I travel for a living. I’d like to earn my MBA online because it’s virtually impossible for me to be in town attending class every week for 16 consecutive weeks. But I’m afraid employers won’t accept a distance degree. I work as an executive in a competitive career field: healthcare. I’ll be working in a major metropolitan area (NYC) for the rest of my career and eventually want to open my own business. Can you recommend even one top tier B-school that offers a distance MBA degree?

The Ivy League has gone Cyber League. More than one topflight B-school offers a distance MBA option.

Consider Babson College’s F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business.

This Massachusetts school is ranked among the world’s top B-schools for entrepreneurs by US News & World Report, the Wall Street Journal and London’s Financial Times. Its applicants come from mid-to-senior level management ranks. In January 2003, Babson launched a Fast Track MBA, a part-time program combining traditional classroom instruction with Web-based learning.

The Fast Track MBA can be earned part-time in 24 months with just two days on campus every six weeks. In 2007, Babson also opened a West Coast satellite option in Portland, Oregon.

Residents of the Midwest seeking a top-flight MBA may want to consider Indiana University’s Kelley Direct online MBA. IU supports a nationally ranked B-school, according to surveys by Business Week and U.S. News & World Report. Think distance degrees aren’t selective in their admissions? Think again. Sixty percent of those who apply to the Kelley program receive a rejection letter. The IU distance option requires a one-week residency in February or August to begin the program, then a one-week residency each year thereafter.

Many old-school icons now offer e-degrees or hybrid “blended” degrees that combine short campus residencies with team-based learning online.

Duke University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are two excellent schools that now offer distance B-degrees. Degrees from these grad schools carry weight in the corporate world—no matter that you earned your degree on campus or in cyberspace.

• Look for business schools accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Many HR departments see the AACSB mark as the gold standard. Some large companies, like Intel, won’t reimburse tuition for B-degrees unless the degree comes from an AACSB accredited program.

• Be prepared to spend brief interludes on campus. Most top-tier B-schools that offer distance degrees require short campus residencies.

At Babson, for example, students must attend class on-campus for intensive, two-day sessions every six weeks. They then work on courses in virtual teams. Students can also opt to attend “on campus” residencies in Portland, Oregon

• Check with your human resources department. Special corporate partnership programs may exist between a local top tier B-school and your company.

The University of Notre Dame in Indiana, for example, offers its Executive MBA (EMBA) in blended format via once-a-month classes at sites around the Chicago and Cincinnati metro area. The program recruits heavily from corporations that operate in these metro areas.

• Attending a name-brand business school may be a smart career move. National surveys by GetEducated.com show that if you attend a name-brand university with a long established brick-and-mortar legacy, any stigma associated with a “distance degree” is effectively erased from the minds of employers.


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