My
Heriot-Watt MBA by Distance Learning Experience
Tim Dotson - MBA 1998
DeBary,
FL
tim@timdotson.com
I put this
document together to help prospective students of Heriot-Watt University’s MBA
program by distance learning. If you are considering the HWMBA, I hope this
information will help you make a good decision.
It's a long
document. I assume you want to know whatever information I think is worth
sharing. As I get new questions and remember more things, I'll add to this
page.
My claim to Heriot-Watt fame is simple: I have finished their MBA
program by distance learning. While that isn’t quite on par with winning a Nobel
Prize or curing cancer, it is something that apparently few people have
accomplished, or at least few whom I’ve heard about. Consequently, I get quite a
few E-mails from prospective students who want to ask questions of a real, live
HWMBA graduate. I always feel guilty banging off terse answers from work instead
of more thoughtful replies, so this page will be a bit better organized and
presented, I hope.
Please e-mail me if
you have questions I haven’t answered here, or if something isn’t clear. I don’t
have any connection with the University or its agents, so you can expect honest
answers.
Note: technically, I’m not an MBA yet. You can tell, because if I
were, you'd see it proudly listed after my name! I finished the nine required
courses, but the degree isn’t official until the University Senate votes to
award me the degree (one of those quaint, somewhat annoying UK policies - what
kind of voting can they be doing, anyway??) So, until that happens after
graduation in July 1998, I am just a "sort of" graduate, what HW calls a
"graduand." I never heard of "graduand" until I became one.
Update 1: August
1998
Note: Forget the above note. I finished the HWMBA! See
the update at the bottom of this page.
Update 2: January
1999
I changed jobs, and the HWMBA played a key role. See the second
update below.
Update 3: August 2000
I
get dozens of e-mails a week from prospective Heriot-Watt MBA students. Every
now than then someone asks me to update this page. So, I did! See the bottom for
an update.
Update 4: May
2002
Feeling guilty that so many of you look at this page, yet I
haven't changed it for almost two years, here's a brief
update.
Update 5: May 2003
I
rearranged the website, so an update is in
order.
About
Heriot-Watt
For those who don’t
already know, Heriot-Watt is a university located in Edinburgh, UK, with a real
campus, buildings, and the usual university goings-on.
Note: I must confess
to some geopolitical ignorance. I always thought Scotland and England were
separate countries, with some vague connection to Great Britain and the United
Kingdom. Heriot-Watt is located in one or more of these. Beats me how it all
fits together, even after I looked them all up in an encyclopedia. Their
official address says they’re in the UK, so it’s OK to call it a British school,
which sounds deliciously more snobby than a Scottish one. I will say that it's
scary to send off your test requests to "Riccarton UK" and hoping that they will
know over there to deliver it to Scotland.
Note: Thanks to
Sean, a prospective HWMBA student who saw this page, for E-mailing me a better
explanation of UK than I have found elsewhere: "technically, United Kingdom is made
of two kingdoms (Scotland and England, united in 1707), one principality
(Wales), one province (Northern Ireland), and two dependencies (Isle of Man and
Channel Islands)." Makes sense to me, although I still don't know about Great
Britain ...
HW was founded in
1821, and things really started to happen in the 60’s when it received its Royal
Charter. It has all kinds of non-MBA programs, mostly technical. Other than the
MBA, it may be best known for its distillery program, about which you are free
to come up with your own witticisms.
HW had a normal MBA
program until they hired a former Stanford professor who had pioneered
development of in-house business training for big companies. He saw no reason
why those same programs couldn’t be turned into a full-fledged MBA. From those
beginnings, Heriot-Watt now has the world’s largest MBA program, enrolling
thousands of students from all over the world. The majority of students are NOT
from the USA, which is refreshing.
Some academic types
had mixed feelings about HW’s MBA, simultaneously envious of its large
enrollment yet threatened by the prospect of a new delivery method that bypassed
bricks, ivy, and classrooms. Since then, however, several other British
institutions have jumped on the distance learning MBA bandwagon.
Note: HW once proudly showed the symbol of the Queen's Export
Award on its stationery and web page. The award is given to a company who
successfully markets a UK product in a nontraditional, global manner. In my
mind, selling lots of something to foreigners is a good achievement, but better
left to sharing with similar businesses, not with its foreign "customers" who
bought all that product to make it possible. HW may have agreed, because I
haven't seen that emblem lately.
A big change came
about in 1995, when the HWMBA program was taken out of research mode and its
founder, Dr. Keith Lumsden, given responsibility for the entire HWMBA program.
The on- and off-campus programs were merged, and on-campus students started
using the same texts and tests as their distance learning counterparts. The
HWMBA degree now bears no indication of the method of attainment, as the
programs are identical.
Note: I should
mention that the HWMBA is "ranked" in some publications as one of the top 100
MBA programs in the world, and one of the top 25 of all British MBA's. Others
put it toward the middle of the UK list. I have never seen the original
citations, so I don't know how objective or reputable these rankings are. I
don't put much stock in the rankings, since in the US at least, you either have
a Top 20 MBA (Harvard, Stanford, etc.) or one of the many non-Top 20 MBA's.
Certainly the HWMBA is as good as that of a bunch of US state-operated schools
you never heard of, which is the vast majority of MBA's
produced.
My story
I graduated with a
BS degree in pharmacy from West Virginia University in 1980. This is five-year
BS degree that has little value outside of healthcare. After a few years
practicing pharmacy, I went to work for a hospital software company. Since 1986,
I have worked in that capacity, combining my clinical training and computer
experience into a new career path.
In 1984, I had toyed
with the idea of getting an MBA degree. I took the GMAT (scored very highly) and
enrolled at a program held at a local college in Kentucky, where I lived at the
time.
It was horrible. The material was boring, the drive was long
(almost two hours each way in good weather,) and the instructors actually
expected me to spend weekends and evenings reading dusty old accounting journals
at the local library. I even had to go back and take undergraduate accounting
and marketing classes before I could take graduate ones. Seemed like a lot of
time and effort to get an MBA from a school no one ever heard of. I quit after a
couple of weeks. My only business training through that time was a one-semester
economics overview in college.
I read John Bear’s
book on earning degrees non-traditionally in 1995. By that time, I realized that
a MBA degree could give me a valuable triad – a clinical degree, software
industry experience, and formal business training. I also knew that I was on
shaky ground, credentials-wise, since I was working outside my area of education
and couldn't probably get a new job in that field without something formal. With
my children approaching teenage status (I was a bit older than the typical
Heriot-Watt new student at 38), I felt I had the time to give it another try.
I first looked locally at schools in the Orlando area. Some of
those that looked and sounded good turned out to be unaccredited, although they
didn’t admit it readily. Others were national schools with local campuses, like
National Louis and Webster. All were expensive, and required driving to classes.
The thought of sitting around a table doing projects with 20-somethings didn’t
add to my enthusiasm.
John’s book had many
choices for distance learning, including many unaccredited programs. I passed on
these, figuring I might as well get an accredited MBA if I was going to work
that hard (although I did encourage my wife to complete her BS in Business
Administration from California Coast University, which is unaccredited but
reputable.)
Note: I had a friend who enrolled in LaSalle's MBA program,
which I had very briefly considered before reading John Bear's book (they were
a notorious now-closed diploma mill whose founder went to prison for fraud.)
Once the
friend paid his fees (which were later reimbursed by his employer,) his only
requirement was to pass an open book religion test and to complete a project.
The project, in his case, was to take a departmental procedure manual he was
writing for his job and to put it into a binder and send it off to LaSalle. He
got the MBA by return mail. However, he is so embarrassed at the LaSalle scandal
that he will not use the credential at all today. I'm glad I took the slower,
harder route to the MBA. He wishes he had.
Leading to a
good question that I asked myself many times as I toiled for the HWMBA: what
kind of MBA program would you prefer: one that's very easy, or one that's very
hard? And to ask him: would you have used LaSalle's MBA credential when only YOU
knew it was fraudulent, before everyone else found out? Food for thought for
those considering unaccredited programs. The friend is now participating in the
class action suit against LaSalle. The only thing he feels good about is that a
colleague of his got both a Masters' and PhD from LaSalle, and apparently worked
hard to get them..
Some schools were
very expensive (Duke University’s distance learning MBA at over $75,000 comes to
mind), or required some inconvenient on-campus component.
I chose Heriot-Watt.
It is the UK’s equivalent of accredited. It’s a good value, in my mind. In
addition, I like to do things differently, and taking a British MBA is
definitely offbeat. So I did it. I was expecting to pay for it myself, but my
employer picked up the entire cost, which was a very nice
surprise.
Milestones in the program
I ordered my first
Heriot-Watt courses from the US distributor on August 16, 1995. I chose
Accounting and Strategies for Change. Accounting seemed like a good first
course, since I wanted to get it out of the way. Figuring I had less than four
months until exams, I figured SFC would be easy, being an
elective.
Note: I had planned to order a different elective than SFC,
but the distributor was back ordered on the course. Thank goodness it wasn't a
compulsory course. Moral: allow plenty of lead time when ordering.
My first tests were in December 1995, and I had no idea what to
expect. The courses themselves weren’t all that hard, and I had spent a lot of
time (probably 20 hours a week) studying and working sample problems. It was a
lot of fun getting back into studying again after fifteen years.
Anyone who has taken a Heriot-Watt test will have some
unflattering adjectives for it: grueling, nitpicky, maddening, exhausting,
frustrating, and some that I won’t print here. I agree with every one of them,
and will describe the tests in more detail later.
Bottom line,
though (as an almost-MBA, I can use words like Bottom Line with confidence!) I
passed both courses. I got an A in Accounting (74%) and a B in Strategies for
Change (50%, the lowest pass mark you can get.) Only later did I find out that
it is highly recommended that you complete Organizational Behavior before SFC.
At least I have an excuse for the 50% score.
I
should also add that during my entire Heriot-Watt career, I was working
forty-plus hours a week. I had a wife and two kids (still do!) that I didn’t
ignore completely. I also started a consulting, software, and publishing
business "on the side" that required traveling, consulting, and writing software
under contract with tight deadlines and unexpected surprises. In other words,
life went on while the MBA proceeded. I figured if I just spent as much time
studying as most people spend staring at the TV, I could get it
done.
Flush with
confidence and with nearly ¼ of my course work behind me, I chose Organizational
Behavior (HW spells it Behaviour, being Brits) and Quantitative Methods for the
June 1996 exams. I had dreaded QM and its heavy statistics, and OB seemed like a
pretty high pass rate, not too exhausting course of a completely different type
to pair it with.
This combination
worked well. QM has tons of problems to work, and OB is mostly just reading the
material (still reasonably hard, but less time than courses with a lot of
problems, and the OB pass rate is good.) I passed both tests in June, with a 78
(A) in QM (my highest test score in the whole program) and a 59 (B) in OB. I was
happy just to slide by. And, to be almost halfway finished! Having passed two
compulsory courses, I was then able to get my Heriot-Watt "matriculation card,"
which we Americans call a student ID card. It made me feel more like a real
student, and I could use it (to my surprise) to get academic-only pricing on
software by mail order, which was a nice fringe benefit for a "poor student
(ha!)" like me.
Back to it for
December 1996. I took the big, dreaded Marketing, something like 1500 pages of
material. I paired it with Negotiation, a very short and easy elective. I
thought Marketing was great, and while the material was voluminous, it was
fascinating and definitely useful in the real world. It was almost like starting
to read a novel and not wanting to put it down. In fact, after I passed, someone
wanted to buy the book from me, but I kept it for ongoing reference.
Negotiation was a tiny course with practically no "meat," just some pretty
subjective opinions. Result: a 53 in marketing (B) and a 51 in Negotiation (B).
Again, good enough for a certificate, and now the end was in sight with 2/3 of
the coursework behind me.
Note: speaking of
keeping the book, I had a ritual that I practiced between test time and grade
time. Each day I finished a set of exams, I went home and ordered the next
course that very same day. That was fun, because the distributor's rep chats a
bit about how the test was, and as a distance learner I was starved for some
kind of interaction. I then put the previous books on the shelf at home. When I
got my passing grades, I took those books from home and put them on a specific
shelf in by bookcase at work. I was surprised at how many of my colleagues
figured this out, glanced at the shelf every so often during the weeks of
waiting for grades, and then congratulated me solely on seeing new books show
up.
July 1997: with only three courses remaining, decision time:
should I try to get all three courses finished at once, or take just two and
wait another six months to get the last course out of the way? I decided to take
Economics and Finance, figuring I would slack off a bit knowing that if I failed
one, I could retake it along with the last course and still finish as planned.
These were the hardest courses of the program. Lots of math, hard facts,
real-world examples, and some complicated concepts. Test results: A in Economics
(67%) and a B in Finance (59%.) Finance was one of those I thought sure I bombed
on. I was madder at that test than any other, and had figured on retaking it.
Passing it was a wonderful moment. With only one course to go, I was completely
at ease and confident.
Strategic Planning
is highly recommended as the last course you take, since it draws a lot of
material from Marketing, Accounting, and Finance. It isn’t a real big book, and
really isn’t very hard (all review, for the most part.) Studying for only one
course instead of the usual two, and short course of review at that, was a piece
of cake. I was downright cocky, and like a senior taking his last semester, I
goofed off more and started planning life after MBA school. Test result (drum
roll for the final MBA course!) was a gentleman’s B, a solid but undistinguished
finale.
That’s my MBA story in a nutshell (maybe a good-sized nutshell at
that.) Now, here are the common questions people have asked
me.
What are the hardest courses of the ones you took, based on effort
required, ranked in hardest to easiest order?
What are some HWMBA web sites of interest?
The HW MBA
Watercooler at http://watercooler.20m.com/ is a student-run online discussion
area covering all aspects of the HWMBA, with message boards, chat, links, a
mailing list, etc. It is well moderated, lively, and has some good participation
from HWMBA students and even on-campus students and faculty now and again.
Overall, this is the most useful site for HWMBA
students.
How do you pay the
tuition?
You just order the
courses from the US distributor. You are paying for the book and tuition as a
single purchase. You don't send any money to HW at all, except the testing fee
of 55 pounds per course (about $80 US, best charged to your credit card to avoid
the hassle and cost of currency exchanges.)
Did you buy HW’s
course software?
No. From what I’ve
heard from others, it is crudely done, and doesn’t help all that much. They are
planning to re-do it, I hear.
Did you study
outside material?
No. I was worried
about Quantitative Methods and bought an overview course from a bookstore, but
didn’t do much with it. I figured it was Heriot-Watt’s job to put the material
in the book if I needed to know it. The courses are self-contained, so any
outside reading is strictly for personal development.
Did you interact
with other students?
In the two-plus
years I was in the program, I never saw or talked to another Heriot-Watt student
except via an occasional E-mail. The exam site I was assigned (Florida Institute
of Technology in Melbourne, Florida) never had another student taking a test
while I was there, and usually had none the entire exam
week.
Where did you take the tests?
FIT in Melbourne,
Florida, about an hour and a half away from home. Since I was always the only
Heriot-Watt student there, it was great. I would rent a cheap motel, cram like
crazy away from the kids, and take the test alone, sitting in a spare office in
building off by itself with almost no other students around.
What are the
tests like?
Hard. Sometimes they
concentrate on fussy details, sometimes such a high-level concept that you
realize you missed the "big picture." Lots and lots of handwriting, mostly essay
questions and case studies. Short, so each question carries a lot of weight. If
you miss one concept the test zooms in on, you can lose points in a hurry. I
used to joke - mostly seriously, actually - that an HWMBA test is like a hard,
open book test - except that you can't use the book.
I found it hard to
leave each test without being mad at HW and the profs. However, since I passed
every one (HW doesn't say how many students get the MBA without failing any
tests - my wife would like to know!), I always forgave them the day the grades
came. In retrospect, I would say the tests are hard in content, but the
administrative aspects (grade bands, etc.) make them fair.
HW is mum on the
grading policy, but I can assure you that they curve the scores, or at least
throw out widely missed questions. How else would every compulsory course end up
with a pass rate between 60% and 70% of those taking them? Many times I did OK
on tests that I know I should have failed. Officially, you must get a 50% mark
to pass a test, 45% under specific conditions known as a "compensatory pass."
Each question is worth a stated number of points, and you get those points by
addressing very specific points the tester is looking for, not just an
all-or-none award. The British system also requires spot checking of tests by an
outside examiner (a professor from another school), as well as having every
marginal failing grade reviewed for consistency.
I figure HW has to
be somewhat lenient on the grading. Many of their students don't speak English
as a first language, and given the intense nature of the essay questions and the
complexity of the course material, surely an American has some advantage.
Whether that's fair or not isn't up to me to decide.
What are the ten
worst things about HWMBA?
What steps do you take to get a course and sign up for the test?
How are the tests scheduled?
Twice
a year, early in June and December. Tests are given during a full week, at
prescheduled days and times. Everyone takes the same test at the same time
world-wide, to avoid the potential problem of having students from one location
passing information to those in another location.
It's wise to check the
test schedule before signing up for courses, and HW publishes a far-reaching
schedule in each course text. You must make sure you aren't taking two courses
that have the same test day and time. If you're traveling a good distance, you
may want to take courses whose tests are on consecutive days, minimizing your
stay. Or, you may want to space them out to give you time to rest up and review
in between. Personal preference dictates. My own advice is to take courses
together that make sense, regardless of test schedule (as long as the tests
don't overlap.)
Note: students on HW's Listserv
suggest that HWMBA test questions not be discussed until the day after it was
taken. Reason: with the Internet available to HWMBA students all over the world,
someone in Europe, for instance, takes a test before those in the USA, even
though the local date and time are the same. If someone jumps on the Listserv to
complain about specific questions, some students could inadvertently see the
questions before taking the test. I think this voluntary suggestion speaks well
of the kind of students in the program, since Heriot-Watt hasn't made this same
request.
Describe how it feels to take a typical HWMBA
test.
I'll try to give you the flavor of sitting down and actually
taking a HWMBA test.
First, I (just
like everyone else) cram right before going in to take the test. I drive up to
the test building an hour or so early, partly to allow a final review and partly
to reassure myself that I won't have a flat tire or something. Miss the test,
even for a good reason, and ... see you in six months.
I'm sitting outside
the test building in my car with the radio on and the windows open (in Florida,
it's warm even for the December tests.) By now, I've either learned the material
or I haven't, so it's a good time to pay attention to the course outline, since
it help me remember the overall structure. I go over the sample final exams in
the book again, and maybe glance over the past finals if I have them.
It's about twenty minutes until test time. I try to cram some
last-minute formulas or mnemonics into my head, hoping to remember them long
enough to get into the test room. ECKOMAPC is the first letter of each step in
preparing a marketing plan. Demand curves slope down to the right, supply curves
the opposite.
Into the test room. The secretary chats a bit and offers me some
coffee. I'm nervous, but also resigned to the fact that whatever happens will be
reasonable given my preparedness. I see the express envelope on the secretary's
desk. In there is my test, which will be the only result of six months' of work.
I've never seen a professor from Heriot-Watt. I don't know how they talk, how
they dress, or what they watch on TV. All I know is that they want me to learn
certain things before they present me with their MBA. Those things are reduced
to a few questions that sit inside an envelope a few feet in front of me, like
the Oscar winner's name right before the announcement.
Time to go into the
test room. The secretary opens the test packet so I can copy off the test serial
number from the test booklet onto the answer sheet, and also write my name and
the date on it. A quick check of the watch and the secretary wishes me luck and
leaves the room.
Before I even open
the test book, I write down all the formulas and mnemonics I memorized in the
final few minutes before the test, before I read more stuff to confuse me. Each
test comes with some graph paper for notes, and some plain scratch paper. It all
has to be turned in at the end.
I start the test. I
have some dread and some exhilaration, like a soldier about to jump out of the
trenches to charge the enemy. I look through the pitifully few and short
questions, realizing that I better know a lot of stuff to turn those few
paragraphs of text into an MBA caliber grade.
Some questions I know
I can answer, some I'm sure I can't. You either know it or you don't. I jot down
basic answers to the essay questions, just to put a stake in the ground that I
can flesh out later, if enough time is left. I sneak looks ahead to see how many
questions are about something I thought sure would be unfair to ask. Some are
things I kind of know, but not nearly as well as I thought, especially when the
test twists the concept all around to an almost unrecognizable
example.
The writing goes smoothly at first. I always pad out the answers,
figuring I might as well take some shots, throw in a few buzzwords I remember,
and maybe get some stuff on paper that really wasn't asked in the question,
hoping that maybe someone will toss me a few points for general cleverness. Some
of the questions almost seem to be from a completely different text book, since
I don't even know what concept the questions is addressing.
I picture other
people taking the test, and while still frustrated, I am a bit encouraged. I
spent the time, paid the dues, read the stuff way too many times. Maybe I don't
know it all, but I sure ought to know more than most people. HW will have to
curve the grade, throw out some ridiculous questions that no one could answer,
give me credit for answering questions with an almost brash style: "It's
PAINFULLY obvious that Company A is burning up capital assets to maintain a cash
balance ..." That should show those profs I know how to use this
stuff.
Check the watch. Time really moves on. That last case study took
almost 45 minutes to finish, after messing up the calculations a bit. It's
really hard to lay out the answers. I start each question on a new page,
figuring that should leave enough room to go back and add more stuff later as
new ideas pop into my head. Pretty soon the paper is covered with arrows
pointing to added-on thoughts, marked out sentences that seemed to be off-track
when reviewed, and re-worked problems that then affected every other part of the
question.
OK, once through the test with at least some basic answers
committed to writing. Take a
quick look at the point weighting, so as not to
spend too much time on lost cause questions that aren't worth many points. Flesh
out some weak and short answers. Redo the math on the old Texas Instruments
BA-II Plus calculator, hoping not to punch the wrong keys for the Net Present
Value equation. I take a quick feel of my pocket to make sure my spare calc
battery is there, just in case. Lose a battery and ... see you in six
months.
I'm tired. Eyes getting tired. Hand shaking, shoulders cramping. Do
some stretching, look out the window and start to get giddy at the thought that,
one way or another, I'll be out there getting some fresh air in the sunshine in
an hour or so. I won't know the outcome, but at worst case I won't have to take
this same test for another six months.
Check the answers
again. Not much more to say. You gotta hand it to those guys, they dream up a
mean test. I'm not as smart as I think I am. Read them again. Maybe I can fish
some well-hidden fact out of my head that some grad student doing the grading
will like well enough to give me a point or two. Check the watch. Look outside
again. Stretch. Not much happening. My mind is wandering, and I know I'm doing
nothing to improve my score. I'm tested out.
I stand up, a half or
so before time is up. I can't decide: should I keep plugging away, or just call
it day? Will I regret not working those last few minutes? I know I will. It
would be a shame to blow six months' worthy of studying just to get out of the
test room a few minutes early.
The heck with it.
Bundle up the test materials and give them back to the secretary. "How was it?"
She always asks, and I always say the same thing: "Hard. They sure don't make it
easy. Oh, well, see you in six months one way or another." The sun and air are
great. As soon as I get in the car, I grab the book and kick myself when I look
up answers that I now realize I knew but missed.
The only good thing
is that I don't have any new courses yet, so instead of studying as usual, I
get a few days or even weeks off. Just having one evening off seems like an
eternity. I can actually watch TV, maybe even go to bed early instead of
studying late. Exams are good for that: all that studying builds up to an almost
unbearable tension and time requirement, and then suddenly without having even
visualizing what it will be like after the test, it's over and I can relax for
awhile. I get philosophical: I don't care if I passed or not. It's out of my
hands. I did my best, even though I'm frustrated about what I could have done
better had I known what to expect.
Eight weeks have
passed. I've answered for the dozenth time that I don't know if I passed or not,
usually asked by colleagues or family. Strange looks: how can you finish a
course and still not even know how you did on the test? Time drags on. I order
more courses and start some light studying, so I'll be underway just in case I
passed the tests. The longer I wait, the more philosophical I get. I should have
done as well as everyone else. If I failed, then a bunch of people failed with
me. If the pass rate is always 60-70%, that means I have a good chance. If what
I did wasn't enough to pass, then it's an unfair test
anyway.
The wife calls me at work. Airmail from UK, she says, probably
your grades. Seems like a thick envelope. Could be certificates of passing,
could be a failure letter. "Should I open it?" No - wait until I get home. If I
failed, I don't want anyone else to see first. I count the minutes until I get
home. This is it - whatever's in there is going to make me ecstatic or
miserable.
I open it up
.. please oh please let me pass. Looks like certificates, can't be sure. Calm
now - the letter always has the scores and grade bands right up front. I see the
sheet and see something about failing score. No, thank goodness, that's just a
generic explanation of the grade bands. My own grades are right above there ...
please oh please let me pass ... YES!!! An A and a B. Plenty good! Darned good,
in fact! Who wants an A anyway? YES!!! I passed! Sure I did, of course I
did!!!
The wife and kids smile. "I knew you
passed," she says. "I didn't," I replied. The certificates look great, and feel
better than fresh dollar bills. My name looks great in calligraphy. Cool looking
university seal - man, I bet some DEGREES don't look as good as this
certificate. Wow, I'm passing an MBA program ... I'm just a name on their
computer printout, but nonetheless, I made the grade. OK, Heriot-Watt. You did
me right on the test.
Then, you start it all over again
with the next course.
Do the true-false
and multiple choice (TF/MC) test questions require you describe your thinking,
or simply to choose the right answer?
The answer sheet
simply presents choices for you to choose from by circling. Nothing in the
instructions suggests that you should defend your thinking further. Any comments
like these would have to be placed either in the test booklet or in the plain
paper section of the answer sheet. I doubt that on choice-type questions that
the grader goes looking for further clarification.
However, I often
made notes or comments in the test booklet that explained why I chose the answer
I did. I have no idea whether anyone ever looked at these, but I figured it
couldn't hurt. Also, when I went back to review my answers toward the end of the
test, it helped for me to see how I worked the problem, or why I eliminated some
answers.
And remember that points-wise, TF/MC are usually a tiny part of
the total score. It's misleading because they often take up the most space in
the test book. In some cases, part of one essay or case study question is worth
more than all the TF/MC together.
Should you
guess if you don't know the answer?
Absolutely! You get
points for any part of an answer you come up with, and no points are taken off
at all. Do NOT leave any question unanswered, even if you have no idea, even the
essay or case study questions. Don't waste a lot of time on these questions, but
rule rule out any obviously wrong answers and then take your best
shot.
Another tip: TF/MC questions sometimes have valuable hints for the
essay and case study questions that follow them. Re-read the true-false and
multiple choice questions and answers for possible help you with other
questions. It's worked for me.
How much does the
MBA cost?
As above, around $9000.
What is the name of
the school?
The university's name is
Heriot-Watt University.
Note: a strange fact
is that distance learners see the HW name all the time, but don’t ever hear it
spoken. Some try to pronounce it as though it were French – "Harry-O Watt."
Nope. It’s "Harriet Watt."
The MBA program is given from Edinburgh
Business School. This individual school's name, being part of a well-known
university, generally isn't important. It also isn't the same as Edinburgh
University, another well-respected university in that
city.
Is the distance
learning program different from the on-campus one, and is the degree the
same?
The programs are identical in all respects, from the texts to the
tests and to the degree itself, which bears no marks to indicate it was achieved
through distance learning.
What is a course
certificate?
Each time you pass a
course you receive a fancy color certificate on good paper with the University
seal and your name and course in pretty script. It looks almost like a diploma,
so you can fill your wall with these if you want to impress people before you
get the actual MBA.
Who is John Bear,
and what connection does he have with Heriot-Watt?
Dr. John Bear is the
author of several books on earning degrees nontraditionally. He also serves as
the unofficial watchdog for degree mills and frauds. He was until recently the
North American distributor for Heriot-Watt courses, their dealer, if you will,
but has sold his interest to Financial Times. I've been told that Financial
Times also owns Pitman Publishing, who publishes the HWMBA courses. Financial
Times was supposed to beef up the web site, newsletters, etc. but so far that
hasn't appeared to have happened.
What is the exam
passing rate?
For compulsory
courses, between 60% and 70%, which presumably includes those taking the test
for a second time. You can re-take a test once. Fail the test for a compulsory
course a second time and you’re out of the MBA program. However, the pass rate
for retakes is very high.
People often ask the
percentage of students that earn the HWMBA of those who signed up for their
first course. Only HW knows, and they don't release that information. Rumors
place that percentage at 15-20% or even less, which might be discouraging for a
prospective student. However, having finished, I still say it's very doable if
you work at it. My guess is that many of the "dropouts" are due to various
factors outside of HW's control: realization of the amount of work required,
lack of academic ability (particularly since you don't need a BS degree to
enroll,) personal circumstances, and a lack of test-taking skills. Also, given
the fairly recent upswing in HWMBA enrollment and the seven years allowed to
complete it, there may be a bunch of HWMBA's "in the
pipeline."
How did you study?
I read each book
several times. First time through, just a quick skim to get a feel for the work
needed. Second time, more careful reading and casually trying the sample
problems and questions, not worrying too much about missed one. Third time, slow
and thorough reading, working the problems carefully and getting worried if I
still missed them. Maybe another time or two through for review, doing all the
samples again. Then, with a couple of weeks until the exam, do the practice
tests in the book.
I took two courses
each exam period. At the beginning, I would count the weeks until the exam.
Then, I would subtract two weeks at the end for review and sample finals, and
then divide the remaining weeks into two periods of equal length, one for each
course. I then could schedule the number of chapters I needed to finish each
week.
For reasons of mental health, I always worked ahead of this
schedule, figuring I could slack off a little if I needed to. Also, the elective
courses don’t take long, so having one of those really left more time for the
compulsory course I paired it with.
I know most people don’t read the
texts this many times. I read fast, and it was easier to go over it repeatedly
for me. I will say, however, that I generally felt that I got little benefit
from extra study beyond 100 or 150 hours, or reading the material maybe 2-3
times. The additional knowledge didn’t help me answer the test questions. As I
said before, HW’s tests are hard, but extra study won’t necessarily
help.
For some of the courses that contained a lot of levels of ideas, I
outlined the whole course. I just sat down in front of MS Word with the book in
my lap and outlined the whole thing, with notes. That helped me get a feel for
the overall concepts. For example, a test question might ask you to list four
methods of motivating people. I had problems seeing the material at this high
level without doing the outline, where it became more
obvious.
Does having currency expressed in pounds make courses
harder?
No. I still have no idea how many pounds make up a dollar (well,
actually I do, but it isn't important to know.). It’s simply adding and
subtracting numbers. Whether it’s pounds or dollars doesn’t change the mechanics
of solving the problem.
What kind of students are in
the program?
Here are some
facts directly from Heriot-Watt:
How do you
graduate?
Once you finish the nine courses, HW sends a graduation form. You
get invitations to some ceremonies on campus, nice if you have the time and
money to attend. I almost decided to go just to be able to say I've seen the
school I've graduated from, but I got cheap at the last minute and decided not
to. You are also invited into the Watt Club, the HW alumni organization,
although I am wondering how much in common I'd have with the Scots who take the
program on campus. I'll report more on this when I get more information.
You pay your graduation fee of something like $50. Unlike all
other HW fees, they don’t take credit cards for this one, so you have to search
around for someone who will sell you a foreign currency draft. Cost me a $20 fee
just to turn my $50 into pounds sterling, which even a not-quite-MBA can see is
a bad deal. I would have complained if this weren’t my final HW expense.
If you don’t want to go to UK, you
must write a letter asking to graduate in absentia. Even then, you
aren’t officially an MBA until after the ceremony, so tack on another six months
after passing your last test before you get your MBA in hand.
Note:
another annoyance - in local schools, you are pretty much done as soon as you
pass the last test. Waiting eight months after your
last exam to use your hard-won credential is very frustrating, and is hard to
explain to your friends and family. I know HW doesn't want to diminish the value
of the on-campus graduation, but the wait is still
frustrating.
Has your career
benefited from having an MBA?
Not yet, since I
haven’t change jobs since I started. However, I got a promotion to management
within four months of starting, presumably since I at least showed some interest
and motivation by enrolling. The letters MBA will also add lots of credibility
to my consulting proposals. I'm sure that if and when I change jobs it will be
greatly valuable.
The HWMBA will be a
big plus if you already have a technical degree and work experience. It probably
isn't the right choice if you are 22 years old and want a job on Wall Street.
The boutique schools clearly have an advantage in that setting, where it's where
you went that's just as important as what degree you got.
Can you get
a teaching position with a Heriot-Watt MBA?
Good question, and
one I'd like to know the answer to. For many schools, I think the answer is
probably yes, as long as they would take a master's-prepared person at all
instead of someone with a doctorate. However, I would imagine that academics has
its own idea of "dues paying." The relatively comfortable academic environment
might be threatened by distance learning, and therefore might not respect a
candidate who didn't come from a "bricks and ivy" setting. I'd love to get some
input on this from any distance learning graduates who are in, or trying to get
in, academia.
And another good question ... does Heriot-Watt have any of its own
graduates on the MBA faculty?
Would you do it
again?
Yes, no question. Looking back, it wasn’t that hard, wasn’t that
long, and was an entirely logical step. Now that I'm finished, I find that I
miss the studying and even the time demands of the program.
August 1998 Update - A Graduand No
More
August 26, 1998. I'm
a real MBA. A graduate, not a graduand. My degree finally came in the mail this
week.
Now I had two reactions upon getting my hard-earned MBA degree.
First was the reaction to the degree itself. Disappointing! Someone said
Heriot-Watt's degrees look like they are printed off on someone's laser printer.
They're right. Not very impressive. It was just stuck in a mailing tube with a
cut-off printed note that said "congratulations" with a receipt for the
graduation fee. Like I said, those HW folks are a bit cold.
All that work for a
11 x 14" piece of paper. What a letdown. My wife tried to be upbeat, but I could
tell she was unimpressed. I was expecting some kind of fancy aged parchment, a
big gold seal, and flowery signatures from the faculty, hand signed with antique
fountain pens. Scottish tradition, I figured. Frankly, the degree doesn't look
any better than the individual course certificates, so if you aren't impressed
with those, don't get your hopes up. The degree doesn't even look THAT
cool.
Also, it took forever to get it. I finished my last exam early in
December 1997, so from then until being "official" was almost nine full months
of being in limbo, not being officially allowed to use MBA after my name. Way
too long, it seems to me. It was anticlimactic to get the official word that
long after I earned it.
On the other hand ... I'm a real MBA now. Careful
readers will note those letters after my name at the top of this page. Despite
the disappointment, I still marched right down to the framing store to get the
degree jazzed up a bit ... nice blue matting and a fancy oak frame. It looks
good despite HW's rather Spartan approach.
Note: someone
sent me a snickery kind of E-mail at my comment above, in which I stated I would
use the MBA after my name once it was official. They said anyone who does that
is annoying, and probably not much of a credit to their education. Maybe I'll
feel that way some day, but for now, I'm slapping MBA on everything. Anyone know
if it would be tacky for a 41 year old to hit his mom up for a graduation gift?
My wife got a big kick out of that one.
Graduates also are
supposed to get invitations to join Watt Club, Heriot-Watt's alumni
organization. I don't know if I'll join or not. Would I really have much in
common with HW's on-campus graduates? I can't see myself getting all misty with
those Scots who long for the good old days in Riccarton, so I can't decide. I'll
update this page once I get something from HW.
Anyway, just for
fun, I have posted some resumes on various recruiting sites on the web. Many
people ask me about the acceptance of the HWMBA, so I thought it would be
interesting to see what responses I got. So far, several recruiters have called,
some for positions requiring an MBA. No one has questioned the HWMBA yet. That
isn't a scientific survey, but from what I've seen, the HWMBA is as good a
"ticket" as I need.
I also sent in a
resume to an accredited national university that offers business degrees at
their local campus here, in response to their ads looking for adjunct faculty in
business. They said my credentials were fine, and to come on down for an
evaluation of my teaching style. I wasn't all that interested, but it does seem
the HWMBA would have been OK with them.
I have gotten a lot
of E-mails from prospective HWMBA students, since the North American distributor
gives out my E-mail address as a reference for the program (with my permission.)
I really enjoy the contact, and I hope it's helpful.
Some folks have
asked me what I do with all my "new" spare time. Well, I took a class in project
management. Read some books on mind-mapping and other learning techniques. Swam
in my pool, watched TV, did more consulting work, spent more time at work.
Thought about taking a DBA or PhD, and then decided not to, at least not right
now. Took vacations without having course texts in my lap for the first time in
a while. Tried to figure out if I had any hobbies, realized I
don't.
So, now that it's all over, maybe this is a good time to address
the question once more: would I do it again? Yes. I really FEEL like an MBA now.
Before, I felt like someone who had read a lot of MBA books. I am absolutely
proud of the degree, and I am surprised at my own stamina and motivation to
stick with it over two fairly tiresome years, while doing the usual
work-and-family stuff.
January 1999 Update - the MBA Pays
Off
The payoff from my August
1998 MBA graduation was quick. I got lots of inquiries from posting my resume.
Some of the jobs were interesting, but with drawbacks such as excessive travel
requirements, an undesirable location, or inadequate career progression. At
least the calls were coming in, and the MBA was a drawing
point.
An ad in
the local paper caught my eye not long after I graduated. A local organization
that I admired greatly was searching for an executive, requiring 15 years' of
industry experience and ... you can see this coming ... an MBA. I made the first
cut via telephone interview, then interviewed with six vice presidents. Some of
them specifically said they thought my combination of experience, primary
degree, and the MBA was powerful indeed. Only one asked about how I received the
MBA, and was impressed with my description of the HWMBA and the perserverance it
took to get it.
Long story short, I got the job just three months after
graduating, starting in late January 1999. I'll be using what I learned from the
MBA coursework, since the responsibilities involve budget administration,
project management, strategic planning, and vendor relations. That's a long way
from my degree in pharmacy, and the first "clean break" from what was a pretty
predictable career path. I couldn't be more thrilled, and there's no way I could
have even gotten past the telephone interview without the credibility of the MBA
behind me.
My boss at the company I
was leaving gave a little farewell speech in front of my colleagues. I was
overwhelmed at his summmary of my career: "a pharmacist by training, an MBA by
education, and a manager." How fascinating: the MBA had given me a new identity,
even to the people who knew me before! I wasn't just some guy who had spent long
evenings with HW books in my lap, I was now "an MBA." Of all the things I'd
done, that suddenly was in the top three.
This was a profound moment. Both previous and new employers were seeing
the MBA as being indicative of certain skills, abilities, and attitudes. My
previous education and accomplishments were now superseded by a more powerful
label: MBA. It was like stepping out of one identity and into another.
I don't keep up with HW happenings as much
now, although I read the Watercooler messages regularly. It's like any other
school you've finished: your interest in the day-to-day mechanics of passing
courses wanes over time. I empathize with those working hard
to get the degree, but my ability to help them is reduced each day. After all, I
haven't touched HW books for over a year!
Still, my web provider's
statistics show that a substantial number of people read this page each week.
That's gratifying. In fact, I see that Heriot-Watt posted some of my comments on
their site, and I'm flattered. To those of you reading, to HWMBA students, and
to the University, you have my best wishes and encouragement.
August 2000 Update - what's
happened in the two years since I got the MBA
Believe it or not, this web page
gets over 100 hits a week (mostly because of the link from Heriot-Watt's site
and high placement in the search engine rankings.) From that, prospective
students send me a dozen or two e-mails weekly asking about the Heriot-Watt MBA.
Apparently it's still a popular program, to say the least.
Requests
range from the unusual ("I'm thinking of starting the MBA program - can you send
me a scanned image of your degree?" or "Please send me all your notes and past
exams,") to the condescending ("I looked over your very lengthy writeup, but
decided to go to _____ instead because I think it's a better program,") but more
common are the gratifying ones ("Thanks for putting the page together - I just
thought you'd like to know I've ordered my first Heriot-Watt courses today
because of your description of the program.")
Another common statement:
"I bet Heriot-Watt thanks you constantly for doing the writeup and being
accessible to prospective students." Nope. Never heard from them at all, except
when they asked permission to link to this page. Like I've always said, those
Heriot-Watt folks are a bit cold.
So, what's new with me? Not too much.
I'm still in the same job I described in the January 1999 update above. Still
considering a DBA or other doctorate-level degree every now and again, but it
just seems like too much work. I'm still running my part-time business along
with my full-time job, so for now my formal education is on hold. Although I'm
tempted by some of the graduate-level certificate programs available by distance
learning that would give me 18 hours of marketing, information systems, or other
concentration ...
A regular question: "Knowing what you know today, would
you chose Heriot-Watt again?" And the answer ... maybe. Since I started the MBA
program in 1995, many regionally accredited US schools now offer distance
learning MBA's. We're talking real, recognized names, even state schools (the
University of Florida here in my state is a good example.) I'd be very tempted
by those if the logistics were convenient and the price reasonable. From what I
hear, though, the logistics aren't convenient and the prices are very high, so
I'd say Heriot-Watt would definitely make my short list again.
One
warning: I've tried twice and been rejected twice in an effort to use
Heriot-Watt's MBA to become an adjunct instructor at local colleges (one a
national for-profit that I mentioned in the August 1998 update above, and the
other a national not-for-profit.) The first school wouldn't accept my MBA unless
it was evaluated by their independent, nonprofit credential evaluation firm. The
result: the evaluator said Heriot-Watt's MBA is equivalent to a non-credit, US
adult vocational program, not a graduate degree (reason: Heriot-Watt accepts
students into the MBA program who don't have a bachelor's degree.) In the second
case, the school flatly stated "we don't accept foreign degrees."
People
with traditional master's degrees as their only credential (many from truly
questionable sources) do this kind of teaching all the time. I know lots of them
locally. Be aware that Heriot-Watt's may eliminate you from consideration as it
did me. You can argue endlessly and passionately about the error of that
decision, but let's face reality: if a prospective employer wants to reject you
because of the source of your degree, that's what will happen, all debating
aside. I'm zero-for-two in that department.
Does the MBA continue to meet
my needs otherwise? Yes, although I wish it had included some newer subjects or
concentrations (information systems, e-business, investments, and project
management, to name a few common ones.)
Would I recommend an MBA
program for others? Yes. In fact, my son will be entering college next year,
studying pre-medicine, but he's already decided to finish both an undergraduate
and MBA degree before applying to med school. The reason: no matter which
profession he ends up in, medicine or otherwise, having formal business training
will be an advantage. In fact, I'm trying to steer him toward economics for his
bachelor's degree. Almost everything in the world relates somehow to business
and money, after all.
I said in the previous update that my involvement
in Heriot-Watt's program was diminishing logically over time. That's even more
true today. I never joined the Watt Club. I donated money to the school once
many months ago because I was called by a young lady from Scotland with a
delightful accent, but truthfully it's hard to feel connected to a school I've
never visited, managed by people I've never met, and attended by students with
which I have little in common. That's not unique to Heriot-Watt, but is a real
issue with which all distance learning students must struggle. Is it really
"your school" if you sent them a check and they sent back books and tests (any
more than is it "my Amazon.com" because I order books from there?)
Let me
close on a more positive note. Heriot-Watt's MBA program is hard, maybe the
hardest learning I've ever done (including pharmacy school.) Minor gripes aside,
I worked darned hard to win that credential and I'm proud of it. It sits on the
fireplace mantel in my computer room, right above the exercise machine, and
every morning at 5:00 a.m. when I'm sweating and panting through my morning
exercise, that's what I look at for inspiration. It has that effect even after
all these years. You can do it, too. Like the workout, you'll wonder how you'll
get through it, in fact you'll wonder why you even started it, but the reward is
after you're finished: you can celebrate the effort and the result long after
the pain has faded into a distant memory.
Thank you for reading, and good
luck and best wishes in whatever endeavors you undertake.
May
2002 Update - four years after I finished the MBA. Time
flies.
I can't help but be amazed at how
many folks read this page each week. I hope you aren't disappointed by what you
find here.
I still receive a lot of e-mails from readers. I must confess
that I often recommend posting questions on the Watercooler or sending them to
Heriot-Watt directly. My information is out of date, since I finished the
program over four years ago. I know next to nothing about the electronic
options and the new specialized electives. I thought Heriot-Watt was cold when I
was a student, and it's been no better afterward. I get a magazine every now and
then, and that's about it. So, if anything has changed since 1998, I'm not
informed enough to help you - sorry.
I've changed jobs just the one time
(January 1999) since completing the program. So, I don't have any news on
employer acceptance of the Heriot-Watt MBA. If you do, lots of folks would be
interested in hearing about your experience.
Since I'm almost an empty
nester (one child in college, another starting within a year) I've decided to
pursue a second master's degree to keep active. This time, it's the Master of
Science in Education, with an emphasis in Online Teaching and Learning, from
California State University -
Hayward. I like
the program, the cost, and the model, so we'll see how it goes. I should be
starting my first class by the end of summer 2002. It's a cohort-based online
program, with a lot more interactivity and far less emphasis on exams (as it
should be, given the subject matter!) We'll see how I like that vs. the "read
the book and take one test" style of Heriot-Watt.
Four years later,
here's how I feel about the Heriot-Watt MBA. It was extremely hard and
time-consuming, and I'm proud I finished it. Yet I somehow feel I missed
something, just sitting there in solitude with the books on my lap, counting
down the days until the "all or none" test. No projects, no real-world
experience, no interaction with others - it was convenient, but maybe at a
price. Still, I learned as much MBA-type technical knowledge as anyone in any
program, so I feel good about that. And, I probably wouldn't have done a
traditional MBA anyway, so it was the best option for me at the time.
I
still cringe a bit when someone asks where my MBA is from, and slur out the "UK
distance learning from the largest MBA school in the world" kind of explanation.
Somehow it just sounds too offbeat to be legitimate, and the Heriot-Watt name
recognition in the US seems to be holding steady at about zero percent. I'd
probably do it again, although I can't say for sure. Still, it's great to have
an MBA no matter where it's from. My one recommendation for HWMBA students:
attend your graduation in Scotland. I really think I'd feel closer to the
program if I had done that. For that reason, I've already decided to attend my
Cal State graduation if I complete that Master's.
Best of luck to you,
and thanks once again for reading.
May 2003 Update -
has it been almost five years?
Not too much has changed in the
last year. Same job, same business. I'm about 60% of the way finished with the
Cal State MS in Education, which has been a good experience, and have already
earned the graduate certificate in online teaching and learning. Liberal arts is
really different from the hard sciences and business programs I took before. My
son is in biomedical engineering at Florida State University and my daughter
will be off to college somewhere in a few months. My wife finished her BS in
nursing through the University of Central Florida's online program and has
enrolled in their Master's program. So, we're all still in school.
Having
completed graduate level education courses, perhaps an interesting analysis
would be to review the Heriot-Watt program from an educational pedagogy
approach. How do its methods align with what I've learned? Not so well. I've
done a fair amount of research and project work on distance learning, and I've
yet to see a "read the book and take one test" model elsewhere. There are four
main learning styles (visual, auditory, read-write, and kinesthetic) and only
one (read-write) is accomodated in the program. If your preferred learning
style is one of the other three, you will likely struggle in the HWMBA
program.
I've been taught that collaboration with fellow students and the
course instructors is the most valuable part of any online course. It helps you
internalize and retain information. Another key is reading and evaluating a
breadth of literature on a topic. Obviously the "read and take a test" model
does not address these issues. I'm not going to dwell on this since I'm not an
expert, but I'd say the Heriot-Watt model, while convenient and "scalable" for
the university to service a huge student base at low cost, is probably not
something most universities would find acceptable. Traditional universities
certainly have their academic weakness as well (huge classes taught by
non-professors, standardized tests, little participation) but Heriot-Watt has
taken this to a new minimalist level. They offer two services: books and tests.
That's it. Whether that's education or not I won't attempt to
conclude.
On the other hand, the longer I've been out of the program, the
less it matters, I suspect. Even well-taught material probably won't be retained
unless used. I think I probably have as good of a background in business as most
traditional MBA's.
So, with each update I seem to go back to the
question: would I do it again, or would I seek another path to the MBA? I must
say that I'm leaning more toward traditional online programs, mostly because of
my newfound educational bias. If you simply want to earn the MBA credential, are
comfortable with the Heriot-Watt methods, and aren't concerned about a "foreign"
degree if you live in the US, then the HWMBA is fine. You'll work hard and will
earn your credential. If you want more participation and exposure to other ideas
from classmates and instructors, struggle with the read-and-test method, or want
a "safer" degree for US purposes, then luckily many online options are available
(although they aren't as easy to start or as inexpensive as the HWMBA in most
cases.)
I think the main message is this: there's not much excuse for not
pursuing advanced education. We all have issues with money, time, and
priorities. But, here I am again, working a full time job, running my business
on the side, teaching online courses, and still taking graduate courses
online. I'll have a new MS degree for a total time investment of around 13
months and a financial investment of less than $8,000, paid for out of my own
pocket. So, for around $16,000 and some part-time work over 3-4 years, I'll have
two Master's degrees in very different areas and will have never attended a live
class or met an instructor or fellow student. That's pretty cool if you ask
me.