Mba

Lawmakers in the House of Delegates have substantially scaled back a Senate bill aimed at dismantling Towson University's MBA program, but the amended version still puts the new business program in jeopardy. The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote today on amendments crafted yesterday by its education subcommittee. Unlike the Senate bill - which passed last month and won the governor's support - the amended House measure would not give Morgan State University the right to fight the competing MBA in state court.

Players often liken the demands of major-college football to a full-time job, which might explain why Ryan Schlothauer needed to set his alarm for 5 o'clock on a still-dark morning so he could complete a paper for a business course and still manage to ice his sore ankle and squeeze in weightlifting, film study, meals, afternoon practice and a four-hour evening class. Sometimes it seems there are barely enough hours in the day for the Maryland special teams player and backup tight end to succeed in his double life as student and athlete.

After reading the article "Towson MBA in peril as House takes up bill" (March 28), I think everyone is missing the point in this conversation. You cannot legislate buyer behavior (that's one of the things they teach you in business school). Students enter MBA programs primarily to enable themselves to obtain higher-paying professional jobs. Thus the No. 1 criteria in choosing a business school are the quality and reputation of its program, because that reputation can translate into a higher-paying job. The market for MBAs in the Baltimore metropolitan area is strong and can support programs at a number of schools.

I was born in Baltimore County, raised in Prince George's County, attended public schools in Prince George's, matriculated from the University of Maryland College Park, and received an MBA from Mount Saint Mary's College. I have worked my entire career, approaching 30 years, within the state, dutifully paying my share of state income and personal property taxes. And while some would tell me I am in the "1 percent," I know that I am only in that rarefied air as long as I am working.

If you've been thinking about going to business school for an MBA, you're not alone. After years of lagging interest, especially at full-time programs, a stronger labor market is driving up the number of applications to graduate business schools. According to the latest research from the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the GMAT exam, a required part of B-school applications, only 18 percent of employers did not hire MBA grads in 2005, down from 23 percent in 2003.

Business managers pinched for time, but who long for the letters M.B.A. after their names, can earn the degree by attending classes once a week at the University of Baltimore Merrick School of Business.The university is offering a master's of business administration program that meets on Saturdays for eight 10-week semesters.The program can be completed in two years. It is scheduled to begin in July."Our goal is to make our programs as convenient as possible for working students," said University of Baltimore President H. Mebane Turner.

Students working toward a master's degree in business administration usually learn all about theories of management, accounting and finance. Increasingly, they are also learning how to do lunch and survive a trek in the wilderness.This isn't typical fare served up by most traditional master's degree programs. But then, few companies that recruit MBA graduates consider themselves "traditional" anymore. Almost all corporate executives have had to rethink the way they do business. They are looking for smart MBAs who can act in non-traditional ways.

Dear Joyce: Unfortunately, my company does not pay tuition for graduate study. I'm considering evening or weekend study to obtain my MBA. But holding down a full-time job while studying for a part-time degree is hardly a walk at the beach. How tough is it going to be, how expensive, which are the best schools and will it pay off with a better job? -- J.P.K.Dear J.P.K.: The credential itself hasn't proven to be a pass to the executive suite. I'm unaware of hard data, but anecdotal comments suggest one-third to one-half of executive MBA graduates look for new jobs within a couple of years of graduation -- even when their companies foot the bill which, for top-rated EMBA programs, ranges from about $20,000 at outstanding state universities to nearly $60,000 at famous private universities.

COLLEGE PARK -- Ms. Manners has made it to business school.To help M.B.A. students capture good jobs and win promotions, the University of Maryland's business school has set up a new requirement, a class in "positive self-presentation."Friday, the first of three groups of M.B.A. students donned their navy and charcoal business suits for a daylong seminar conducted by Peggy Newfield, an Atlanta consultant who specializes in teaching business manners, dress and networking techniques. Some topics: how to shake hands, work a cocktail party and hold forks and knives properly at the dinner table.

I was recently hired to start a new division for a small company -- essentially starting up a new company. I'm planning to get a master's of business administration, under one of the popular programs to earn an MBA while you're fully employed, in order to gain the skills I need to build this new business properly and help it thrive. My employer is too small to be able to help me with the considerable expense of this program.My question: Is there any way it could be tax-deductible?Considerable expense is right.

With the Republican presidential nomination contest in high gear, Marylanders might be forgiven for smiling. The word "snob" has returned with full force to presidential politics after a four-decade hiatus. Former Sen. Rick Santorum (Penn State University '80, University of Pittsburgh '81, Dickinson School of Law '86), in an old-fashioned beat-down on higher education, recently informed us that President Barack Obama is "a snob" for wanting Americans to go to college, where they would be indoctrinated by "some liberal college professor.

Our preview on Mount St. Mary's will be published Friday, but here's a sampling of my interview with coach Tom Gravante. The Mountaineers have taken the unusual step of asking a trio of seniors in attackman Cody Lehrer, midfielder Eric Ososki and long-stick midfielder Mark Burns to sit out the upcoming season despite being healthy. All three players are business majors, and after graduating this spring, they will enter the school's MBA program. They will be play in 2013 when the team will be competing to win the Northeast Conference tournament and the subsequent automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament - which is not available in 2012.

The Community Foundation of Harford County has elected Kathleen A. Beck and Kenneth M. Ferrara to its board of directors. Each will serve a three-year term. Beck serves as vice president for wealth management for PNC Bank in Baltimore, a position she has held for the past five years. She is responsible for overseeing wealth-managed accounts and cultivating new relationships in the Baltimore area. Prior to PNC Bank, Beck worked at J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc., in Washington, D.C., and at T. Rowe Price Associates in Owings Mills.

For nearly two centuries, the Maryland Institute College of Art has been known for training painters, sculptors and fashion designers. But in May, MICA broadened its course offerings, and it is preparing to confer its first master's degrees on about 200 students planning careers in fields ranging from engineering to public health to computer science. The next step: an MBA program that will start next fall and provide classroom instruction at both MICA and the Johns Hopkins University's Carey School of Business.

Gilchrist Hospice Care announced that Gilchrist Center Howard County, the first-ever acute care inpatient hospice facility in the county, began admitting patients on May 23. Ascend One Corp. employees donated $1,000 and the company donated another $2,500 to FIRN . The funds will be used to support services and to sponsor FIRN's American Success Awards Dinner on June 7. Aquarius Sports and Entertainment, based in Fulton, announced that its client, Modern Business Associates, has entered into a corporate partnership with the Richmond Flying Squirrels.

Thursday, April 27, was an extremely sad day for the United States of America. That a sitting president should feel the need to release his birth certificate in order to quell nasty rumors about his eligibility to hold office was shocking, but then to hear even that did not wholly satisfy the doubters, some of whom are now questioning his college records, is almost unbelievable. I cannot help but think this is a result of prejudice. Because he is biracial? Has an unusual name? I had been hopeful that we Americans had progressed beyond that.

Responding to a shift toward technology in the economy, the University of Maryland's graduate business school is adding concentrations such as electronic commerce to its traditional course work.Starting Aug. 31, the 400 full-time MBA students at the Robert H. Smith School of Business in College Park will have the option of concentrating in business telecommunications; electronic commerce; global business and knowledge management; and logistics and supply chain management.The additions come as the University of Maryland fights to get into the top tier of graduate business schools nationwide.

BEIJING - Considering that he was teaching in China, Professor Li Mingzhi of Tsinghua University must have been amused asking his MBA students for examples of a command economy, where the government decides how much people earn, how much people produce, and how much products cost. "China," one student quickly piped up, "several years ago." Actually, as this and hundreds of other MBA classes in this country demonstrate daily, the China in which the government makes all those decisions is receding into history.

The number of Maryland residents who face foreclosure or have missed payments on home loans rose to nearly 121,000 in the first three months of the year, with mortgage woes increasing the fastest among the less risky prime borrowers, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday. Loans that were late by at least a month, including some in the foreclosure process, accounted for 11.3 percent of the more than 1 million outstanding mortgages in Maryland at the end of March, up slightly from the fourth quarter of 2008 but an increase of 67 percent from a year earlier, the MBA said in its quarterly loan delinquency survey.

When Susan Miltenberger began taking executive MBA classes, she knew the reputation of such programs. They tend to be heavily male, filled with mid-career businessmen. But Loyola College surprised her. "I was expecting to see like five women in my class," Miltenberger said, "and I walked in and was like, 'Whoa! We're half the room!' " While women make up less than 20 percent of executive master of business administration classes nationwide, at Loyola they account for 42 percent of the current first-year class.