Hopkins' Carey Business school - Is it worth going?

[Sean de Canton]

I'm applying to Hopkins' Carey business school right now and I'm wondering if anyone out there has gone there or has known anyone who has.

I heard that Carey is not yet accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and I'm wondering if that's a big deal.

Does the school efficiently network to Baltimore/Maryland employers? In other words, will Carey grads be able to get a good job once graduating? Or should they go elsewhere for an MBA?

Can any Carey grads out there chime in??? Thanks.

[slapshot]

I'm applying to Hopkins' Carey business school right now and I'm wondering if anyone out there has gone there or has known anyone who has.

I heard that Carey is not yet accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and I'm wondering if that's a big deal.

Does the school efficiently network to Baltimore/Maryland employers? In other words, will Carey grads be able to get a good job once graduating? Or should they go elsewhere for an MBA?

Can any Carey grads out there chime in??? Thanks.

I have no connection to that program, but my oldest son, and a number of his buddies are in business programs at various schools (ie, UPENN, Chicago and Michigan), and a reoccurring theme I hear from them is - go to a program that has a strong reputation in the area you want to foucus in, while getting your MBA. For example, there's no way I would choose Hopkins for an MBA if you were intereded in finance.

But ultimately, it depends what other programs you get into, and what options you have. Just because you apply and get accepted to a place, doesn't mean you have to go there.

[michael.jc]

Hi Sean,
I'm an Admissions Officer at Carey and I'd be glad to to answer your questions about these things. Also I can help get you in contact with current students an alumni. Just email me at michael.cuneo(a)jhu.edu

Michael

[Troubadour]

You could choose Johns Hopkins as your safety school. Hehehehehe....

[SK1985]

Those are good questions and as a current Carey student (graduating in May 2013), I can honestly say that the Johns Hopkins name carries a tremendous amount of weight. HBS, Chicago, Columbia have a great tradition of producing amazing great MBA graduates, but they have been around for a very long time. Given that all of Johns Hopkins schools (engineering, medicine, international studies, etc.) are globally ranked, I am incredibly confident that Carey will be among the best business schools as well…..but we are too young to be ranked right now.

The AACSB accreditation has not been an issue at all for me. No recruiter or employer asked about it because at the end of the day Carey is a part of Johns Hopkins, a university with a tradition of excellence.

With that being said, this has been my experience:

(i) I come from a background where I worked with bulge bracket investment firms
(ii) Landed a temporary position (6 months) with a bulge bracket firm while at Carey Business School
(iii) Have been fielding calls regarding positions within the range of $140k - $200k

Everything which I just stated is likely the same which MBA students from HBS, Columbia, Chicago, Yale, etc. will tell you about their experience. Undoubtedly, it all boils down to you as a person, student, and a potential candidate for future employers.

So, what makes Carey different? I would say the diversity of the students, the opportunity to study/work abroad for nearly a month, and to take part in a project where you take a product from inception to market. Being a part of a growing business school is also very exciting and I have found all of the students to be incredibly helpful. I truly believe that I am a byproduct of an education system which is routinely refining itself in an effort to catapult itself among the best.

[JohnGlen]

Current student here.

Your question is very opened ended... Will Hopkins Carey lead to"a good job"? As long as you put yourself out there, of course it will. In what industry are you working? Are you looking to stay there, or to change careers? What is your ideal position upon graduation? Are you looking for a full time or part time program? I think those types of questions should drive your decisions about B-school.

My experience so far (half way through and coming from an ivy league background) has left me very impressed by the program. The students and faculty are dedicated to the school's unique mission and committed to seeing it succeed, and to have that success mirrored in the rankings. Hopkins U ranks just outside of the 10 globally, and higher than many Ivy league schools. In the years to come, I think we can expect the Carey school to rise accordingly.

Re AACSB accreditation, it has honestly never come up with any of the employers with whom I've interacted, and it's not a preoccupation of the students, nor the faculty. The reality is that you need a full time program to get AACSB accred and the first cohorts of that newly created program have just started getting out into the workforce. So, the school is in that process. I do work in healthcare and needed a part-time program, but I also chose Hopkins Carey over a number of other AACSB accredited schools - Georgetown and Cornell, to be specific - and I think AACSB should be the last reason to choose a different program.

Hopkins has opened doors for me in the healthcare field that I'm convinced an MBA from a place like NYU or Columbia simply wouldn't have. But with all things MBA, it's just a foot in the door, and there are many more students at Harvard who want to work for Google or McKinsey than there are offers made to those students. That is to say, reputation and your network isn't a golden ticket to anything.

[The Eternal White Belt]

Since everyone who has posted in this thread (except for a few) has only one post (including the OP) can we just go ahead and label this thread as a blatant ad for the business school? I mean, it's pretty damn obvious at this point. This thread should probably be removed, right?

Notice how everyone titled their responses? No one does that.

Each response reads like brochure for the school.

[JohnGlen]

re: The Eternal White Belt

I'll just say that just because some posts may read like ads (which they don't, in my opinion), it shouldn't lead you to believe they are calculated in any way. Carey students are excited about their program and the direction in which their school is moving. Why should you be surprised when they voice that enthusiasm on forums like this one?

All the best.

[The Eternal White Belt]

I'm surprised that multiple people came to this site within a short time period, took the time to register, write a review of the school, and then disappear into the night. That's generally not what happens on forums.

[JohnGlen]

That's an understandable suspicion.

I can't speak to the other posters, but I'm a big fan of Google Alerts and I have one set up for Carey, so when there are new web pages, or blog posts, or forums that mention "Johns Hopkins Carey", I get an email about it. I do it to keep up with new developments at the school and current conversations that are happening (like this one).

That's how I stumbled upon this question, and being a fan of the program, I thought I'd register and reply. Otherwise I've never been on the Baltimore Sun site before. I suspect that's how others stumbled upon it as well??

[The Eternal White Belt]

Yeah... Sure.

[JohnGlen]

Can't win 'em all. Thanks for the chuckle. All the best.

[atomic]

Everyone I have worked with who had an MBA from that program has been a total idiot. Why aren't they accredited still? This program has been around for a while. There lack of accreditation says all you need to know.

[SK1985]

FYI - I labeled my post (this is for the guy who stated that no one labels their posts...clearly I'm no forum expert since I have better things to do with my life than learn how to write on informal forums).

To the person who said that this is an 'ad' for Carey. If people making positive comments comes off to you like an 'ad' ..... I think it's time for you to revisit your thought process. Clearly, I'm no forum expert and am probably wrong.

To the same person making the comment that people disappear after making a comment is a clear sign that this is an 'ad' for Carey. Dude....I have better things to do with my life than to go back and forth with you over forums. I go to school, interact with industry experts, engage with people 'in person', and have a girlfriend. I'm pretty sure I will 'disappear' again after I make this comment and may not come back for another week.

To the person stating that he knows a Carey MBA who is an idiot: You are probably right. Not 100% of the students from even the best business / medical / engineering, etc. schools will be smart. Idiots are among us all the time. FYI - Check your grammar and sentence fragments homie. You're coming off like an idiot too so I'm not sure if you'd be a good judge of the Carey grad. Consult with the person I mentioned above....he probably knows more about forum etiquettes than me since he hasn't invested in a real human relationship.

To everyone else: Carey is a great school and the hiccups are there since it is brand spanking new. With that being said, I would go through the program again since I was able to make the connections, gain the prestige, get the job I wanted, etc.

FYI - I will probably disappear after making this post since I have a real life to live.

[atomic]

FYI - I labeled my post (this is for the guy who stated that no one labels their posts...clearly I'm no forum expert since I have better things to do with my life than learn how to write on informal forums).

To the person who said that this is an 'ad' for Carey. If people making positive comments comes off to you like an 'ad' ..... I think it's time for you to revisit your thought process. Clearly, I'm no forum expert and am probably wrong.

To the same person making the comment that people disappear after making a comment is a clear sign that this is an 'ad' for Carey. Dude....I have better things to do with my life than to go back and forth with you over forums. I go to school, interact with industry experts, engage with people 'in person', and have a girlfriend. I'm pretty sure I will 'disappear' again after I make this comment and may not come back for another week.

To the person stating that he knows a Carey MBA who is an idiot: You are probably right. Not 100% of the students from even the best business / medical / engineering, etc. schools will be smart. Idiots are among us all the time. FYI - Check your grammar and sentence fragments homie. You're coming off like an idiot too so I'm not sure if you'd be a good judge of the Carey grad. Consult with the person I mentioned above....he probably knows more about forum etiquettes than me since he hasn't invested in a real human relationship.

To everyone else: Carey is a great school and the hiccups are there since it is brand spanking new. With that being said, I would go through the program again since I was able to make the connections, gain the prestige, get the job I wanted, etc.

FYI - I will probably disappear after making this post since I have a real life to live.

It isn't accredited. What more do you need to say? And it isn't cheap either. Why would someone go to an expensive unaccredited school? Doesn't make sense. Unless that is the only place that would admit them. There are 509 business colleges accredited in the USA and Canada I think that is where I would start looking for a school to attend.

[Shell Beach]

It isn't accredited. What more do you need to say? And it isn't cheap either. Why would someone go to an expensive unaccredited school? Doesn't make sense. Unless that is the only place that would admit them. There are 509 business colleges accredited in the USA and Canada I think that is where I would start looking for a school to attend.

Let's put it this way. Among local schools, Morgan State is AACSB accredited. Which would look better on a resume: Johns Hopkins or Morgan State?

[The Eternal White Belt]

Depends on the program, honestly. I don't know anything about either MBA program, so I couldn't say.

[Shell Beach]

Depends on the program, honestly. I don't know anything about either MBA program, so I couldn't say.

Assuming you were responding to me, I don't think that anyone could honestly say that a Morgan State degree would ever be preferable to a Johns Hopkins degree, regardless of the program.

[atomic]

Let's put it this way. Among local schools, Morgan State is AACSB accredited. Which would look better on a resume: Johns Hopkins or Morgan State?

I think you are assuming that people hiring MBA's have no idea about the value of a school mba program and are just thinking they see the hopkins name and value that. I think you would be mistaken. If you want a quality MBA you can get one from University of Maryland. They have a program in Baltimore. It is rated top 50 in the country. You might have to actually study long and hard on you gmat to get in but there is no doubt you would have a degree that means something. Georgetown and George Washington also have highly rated programs.

I just looked at the Johns Hopkins admissions site and it says you can get a waiver of taking the gmat. What a joke.

[SK1985]

Accreditation: Not one recruiter has asked me about this. Probably because it doesn't mean much when they hire people that graduate from Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins (regardless of the program) is thought of very highly.

Why are you so concerned about this particular topic? Would a AACSB accreditation make your education experience better? Do you think you will get more employers looking at you?

It is Johns Hopkins.......I am very confident that they have been incredibly successful at creating world class programs without any of your help and I am sure that they know what they are doing with the business school. The overall university was ranked incredibly highly on a global level years before you were born and I will go ahead and let them handle this particular 'issue' as well.

To all of the people giving their opinion about this 'issue': Unless you work for AACSB or have 20+ years of experience in academia, please don't speculate about the importance of it. The school won't have a magic wand waved over it once JHU applies for and gains the accreditation. The school doesn't want to focus on this right now because it is busy working on making the overall experience for the students and faculty better. They want to set it up so that when they do apply for and gain the accreditation, they are ranked in the top 25. Now....let's hear all the naysayers tell me how JHU will never be top 25.....

FYI - I've been on this forum twice in one week. I feel like I am now neglecting my girlfriend. It's ok...forums are more important that her, right??