Colorado State University - College of Business

The College of Business at Colorado State University offers a solid mid-tier program for an “an amazing value” at a well-respected institution that is ideal for working students looking to progress or diversify their careers. There are multiple program options for career advancement (including Online, Professional, and Early Career), and eight-week classes terms, scheduling flexibility, online courses, and course layout all add to forward-thinking approach to the education model we move into an increasingly digital world. “I would not have been able to pursue an MBA had the option of online education not been available,” says a student. Courses are “fast-paced and challenging” and provide a wealth of applicable skills for students to immediately begin putting into practice, and the staff in general is “very helpful and enthusiastic” about students’ education.

The “go at your own pace” curriculum is lock-step, where each class builds on previous classes, and student admit that some of the classes can be extremely time intensive in terms of heavy reading and multiple assignments on top of class hours. Professors all have real world experience and “have experienced a magnitude of business success in their respective fields.” Thanks to the staggering diversity of the students in any given class (both in-person and online), faculty makes sure that “there is a lot of insight as to how topics are handled in specific industries.” “We have very lively discussions in our classes,” says a student.

Online students have access to the same lectures as on-campus students (these can be attended live, or downloaded at a later date), but a few say that there is a “lack of resources and help for distance MBA students.” “While I have had some interaction with a couple professors, typically the only interaction online students have is with their assigned Teacher ’s Assistant, called Section Coordinators or SCs,” says one student (do note that “section coordinators are knowledgeable and helpful”). In addition, the distance students tend to represent much more of a variable in terms of devotion to the studies, so “random group assignments are often a gamble and it can be nerve wracking.” Still, the program “does a good job of connecting us through discussion forums and group projects, and making us feel like we’re part of the university.”

Most of the students in both the online and on-campus programs already have jobs, so the school places less of a focus on traditional career services. “This is a very good program, especially for working professionals,” says an older student. “Being in an envi- ronment of other working professionals, as opposed to people in their early 20s, has also been a very helpful and satisfying part of my experience so far.” The career center staff is “attentive” to requests and “giving of their time”—“We even practiced online interview- ing,” one student tells us—and while the large career fairs they host are catered toward undergraduates, MBAs “are treated individually to the networking opportunities that the CSU staff can provide.” There is even a one credit career management staff that is “stellar, and is appropriate and valuable for on campus as well as online students.”

Many of the “very intelligent and hardworking students” here are well into their careers and have families, so the professional program tends to skew older (in the 30-45 range). The popular online MBA program is understandably quite different, and interaction between the two groups is limited to “lively” in-class discussions (on both the virtual and real space sides) and group work. Many students are in the military and work full- time, and professors understand that “you have a job/family/life and they bend over backward to accommodate that.”