Posts from — April 2009

I spent this past Saturday at the Harvard Negotiation and Leadership Conference.

If you weren’t one of the over 300 people at the conference, you missed out.

I’m going to post a more detailed review in the next few days, but I was very impressed by the quality of the conference and the discussions among the speakers.

Andre convinced some very notable names to attend the conference and give presentations and it’s clear that the audience enjoyed the opportunity to ask them questions.

What’s even more impressive is that this conference represented the first inter-school arranged conference. Both Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School cooperated with Andre Bisasor at the Harvard Extension School to make this conference a reality.

My opinion is that this event symbolizes how HES participates as a full member of the Harvard academic community. I think we need many more such examples.

When I started this blog, my stated purpose for completing my undergraduate degree was to get a credential that I needed to attend graduate school. Now that I’m essentially done with the ALB program (I walk at June commencement) I’m finding that it’s a little more difficult to choose a program than I initially thought.

One of the problems that I face, and I’m sure that others face is one of resources: time and money. Another concern is the desire for flexibility in how the actual classes are delivered. There are a lot of distance/part-time options out there but they vary in quality very widely.

Initially, I was thinking about Columbia’s CVN program for a Master’s degree in Computer Science. The problem with this is the fact that EACH class costs a little over $4000. The classes are delivered on-line and there is no residency requirement.

Another option is the Part-time MBA from UMass-Amherst. It’s also delivered completely online and a relative bargain. The whole program of 37 credits will only cost a about 26K. That’s a big savings over the cost of about $45K for the MS at Columbia.

Then there is a third option: the ALM-M program at HES. It requires 12 classes, but each class is only about $2K. Not only is that a little less expensive than the pMBA program, but it’s a tad more attractive since it appears there is some evidence that they will be increasing the admissions requirements. This can only benefit the program. It’s a unique idea, since the Harvard Business School already offers a (very prestigious) MBA at a very expensive 46K per year (and you require two years). It appears that it is a bit MBA-like, with some other coursework thrown in to make the program a bit more tailored for someone who isn’t necessarily on track to be a CEO but wants to add to their management/leadership skill-set.

I’m still trying to decide and it isn’t fun. Whatever choice I make, I’m going to incur some opportunity cost.

I need to think long and hard about this.