go through, ’cause as Brandon just said, it’s hard, it’s a commitment. There’s gonna be times it’s gonna be stressful, there’s gonna be times you’re gonna struggle, just because trying to maintain that work-life balance. And I’d say, once you get yourself to say, “You know what, this really is what I wanna do, I’m really committed to this,” then have the conversation with your family, and your support network, because they’re gonna need to be there for you and make sure that they understand there’s gonna be times that you can’t make it to volleyball games, soccer games, things of that nature. And you’ve gotta, again, balance things. And lastly, I’d talk to your employer because the reason you might be getting it might be, “You know what, I wanna get out of this place,” and some employers are gonna take it a little bit differently, but I’ve had students that went to their employer and said, “Hey, I’m getting my MBA,” and the employer was fully supportive and said, “Actually, I wanna help you. I wanna give you some opportunity for more responsibility, help you in your career, help you in things in your class, give you the time you need,” because they recognize it’s gonna be a benefit. But I would definitely say, have that conversation with yourself, then family, then work. Allen: Great, thanks. And Keshia, as the Director of Admissions, I’m sure this comes up quite a bit for you, what do you have in terms of advice for students? Ridley: Yeah, the one thing I guess I would add to this is, having those conversations earlier on, as far as like understanding what a support system is and what that might look like for you as an individual, is beneficial because sometimes students don’t actually think about that, they don’t realize that yes, they’re doing the program themselves, but they’re really not doing it alone. So once they start to have that conversation with their Admissions Counselor or their Student Success Advisor, it really helps them to think more about the commitment that they’re making, thus, really making them more prepared for the program and kinda managing those expectations better to ideally present a better, or a more successful outcome once they complete the program. So that would be what I would add in that regard. Allen: Great, thanks. All great advice. Brandon, so this next question is gonna come at you first. So one of the big things about the traditional full-time residential MBA program is the network that you build with your classmates and the connections that you make with your professors. What are some ways Northeastern has built in opportunities for that in terms of just really building those connections and professional personal network with classmates and professors? Bennings: Yeah, so this is a big question that as an online and enrollment adviser we receive all the time, is the networking capabilities lost with an online MBA? Definitely not. That’s a common myth, and I’m glad that we can put that to bed today. Northeastern University has over 235,000 distinguished alumni, and about 40,000 from the D’Amore-McKim School of Business. One great thing, I’m sure as other schools as well, that we’ve kind of spoke about, is having five years of full-time work experience with an average 10 years of full-time work experience in terms of students in your cohort, makes for incredible networking opportunities, to begin with. It being 100% online, and the fact that really you can do the program anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection and a computer, you’re seeing tons of different people from different walks of life, different countries, we really do have a global reach with our network, as well as our graduate Peer Services Advisor. So not only are they there to help you design a job search strategy, but they’re there to help you maintain and leverage your network, both once you’re placed in whatever career goal that you ultimately went for, or obviously if you move up within the company, or therefore, they’re there to help you maintain and leverage your network. But as an online student as well, it’s important to know you have all the same resources available as our on-campus students. So we have a Graduate Student Services invite to career expos, networking nights, typically held a month, once a month, pardon me. So definitely things that as an online student, you’re still able to take advantage of. Allen: Great. Scott, how about at Dayton? MacDonald: Actually, the joke around UD is if you’re ever in a meeting or a class or something, and you’re not paying attention, they ask a question, you don’t know the answer didn’t work ’cause you weren’t paying attention, just say community, and you’ll be right 80% of the time. And that was one of the things when we started our online MBA program, well, how do we create community, and how do we have engagement? Through our immersions and the design of the program, we actually have a higher engagement with our online students, with one another, and with the university, than our on-ground students. ‘Cause your on-ground students tend to just come in, take class, and go home, or go back to work. When you’re in an online world, like the way we offer it, a lot of times you’re in someone’s home, so when we have an immersion, people come, they see each other like, “Oh Nathan, oh my gosh, so great to see you. You’re taller than I thought. How’s your cat?” Because you’ll see the cats walk by, you see kids in the background doing this, dogs, so they know each other on a very personal level because you’re in home with one another. So it creates this different type of engagement that we found brings the students much more together. Allen: Great, thanks. I don’t have a cat, by the way, but. MacDonald: Beautiful mountains, though. McHale: We love your view. Allen: There we go. Keshia, what about in American, what are some things you all are doing to foster those connections with classmates and professors? Ridley: Sure, I certainly agree with Scott as far as that first time they see each other at immersions and based on the experience that they’ve had through the live session, and really knowing each other, and it’s like best friends reunited, even though they’ve never actually met in person. And so that component definitely comes with the online presence. And then even with the immersions, with ours being domestic and globally, not only are you sharing an academic experience together, you’re sharing a worldly or life experience with each other. So it really just kinda deepens the bonds that they are building with each other. As Brandon mentioned, our students also have full access to the Kogod network as a whole, and the AU community network as a whole. And so that really expands the opportunities that are there and the resources that are available, not only to our online students but the residential students. And then we have the platform that we use that really allows them to kinda connect further if they want to because as we are in a Zoom room now, they all have their personal Zoom rooms. So they have the opportunity to set up group chats, or study sessions. And our students will take advantage of that and kinda build those connections on their own outside of the classroom, as well as, again, most of our students are within the DMV area, but even for those students that are not, if they’re traveling for work and coming around, they might actually set up in-person meetings with each other, obviously pre-COVID, to where they’re having that opportunity, they’re going to Starbucks, and kinda having a group or study session there to really build that. I’ve seen some of the students graduating and leaving with best friends. And so they’re getting the academic component, they’re getting the networking opportunity, and they’re getting lifelong friendship and relationships, even though it is an online program. Allen: Great, thanks. Amy, it’s a huge, huge cohort that you all bring in, but then you get them into these smaller sections. So, what are some things you all do there? McHale: Absolutely, so again, I think we underestimate often the amount of networking that goes on in these small classes every week, right? You get on a little early and you chit chat back and forth, you understand what you have in common, you have a cat, or whatever the case might be. I think the residencies are just a wonderful opportunity to do this. And we typically, again, because of the size of our student body, like if we’re gonna have a residency on campus, let’s say, we might host 350 students in a weekend, but it’s over five or six different topic areas. And so you’re really engaging with that small group first, but then we create also lots of opportunities to move across the group. So we always have a welcome reception and a dinner where students can engage. Let’s say, Syracuse basketball is playing, we’ll say, “Hey, come to the basketball game, we’re all gonna go.” For our last immersion in March, we had set up small-group dinners that we were having people sign up for with SignUpGenius. So you could have just gone in not knowing anyone else, but say, “Hey, I wanna get to know nine or 10 other new people.” Unfortunately, we had to cancel that. We also, in our on-campus residencies, have always had an orientation track for newer students. So we try and encourage students in the first couple of terms to do that. And we usually cap it at 40 students, or thereabout, so we’re really trying to get them to know one another, and we do a lot of networking exercises, and we bring in current students, and alums, to talk about how do you network from day one? And so I do feel that our students have probably a much better network than our student body on campus, because, first of all, they’re more experienced and they have a lot more professional networking experience, but I think we just give them so many opportunities to build upon it. Previous Page Continue ReadingPage 3 of 4 1 2 3 4 Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.