Hi Everyone

I am considering to apply for a DL programme which is fully online.
Background info on me - Have a petroleum engineering degree (3.06 GPA) and 15 years Oil & gas industry experience in mid size and major operator companies. I had supervisory and engineering roles in engineering/operations. I am considering to make a soft career change - to business development/private equity/investment in energy etc. type of role where I can use my O&G experience as well.
Questions that I seek your advice on
- Fully online - Isenberg or University of Florida? any better advantage on one or the other?
- is there a benefit on hybrid vs fully online? Networking is not critical as I am planning to work in Turkey (move back to Turkey from expat life)
- How about Durham or Bradford?
- Is there a significant additional value for paying ¬100k (Kelley or IE) whereas Isenberg or Durham are less than 40kUSD. Are you gaining to payback in salary increase?

Note - I have not worked on GMAT or GRE, so is it difficult to have a waiver on GMAT with this experience or GPA?

Lot of questions, but appreciate your feedback.

This really depends on the role you want to have, the networks you need to access, and so on. If your focus is on the energy industry in Turkey, then it might be better to do the Maryland MBA core, and then when you get to Turkey take the EMBA at METU or Istanbul University (to build networks in the energy industry) or at Koç University or Sabanci (for a more investment/external perspective).

If you are looking for investors outside Turkey then, again, think of networks.

Otherwise the cost shows you the emphasis on a more extensive MBA experience, adding in soft skills, group work, deeper feedback on assessment, career services etc. A lower-cost public university won't be as strong on that.

Thanks Duncan for your reply - I will dig into Koc/Sabanci for the networking as my intent is to return back from expat assignment and work in Turkey. So Durham or Isenberg more academic based? I read on one of your post that you compared Manchester MBA vs Durham and favoured Manchester for the reasons you mentioned above, however, would an MBA from Durham/Isenberg not be helpful for the career transition? I understand the additional value from better schools with partial/full time; but would an MBA from Durham/Isenberg be taken lightly due to fully online structure?
Thanks again for taking the time and respond...

I don't think it's negative for an MBA to be academic: it's great to have rigorous assessment and to force students to engage with recent scholarship. A glance at the curriculum will show you that Durham is really light, with just five core courses and two electives. It's not highly relevant to energy or finance (unlike, for example, Warwick which has a specialised energy MBA).

But for a career transition, you'd want an MBA to provide you with footholds: projects in your target area, electives in your target, relevant networks... I

I searched MBAs in Turkey to compare alumni networks. From largest to smallest:
Durham University
University of Warwick
University of Warwick - Warwick Business School
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Isenberg School of Management, UMass Amherst
Durham University Business School.

So, Durham has the largest network when we include undergrads, but it's never had a large business school. Warwick is more costly than Durham (£32k rather than £23k) but comes with a much more extensive range of courses and four electives rather than two at Durham. It costs the same as the $40k UMass MBA option for a three-elective focus area. It also seems to have the largest b-school network of any of the major online MBAs.