Reprinted from the Texas A&M University-Commerce website
(Commerce)—GetEducated.Com, America's consumer-oriented, online
degree clearinghouse, has released the results of its nationwide survey of
tuition costs at AACSB-accredited, distance-learning and online MBA degree
programs—with Texas A&M University-Commerce ranking third nationwide.
The survey of 130 distance learning master's revealed online students nationwide may pay as little as $5,598 or as much as $115,700. A&M-Commerce online MBA students pay $10,455, while other Texan colleges average $18,735.
According to GetEducated.com, which has been featured in Newsweek, Wired, Wall
Street Journal, Fortune and LA Weekly, the overall
tuition and fees charged for distance learning MBAs remained fairly stable
from fall 2003 to fall 2005.
Among the 130 accredited degrees surveyed by the website, the average cost
for a regionally accredited MBA is $14,486 while AACSB-accredited programs
command a higher mean price of $27,644.
"With 16 of the top 25 AACSB-accredited distance MBA programs originating
from southern universities, the South is online education's prime MBA provider," says
Vicky Phillips, GetEducated.com's founder. "There seems to have been a
bit of an educational explosion."
The A&M-Commerce MBA program is AACSB-accredited, a hallmark of excellence
in management education.
"Our graduates are highly successful in business and industry," says
Dr. Jerry Parish, associate dean at A&M-Commerce's College of Business
and Technology. "They compete very well in the job market with candidates
from more expensive programs.
"We have been able to balance and deliver a high-quality MBA program with
reasonable costs. The recognition by GedEducated.com is a great accomplishment,
and one we have worked hard to achieve," Parish says.
The university is also one of the few in the area to obtain the prestigious
accreditation, which is based on quality of its program and its experienced
faculty.
Phillips says because consumers and employers tend to favor "backyard
brands," namely colleges whose names are known to them and which tend
to operate within their immediate geographic region, an exceptionally strong
regional market exists for colleges who export their degrees online to local
residents and residents of neighboring states.
She noted that while for-profit players continued to expand, the cost of
attending for-profit colleges continued to exceed the national average.
Consumers can explore their options by downloading GetEducated.com's 2006
free guidebook to accredited online business and management degrees.
GetEducated.com was founded in 1989 and operates the Diploma Mill Police,
a free online degree accreditation verification service designed to protect
online degree seekers from fraud.
Students pursuing the A&M-Commerce online MBA will build expertise in business
administration and in areas such as finance, accounting, economics and marketing.
Call A&M-Commerce toll free at (866) 622-3899 to find out how to earn an
MBA.