Best Online MBA Programs Ranked by U.S. News

Did you know that U.S. News has started ranking online graduate business programs? If you've been thinking about getting an MBA online, you may want to look at this list.

By earning a business degree online, working students don’t have to put their jobs on hold. Besides an MBA, other online business degrees include master’s programs in accounting, marketing, and entrepreneurship. U.S. News evaluated several factors to rank the best online business degree programs, including reputation, faculty credentials, and graduation rates.

Top online MBA programs ranked by U.S. News include:

#1. Washington State University
Pullman, WA

#2. Arizona State University (Carey)
Tempe, AZ

#3. Indiana University--Bloomington (Kelley)
Bloomington, IN

#4. University of Florida (Hough)
Gainesville, FL

#5. California State University--Fullerton (Mihaylo)
Fullerton, CA

You can see the full U.S. News Online MBA  ranking list here. You can also read about their ranking methodology here.

US News Best Graduate Business Schools for an MBA

US News recently released their "Best Graduate Business Schools" list and here are the top 10 schools if you want to get an MBA:

1 Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Full-time Students Employed at Graduation: 76%
Average Starting Salary and Bonus: $131,949
SCORE: 100

2 Harvard University
Boston, MA
Full-time Students Employed at Graduation: 79%
Average Starting Salary and Bonus: $131,759
SCORE: 98

3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
Full-time Students Employed at Graduation: 76%
Average Starting Salary and Bonus: $125,905
SCORE: 93

3 University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
Full-time Students Employed at Graduation: 73%
Average Starting Salary and Bonus: $132,579
SCORE: 93

How to Choose a Career That’s Best for You

There's a short blog article on U.S. News titled, "How to Choose a Career That’s Best for You." The author asks several questions to help you determine how to choose a career:

• What are your natural talents?
• What’s your work style?
• Where do you like to work?
• Do you enjoy social interaction?
• How important to you is work-life balance?
• Are you looking to give back?
• Are you comfortable in the public eye?
• Do you deal well with stress?
• How much money do you want to make?

These may seem like simple questions, but did you ask these questions before you pursued a career in medicine? It's not too late to switch gears. You may find that a non-clinical career may be a better "fit" for you. Read the complete article here.

The 50 Best Careers of 2011

US News and World Report has released an article where they feature the "50 Best Careers of 2011." As expected, a number of those careers are in the health care industry.

Here are the health care careers that they picked:

• Athletic trainer
• Dental hygienist
• Lab technician
• Massage therapist
• Occupational therapist
• Optometrist
• Physician assistant
• Physical therapist
• Physical therapist assistant
• Radiologic technologist
• Registered nurse
• School psychologist
• Veterinarian

So, I see that physician isn't on the list. What does this imply? Does it suggest that physician careers are not so appealing if they're not considered one of the 50 best careers?  Maybe this is why so many physicians are looking for alternative careers outside of clinical medicine.

Best Schools for Top Careers in Healthcare

What are the "top careers in healthcare?" If someone asked you, would you say "being a physician," or would you say "nursing" or "physical therapy?" 

U.S. News has listed top graduate schools for the following healthcare careers:

• Veterinarian
• Physical Therapist
• Registered Nurse

Here's a snippet from the article:

Though the economy has been dismal in recent years and unemployment has soared, not every industry has suffered equally. Some sectors continue to need an influx of young, new talent to meet the increasing demand. Nowhere else has demand been more prevalent than in the healthcare field. Below are three jobs that made U.S. News's list of America's Best Careers in 2010 and information on the top graduate programs to prepare you for a successful career.

Click here to read that U.S. News article.

World's best distance learning MBA programs

You won't find too many published rankings of online MBA programs. BusinessWeek lists online MBA programs, but they don't rank them. US News and World Report also lists distance learning MBA programs, but they also don't rank them. The Economist is willing to rate schools, but doesn't want to use the word "rank" since their list of schools is not exhaustive. In an online article titled, "Why distance-learning MBAs matter," the Economist says:

If, perhaps, the very top tier of universities are yet to offer distance programmes, still some very notable ones do: Carnegie Mellon or Thunderbird in America, Warwick or Insitito Empresas in Europe, for example.

You can view the complete report that includes ratings of selected distance-learning MBA programs by clicking here (PDF). Only 5 US business schools made it on that list and those were:

• Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
• University of Florida (Hough)
• Indiana University (Kelley)
• Thunderbird School of Management

Two programs received a rating of "excellent" by the Economist: Florida’s Internet MBA and the International Executive MBA offered by IE Business School. Thunderbird School of Global Management, Indiana’s Kelly school, and the Euro MBA got honorable mentions and got "excellent" ratings for program content.

8 steps to launching a start-up

There's a nice article in the March 2010 edition of US News and World Report titled, "Kick-Starting a Business of Your Own." The author describes 8 important steps that are important for anyone starting a new company:

1. Find a mentor
2. Do the prep work
3. Write a business plan
4. Line up sources of funding
5. Purchase health insurance
6. Hire an accountant
7. Don't neglect retirement savings
8. Accept what you can't have

When it comes to step #4 above, this is where many people get stuck. How do you find sources of funding for a new business venture?

• Savings
• Credit cards (use with caution!)
• Home equity loans 
• Friends and relatives (use with extreme caution!)
• Banks and credit unions
• Angel investors and venture capital firms

So, are you ready to embark on a new adventure? I'm a bootstrapper (defined by Wikipedia as: to start a business without external help/capital). Perhaps you've been thinking about starting a new business. Would you call yourself an entrepreneur?

10 fastest growing jobs over the next 10 years

According to a recent article in US News and World Report, the occupations projected to grow fastest between 2008 and 2018 are:

1. Biomedical engineers (72% projected growth)
2. Network systems and data communications analysts (53%)
3. Home health aids (50%)
4. Personal and home care aids (46%)
5. Financial examiners (41%)
6. Medical scientists, except epidemiologists (40%)
7. Physician assistants (39%)
8. Skin care specialists (38%)
9. Biochemists and biophysicists (37%)
10. Athletic trainers (37%)

That's a very interesting list. They source the Bureau of Labor Statistics and remark that some of the median income levels for some of these positions (such as home care aids) is less than $20k. Half of the top 20 fastest-growing careers are related to healthcare (no surprise there).