Virtual Information Sessions

Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Ohio University's Online Master of Business Analytics Information Session. We have a packed agenda today where you'll have the opportunity to meet our online master of business analytics program director and hear his passion as he provides an overview of the program, including what makes it unique and details on the curriculum, the Leadership Development Conference, our tuition and career outlook. We'll also have the pleasure of hearing from two of our recent alumni who will share their firsthand experience in the master of business analytics program and how it has impacted their careers. Then we'll hear from our graduate career acceleration team and speak to the admission requirements and next steps. I am really excited to introduce our business analytics program director, Dr. Bill Young. Dr. Young is a Charles O'Bleness associate professor of business analytics and has his doctorate degree in mechanical and systems engineering, as well as bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering. Dr. Young, welcome. Would you like to tell us a bit more about your background?

Dr. William You...: Absolutely. First and foremost, I just wanted to thank everybody for watching and listening to this informational session. If you have, at any time, any questions, you can reach out to me or you can reach out to the enrollment team. They'll be happy to answer anything that you might have. In terms of my background, I have a lot of experience working with General Electric Aviation, developing software, cost-estimating software for them on their jet engine parts. I also have experience working with GKN Sinter Metals, and at that time, I was doing more quality control engineering. As far as what I do on campus, I do teach actively in the undergraduate programs and the graduate programs. I do teach several of the courses within the MBAn program that we're going to be talking about today. I also do various things at the college, either on a service level or a teaching level. I've been active at young professional development programs or even taking students, our undergraduate students abroad for a consulting-like experience.

Speaker 1: Thank you, Dr. Young. And now, could you tell us a little bit more about why a prospective student should choose Ohio University for their business analytics master's?

Dr. William You...: Okay, absolutely. First, we are AACSB accredited, and that's often one of the key selling points when students are looking for a graduate degree. We're accredited in both our undergraduate and graduate programs. I want to talk about our faculty because I love working with our faculty. I know them very well. Most of them come from my department in analytics and information systems, and they all have real-world experience or consultancy experience or research experience that they leverage into developing and refining their analytical skills over time. I can tell you we put the best and brightest of the faculty we have and the most passionate faculty we have in front of our students in the MBAn program. It really is a passion of theirs and they simply love to share, just like me, my passion for analytics back to the students. This is an incredible time to think about a career in analytics or learning more of the capabilities that analytics will do for you.

Really, there's two sets of students out there. One maybe doesn't have all that many years of professional experience and they're making really terrific impact within their organizations without that professional experience, or we have students in the program that do have quite a bit of their professional experience and they know inside and out their business and they're leading teams and leading their company to take more of a data-driven [inaudible 00:03:53] within their organization. Those are really the top two. But if we dig into the flexibility of program, I think that's a must to talk about. When you're looking at other programs, you might want to consider things like this. For example, when we created our program, we created a program where students take one course at a time. In a 15-week semester, the first seven weeks of a semester, students will take one class, and then we'll transition to the second class the last seven weeks of that semester. So you're looking at one thing at one time and you're not competing with due dates in other classes and things like that.

Another flexible part about the program is that all of our courses essentially have video libraries that you can watch and interact with, if you will, before coming to a what we call virtual class or virtual office hours. You're going to be given the library of videos with whatever class you're taking. Online courses for us is not an overthought. We are always thinking about our courses and regardless of what kind of format they're in. Our program offers a lot of flexibility at nights and weekends and things of that nature that you can navigate and manage your personal life or your professional life. We do offer networking opportunities at our LDC, our Leadership Development Conference, and we have services when it comes to managing your career. So we have something called GradCAT that we'll talk about later. We have a wide variety of employer relationships and a lot of times, that goes back to the career management services or it helps us redefine and integrate some of our network's material into the class. So we're bringing in real-world data, if you will, into our classes.

Speaker 1: I'd like to introduce now our team's alumni, recently graduated from our master of business analytics program, Tina Tamburrino and Ryan Jeppe. Tina and Ryan, welcome. Tina, would you give us a bit more about your background?

Tina Tamburrino: Sure. Hi. I'm excited to be able to share. I'm currently a business analyst for FTG of Greater Ohio, a managed print services company. I have responsibility for business reviews for clients and gathering data and presenting it in the best light. Without having the formal training to do that, I was looking for more validation of what I know, what I do, what I'm capable of. I actually was scrolling Facebook one time and found this master's of online business analytics and I'm like, oh, this could be why I want to do this. I dug into the program, looked at the course descriptions and I'm like, this is definitely my why. So I'm like, okay, we're going back to school.

I've been out of college for a good number of years, so I've had a lot of background in different analysis tricks, tools, and tips, but the program has given me 100% validation for what I do. I actually leveraged all of my analytics skills yesterday in a project that I did and it was exactly how it needed to be, and so that was just like, yeah, I did it. It's all great. But yeah, that's what I do.

Speaker 1: Awesome. Thank you Tina. And Ryan, tell us a bit more about your background and what you currently do.

Ryan Jeppe: Yes, thank you. Like Tina, it's great to be a part of this. It was a fantastic program. I got interested in it from my end, we do database management for law firms and litigation support and our software uses analytics to find near-duplicate documents, similar concept in terms predictive coding or relevance and or privilege. I've always been interested in finding out how things work in analytics in general, so when I saw the ad on LinkedIn, I believe it was, it took me two or three times before I clicked on it. Because being an undergraduate from Ohio University as well, I kept seeing another chance to go back to OU would be great. And finally, after some apprehension from being out of school for a while, I went in and I sure glad I am because now I'm considered a subject matter expert and have even signed affidavits to testify to the validity of the analytics in the programs we are currently using.

Speaker 1: Awesome. Thank you so much, Ryan. Dr. Young, can you describe the key benefits of Ohio's master of business analytics program?

Dr. William You...: Absolutely. Recently, we were actually ranked eighth best program in terms of our master's of business analytics by Fortune. That's something I definitely want to bring to your attention. We're extremely proud of that ranking. We've worked really hard developing the courses for this program, developing the right courses for the program, developing a flexible program for our students. So we're extremely excited about that. Probably the question I get most of all from prospective students is they're worried about their lack of a technical background. I tell this to all my students in all my classes, especially because I teach the first one in the program and trying to set them up for success later, I really think that your grit and determination and your interest is more applicable here than whether you remember statistics from 15 or 20 years ago or five years ago or whatever it is.

If you have a natural [inaudible 00:09:27] in data analysis and learning new skills, new techniques, and you have good time management skills, that trumps all. So that's more important. We'll start you out at a very fundamental level with descriptive analytics. What I mean by that is we assume nothing. We assume you don't have a programming background. We assume you've forgotten everything in college about statistics and probability. So we'll start you out in a platform that you should be aware of, Microsoft Excel, and then we'll basically explore that to a point where we've exhausted what you can really do in Excel and move you onto other tools like Python, like SQL and Tableau and others. It's a gradual path from the start to the finish. Every course along the way, it's structured in a way that builds upon another. So I wouldn't worry about the fact that you don't have those technical skills. It's more about your time management and your natural inquisitiveness of data itself.

The course, the program I should say, is five semesters, so that's attractive for a lot of our students. You can complete this program just under two years. Like I mentioned earlier, it's one course at a time. We'll talk more about the curriculum here in a moment, but it really centers around Gartner's definition of analytics, where the pillars are descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics, but those need to be supported with business intelligence, database management. Another thing is we also provide a few strategy classes, like I'll say. The other thing I want to mention is we do offer three different certificate programs in analytics. If you complete the MBAn, you're one course away from completing our business analytics leadership certificate. So there's an extra little benefit there that if you need that title, especially if you're transitioning to managing teams within your organization with analytics, you'll want to have that certificate program. I also should say we're recognized as a Military-Friendly School®. We have that AACSB accreditation. It's a flexible program that you can weave into your professional lives.

Speaker 1: Awesome. Thank you so much Dr. Young. Tina, and Ryan, would love to hear some of the reasons why you chose Ohio's program and how you were able to navigate maybe having that technical background or not having that technical background as you came into the program.

Ryan Jeppe: Yes. I loved any chance to say that I went back to Ohio University. Like I said, I got my undergraduate degree from Ohio University. I love Athens. I consider it my second home. This was a fantastic way for me to not only further myself educationally and professionally, but also to have another chance to hang an OU diploma on my wall. It was a little bit scary having two teenage children that are very active, but as Dr. Young had stated, that the classes are very flexible, didn't interrupt my work life or my home life whatsoever.

Tina Tamburrino: And I'll add a little bit. Dr. Young's descriptive class set us off for success right away. It's the very first one. He's not wrong when he level sets everybody. You start at the beginning and then you quickly ramp up, but you start at the beginning. This is what Excel is. This is what a cell means. This is a cell, a formula, and it builds and builds and by the end of the program, you realize you've touched on everything that he's talked about with the Gartner pillars. You've gone from descriptive and predictive and prescriptive up into what business intelligence means. I'm not a coder, but I learned how to code and I understand when I'm looking at something what that means. To me, that was huge, huge. So picking OU, my daughter and my son-in-law went to OU. My brother and my sister-in-law went to OU. I'm like, I want to be a Bobcat because I love OU. The campus is fantastic. Fortunately, we got to see it within the program being at the LDC.

But yeah, my experience has been completely like I would, yes, go do it. If you're considering OU, do it because you will have a fantastic experience. The faculty is great. They are patient. They will help you. You have questions, ask. They will help you. Don't be afraid. It's good.

Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Tina. Dr. Young, could you give us a little bit more details around the curriculum structure?

Dr. William You...: Sure, absolutely. As I mentioned, the program itself is 30 credit hours and that could be completed in five semesters. We have a total of 11 courses. Like I said earlier, we have students take one course at a time, so two in a given semester, and we actually have three starts per year. If you're interested in starting in the fall, which is what a lot of our students do, it's our busiest semester in terms of intake, that's great. If you want to hold off because the timing is not right and want to start in the spring or summer, that's okay too, of course. I'll talk a little bit about these courses and I also want to talk a little bit about just what the student experience would be like if you were to enter the program. I'll start with descriptive analytics because that's the course I teach most often in the program.

Basically, like I said earlier, students are given a set of videos each week to watch. Students will start watching those videos, let's say on a Monday, Tuesday, and a Wednesday in the evening on their spare time. Then they'll come into what we call virtual office hour or some call it virtual classes. We'll be there live and we fly and say it's an hour, but we won't leave until we've exhausted everybody's questions. We really truly want to help our students and we want to share our passion for analytics. We record those sessions, so if you're on the West Coast and the timing's just not right for you, usually those sessions are about eight o'clock or some do seven o'clock, but most do eight o'clock just to recognize we have students all across the nation. But anyway, those will be recorded and then we shift or the students shift into homework mode and then we'll provide one VOH or VC during the weekend where we provide a lot of homework for the students who use that weekend time to really hone in to complete that week's worth of material.

Then it's just repeated. Each week, students start a new module, learn a different topic, watch those videos, transition to that VOH, ask clarifying questions or be shown additional examples that support what they were watching in the video and then you transition to homework mode once again. Let me talk about those pillars of analytics that are defined by Gartner again. Descriptive analytic is the first one. Basically, you can think about this as we have this historic data or close to real-time information, what is it saying? Can we describe the data in forms of charts and graphs? What does predictive analytics means? It's also using data, but it's forward or future-looking in terms of the capabilities it provides. We might want to know some trend about our sales or something that relates back to a business decision. If sales increase, does that change some staffing plan that we've got to overcome?

If we have to make a strategic decision related to what the forecast is saying, we could adapt our business to that. I'm going to skip a couple of these just to maintain the pillar of Gartner's structure. Prescriptive analytics is the last and it is all about what is the prescription here. What is the course of action we should take? What is the best course of action we could take in an uncertain world? It's basically a decision-making class. The prescriptive analytics tools that we focus on are more about optimization. We will use optimizations to make business decisions and those decisions can come in the form of, how many units should we plan over this production horizon? How much money should we invest in this type of portfolio? How many people should we staff in this environment? So basically, anytime you're given a business problem, it usually deals with revenue, so maximizing revenue, maximizing profit, minimizing cost or something of that nature. All of those problems, you have a limited resource and that could be raw material or it could be people or it could be finances, of course.

That's basically the three pillars, but they need support from other areas within analytics, and that's where our business intelligence classes come. That's more about preparing the data for an analysis or preparing the data, complex relational data together to build meaningful dashboards and more meaningful analysis. We also wanted to build a program. When I put the proposal in, I wanted a strategy side of the program. I would say it's 75 and these are just numbers I'm throwing out, but 75%, 80% of the technical how-to and then the other 25% or 20% would be more the strategic use of information systems. How do we leverage that within an organization? How do we leverage analytics from a communication and visualization perspective? Then how do we communicate that back to non-analytical folks, which is what the business experience and practicum is about.

I would like to say based on some of the things I said earlier about the most concern is usually the technical background. If you do have a little lack of confidence in your technical background, we offer what's called a quantitative bridge course and we do that for free for students who might not have ever had an online program, might be a little worried about the environment, might be a little bit worried about jumping into Excel. So if you're ever interested in that, please reach out to us. It's actually a free course that we offer and it's a one-on-one course with Andy Goodnight, who I co-teach several of these classes with. The final thing I want to mention is that if you do complete the curriculum within the MBAn program, you are one course away from completing that business analytics certificate program.

Speaker 1: Fantastic. Thank you, Dr. Young. Tina and Ryan, how was that experience as you were going through the program in terms of the support and just managing the course load?

Tina Tamburrino: I'll start. I did review the bridge courses because they give you basics on how to do Excel, what are some of the techniques that you're going to have to learn. It was a refresher. It was fantastic. It really set me for a better experience with it, first class. I was really nervous about being on online class. I'd never had one. What do you do with that? But the videos are a fantastic platform because you can watch them and rewatch them and rewatch them until you understand what it is they're asking. Then that helps you with the homework and the prep assignments that you have to do. If you take great notes, then you have that for... Taking one class at a time was very doable because you might be an 8:00 to 5:00 person and then after five o'clock, then you work on homework. Or if you have the family, then it's after 7:00 or 8:00 or 9:00, whichever, once you get the kids settled.

But my experience was I shut the computer off at 5:00 and after 5:00 was my school time. It took me until I'm in the early morning hours if I was extra. I learned a lot by doing just the videos and one class at a time. I did not take a break. I started in January of 2021 and I just completed in August of 2022. It was a fantastic experience. The classes are great. Professors are fantastic. They're approachable. They want to help you learn, understand, and be successful as well. So that's my experience.

Ryan Jeppe: I too took the course that I could, every tutorial, whether it be for the Blackboard, because being a traditional student in the past, I too did not know what to expect from an online environment. I found it very easy to work with, especially to put it into your daily routine, as Tina had said. The modules for the classes were great with the video. They were challenging, but they were equally as rewarding as they were challenging. When you finally solve this problem and create your model, you get an instant sense of accomplishment in almost every module you do. It really does help you with the homeworks, which in turn help with the exams at the end. At any time you get stuck, Dr. Young had said these professors are very passionate about what they do and they want to transfer that passion to everybody else. I believe I've had every cell phone number of every teacher I had. They were very approachable, whether by a text, email or a Teams meeting and very good resource to have in terms of learning. Maybe just going an extra step.

Speaker 1: Awesome. Thank you, Tina and Ryan. Dr. Young, you mentioned the Leadership Development Conference opportunity for our online students. Can you tell us a bit more about what that involves?

Dr. William You...: Yeah, absolutely. Our Leadership Development Conference is what we consider our signature event from the College of Business. We bring in students not only from the MBAn, but students from our online MBA and other programs like our master's of accountancy and a couple of others. So what is it? We offer it two times a year and students are required to come to at least one, up to two if they choose, but they are required to come to one. Basically, you're responsible for traveling to Athens, but once you're here, most meals and lodging are covered and your tuition fees and whatnot. We bring in speakers all across the world. We leverage our center of excellence that we have at the College of Business to bring people in from major organizations over the world to talk about leading yourself, leading others, and sharing those personal experiences of all the leaders that we bring in about their personal journey and what they took from it.

It's a two-day event on campus and it's one full day and then roughly three quarters of a day the second day, but it's filled with speakers, keynotes, panelists, and personal sessions. We usually break out different rooms depending on your concentration. We'll have a analytics-focused group of speakers talking. Every conference that we ever hold is different, so if you do come to two events, you'll get a different theme each time you come. And really, for me, it always gives me motivation even as a professor about what it is I'm doing and who I'm doing it for. I think students are very similar in that because I take away my own personal goals from a leadership perspective. I get a lot out of those kind of discussions about how to lead yourself. What is the next step? To me, the students reflect the same thing. Why am I pursuing an MBAn degree? What are my goals? So it helps ground me and gets me back motivated to the things I want to do in my professional career.

Speaker 1: Absolutely. I know as online students, one consideration is, do I have to come to campus? Is it really worth the effort, the resources, the time to take away from your other responsibilities, your work? Ryan and Tina, can you tell us how it was for you? And Tina, give us some idea of what it was like attending the LDC.

Tina Tamburrino: Being on campus, if you've not been to Athens and you're just a wholly online student, it's an amazing experience. It's a beautiful campus. You understand why [inaudible 00:26:01] Ohio is their theme. You meet the professors that you see on videos, you meet and talk to in the virtual classes. You meet your cohort that you had maybe some questions or collaborations with trying to solve a Python problem. You talk to these amazing speakers because they actually give you some Q&A after on their perspective of maybe what your related idea or field would be with the topic. It's just an engaging two days that I cherish, actually. It was a fantastic experience. I'm just the cheerleader for all of this, but it really truly was a phenomenal experience coming from somebody who didn't think they'd go back to school after so many years.

My takeaway was leadership from a perspective of, okay, that's what that means. I've been in a corporate world. I'm not a leader, but I have leadership skills and now I have leadership ideas that this is the why some of the people that I've looked up to do what they do. So it's just another validation for me.

Speaker 1: Awesome. Thanks, Tina.

Tina Tamburrino: Yeah.

Speaker 1: And Ryan, you are an OU undergrad. How is it? I'm assuming you were on campus for your undergraduate degree. How was it coming back to campus and how was the overall experience with LDC?

Ryan Jeppe: I'm always looking for reasons to get back to Athens. It's the most beautiful place in the world. Doing my undergraduate there, I love the campus. The leadership, the LDC, the conference was fantastic. Just the points of view you got from the different sessions with the [inaudible 00:27:45], just seeing from different points of view the same topics that you're learning and just seeing how other people use these tools. For me, not being in a traditional business role, just getting to see these insights from these professionals was fantastic for me.

Speaker 1: The online MBAn tuition for Ohio residents and for non-residents are shown on the slide and it's about $1,100 for both Ohio residents and non-residents as shown. Or to complete the full 30-credit program, that works out to be about $35,000 for tuition overall. Note that as Dr. Young mentioned as we were speaking about the LDC, your hotel and most meals are covered once you're on campus for that event. The travel costs, however, to Athens will also be something you'll need to budget for in addition to any auxiliary supplies and fees that may be applicable to your courses as you go through those. We do offer financial aid and scholarships. We mentioned the scholarship for our alumni, military, and corporate partners up to $5,000 through our College of Business. If you would like to know more about that, it's definitely something that is available. Speak to our enrollment advisors to see how those may be applied towards your tuition. We'd love now to hear about the career outlook for the master's in business analytics and talk to us about how will the MBAn really prepares our graduates for their future careers.

Dr. William You...: Okay, absolutely. This is actually a little bit of a difficult question to answer and address, but I really like addressing it because we have students in so many different fields that approach us and take our program. We have people in engineering-related disciplines. We have people as analysts that come into our programs. We have small business owners that enter our program. My point is data is really not going anywhere. Every job title that you can think of could be improved with data analysis types of skills, data literacy and things of that nature. Data is easier to collect more than ever, and with that, presents a challenge in itself, but we have to communicate. We have to be able to analyze and communicate our results to our peers and our colleagues. There's many different fields actually and this list is just showing some of the more popular ones like the analyst role or the data scientist role.

Like I mentioned earlier, this program is great because it always has been reading, writing, and arithmetic. In my brain, I always think about arithmetic is now analytics. That has disappeared previously in business to some degree, but it's emerging back because we have the tools, we have the software, and we have now programs like this that support using data within corporate environments to make better, less risky decisions or become more aware about how the organization works and functions and things like that. There's many different titles. I would say also, since this field has really emerged as still a relatively new field, you'll see all kind of different titles when you're looking at job search sites and things of that nature. That's why I said it's a difficult question to answer because I think there's some part of organizations that are still trying to figure out what these titles are and these roles within these organizations can spawn in different visions, different sectors with each organization.

So it's a difficult question, but I am extremely excited every year to look at our exit interviews, what students are doing, what our alumni are doing in terms of the promotions they receive and the salary increments that they receive. I'm always impressed with their progression. The salary increases are, I think, really good to justify the cost of the program. I just did a survey for U.S. News & World Report and the salary from beginning of an MBAn program to the end was around $17,000 per year and that's just on average. There's some that are much higher than that and there's some of course that are lower, but I think the return on investment is great. I think an awareness is needed with individuals taking our program. Talk to your superiors. Talk to your leadership team. Make it aware that you have an interest in this and career opportunities will bloom from that discussion. I'm sure of it.

Speaker 1: Absolutely. Thanks Dr. Young. Tina, can you tell us how earning the degree has impacted your career? I know it's been only since August, but even as you were going through the program, have you seen any difference in your career and how has earning the degree impacted that going forward?

Tina Tamburrino: Absolutely. One of the first things I did is let everybody in my company know that I was going to pursue this and my goal to not only be a better employee for my company. They didn't ask me to carry on this or take on this MBAn, but I'm going to let them know they're going to benefit from it. I've been given three different cross-functional leadership projects. So I went from my sales support little world to now, I'm working for HR and finance and doing specific analytics projects. We have our raise reviews coming up, so that will definitely be incorporated into our conversation. This is where I can be now and let's do something better here. But no, it's been great learning how something like a SQL works and the database and that's what we use and it's like, okay, now I get it. Now I can go get my own stuff and I can take these reports that I don't have to have some other department do and I can show them now, "Hey, look. This is what I'm capable of. Where do I fit best now?"

That's my goal within my company because I really wasn't looking to change careers, just be a better employee within our company.

Speaker 1: Thanks, Tina. And Ryan, talk to us about earning your degree and how that has impacted your career.

Ryan Jeppe: Earning my degree in terms of the impact to my career, like I said earlier, has made me more of a subject matter expert in the analytics field where clients have come to me with the best course of action, with a set of data that they were produced. Just before I graduated, we were in the middle of helping a client out in one of the opiate litigation cases and they produced huge spreadsheets that you could really only open in SQL with all sorts of different fields. The knowledge I gained about normalizing data and fields and the pre-processing methods really helped out in order for me to relay to the client what was relevant to these cases. I was able even to make some business for them on Tableau, thanks to these, the courses I was taking. In ways that I didn't even know it would be able to help out in my field, it has. So it's really been beneficial and more so from a confidence standpoint in my work product now as well.

Speaker 1: Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing those. Now we'll hear from Elizabeth Guarino, who will speak to the awesome graduate career acceleration career support that Ohio's College of Business provides for a graduate student.

Elizabeth Guari...: Thanks very much. Thanks to the innovative partnership between Ohio University and RiseSmart, students in degreed graduate programs have the opportunity to enroll in an intensive four-month career coaching program. We call this GradCAT and it stands for Graduate Career Acceleration Team. This unique experience includes a career team of three comprised of an individual career coach, a branding expert who is also a professional resume writer, and a career concierge whose sole mission is to uncover hidden job opportunities that are not otherwise posted in the marketplace. This experience also includes a technology platform that provides access to webinars, templates, assessments, and many other resources designed to support career growth and transition. For students who opt in when they become eligible, this support continues for life.

As team leader for GradCAT, I have the opportunity and the honor of leveraging my extensive background in human resources and talent acquisition to provide direct career services to students as well as programming that is relevant to all phases of career entry, growth, transition, and acceleration. In a word, Ohio's graduate career services is dedicated to being meaningful for all students enrolled in master's programs at the Ohio's College of Business. Wherever students are in their career, no matter how far they want to go, to the C-suite or starting and growing your own business, the GradCAT team has the expertise and the commitment to support all students for life.

Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Elizabeth. Now I'd like to walk us through the admission requirements for the business analytics master's program. You'll need to have your bachelor's degree from regionally accredited institution. You also need a minimum GPA of 3.0, and provide the official transcripts from all of your previous institutions attending. You'll need to provide two letters of recommendation as well as your personal statement, a professional resume, and pay the $50 application fee. Dr. Young, I know that some viewers who may be interested in pursuing their business analytics master's may be concerned about a few of these steps in areas that, for instance, their GPA might not meet that 3.0 GPA requirement. How can they overcome or showcase their strengths in other areas in order to provide the best application possible?

Dr. William You...: As the director of the program, I have had students apply with less than a GPA of 3.0. I can say it's more about the total package than it is one particular strength of one of these bullet points here. So we look at everything. We do look at the letter of recommendations that you received. Like I said earlier, our students range. Some are out of a bachelor's program and some have 15 years of experience within their organizations. We understand that you're a different person 15 years after the fact, after you've graduated from an undergraduate degree. We also realize, even if it hasn't been that long, people go through life and not necessarily clear, or something has happened that can be explained about your GPA. I would recommend being very transparent. If you don't have the highest GPA, that's fine. Address it though. Address it in your personal statement as to why maybe your GPA suffered and things like that. So I think we look into that quite a bit.

The letters of recommendation can also talk about your character and your grit and the support you have at your organization to obtain a degree like this. Like I said, we look at the entire package. The other thing I would state or bring up to an enrollment advisor is maybe if you do have concerns about jumping into an online program, maybe ask about that quantitative bridge course to get you active in that and just explore what an online course really is. We do offer it, like I said, for free. We also offer that material for free in our orientation package. If you don't sign up for it, you still have access to it and you'll have at least a month of that orientation to cover it on your own. But if you do want one-on-one support, reach out and we'll get you signed up and we'll have an instructor work with you throughout that course and that simulates a normal course structure, but it's more one-on-one.

With any of these, like I said, I would just ask questions. If you have questions, ask your enrollment advisor. Reach out to me if you have questions. I don't mind answering emails. I don't mind talking about this. We would just be as transparent as possible about your personal goals, your career progression, maybe any kind of setbacks you've had in life that explains maybe a little lower than ideal GPA or something of that nature. What can I say? I hope that you apply and hoping you're in that first class that I teach.

Speaker 1: Thanks, Dr. Young. Tina and Ryan, how was your experience going through the admission process and talk to us a bit about that.

Tina Tamburrino: I had been a number of years since undergrad, so I was very apprehensive about applying to a program that I knew I could handle. Within the letters of recommendation, knowing my personal statement is where I was able to do what Dr. Young just said, explain what I did, where I have been, what I hope to accomplish with this program. The enrollment advisor was also fantastic by giving you confidence that yes, you can do this, and then they do guide you. They guide you with what might work and what might not. It really was a great experience all in all.

Speaker 1: Awesome. Thanks, Tina. And Ryan, what was your experience?

Ryan Jeppe: My GPA, too, fell short of the expected one and I had been out college for quite some time. After I got my transcripts back from OU, I looked at them and I decided I'm going to go with it. As Tina said, throughout the entire process, the enrollment advisors were very helpful. Getting the letters of recommendation, it's always good to go out of your comfort zone and ask some people to talk nicely about you. I knew that's where I had to make it up for that and any sort of essays and personal statements I could as well. But the application process itself was extremely easy and the thrill of being accepted to the university again, it made all those emotions come right back.

Speaker 1: Awesome. Thank you for describing that, Ryan and Tina. Thank you as well, Ryan and Tina, for sharing your experience in the online program with us. Are there any insight, tips you'd like to share with our viewers as they consider earning their master's in business analytics at Ohio?

Tina Tamburrino: If you're considering it, just apply. The platform of the videos, if you're apprehensive about taking online courses, like I said, you can pause them and rewind them until you understand the material. I think of that one, if I'd have known before everything else that I would be okay with it and excel with that ahead of time, I probably wouldn't have been as nervous. But getting through the routine of it, you do have time to do the work, do your day job, and have time with your family, you just have better time management. You learn how to do all of that. Not having the background that you think you need to have this program is okay because they do teach you absolutely everything that you need and you will be successful. That is a guarantee, especially if you just do the time management and the work as required. You will be successful.

Ryan Jeppe: If you're thinking about this program and you feel a little apprehensive about it, just take that jump and do it. I sat back for a while as I would see these ads for this program pop up time and time again before I finally did it, and I'm certainly happy I did it. It just gave me an entirely different skill set, an entirely different view of going about my business and my day to day life. The structure of it was very easy to maintain your work-life balance as well, so it was not a disruption at all to my life. I highly recommend this program to anyone who is interested.

Speaker 1: Awesome. Thank you so much, Ryan and Tina. Great advice. Great hearing about your experiences as you went through the program. Dr. Young, thank you so much for speaking to us about the program and just sharing so much great details about what students can expect as they're going through. If you're interested in moving forward with Ohio's master of business analytics program, here are the next steps. You can reach out to an enrollment advisor at (740)924-5725 or contact us via email at GetStarted@ohio.edu. Thank you so much again for participating, for attending, and viewing this webinar. Feel free to reach out to us. We are excited to welcome you to Ohio University and look forward to speaking with you soon. Thank you.

Ashley: Hello and welcome to Ohio University's online Master of Science in Management information session. We have a packed agenda where you'll have the opportunity to meet our online Master of Science in Management program director and hear her passion as she provides an overview of the Master of Science in Management program, including what makes the program unique, and details on the curriculum, the Leadership Development Conference, tuition, and career outcomes. We'll also hear from our three recent alumni who will share their firsthand experience in the online Master of Science in Management program and how it has impacted their careers. Then we'll hear from our Graduate Career Acceleration Team and talk about the admission requirements and next steps.

I am excited to introduce our MSM program director, Dr. Amy Taylor-Bianco. Dr. Taylor-Bianco is a professor of management and has her master's and doctorate in organizational psychology from Columbia University and has extensive professional experience as a consultant with Fortune 500 companies like PricewaterhouseCoopers, J.P. Morgan, PepsiCo, and Citibank. She also enjoys research that examines leadership, gender, and change across cultures and organizations and has numerous peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Taylor-Bianco, welcome. Would you tell me more about your background?

Dr. Amy Taylor-...: I'm really excited to be here. Thank you for hosting us. Ashley, it's just so great to be here and to be here with alumni, which I can't even call them alumni. They're never going to leave the MSM, but big part of us. Just a little more about my background. I have been passionate about working with students since really the very beginning. Since I took my first graduate class, I was like, that's what I want to do. It took me a while to get there, but I love that interface of the scholar practitioner side of things and I love working with students from different backgrounds, which is a big part of the MSM. That we have a lot of amazing diversity all coming together to examine how to manage and lead people in organizations better while also managing the processes and data along the way.

Our faculty are absolutely amazing. Our faculty go above and beyond really in every way and I want to give time for the students to talk about this, or the alumni to talk about this because I think you could say it best, but they have real world industry experience. Lots of people were executives and came back after 20 or so years, retired into professorship, which is just great for us. And they're student-centric and available and willing to meet when you need it.

The class formats are also, they work with you, it's asynchronous for the most part with some really important networking and professional development that you can get involved in with the program and that really set you apart from other students and from other online programs.

I know Ashley, you're going to talk about the engaged alumni and more about that and getting into the College of Business benefits. So we're AACSB accredited. We have an amazing career management service that works with you for your lifetime. Incredible employer relationships and diversity inclusion, equity, accessibility and belonging support throughout your whole time with us.

Ashley: Thank you Dr. Taylor-Bianco for sharing why we should choose Ohio University. I'd like to introduce now our three recent alumni of the MSM program, Maria, Natalie, and Marius. Welcome. Would each of you tell us about your background and what you currently do please? We can start with Maria.

Maria Johnson: Hey everybody. Thank you for having us here, Ashley. My name's Maria Johnson. I am a recent grad of the MSM program, finished up this past August. Currently I work as a testing and implementation consultant for the QSR brand Zaxby's and their parent company Zaxby's Franchising, where I lead and consult our franchisees and store managers on field test and implementation of new items, menu items, products, equipment.

Ashley: Thank you. Marius, could you tell us about your background and what you currently do?

Marius L.: Yes. Like Maria, I actually finished up my master's this past August. Currently I am working at Fidelity Investments as a customer relationship advocate. What entails with that job is I actually have to obtain, I'm currently in licensing, both my Series 7 and 63 FINRA licenses. And once I get that, I will actually be assisting customers with various different mutual funds, stocks, bonds, and just different money management opportunities for them on the financial sector.

Ashley: Thank you. And Natalie, would you tell us about your background and what you currently do?

Natalie Cooper: Hi, I'm Natalie Cooper. I also recently just finished the MSM program in August with Maria and Marius. I'm currently the director of talent acquisition private equity firm that is based out in small to midsize mechanical, electrical and plumbing companies. And I'm helping with talent acquisition as well as organizational design and change management.

Ashley: Thank you for that. And we'll hear more about your experience in the master's program as we go through the session today.

Dr. Amy Taylor-...: And as I go to the next slide, I just wanted to point out that none of you are in the same positions that you were when you started the program. So that's great. We're here to help you develop your leadership and management capabilities. A lot of that happens in the classroom and a lot of it happens through our informal time together. We have an incredible leadership board, which does a lot of work and we spend a lot of time in developing our students, not just in the classroom, but really online in ways that help them further their career. And we do that with a number of different programs. Fireside chats are a big part of them and group and executive coaching, and also an incredible partnership that we have with [inaudible 00:06:44] Studio.

So a few great things about the program. You can customize the program with your choice of certificates. So we created this program by looking at job openings for people with a master's degree that weren't getting filled. So we looked at those where the workforce didn't have the people with the right talent to fill those positions. For example, somebody leading an HR that has an HR or human resources and operations background, that's a unique combination. Or a business venturing entrepreneurship and data analytics background, also unique combinations. So we allow students to get one degree where they put together or customize really their choice of options. So they choose two certificates within it. It's fully online. There are full and part-time options, but it's mainly asynchronous and online. Pretty quick with 36 credit hours and you graduate with four credentials. So we'll talk a little bit more about that, but with three different certificates and a capstone. And then the networking opportunities come in through the firesides, the coaching, the mentorship, which I think our alumni will talk a little bit more about and I'm glad to talk more about as well.

Ashley: And to our alumni, why did you choose Ohio's online MSM program? Let's start with Maria.

Maria Johnson: I chose Ohio because I saw the customization of what I could do to make my master's program fit to my career plans. And I got certificates in business venturing and entrepreneurship and operations and supply chain management. Those just fit into what I saw my future looking like. It was flexible. I was able to handle my 40 hour plus work week and do my schoolwork. I was able to manage that load with some time management practices in there, but I knew that I could get this finished in about two years doing it part-time. And I like the way that classes were set up and I like the certificate part of it.

Ashley: Marius, can you share why you chose Ohio's online MSM program?

Marius L.: Absolutely. For myself, I was actually in a rather interesting situation having to just graduate, having surgery. I was a Bobcat and I just finished up my BA in 2020, and I knew that I wanted to basically give myself some other opportunities in terms of just setting myself apart. And with the MSM program and really the credentials that they offered, it added a lot of versatility to my resume and really gave me some opportunities to learn about a variety of different areas of interest that I had that I knew would ultimately set me up for the future. So the certificates that I got, business venturing and entrepreneurship, human resources management, and just knowing that I was able to get those certificates and really bolster my language in those fields and my knowledge and those fields, it's really helped set myself apart for the future.

Ashley: And Natalie, can you share why you chose Ohio's online MSM program?

Natalie Cooper: Absolutely. My story is a little unique. I have a bachelor's of science in theater from 2011. So I had spent a little bit of time working. I was actually hired as an entry level recruiter probably seven or eight years ago in operational sales type environment and was really asked to be middle management without the... I had a lot of responsibility and it was a small office, so I was making decisions quickly, fast, really just wanted to hone in a little bit more on all of the curriculum that was presented in the master's program. And I think that I ultimately chose it due to the customization with the HR certificates because that's ultimately long term where my career was headed and research in the curriculum. So that's why I chose Ohio.

Ashley: Thank you for sharing. Dr. Taylor-Bianco, do you have any more things to add about key benefits of why Ohio's online Master of Science in Management program?

Dr. Amy Taylor-...: Yeah, I don't think you can find any other program like it that is actually a master's of science. So it has that rigor to it and it has all the professional development and networking opportunities along with combining credentials. So I think those are unique aspects to the program. You can find other programs, but I don't think you can find one with this many opportunities and this dedicated faculty and students. And it takes a lot of student dedication, but you see the faculty dedication to go along with it and faculty are right there working with you. It's taught by faculty fully involved in everything you do.

All right. So if we go to the curriculum here, we talked about that 36 credit hours and this looks like a lot of information, but it's actually pretty straightforward. On the left there we have the management and leadership certificate, which is where everybody starts. And I'm excited because I get to have you in that first course that is part of your program. So everybody graduates with applying for and receiving that earning, that certificate right after they've gotten through those three courses. Those courses are also taught by a real variety of people. It's not three courses but it's a certificate. We work together to create the learning outcomes. We do the baton pass between courses between Dr. Melly, Dr. Lavanas and myself. We've got backgrounds in nomics, cognitive psychology analytics and HR and psychology. So there's a real combination there, but that's a great foundation.

And then you go down to the bottom there, you choose two additional certificates. So you heard different folks talking tonight about which certificates they did. And I guess maybe some of the ones that we didn't mention as much are strategic selling and sales, which is also a great opportunity and business analytics. So we've got a kind of analytics doing the analytics one and then we've got analytics for leadership, which is how to present that data, how to be good at that. And some of the folks here tonight were already good at that. And some of us, it's a brand new field, so we can take everybody in there.

And then we head to your capstone experience. And the capstone is actually a combination of three courses. So we've got... Again, I get to teach the first course in the capstone, which makes me so happy because I get you at the beginning of the beginning and the beginning of the end. So I get to teach that course. And then there's a strategic leadership and communication course which looks at leadership from different angles. It's going to get a little bit more into crisis management and kind of crisis communication and then a capstone project, which you do across that time. So it's different for part-time and full-time students, but sometimes you're doing them all together, sometimes you're doing them over time. But it's a really nice combination where the beginning and the end are prescribed, in the middle, are these two different certificates.

And you're held together by the firesides, the group coaching, all of these experiences that we have on Wednesday nights, usually at six o'clock, usually with somebody driving, somebody grabbing dinner, but everybody's there together for that hour. Not every week, but a lot of weeks and just trying to keep us together and integrated throughout this great variety of experiences. That's our curriculum in a nutshell.

Ashley: Thank you. To our alumni, a lot of students want to know, were you able to work full time while earning this degree and what kind of supports do you have from advisors, faculty and staff during the program?

Maria Johnson: Yeah, sure. I was able to work my full-time job plus taking classes pretty easily. Like I said earlier, a little bit of time management in there, but I was able to knock it out. Just as far as faculty is engaging, there's a sense of community. Even though it is an online program, there's very much a sense of community. The professors and the faculty were willing to answer emails and phone calls anytime of the day when I had questions about projects, work, even went to them with professional issues and saying, "Hey, how do I work this through?" So they were there in the classroom and even outside the classroom, which was phenomenal to have that support system.

Ashley: What's the online learning environment like?

Maria Johnson: Yes. Okay. It's very much a community and it's all about what you make it. So even though I am in Athens, Georgia and connecting with people in Ohio, that is so important, to reach out to your classmates and form those relationships and grow those relationships because it makes the learning experience that much more important and it enhances that learning experience as well.

Ashley: Thank you. Marius, can I hear about your experience with working full time and the support from advisors, faculty and staff, and what the learning environment was like?

Marius L.: Absolutely. I did work full time for the majority of the time that I was in the program. I did take a couple different jobs while throughout the program, so that did shift for me. Even during those shifts and those periods where I was actually changing and stepping into another role, I always had a lot of support from my professors. And like I said, prior to joining the MSM program, I actually had to have surgery. So during the MSM program, I had to go to physical therapy, make those commitments work. And it was something having the flexibility and the ability to really set my own pace. I think Maria really said it well when she said you make of it what you want with the program, because you really will set your own pace and it is a big community.

And the networking opportunities that you get, the more you lean into those opportunities and into really those networks, the more you get out of them. And so it's really a program where they're going to set you up for success as long as you're willing to do the work that you have to do. And they'll be flexible with you and they'll talk you through each and every step so that you can ultimately get the outcome that you want out of your experience.

Ashley: Thank you. And Natalie, can you tell me about your experience with working full time, getting support from faculty and staff and the learning environment?

Natalie Cooper: Yeah, absolutely. My experience was definitely similar to Marius and Maria. I'm a huge advocate of networking within your cohort. Just if there's questions, Maria's right, it is a large network, the response from professors in the university is very prompt. I actually was sole caregiver in last March of a terminally ill family member and wasn't on FMLA. So I was continuing to work full time and was still a student and they worked with me and it was just high level communication, which I greatly appreciated as well.

Dr. Amy Taylor-...: One opportunity we have is the Leadership Development Conference. It's a required two-day... I'd say it takes two days, but it doesn't really... It starts one evening and ends the next evening. So on-campus event where you learn and network, your hotel and meals are covered and you get to network together. We try to put MSM students together, even though we do have other graduate students attend. We have world-class speakers addressing different business trends, connecting with the classmates from across the country. Students come to one of these or two, whichever they prefer, but we love to see you at them. Meeting the faculty, meeting all the people that you've learned from, meeting the career coaches, the administrators who work with you, just meeting people is really helpful. And it's kind of fun too after you've developed an entire relationship online and gotten so close and then to be together.

So each theme is a little bit different, but it helps you to pull together your experience and along with career services to look at your next career move. And it really helps us to build this inclusive community as we work together. And these are offered in April and in August. The dates fall ahead so you can plan for them and they are a great opportunity.

Ashley: Thank you. And since this is an online program, how was the alumni's experience with attending the Leadership Development Conference? Let's start with Maria.

Maria Johnson: It was awesome. It was a great way to meet all of the folks in my cohort and within the MSM and get some face-to-face time with the faculty. Athens, Ohio is a charming town and it is a wonderful place to visit. I can see while people fall in love with it, but it was a great conference. I went to two of them, so I got my money's worth out of it. And just the information you take away is you really can't put it into words. And then being able to interact and network with folks from other graduate programs is pretty priceless as well.

Marius L.: I have to second Maria in saying that it was absolutely awesome. I actually did my undergrad in Athens, so any opportunity that I get to go back up to Athens, I love to take up. And it was one that truly just being able to not only hear from all of the speakers that... I'll be honest, I feel like I took away something from each and every single speaker that I saw when I got to go. But also meeting with my classmates that I only get to see virtually and behind the message board, to actually be able to interact with them and have conversations with them and even go out with them afterwards. It was amazing to really just grow that network and really have the program almost come full circle for me. So in that regard, I really feel like the LDC conference is something that really was like the cherry on top from my MSM experience and just actually getting to really engage with everybody one on one.

Natalie Cooper: I think one of the unique things is that you get to see professors, professional people affiliated with the university and their career progression, which I think is really important for graduate students to take a look at. There's been some prominent speakers that have taken some unique positions, very high level positions as well. So I really enjoyed searching some of the speakers, but also a lot of them give book recommendations, they give podcasts recommendations, they have other articles and scholarly, just other books and things to look into that you can just do extra. Absolutely helpful to take advantage of as well.

Ashley: Thank you so much. And then can someone tell me more about the fireside chats?

Marius L.: I can absolutely step in and tell you more about the fireside chats. I actually got to host them for quite some time. It's something that I always even now go back to, the fireside chats. But the fireside chats are an opportunity to really bring Bobcat alumni and really just friends of the university in if they are in a different career path and they're set in their career, but give them an opportunity to come in with the students and actually speak and talk to those students about their career path. Give them personal advice, give them professional advice and sometimes really just answer questions. Because being a student in the program, we're all in different places and we're all trying to get to where we ultimately want to be in different career fields. So being able to bounce ideas off of friends of the university, alumni themselves, and just great professionals is an amazing opportunity and one that I feel like we always relish when we can get together and do that.

Ashley: Thank you so much for sharing.

Marius L.: Of course.

Ashley: The online MSM tuition is $829 per credit for Ohio residents, and almost the same at $848 per credit for non-resident students. To complete the full 36 credit program, this works out to be just under $30,000 in tuition for Ohio residents. Note that as Dr. Taylor-Bianco mentioned, while your hotel and most meals are covered once you're on campus for the LDC, the travel cost to Athens, Ohio campus will also be something you'll need to budget for, in addition to any auxiliary supplies and fees. We do offer financial aid and scholarships and many of our students also take advantage of tuition reimbursement from their employers. Maria, can you tell us your experience using tuition reimbursement to pay for your degree?

Maria Johnson: Yeah, absolutely. I am an out-of-state resident, so on top of that, I did the tuition reimbursement through my employer, and I know every employer is different, but it made a huge difference in the cost of my education. I only had to come out of pocket about a third of the cost, so it made me getting a master's degree actually affordable. So thanks, shout out to Zaxby's, thanks to them, but I'm paying it back every day so they're getting the return on their investment as well.

Dr. Amy Taylor-...: And I think each of your organizations would say that the MSM prepares you for leadership and management roles, and I'd love Natalie to jump in and talk her role and how she's stayed in the same industry, but really changed over the course of the program. So it prepares you for these roles. Sometimes you're already doing some of them and it gives you the words and the way to talk about what you're doing so that you can be compensated for it and also continue to move along. We have all kinds of outcomes, investment manager, project manager, HR manager, name it, and it's really managing people and processes and organizations. And so there's a lot of different ways to look at that. It can be in any industry. That's one of the things that we love about it too. Retail, finance, human capital, public administration, just a whole bunch of different bunch of different areas. But Natalie, could I have you jump in there just to talk a little bit about the career outlook for you and maybe ways that the program helped you?

Natalie Cooper: Yeah, absolutely. I took a huge leap. I had never been on the corporate side in any former position and now I sit on the corporate side. So I would say for me, the organizational change, I feel like after having gone through the MSM, I'm a little more equipped to help the individual contributors make better decisions, make more strategic decisions. Ironically, I was going through the talent acquisition class with Tim Reynolds as I was starting this position and I was literally taking things from that class and executing based on my class content. I started to develop a professional development program that was the seed for what we ultimately ended up doing across the OPCOs based on all of my classes on my course content.

Actually even today, I just mentioned the book that we read in Tim Reynolds class, the Talent Manifesto by RJ Heckman. I'm passing that around to the OPCO so that they can start to have a better idea on strategic hiring and understanding knowledge, skills, abilities and how the flow of that process works. And I really have Tim and Tammy to thank for that. So I appreciate that as well. And yeah, it's definitely been a huge transformation.

Ashley: And Natalie, can you tell me more about any tips or advice for anyone considering this program?

Natalie Cooper: Yeah, absolutely. I would say let your personal network, your family, friends know that you're either thinking about enrolling or that you have enrolled for sure. Because that emotional piece, you're going to need them to keep pushing you when things are tough for sure. So make sure to lean on them. I know personally, I think I grew closer with my husband because I could go to him and say, "What do you think about this? I'm reading this in this class." And he would give me his input, I would say my piece, and we could figure out what each we were going through professionally and just kind of have nice dialogue around it. And I think that enhanced what I was experiencing in the course. So my advice would be to find those people around you to surround yourself with, to reach out to, even outside of your cohort or people that are in the program as well.

Dr. Amy Taylor-...: But it's really interesting to hear about how things were going before and how things were going... And they were going well, but then you took advantage of every opportunity in the program and that's something that these students have in common. Is they didn't let the extra opportunity sit. They saw them as mellow and integral. And Tim Reynolds, you were talking about, he'll be continuing to teach in the program both in HR and in leadership as well. And his background, the Fortune 500 company is one of the top talent place according to Forbes. You can read about it. One of the top talent management placement professionals really in the world. And those are some of the people that you're getting and working with and they're people... He was a Bobcat, he wants to give back to Bobcats. That's why he retired from his first career and eventually to do that. So the people along the way are really passionate about you getting to your best place, being your best self, both professionally and personally. So thank you for sharing that, Natalie. Back to you, Ashley,

Ashley: Marius and Maria, can you tell me about your current roles and how did earning this degree impact your career as well? Marius, can we start with you?

Marius L.: Sure. To be completely honest, being in the role that I am right now is solely due to the program and individuals like Elizabeth Guarino. She actually in the GradCAT, which all of the students that join the MSM will have the ability to join in, she really worked with me in really honing down my resume, just figuring out what kind of role I wanted to be in, what kind of company I wanted to be with. Just all of the things that mattered because to be honest with all of you, I wasn't exactly being my best self in the previous roles that I had been in. And a lot of that was due to the organizations that I was a part of. There was just a culture match that wasn't there on my part and wasn't really there on the organization's part either.

But working with Elizabeth and getting to the nitty gritty, asking some really hard questions about myself and what I want in my future, we were able to go through the process of going to different companies and really honing down, is this one the right one for me? Even through the interview process, just looking at different questions to ask while in that process and finally I was able to land with Fidelity Investments, a company that truthfully I think allows me to be my true self and they make me feel safe in the environment that I'm in. And that's something that I've been lacking in a lot of my positions. So knowing that I was able to get where I am today with the help of individuals from the MSM program, it will always be one of the reasons that I'll always advocate for the program. And I will always say that it's been something that has truly helped me in the future and set myself on a path that I feel comfortable with.

Ashley: Maria, can you tell me more about your current role and how earning this degree has impacted your career?

Maria Johnson: Certainly. My job really focuses around managing processes and what this program did for me was give me a further and deeper understanding of how to manage those processes. My industry really revolves around supply chain and supply chain management. Our restaurants are dependent on our supply chain and getting my certificate in operations and supply chain management, it gave me a further understanding of how things work. Once I figured out how they worked and really understood when in my classes, I could apply that to my everyday job. And I was able to recognize trends and recognize bottlenecks and processes and people's thinking behind why the decisions they made. So the MSM program has really opened my eyes up to a lot more within my company and my industry. I have grown within my company and it has been all because of the MSM.

Ashley: Thank you. Now we'll hear from Elizabeth Guarino who will speak to the awesome GradCAT career support that Ohio's College of Business provides for our graduate students.

Elizabeth Guari...: Thanks very much. Thanks to the innovative partnership between Ohio University and RiseSmart, students in degree to graduate programs have the opportunity to enroll in an intensive four-month career coaching program. We call this GradCAT, and it stands for Graduate Career Acceleration. This unique experience includes a career team of three comprised of an individual career coach, a branding expert who is also a professional resume writer, and a career concierge whose sole mission is to uncover hidden job opportunities that are not otherwise posted in the marketplace. This experience also includes a technology platform that provides access to webinars, templates, assessments, and many other resources designed to support career growth and transition. For students who opt in when they become eligible, this support continues for life.

As team leader for GradCAT, I have the opportunity and the honor of leveraging my extensive background in human resources and talent acquisition to provide direct career services to students as well as programming that is relevant to all phases of career entry, growth, transition and acceleration. In a word, Ohio's Graduate Career Services is dedicated to being meaningful for all students enrolled in master's programs at the Ohio's College of Business. Wherever students are in their career, no matter how far they want to go, to the C-suite or starting and growing your own business, the GradCAT team has the expertise and the commitment to support all students for life.

Ashley: And then these are our admissions requirements. A bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution, a minimum of 3.0 GPA, official transcripts from all institutions attended, two letters of recommendation, personal statement, professional resume or CV, and a $50 application fee. And then for our international applicants, they must also submit the application fee of $55, a TOEFL score of 525 composite, or IELTS of 6.0, or IBT of 70 composite. And if you have questions about... If you're not sure if your GPA is quite at 3.0 or you're not sure how to go about requesting your transcripts, there's always someone who will walk you through the admissions process. They're called our enrollment advisors, and we're happy to help you every step of the way.

Marius, Natalie and Maria, thank you for sharing your experience in the online program with us. Can you share any closing tips or advice for anyone considering the Ohio online Master's of Science in Management program? Maria, let's start with you.

Maria Johnson: Yeah. I was a little hesitant to take the leap into an online master's program. I had been out of my undergrad for about seven years before I joined the MSM program. My advice to you as a future student, a future Bobcat is to do it, is to take the leap and to jump in head first and embrace everything about this program and reach out to your peers, reach out to your cohort, reach out to your professors. They're there to help you, they're there to support you, and we hope you join the MSM program.

Ashley: Thank you. And Marius, can you share any tips or advice for people considering this program?

Marius L.: Absolutely. I would definitely say be sure that you are investing in yourself. This program has been one of the best investments that I've made for myself and myself and really, even though it is completely online, know that you can lean into your network and really build a strong network through this online process. And when you have those moments, like the LDC conference, when you get together all in person, it will really just be amazing when you can see yourself basically fostering all of those relationships and friendships that you had online. And you can take them to fruition in person, and continue to build from there, it'll just be a great feeling. And you'll feel like not only that you've invested in yourself, but that you also have so many others also invested in you and your success. That will continue to compound and build and you'll always feel good about that.

Ashley: Thank you. And Natalie, can you share any tips or advice for those considering this program?

Dr. Amy Taylor-...: Sure. I would want to thank everybody for being here and tell you that these three alums are representative of the type of people that we get in the MSM. They are passionate people interested in getting better at whatever it is that they're doing. They may not even know exactly what they want to get better at, but they know that they want to keep going and keep developing. And I want to just reiterate that we have also great professors. We didn't get to talk about some of the professors in operations and supply chain and that we had a crisis supply chain course before COVID even hit. So we were kind of at the front end with that business venturing and our entrepreneurship center. I know some of these folks have had incredible experiences with our entrepreneurs as well. So just take a look, look at the information. I would get some information. I would just go to the get started or make a phone call and get some information and start poking around, start taking a look because I think we might just have something for you. Thank you.

Ashley: Thank you Dr. Taylor-Bianco and everyone joining us today. If you're interested in moving forward with Ohio's online Master of Science in Management, you can call us at (740) 924-5725, or contact an enrollment advisor via email at getstarted@ohio.edu, or visit our website at ohio.edu/business to request more information. Thank you so much and we look forward to speaking with you soon. Take care.

Host: Hello and welcome to Ohio University's online Master of Business Administration Information Session. We have a packed agenda where you'll have the opportunity to meet our online MBA program director and hear his passion is he provides an overview of the MBA program, including what makes the program unique and details on the curriculum, the Leadership development conference, tuition, and career outcome. We'll also hear from two of our recent alumni who will share their firsthand experience in the online MBA program and how it has impacted their careers. Then we'll hear from our graduate career acceleration team and talk about the admission requirements and next steps.

I am excited to introduce our MBA program director, Dr. Bill Young. Dr. Young is the Charles G. O'Bleness Associate Professor of Business Analytics and has his doctorate degree in mechanical and systems engineering, as well as his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering. Dr. Young, welcome. Would you like to tell us a bit more about your background and why students should choose Ohio?

William Young: Absolutely. First and foremost, I just wanted to thank everybody for watching this informational session. I actually am a three-time bobcat at Ohio University. It was said I've got my undergraduate degrees in engineering, and then luckily I got a job as a professor here at the College of Business. And what I've been doing over the last 10 or so years here at the College of Business is to establish programs and analytics and supporting that at the undergraduate and graduate level. I also work on several different projects and programs related to international business and consulting, so I've had a lot of fun actually over my career working in those programs and things of that nature. Really thankful you're taking the time to learn more about Ohio University, and I hope I can answer some questions that you might have.

Host: Awesome. Thank you, Dr. Young. Would you like to tell us more a bit about why students should choose Ohio University to continue their education?

William Young: Yeah, absolutely. I think it starts out with our faculty, and since I am one, I know a lot of the people that teach in this program. And the first foremost thing I hear from our students when they graduate is that the faculty are very accessible. A lot of times in other programs, if you're searching for other programs and learning about them, those courses could be taught by graduate assistants and people like that. But here, you're getting access to the faculty that we have at OU. And what can I say? They don't think of an online course as an afterthought. They think of this course as their primary obligation and they dedicate themselves to answering emails. It's not within 48 hours, it's within eight hours or even quicker than that.

So our faculty really go above and beyond. They have a lot of industrial experience. They have real world experience. A lot of our faculty members are consultants that have been there and have done that, and they transfer that knowledge and that experience back to the students in the form of their lectures and classes and video recordings and things of that nature. Our faculty are outstanding. Our online MBA program is basically a selective program where we put our best and brightest faculty members at the forefront of our students. So our online program is special to us, and we want to make sure that we put our most talented faculty in front of you.

As far as the flexibility, I think that's another standout feature of our program. We have one course at a time, so we don't want you to be dealing with competing deadlines and things of that nature, if you have maybe two classes at the same time and you got to decide what you're going to work on and what you're going to submit, maybe this course or that course. No. We eliminate all that frustration to say, "Here's seven weeks. Let's focus on this topic." You don't have competing deadlines and that just simplifies things in a way that makes your schedule easy.

Because it's usually not the curriculum that is the most challenging thing. It's about time management when it comes to getting into a program like this and altering your schedule that you can adopt a program like this into your daily lives. So carving out time in the nights, the weekends, and things of that nature. That's most important. And what we do to try to help you with that is we do offer two classes that are live each week and we'll record those sessions. So if you can't attend live, you'll always have those recordings available.

Another thing that makes us stand apart from the rest is just our networking and professional development opportunities. We have an LDC, a leadership development conference, and that's an event where you get to come to Athens, Ohio, experience a campus, experience and get to know your colleagues, your peers, other students in the programs, the faculty members that you've been working with throughout your journey. And it's really just a wonderful time and I'll definitely speak more about that in future slides here.

And really one big selling point is that Ohio University is AACSB accredited, and that is just the highest honor when it comes to accreditation. So you could talk about the Harvards of the world. We have the same accreditation that they have. So less than 5% of universities worldwide have this accreditation, and we're one of them. So it is a renowned program when it comes to the accreditation and the rankings that we have. And, of course, every year that the rankings come in, we're competing nationally with public and private institutions, and we're really pleased every time those rankings come out that we are a highly-ranked program. AACSB is one accreditation body that is the highest in the world.

Our rankings are really good and we have other services like the GradCAT program that helps professionals transition to different careers or themselves to accelerate their career within their own organization. We offer all kind of support, and that's just because we really care about the program and we care about the students and it's not an afterthought in terms of, oh, this is just an online program. No, this is what we want to excel in. We have all kind of support for our students.

Host: Awesome. Thank you, Dr. Young. I'd like to introduce now two of our recent MBA alumni, Dr. Steven Crane and Tim Bath. And welcome, Tim and Steven. Let's start with you, Tim. Would you tell us a bit about your background and what you currently do, please?

Timothy Bath: Sure. Thank you. I graduated from Ohio University class in 2018 with my MBA in analytics. At the time, I was a director of supply chain for a company called Michelman in Cincinnati, Ohio. And in 2020 I moved over and back into the waste industry with Rumpke Waste and Recycling. We're based locally in Cincinnati, Ohio. We cover the Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky areas. Been very involved with OU ever since and actually have, one of the people that works for me right now is attending the MBA program there and is enjoying it thoroughly. So big fan of the program and it's done some great things for me.

Host: Awesome. Thank you. And Steven, would you tell us a bit about your background?

Steven Crane: Of course. Absolutely. Thank you so much. I was the class of 2020, graduated, and I cannot speak highly enough about this program. When I first started, I literally was unemployed. I literally had nothing coming into this program, but I gave it my all. And within a matter of months, I was able to find employment through GradCAT and through some other networking opportunities. The LDC helped me network with a lot of individuals, including Dr. Young here. It was just phenomenal in that matter and helping me get my feet under me and get me and my career started in the right direction.

And then, by the end of the program, I was running the learning and development program for a tiny company that we helped grow to seven figures. So it was phenomenal experience because I was able to transfer the classroom lectures and the classroom work into my day to day activities, still time management, balancing everything. I was able to take that stuff and directly apply it every single week, every single month, year over year through the program. And that's what accelerated my career. So again, I cannot speak highly enough about this program.

Host: Awesome. Thank you both. Dr. Young, tell us a bit about the MBA program in particular. A little bit more details about what makes this program unique.

William Young: Sure. From a directorship and/or a faculty perspective, I think one of the things that we should mention is that we spend a lot of time developing our courses for the adult professional worker. So we spend a lot of time on how courses should be designed and developed and delivered to the working professional. So that's one thing.

The other thing is that there's a trend within the MBA space to offer more than just a generalist program in terms of the curriculum. So we offer nine concentrations, so we'll talk a little bit more about those concentrations later. But if you want to excel in a certain area or you find your career path going in a certain area, we offer that customization in terms of those concentrations that you can explore and accelerate your career progression.

The other thing is the part-time program, the seven week courses, and I mentioned this a little bit before. We don't want you to have competing deadlines or competing with another course. So when you take our program, you'll be taking one course at a time. We split a semester into two, so the first seven weeks of a semester, you'll be taking one course, and then the second half of the semester, the last seven weeks of a semester, you'll be taking another course. So that really allows you to focus on one course at a time, which is good when it comes down to balancing your everyday work life.

Our program consists of 35 credit hours, and that really encompasses 12 different courses. And our curriculum, as we'll see in the next slide or so, it's a well-balanced curriculum. So you'll take things related to analytics, finance, marketing, operations, strategy, leadership. So, that's what an MBA does. It exposes you to all realms of business.

And like I mentioned before, our program is highly-ranked. And that's something I take a lot of pride in because whether it's Poets & Quants or US News and World Report or Fortune, every time those rankings come out, I know it's an incredible honor to be just recognized because we're competing with a public and private sector. So as you see here, number one program by Poets & Quants in the state of Ohio. Best online MBA program. Number four best business schools in Ohio by US News and World Report. And if we look nationally, we're a top 30 program nationally. Or a top 70 program nationally, depending on the report.

And that's just an incredible honor. So our faculty are very dedicated. Our students are very dedicated. Our staff is very dedicated to making this the best program we could possibly deliver. So that's just something special to me that I look at.

And in terms of our alumni, our alumni is vast. We have thousands and thousands of students that are in our alumni. We're a Military-Friendly School®, and we do offer scholarships. So those are just the highlights in terms of our MBA program at Alliance.

Host: Awesome, thank you, Dr. Young. Tim and Steven, give us a bit of flavor around how you were able to traverse the coursework and curriculum within the MBA. How were you able to work full time, especially Tim, and while earning your degree?

Timothy Bath: Well, what was really interesting about me, a lot of people know, we actually adopted our daughter three weeks into the program. So not only was I traversing work and an MBA, but I had a baby at the house. And what I found useful is I was really able to work at different hours and around my schedule. If I wasn't able to be there for an online class, I could watch it. As Dr. Young mentioned, it was recorded. You could go back and look. If we needed or if I needed something from one of the teachers, not only could we email, but most of them, they gave us their cell phone number and said text. And it didn't matter what time of day it was. You got a response.

So for me, it was the part-time classes. And I was scared. There's no secret. I had been out of college for 16 years when I went back. That's a pretty scary thought and feeling. And to come back in a world when I left college, online learning was just beginning, where now it's very much a regular thing. I was able to take those classes and those chunks and really focus in on them and not feel the pressures of the deadlines and be able to truly work and still be part of my family and be able to continue my job at the time for that entire time and accelerate and thrive through that.

So as you take these classes, and there's the total 12 classes over that course of two years, that seven weeks is dedicating. You're focused in and you're able to truly focus on that and learn that discipline. Where I've talked to some other people in some other universities, and they're doing two classes at a time, and they're trying to bounce back and forth, where I felt the one class approach for seven weeks really allowed me to truly focus in and learn that discipline.

Host: Awesome. Thanks, Tim. And Steven, how did you find going through the courses and the curriculum and balancing looking for a job and taking courses at the same time?

Steven Crane: To echo exactly what Tim was just talking about, the fact that it's broken into one class at a time is absolutely game-changing. I have seven degrees from seven different universities, and this is the only university that has this type of curriculum, this type of structure. And this is what I wish every other university would do. This is the best way to learn, in my humble opinion, because you're focused on one class at a time and then you move on to next class. There's no competing agendas or homework assignments or anything like that.

So it's very manageable, whether you're working full-time or whether you're like me: towards the end of the program, I was working a part-time job, a full-time job, and I was running two companies on the side. I was traveling around the world. That's where I ultimately ended up, but that's where this program took me, right? It was able to launch my career, was able to launch my companies and everything to where it is today. But that's because I had the time, I had the network, I had the coursework, I had all this stuff leading into it.

So the seven-week classes was a complete game changer for me. And so anyone out there that's saying, "I'm doing this or I'm doing this, or I have a lot of competing things in my life," I promise you, the coursework is manageable. Your faculty is amazing. And no matter what, you will make it to the end of the program. Your faculty are there, your staff. Everyone is there to support you along the way. You have their cell phones, you have their emails, you have everything. All you need to do is do your part and they will do their part to get you across the finish line. So absolutely, again, cannot say high enough about this.

Host: Awesome. Thank you, Steven. Could you go into a little more detail around the curriculum within the MBA program?

William Young: Sure thing. So first, our program is 35 credit hours, and that's 12 courses. And like we've mentioned, it's one course at a time, seven week courses at a time. So you'll complete two courses in a given semester. And the other thing is we do offer three starts per year. So if you're looking to start in the fall, you can start in the fall. If you're looking to wait and start in the spring, you could start in the spring. And, of course, you can start in the summer as well.

Our core curriculum is a very generalist approach when it comes to an MBA program, and this is typical of what you would see in any MBA program. So we have the accounting, we have the finance, we have the OBHR, we have the operations and various complimentary parts around business that we think you should know.

The part that separates us is that we understand that people want to hyper-focus in a certain area, and that's just the general trend within the MBA space. So we allow students, and we have created this, and that's actually something I'm very proud of. When I started directing this program, we only had three concentrations, so I've helped to develop all these concentrations, and now we have nine. So if you want to specialize in a certain area like business analytics, like health care, like executive management, and so forth and so on, we have developed a program that allows you to get nine credit hours in one of these areas that you want to specialize in.

Host: Awesome, thank you. And Steven and Timothy, I think you both did the business analytics concentration. Can you tell us about that, why you chose that, to focus in that area, and how was that as you were going through the program?

Timothy Bath: Sure. So for me, at the time, the four concentrations were finance, business analytics, executive management and health care. And as I sat back and looked at the world around us, it truly felt like analytics is where the world was going. I had done enough executive management type courses over my time. I had done some finance courses and I wasn't in the health care industry, so I ruled that one out pretty easy. But the analytics side I really felt was where business was going and where it is still going today.

And what's interesting when you do the analytics piece, for me, a lot of the executive management and finance also tied in together with it. So even though you have that concentration, there's ties to all the other different portions. As Dr. Young would say, 80% of your analytics is pre-processing and getting the data. And as I look at the concentrations on the screen, project management is very similar to business analytics, which is similar to supply chain operations management.

So while you're considering, and I considered analytics and the reasons for it, any of the concentrations you choose are going to have pieces of the other one in it. So it's unique for that. And as I go back and I look at all these different classes, I look back and I remember pieces of each and every single one, things that maybe I struggled with and things I didn't do very well in, but they all left me with something I've taken away and I still use today.

And even one of them, I'm not going to mention which one, but I'm using right now in some data I'm doing and working with. So you will take a piece of every one of these classes and somewhere in your career. In the four years I've been out, I've used a piece of every single class. What I would recommend, I recommended to some students I've talked to, I wouldn't focus as much on the concentration. You pick the one you feel best with. But remember, all the concentrations work together and in concert.

Host: Awesome, thank you. And Steven?

Steven Crane: No, I could not agree more. Absolutely. Over the last couple of years of actually dealing with this stuff, both in my own companies, with private companies, different companies I've consulted with, every single thing on here is 100% applicable. I chose the business analytics route as a stretch goal for myself. I was not interested in data in the least, right? I was not interested in sitting by a computer and being a data scientist and looking at numbers. Like, I hate numbers. I really do. I never wanted to go into that route. But I knew this was going to stretch me and I knew that was the future. I knew that this is still the future. Everything is moving towards this.

So I looked at it as a challenge. And with the mentorship, with the help of Dr. Young, I was able to actually learn this stuff, apply this stuff, and I can say without a doubt, out of everything on here, strategic marketing as an entrepreneur, I use that every day, right? That's a huge one. Same with the strategy. But next to those two, business analytics is everything that I do. I live in Excel now. I never used to touch Excel sheets. Now I live in Excel no matter what I'm doing, whether it's coming up with a comp plan for employees, whether it's consulting on what's the best business decision to make, weighted average, you name it.

There's just so much that I've learned from this program and specifically the business analytics concentration that even if you don't decide to go into data, you don't want to be a business analyst, you don't want to go into data science, you don't want to do that, it is highly applicable to no matter where you go into. So business analytics, personally my favorite. My heart, my soul is in that one. But every single one of these, the accounting, finance, they're all absolutely amazing.

Host: Awesome. Thank you. We spoke a little bit about the leadership development conference. This is a great opportunity for students to really connect and a real in-person basis. So tell us more about this two-day on-campus event, Dr. Young.

William Young: Okay. Sure thing. So the LDC is ... What can I say? It's a great experience. I'll be honest with everybody listening to this informational session. At the time when I was asked to direct this program, which has been about 10 years ago, I thought, "Why would students want come into Athens of Ohio that wanted to take an online program?" And I just struggled with that. But then I went to my first LDC event and I'm like, "Oh, that's why. It's a great event."

So it's a great opportunity to meet your colleagues. It's a great opportunity to self reflect about why our students are pursuing an MBA program. It's a great chance to think about how you're leading yourself individually or how to lead others. So we bring speakers in from all over the world at major organizations. So we have panels. We have our keynote speakers. You get a chance to meet the faculty that you've had online who are with you. Like was mentioned, it's not a 48-hour turnover. It's, "Here's my cell phone. Text me anytime or place." And our faculty, what can I say? Are very dedicated to what we do. So it's a great opportunity to connect with our faculty and the students that you're working with in the classes.

And when it comes down to it, it's a two-day event. You are only required to come to one LDC event for our requirements of our MBA degree. The hotel and meals are covered. You're responsible for transportation down. But it's just an incredible opportunity to leverage our network. And what I mean by that is at the College of Business, we have different centers of excellence and we leverage our network within those centers of excellence to bring in world-class speakers and things of that nature.

And I just want to drive the point across that it really gives you a sense that, one, you are a bobcat. Two, you reflect about why the MBA is important to you. And I think that's very important as you go through the curriculum and you go through all these work/life balances and things of that nature to say, what is the end goal? It makes you think about that in a deeper level. And of course, leading yourself and leading others is a critical part of business professional. So that's what we focus on.

Host: Awesome. Thanks, Dr. Young. And Tim, I believe it's an opportunity to attend in either August or in April? But tell us about your experience attending and how you found the LDC.

Timothy Bath: So I attended three of them. After one of the first one, it made all the sense the world to come back for three. And I've actually been back to my fourth. I was back this year as a speaker. The LDC to me allowed a culmination of all that. And you hear a lot of people online, but you actually get to meet them in person and make friendships. In my undergrad, I was a commuter student, so I didn't have a lot of long-term college friends. What I can tell you now is that I have four. There's a group of four of us that still text on a regular basis. We still communicate. We're actually getting together back in Athens next year, is the plan, that all graduated from the MBA program. So we made these relationships at the LDC and have become great friends from that.

But on top of that, you get to meet a lot of other people, get to hear some great and interesting speakers, and you get a couple days away, that while it's business focused, it may not be just a hundred percent focused on your business. I remember the one gentleman came in, he was out of Colorado, and his big business was in cryotherapy. And I learned a lot about the cryotherapy business and ended up started using cryotherapy just because of what I learned at the LDC.

So there's interesting things that you're going to get taught and there's going to be a lot of memories you make and take away, not to mention all the great conversations and things you get to do. And April and August in Athens is a fantastic time. You can't beat it. And it's definitely something, if you decide to take this program and engage in the program, I would recommend planning on attending all three because it's worth every minute of it.

Host: Awesome. And Steven, how was your experience?

Steven Crane: Very similar. I still have people from my cohort that I stay in touch with, had coffee with them literally last week. We met together and we had coffee just to stay in touch because we really built great relationships through the program, but it was really heightened through the LDC. So the LDC for myself, I did it three times as well. And every time I went, there was something new. There was new speakers, there was new activities, everything was new. It wasn't like the same boring conference over and over again. It was a completely different conference every single time, which was really fun and it made you want to come back for the second one because you might miss something.

But then on top of that, in the conference, we've all been, as business people, executives and stuff, we've all been to these conferences where you typically sit there all day and you just listen to all these guest speakers go across the stage, and yay, okay. It's not like that. This is a completely different experience. You're engaged with the speakers. You're engaged with different activities. We had an activity where we walked into a classroom and there were whiteboard, like white papers all over with markers. I was like, what is this? We sat down and we did an activity called story mapping.

That activity literally jump started my speaking career and I now speak across the country using that same format of story mapping. So something as simple as that turned into a career for me on the outside because of how different the activity was. It wasn't just another speaker. So again, I could go on and on for days about how important the LDC is and how meaningful it is. But all I can say is you need to attend. When you get into the program, you need to go to all three, experience it, bond with your cohort, bond with your teachers and professors, because it's definitely worth it long-term.

Host: Awesome. Thank you both. The online MBA tuition is $1,032 for Ohio residents and almost the same for non-residents, $1,051. To complete the full 35-credit program, this works out to be about $36,000 for tuition overall. And as Dr. Young mentioned, while your hotel and most meals are covered once you're on campus for the leadership development conference, the travel costs to Athens, Ohio for the conference will also be something you'll need to budget for in addition to any books and supplies and fees for your various courses as they come up.

We talked about the scholarships that are available. And so that is something that is a significant ... Every little bit counts as a student as you're going through. And so there's financial aid and scholarships that are available both to alumni and to various students depending on their situation.

I wanted to talk a little bit about the career outcomes and how this program really prepares students once they graduate for those leadership and management roles that they're coming in and desiring to achieve through the program. Dr. Young, could you tell us a little bit more about that?

William Young: Yeah, absolutely. And I think this is one thing that I focus on in our exit interviews. So when our students graduate from the program, we look at their progression, if you will, the nine months or so after they've finished. And the one thing that always I look at is the return on investment. I think that's a natural kind of concern everybody has once they deal with the finances and realize it's around $35,000 for this degree. What's in it for me?

And I'm happy to report the average, I just calculated it for the US News and World Report rankings this year, our average salary increase is about $17,000 a year. So when our students graduate, they're moving on in different leadership roles, managerial roles, supervisory roles and whatnot. They're moving on, whether it's their own organization or maybe cross different organizations. Sometimes that is what our MBAs are all about. Most of the time it's vertical integration, where they're staying with their own organization, but sometimes they're looking for different career opportunities. And it really goes back to those concentration and those areas of expertise. And that's just something our program provides.

So if you are, for example, a non-data person, you think you might want to take a step in your own organization to lead your business analytics or to lead the data science kind of part of it, or just to be more familiar with that, so when you're dealing with consultants or you're dealing with the next strategic vision of your organization, you have these core competencies that you can do that. So the MBA is so wide, it's hard to be very specific about particular job titles and whatnot.

The MBA is just a great wealth of information that covers all aspects of business, from the leadership, from the finance accounting, analytics, from OBHR to operations and things of that nature. It just makes you more well-rounded, and the more well-rounded you are, you're talking about leadership roles and understanding the different roles within the organization to actually lead them.

Host: Awesome. Thank you so much. Tim, how did earning the MBA ... you spoke a bit about how you're able to utilize a lot of pieces from each of your courses that you went through in the program in your career. How did actually earning the degree support your career as you went forward?

Timothy Bath: I think the first thing that happened, if I take a step back, is I looked at an online MBA for about a year prior to me finally deciding on OU. And I wasn't doing it necessarily for a role or a position. I had the inner want to complete this for myself, and that was my biggest driver. I'm fortunate that within two years of getting my MBA, it completely paid for itself through role advancement. As you look at that, it has allowed me to progress farther than I ever thought I could. It opened doors for me that weren't open before.

It also opened my mind to areas I wasn't as familiar with, as we talked about on the nine different classes, plus your free concentration. I never really had a lot of formal accounting or formal finance training or, as Steven mentioned, formal marketing training. So it opened avenues for me and understood different strategies, techniques. And that allows you to truly blossom in your career. I think a lot of times, especially today, I see in the world, people are [inaudible 00:35:04] or they're marketing people or they're strictly operations. By doing the MBA, you become a well-rounded leader. And the well-rounded leader is the leader that's becoming the role of chief executive officer, finance manager, CFO, or different positions.

I know that of our group I spoke of, those four, one, Vaughn, is the chief logistics officer for a hospital group in Pennsylvania. Colleen is the chief pricing strategist for a company in northern Ohio, and Megan is working at Verizon and I think she's chief something now. I can't remember her exact title. And she's actually now Dr. Megan, as after she left OU, she was so enthralled with this, she got her doctorate in strategic leadership from another university.

So as you look at this career outlook, you can look at it using it internally or externally. But what I promise you, you'll be so much more well-rounded when you go into interviews that you can take that step up, take that leap of faith. It's not as hard because you have the basis, because the MBA and this program really gives that to you. And I think it's really something we have to remember as individuals, as it's about the holistic needs. Because leaders today have to be holistic in their approach.

Host: Awesome, thank you. And Steven?

Steven Crane: So for me it was a game-changer because I came from the Marine Corps the year prior. I got out of the Marine Corps in 2017, and I thought I had a lot of leadership experience. I thought I had a lot of management experience. It was great. I was versed in different things. And that's true. But when I finished the program, I really understood what it meant to be a leader inside an organization and what it meant to be agile within different organizations. Because it's not just about finance. How does finance affect accounting? It's not just about analytics. How is analytics used in strategic use of information? It's all these things that interweave, that are interwoven across the board.

And when you learn that and when you're able to experience that, you do the coursework, you see it firsthand, and then the final capstone, putting it all together, you really put everything to a test. But through that process, you learn how to be a leader inside a company because you understand all these facets and how they work together. So when you're able to take over a team, when you're able to lead to an organization, it's not just, "I'm the expert in finance." That's awesome, but how does that impact operations? And if you can't draw that line between the two, if you can't connect the dots, especially in an interview, you're going to be passed over.

So this program connected all the dots allowed me, as I talked about, connecting the dots for the interviews, which helped me get my job. And for me, I 5X-ed my income from the start of the program to the end of the program, which was absolutely massive, but it was all due because of this.

Host: Awesome. Thank you both so much. Now we'll hear from Elizabeth Guarino, who will speak to the awesome GradCAT career support benefit for graduate student.

Elizabeth Guari...: Thanks to the innovative partnership between Ohio University and Rise Smart, students in degreed graduate programs have the opportunity to enroll in an intensive four-month career coaching program. We call this GradCAT and it stands for Graduate Career Acceleration. This unique experience includes a career team of three comprised of an individual career coach, a branding expert who is also a professional resume writer, and a career concierge whose sole mission is to uncover hidden job opportunities that are not otherwise posted in the marketplace. This experience also includes a technology platform that provides access to webinars, templates, assessments, and many other resources designed to support career growth and transition. For students who opt in, when they become eligible, this support continues for life.

As team leader for GradCAT, I have the opportunity and the honor of leveraging my extensive background in human resources and talent acquisition to provide direct career services to students as well as programming that is relevant to all phases of career: entry, growth, transition, and acceleration.

In a word, Ohio's graduate career services is dedicated to being meaningful for all students enrolled in master's programs at the Ohio's College of Business. Wherever students are in their career, no matter how far they want to go, to the C-suite or starting and growing your own business, the GradCAT team has the expertise and the commitment to support all students for life.

Host: Thank you, Elizabeth. For those of our viewers today who are ... Let's talk about the admission requirements and what it'll take to be considered for the MBA program. First, you'll need your bachelor's degree from regionally accredited institution, a 3.0 minimum GPA. You'll need to provide all of your official transcripts from all institutions attended, and along with that, two letters of recommendation and personal statement, your resume, and you'll need two years of professional experience coming in. Dr. Young, did you want to tell us a bit about the professional experience and what you look for in the ideal applicants?

William Young: Sure. What we really look for in terms of that letter is just the desire. The grit, if you will. Why is it that you want to pursue an MBA? In my perspective, as a faculty member that teaches some of these courses in the MBA program, it's usually not a barrier in terms of the curriculum. It's a barrier in terms of the grit and overall just time management of the students. So we want to make sure you're serious, that you've had career progression, that you see the goal at the end of the line, if you will. So those are some of the things.

These are requirements that we look for when you're looking through step one through step eight, if you will. Is it always one thing? No, it's not. We look at the total package of an individual. Now, maybe if your GPA has suffered in your undergraduate and you justify that in your cover letter, that's fine. We don't look at one particular thing. We want you to be transparent maybe about mistakes that you've had or things that made it difficult for you to excel previously, whether it's your undergraduate program or whatnot.

But we just want to see that you have grit and determination that this is the right program for you, in part because of those seven week classes. They're great that you can focus on one thing at a time. It's also going to be a situation where you really have to dedicate yourself and carve out that time and have the support from your spouse or maybe your superior at work or something of that nature, that you can actually dedicate yourself to the program. So it's not the curriculum. Sometimes it's the time management of it all. And those are the things that we look for in that letter of recommendation or we look for in the personal statement that you supply.

So we'll look at it holistically. We'll look at everything. Often, students are worried about maybe their GPA is hovering around that 3.0 area. If it's slightly below, honestly, I look at other things as well. Because most of the times, when I look at the data from our students that are applying to the program and that have graduated with the program, we're talking about students with nine years of professional experience and the program and undergrad was quite some time ago. And we understand that people change, responsibilities change, and things of that nature. So we holistically look at all of these things that we're asking you to provide.

And I would also just encourage you to reach out to your enrollment advisor. Ask them for help. Ask them for recommendations. What do I do in this situation? How do I best present this? Can you help me with the transcripts? And often the answer is yes.

Host: Awesome. Thank you so much. For those who are joining today, we thank you for joining and we thank you so much, Dr. Crane and Tim and Dr. Young, for any closing thoughts around ... almost to tell your younger self or to tell any ... to just give advice or tips to anyone who is interested in pursuing their MBA at Ohio University. Do you have any thoughts around that, Steven?

Steven Crane: My biggest thought, my biggest gift to everyone would be trust the process. A hundred percent. That's one of the things that we were told early in my doctoral work was trust the process. And I laughed at it, I scoffed it off. I'm like, "Okay, yeah, I'm going to trust the process with all this in front of me." But really, trust the process. Trust your faculty. Trust your professors. Trust the curriculum. Trust the history. Trust the accreditation. Trust OU for your educational future. The rest will work itself out. Just trust the process. Do your end of the bargain, put in the work, and reach out for help.

Host: Awesome. And Tim?

Timothy Bath: The hardest part of running a marathon is signing up for the marathon. And I think the hardest part of getting your MBA is actually taking the sleep to sign up. Take the chance and sign up for the MBA at Ohio. It will reward you more than you will ever know. I have not only learned a tremendous education, I have made some amazing friends. I look forward to you if you're listening to this video that at your LDC, you come up and say hi to me. Hopefully I'm still there presenting and I'm able to make it. And you're going to find out that Bill and people like Steven, Dr. Crane, they're amazing people that we're all here to support you. We're all in this together. I also can promise you that there is a grassroots group of the online MBA group that stays together and is promoting each other. So you're not just part of a Ohio University, you're part of a fraternity of the OMBA group that you can be part of and it's going to be successful for you. So take the chance, make the jump, take the plunge.

Host: Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you all, Dr. Young and Dr. Crane and Tim, for participating in giving us some words of wisdom. For those who are interested in our next steps, you can contact our enrollment advising team at (740) 924-5725 or email us at getstarted@ohio.edu. Thank you so much again, and all the best.

Speaker 1:
[00:00:30]
[00:01:00]    Hello, and welcome to Ohio's online master of athletic administration information session. Today we have a packed agenda. You will have the opportunity to meet our online master of athletic administration's program director as he provides an overview of our master's of athletic administration program, including what makes the program unique, and details on curriculum and the Athletic Leadership Forum. We will talk about tuition as well as career outcomes. We will also hear from two of our recent alumni, who will share their firsthand experiences in our online MAA program and how it has impacted their careers. Then we will hear about our graduate career acceleration team and talk about the admission requirements and next steps to becoming a Bobcat. I'm excited to introduce our MAA program director, Professor Aaron Wright. Professor Wright has taught at the university since 2005 and has an extensive professional experience as an athletic director, as well as an athletic administrator at both in high school and collegiate level. Professor Wright, would you please tell us more about your background?

Speaker 2:

[00:01:30]

[00:02:00]    Thank you, Micah, and welcome, everyone, to the MAA information session. As Micah noted, I have experienced as a high school athletic administrator. I was athletic director at a K-12 independent school in the Washington DC area for six years. I've taught and coached basketball, among other roles there. I've been at Ohio University since finishing my master's degrees in 2005 and have been involved with the MAA program exclusively since 2010, for five years as the program director and have been back in the program director role since 2021. I've also spent the last few years as executive director of two independent school athletic leagues in the Washington DC. So, I look forward to talking to you today more about the MAA program and sharing a little bit about my experience as well.

Speaker 1:    Thank you, professor. Now I would like to introduce two of our recent alumnis that are joining us today, Miss Sarah Hayes and Shane Jones. Welcome. Sarah and Shane, would you please tell us more about your background and what you guys currently do?

[00:02:30]
Speaker 3:

[00:03:00]    
Sure. So, Sarah Hayes. I'm from Beaufort, South Carolina. I'm currently the AD at Battery Creek High School. When I first got back to high school, I taught first, and then I hopped on as the girls' basketball coach, and then saw an opportunity or wanted the opportunity to have more of an impact. I guess the athletic department as a whole asked the AD if I could jump in as assistant AD, and I was able to do that. Now, around this time, I had met a teacher that was here, when he'd actually gone through the Ohio University program. And he talked a little bit about it. I said, "Oh, this definitely sounds like something I could definitely do, just to learn a little bit more about profession." Came into it and has definitely been very helpful. So, currently I am the athletic director at Battery Creek High School, and I am also a certified athletic administrator. I guess we'll probably talk a little bit more about that a little bit later. I'm excited to talk to everybody about the program today.

[00:03:30]
Speaker 1:    
Thank you, Sarah. We're very excited to have you as well. Shane, how about you?

Speaker 4:

[00:04:00]    Thank you, Micah. Yeah, my name is Shane Jones. I currently live in Glens Falls, New York. I am the athletic director at the Glens Falls City School District. It's my eighth year in education, second as an athletic administrator. I spent the first six years of my career as a PE teacher. I taught all three levels from elementary to middle and high school. I also coached a variety of different sports in that capacity as well, from basketball to soccer to baseball and softball. When I started the program at Ohio University, I was teaching high school PE and health in New York City, as well as coaching on two varsity teams there as well. And then I since have relocated back up to upstate New York, near my hometown, where I was the athletic director at Johnstown Central School District last year, and I recently relocated to a new district of Glens Falls City School District in upstate New York.

[00:04:30]
Speaker 1:    
Very neat. Thank you, Shane. All right, guys. I'm very excited to hear more about your experiences with our MAA program as we move forward. Professor Wright, our online master of athletic administration program continues to be on top, as far as [inaudible 00:04:48] athletic administration. Can you please describe the key benefits of the program to us?

[00:05:00]
Speaker 2:

[00:05:30]

[00:06:00]    
Yes. One of the things that makes the MA program most unique is the fact that we are solely focused on interscholastic athletics. Many master's programs in sports administration or sport management or athletic administration, more general kind of programs that may have a class or two with a high school focus, but we are one of the few in the country, and we're the first in the country that had a focus entirely on interscholastic athletics. We have connected faculty. All of our faculty have been athletic administrators, many for decades, and our faculty are highly accomplished in the field and highly connected in the field. So those are two of the key features that make our program unique. As part of our industry connection, we help students prepare for NIAAA certification. And we'll talk a little bit more about that later. And we have a significant alumni network, with alumni all over the country, working as athletic administrators, that can help our students both while they're going through the program but also with networking after they finish the degree and are looking to break into the field.

Speaker 1:    Thank you. Now, Sarah and Shane, could you share the reasons why you decided to choose Ohio, to be a part of our master of athletic administrations program? Shane, how about you?

[00:06:30]
Speaker 4:

[00:07:00]    
Yeah. Aaron just touched on it, but the exclusiveness, with a focus on interscholastic athletics. I knew that I wanted to work in the high school setting still. I didn't want to move on to any kind of career in college or in professional athletics. I really wanted to focus on the high school piece. So the fact that Ohio University was really the first to have that really centralized focus on interscholastic athletics was what drew me to the program. Then also, the relationship that they had with the NIAAA and the leadership training courses. I knew that by going through this program that I'd be in a really good position upon graduation to be well prepared to go into a career in interscholastic athletics.

Speaker 1:    Thank you. How about you, [inaudible 00:07:07]?

Speaker 3:

[00:07:30]    I'm going to just reiterate the same thing. It was the interscholastic focus for me. Like Shane, I knew I wanted to work in the high school setting and have that reach among the student athletes and then also, just doing my research, the Ohio University program was probably the best in the country, so I always wanted have the opportunity to be trained by the best, experienced faculty. And I found that with the program. So both that interscholastic focus and that experienced faculty, and just the best. And I'm just not saying that just to say it, but after doing all of the research, it was, and just having that opportunity to pursue in a program like this, I thought was pretty awesome.

[00:08:00]
Speaker 1:    
Awesome feedback, guys. Thank you so much. Okay, moving along. All right. Now I would like to jump into curriculum. Professor Wright, could you please explain a little bit more about the curriculum in detail?

Speaker 2:

[00:08:30]

[00:09:00]    Yeah. As I mentioned previously, we have a sole focus on interscholastic athletics. So you'll see interscholastic athletics in all of our course titles here. The program provides a comprehensive look at the athletic director role, and skills and abilities and knowledge that are necessary to be an interscholastic athletic administrator. We start out the program with a foundations course that focuses on the role of the athletic director, especially in setting direction for an interscholastic athletic program, the mission and philosophy of interscholastic athletics, and the reasons why we have education-based athletics in the first place. You can read through the course titles here, but we cover topics such as governance of interscholastic athletics, the legal foundations, financial administration and event management, human resource management, et cetera, which cover, about as thoroughly as you can in a graduate program, the essential knowledge, skills, and abilities that are necessary to be an interscholastic athletic administrator.

[00:09:30]

[00:10:00]    We'll talk about a couple more of these details a little bit later on, including our athletic Leadership Forum in the summer, but that's tied to our SASM 6380 course at the bottom of the list. Our Athletic Leadership Seminar is connected to that Leadership Forum. And we finish the program with a capstone course that wraps things up for students and allows them to reflect back on the key things that they've learned throughout the program and prepare themselves for either becoming interscholastic athletic directors and starting that job search or taking the next steps in their careers.

Speaker 1:    Thank you, professor. Now, alumni, I have questions for you. Specifically, I'll start with Sarah. Were you able to work full-time earning your degree?

Speaker 3:

[00:10:30]    Yes, I taught, and I was a basketball coach. During the winter season was definitely, definitely very time-consuming, but I was able to take the course, take the courses that I needed to, all the coursework. And one good thing about the faculty is that they were very understanding because being coaches and them being ADs, they understood the workload that comes with coaching, being an assistant AD. So I was able to complete the assignments that I needed to complete while I was doing my full-time, every-day profession.

[00:11:00]
Speaker 1:    
Awesome. So would you say the overall structure and setup of the program was in your favor?

Speaker 3:

[00:11:30]    Yes. Yes, it definitely was. I believe chats that we had to do, the assignments that we had to do, one thing that I also liked was it was definitely very timely. So even as assistant AD, as I was going through the courses, I could apply, right then, some of the things that I was doing in my coursework. So I think that's one of the other great things about the program. It is automatically applicable to what we're doing in the profession.

Speaker 1:    Fantastic. Thank you for sharing. Shane, do you feel like the curriculum was in a line with the work that you currently do?

Speaker 4:

[00:12:00]

[00:12:30]    Yeah, absolutely. Just to piggyback off what Sarah was saying, I never really felt like I was doing work just to do busywork. All of our projects and assignments were all completely relevant to what we're doing now as athletic administrators. While I was going through the program, I was getting a little bit more involved with our athletic department at the school I was working at. And being able to apply some of those assignments and projects that we were working on into the everyday workings of an athletic administrator, it was great. And honestly, I brought some of my assignments and projects with me on job interviews, and I still reference some of these projects with me, to this day, in my current role. I think that the professors did a really great job of making sure that the assignments are applicable, they're relevant, and it's intentional. So I can't speak highly enough about how well-prepared I felt, leaving the program back in 2018.

Speaker 1:

[00:13:00]    That's awesome. Thanks, Shane. All right. Now I would like to speak more about some key features of the program. One of them is certification and the other is the Athletic Leadership Forum, the two key aspects to our MAA curriculum and the program overall. Professor Wright, could you please give us more detail about the IIAAA certification as well as the ALF?

Speaker 2:

[00:13:30]    Yeah, I'll start with the NIAAA certification. As I mentioned before, one of the key features of the program is its connection with the NIAAA Leadership Training Institute. For those who aren't aware, the NIAAA is the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, the professional organization for high school and middle school athletic directors in the country. Actually, also internationally in Canada and elsewhere. It has a leadership training program that provides certification, which is an important professional qualification for athletic administrators. We partnered with the NIAAA when we started this program back in 2003, to help integrate best practices from interscholastic athletic administration into our coursework. And we've continued that relationship up until today.

[00:14:00]

[00:14:30]    Currently, students are given credit for 11 leadership training courses through the NIAAA by completing the MAA program. Those 11 courses are listed on the slide. The first three are ones that qualify students for the base level of NIAAA certification, Registered Athletic Administrator. Students will also take the additional courses, 500 level, that are required for Certified Athletic Administrator status, which is the second level of [inaudible 00:14:31]. In order to get CAA status, students also need two years of experience and some other qualifications in order to sit for the CAA exam. But they will have taken all of the leadership training courses that are required for certification.

[00:15:00]

[00:15:30]    There are a few additional courses on top of that, at the 600 level and 700 level, that will help students if they're going beyond CAA status, which is something a little further down in their careers. They may pursue CMAA status, which is the highest level of certification through the NIAAA. So this relationship certainly helps students professionally, by preparing them for certification through the NIAAA. It also helps ensure that we are providing the best and most current information, that both Shane and Sarah talked about earlier, that's relevant for high school and middle school athletic administrators. So this relationship is a critical one for us and, I think, provides significant value to our students.

Speaker 1:    Definitely. Okay. Yeah. So, Shane and Sarah, how did the certification of the NIAAA benefit you and both of your careers? Starting with Sarah.

Speaker 3:

[00:16:00]

[00:16:30]    I think one of the best things about the program is realizing how many of the courses that prepares us. Because I ended up bypassing RAA because we had a lot of the courses that could get us the CAA certification, a Certified Athletic Administrator association throughout through the NIAAA. So it was very helpful, as far as having those courses, being able to sit for that exam. So the program really does a good job integrating those things because I was able to jump right onto the CAA, and that has definitely done wonders for my career, getting that certification preparation not only for the certification but for everyday things that happen.

Speaker 1:    Great. Thank you so much for sharing. Shane, how about you? How important was that certification for you in your career today?

Speaker 4:

[00:17:00]

[00:17:30]    Yeah, it was definitely important. One of the things that kind of drew me to the program, again, was this NIAAA relationship. And I currently have my RAA. I'm scheduled to sit in on the CAA exam this spring. But I've been to a few state conferences so far in my career, the New York State Athletic Administrators Association. And a lot of times, I see these courses that these other Ads, veteran ADs, are signing up for at these state conferences. And I look through the list, I'm like, "Oh, I already got that one through Ohio. Oh, I already got that one through Ohio." It's nice. You definitely feel like you're ahead of the game upon graduation. You already feel like you're your leaps and bounds ahead of maybe someone else who went through a different pathway. I'm looking forward to sitting in on that CAA exam, and I think it's a really important feature of the program at Ohio University.

Speaker 1:    Definitely value-added there. Thank you so much, guys, for sharing. All right. Now I want to focus on the Athletic Leadership Forum, the ALF, another very key aspect to our program, that keeps us competitive. Sarah and Shane, would you like to add your comments on how important this particular conference was for you and what your experiences were?

[00:18:00]
Speaker 3:

[00:18:30]    
Yeah, no, it was really important. What was fun about the conference was you spend, I can't remember, maybe a year studying with other students. [inaudible 00:18:09] seen their faces because in the classes you have to do kind of like a welcome and who am I, a few years ago through PowerPoint. But it was fun to meet everybody. They throw you right in there, put you together in groups. So networking was a huge part of the Leadership Forum. So that was fun. I took the drive all the way up from South Carolina. I drove all the way to Ohio. But no, but the networking part, meeting everybody face-to-face. Probably one of the most important projects up there is we did a budgeting project. That was fun, to work in groups to complete that. So I'd say the networking aspect, and just meeting everybody, was definitely something that was important when it came to this Athletic Leadership Forum.

Speaker 1:    All right. Thank you, Sarah. Shane, what about you?

[00:19:00]
Speaker 4:

[00:19:30]    
Yeah, Sarah hit it right on the head. The networking was awesome, getting to finally put some names to faces that you've been working on projects with throughout the whole course. Something that stood out to me was, I believe it was on the first day that we were on campus. We were in a giant lecture hall. There was probably about a hundred of us in there. And we went around, and we did the introductions, and it was really cool because a lot of the names you recognized through working on projects with, but there was a few people that maybe you hadn't connected with so far in the program. But to hear all 50 states being represented and even a few international students, it was just really cool to see how expansive the networking is with Ohio.

   And getting to see the campus too was really cool. Getting to do the tour of the basketball arena and the football stadium. And honestly, just the bonding with the people that you're going through this program with. There's still a few people that I still keep in touch with to this day. And it's just, the alumni network is fantastic.

[00:20:00]
Speaker 1:    
That's awesome, guys. Networking is very important to us here at Ohio University. Professor Wright, wouldn't you agree?

Speaker 2:    Absolutely. And I mentioned that earlier, but the Leadership Forum is the one opportunity that students get to meet each other face to... to meet the faculty they've been working with. The content of the Leadership Forum changes a little bit year to year, but there's certainly some consistent elements, things that we do to connect students with each other and with the faculty.

[00:20:30]

[00:21:00]    A few of the past topics are listed on the slide here. We've done safe sports zone training, which has provided additional value to students in the past and some certification that help prepare them for running safe events. As think it was Shane mentioned, we've connected with with our finance course and budgeting projects there as well. This last summer, we focused on leadership and personal leadership style and had a couple of new speakers to that forum. We changed the topics a little bit year to year, but as both Sarah and Shane mentioned, connection with students, getting to experience Athens, which is a bricks-and-mortar institution, even though students will spend most of their time working online. And getting to enjoy a little bit of Southeastern Ohio is definitely a benefit as well.

[00:21:30]
Speaker 1:

[00:22:00]

[00:22:30]    
So now I would like to talk about tuition. For our online MAA program, tuition is an affordable $605 per credit hour and $624 for our non-student residents. I'm not... [inaudible 00:21:44] going to kill me. Okay, I'm going to try it one more time. Okay. Now I would like to talk about tuition. For our online MAA program, tuition is an affordable $605 per credit hour for Ohio residents and $ 624 per credit hour for our non-Ohio residents. Other costs that may apply include travel, lodging, meals, and also costs for our ALF. You may also keep in mind that there might be additional costs that apply, additional to tuition, such as textbooks and supplies and other materials. Alumni, military, and corporate partners are automatically eligible to receive a scholarship up to $5,000 through our College of Business.

   Many of our students want to know what their career outcomes will look like, choosing our MAA program. I would like for Professor Wright to lead us and give us more about career outcome.

Speaker 2:

[00:23:00]

[00:23:30]    As mentioned, what's unique about the MA program is it's a focus on interscholastic athletic administration. So we have very narrow careers that we're preparing students for, predominantly to be an athletic director at the middle school or high school level. There certainly are jobs that are stepping stones to those roles, whether that's assistant athletic director or other administrative roles within a school that might not have that title. Students who are currently teaching and coaching may have roles such as event manager, site manager, called different things at different schools and in different states, but they'll certainly learn the skills that are necessary for many of those stepping-stone roles through this program.

[00:24:00]    Other potential roles within interscholastic athletics might be working at the conference or state association level in administration. Those are much fewer in number than athletic director roles, but some of our students have worked for state associations, or even the NFHS in a couple of cases. So those are the main ones that we're preparing students for. They're definitely, are transferable skills that might help students who might end up working, eventually, in other areas of the sports industry. And students who are currently working in other areas of the sports industry may find some benefit to the curriculum while they're planning for and working towards an eventual AD role.

Speaker 1:    Thank you, Professor Wright. Sarah, how did earning this degree impact your career personally?

[00:24:30]
Speaker 3:

[00:25:00]    
It gave me the opportunity to become an AD. Think a few months after I completed the program, I was offered an athletic director position, which, of course, I took. And I'm still here today, in my fourth year. Two years in after, I was called upon to be on the South Carolina Athletic Administrators Association executive board. So it's definitely opened up avenues for me that I think probably wouldn't have been opened if I wasn't a part of the program. But it has definitely allowed me to jump in feet, head first into the AD role that I am in today.

Speaker 1:    Thank you, Sarah. Shane, what type of impact did the MAA have for your career?

Speaker 4:

[00:25:30]

[00:26:00]    Yeah, just to share the same sentiment as Sarah, I knew that I wanted to be a high school athletic director. While I was going through the program, I realized that I really wanted to get involved, even if it was just getting the experience, whether it was paid or unpaid. So when I was going through the program, I approached the athletic director of the school I was working [inaudible 00:25:36] at the time and just wanted to get involved, on a voluntary basis, as an unpaid assistant athletic director. Eventually that led to me moving back upstate, back to my hometown. And I'm fortunate enough now to be in what I consider my dream job. I'm in a school district that neighbors the town I grew up in. We were archrivals in high school, and now I joined the team here. And it really is. It's a great school. I found my dream job. It's a great culture here.

[00:26:30]    I'm hoping that, through my preparations and through my experience at Ohio U, I really want to call this place home for the rest of my career and hopefully will be able to retire here one day. It just opened up plenty of opportunities for me, and I don't think that I would've gotten that out of another program. But also just being involved at the state level too, getting involved with different committees. I'll be getting involved this year with the New York State Basketball Tournament planning committee. So really, it just opens a lot of doors for you, once you complete it and go through the certification process. I feel extremely fortunate for the route that I took , and I wouldn't have changed anything.

Speaker 1:

[00:27:00]    Thanks, guys. You both have really awesome careers, and you're excited about it. Thank you so much for the feedback. Right. Now we're going to hear from Elizabeth Guarino, who will speak on a program called GradCAT. GradCAT supports Ohio's college business, by providing our graduate students with a mentorship to prep them, post-graduation from the program.

Speaker 5:

[00:27:30]

[00:28:00]    Thanks very much. Thanks to the innovative partnership between Ohio University and RiseSmart, students in degreed graduate programs have the opportunity to enroll in an intensive four-month career coaching program. We call this GradCAT, and it stands for Graduate Career Acceleration Team. This unique experience includes a career team of three, comprised of an individual career coach, a branding expert who is also a professional resume writer, and a career concierge whose sole mission is to uncover hidden job opportunities that are not otherwise posted in the marketplace. This experience also includes a technology platform that provides access to webinars, templates, assessments, and many other resources designed to support career growth and transition. For students who opt in when they become eligible, this support continues for life.

[00:28:30]

[00:29:00]    As team leader for GradCAT, I have the opportunity and the honor of leveraging my extensive background in human resources and talent acquisition to provide direct career services to students, as well as programming that is relevant to all phases of career entry, growth, transition, and acceleration. In a word, Ohio's graduate career services is dedicated to being meaningful for all students enrolled in master's programs at Ohio's College of Business. Wherever students are in their career, no matter how far they want to go, to the C-suite or starting and growing your own business, the GradCAT team has the expertise and the commitment to support all students for life.

[00:29:30]
Speaker 1:

[00:30:00]

[00:30:30]    
Okay. Now I'd like to discuss admission requirements. So for our MAA program, the program is, in total, 30 credits. To be applicable for the 30-credit program, we look for our students to have at least a 2.7 GPA on a 4.0 scale. Students must provide all prior transcripts from any universities that they would've attended. Also, we look for two letters of recommendation, either professional and/or educational. We look for our students to have at least two years of interscholastic administration and/or coaching-related experience, as well as we ask for a personal statement letter, identifying who the student is, their future endeavors, as well as why they decided to choose Ohio University as a master's program. And last, we have a $50 application fee. Now I would like to ask a very important question. Why did you choose Ohio University alumni? Sarah? Ladies first.

Speaker 3:

[00:31:00]

[00:31:30]    Once again, it's one of the best programs in the nation. It has that interscholastic focus. I hadn't talked a little bit about the faculty. It's fun because Mr. Wright, he still emails and contacts us, and whenever we are able to accomplish something, we get an email from him. Like I said, just the interscholastic focus, just being prepared for the different certifications, being able to dive in head first into what we're doing as athletic administrators. The networking. It being one of the best programs in the nation. And you really do feel like... It may be cliche, but you're a part of a family. Like I said, Dr. Wright, he still contacts us. He still emails us, so that's really fun. You feel like you're a part of the Bobcat family, even though you might not have gone there undergrad, and this is a master's program. It's online. And I still do feel like I'm a part of the Bobcat family.

Speaker 1:    Thank you, Sarah. Interpersonalism is very important to us. I'm glad that you mentioned relationship. Shane, how about you? Why did you choose Ohio [inaudible 00:31:50]?

Speaker 4:
[00:32:00]

[00:32:30]

[00:33:00]    Like Sarah said, it's one of the best programs in the country. You truly are learning from the best professionals in this field. All your professors, they have extensive background and experience in classic athletics, being involved on state-level committees. You can't go wrong. They're not going to steer you in the wrong direction. When you're going to leave this program, after two years of being well-prepared, being knowledgeable, having the tools that you need to be a successful interscholastic athletic administrator, you're just... It was a great experience. Like I said earlier, I always felt like the assignments that we were doing were intentional. They were meaningful. I didn't feel like I was just doing work just for the sake of doing busy work. I really felt like I was about what my passion was and what I wanted to do for a career. It was truly enjoyable, and like Sarah said, Aaron still reaches out from time to time. Still hear from some of the other alumni that we went to school with, I still keep in touch with. So just the networking opportunities and the ability to stay in contact. It was a great experience for me.

Speaker 1:

[00:33:30]    Awesome. Thank you, Shane. Professor Wright, thank you so much for the great information that you were able to share with us today about the MAA program. Are there other reasons in which you, personally, believe that students would choose Ohio University to receive a master's such as as this one, as far as education goes and an overall master's degree? Why do you believe Ohio University is so special and unique in this way?

Speaker 2:

[00:34:00]    I don't think I can add too much to what Sarah and Shane said, so I thank them for their input on this. But I do want to stress a couple of things that they've already said. The application-based learning is really, I think, a key to our curriculum. And Shane cited, both of them cited, several examples of ways that they've used coursework in their careers, but that certainly has been a major focus of us in designing our curriculum in addition to the NIAAA relationship, but also making sure that everything that students are doing is directly related to their current work experience or their future career goals.

[00:34:30]

[00:35:00]    The slide here also mentions the flexibility of the program, and Sarah's talked about this a little bit earlier on, that the pace was, right, certainly challenging for those who are working full-time and coaching, and can sometimes seem a little bit hectic to complete a graduate program while doing everything else that [inaudible 00:34:36] does both professionally and in life. But we intentionally designed the program in a way that helps students learn, but also works for them and doesn't overtax them. I think that the online format is important. It's also one, for us, that is as engaging as an online program can be, I think. And so we really try to make it something where students aren't learning individually, but are working both collectively with their cohort members and with their faculty to get through the course and the program and to prepare themselves for the future.

Speaker 1:

[00:35:30]

[00:36:00]    Thank you so much, professor. Thank you all for sharing your experiences and sharing your knowledge of the program overall. I really appreciate it. If you have any questions and if you're interested in moving forward with Ohio's online MAA program, you can still call us at (740) 924-5725. Or contact an enrollment counselor like myself and get started today. You can also email us at GetStarted@ohio.edu or visit our website at ohio.edu/business to request more information. Thank you so much for viewing, and we hope to be able to speak with you soon.

Micah:

[00:00:30]    Hello, and welcome to our Online Master of Accountancy virtual information session hosted by me. My name is Micah, and I'm an enrollment counselor with Ohio University's Online College of Business, proudly assisting students throughout the entire admissions process. As for today's agenda, we will meet our program director, hear from our students and why they chose Ohio University, dig deep into our Master of Accountancy by taking a look at curriculum, career outlooks, tuition, as well as we'll learn about our leadership development conference, which we have every year. And lastly, we'll talk about GradCATs and admission requirements. Now, we will meet our program director, Dr. Jennifer Stevens.

Dr. Jennifer St...:

[00:01:00]    Hello, and I'd like to talk to you today about Ohio University's Online Master of Accountancy. So before I do that, I'd like to introduce myself. I am a CPA licensed in Illinois. I'm also a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and a member of the American Accounting Association. I have an undergraduate degree in accounting, I have a master's degree in accounting, and I have a PhD in accounting. Prior to entering the PhD, I actually also worked in industry for a while, which is really important to Ohio University and one who teaches in the Masters of Accountancy. We all have industry experience we can share with our students.

[00:01:30]

[00:02:00]    So my personal industry experience was working in forensic accounting. So I first worked for EY, followed by Alvarez & Marsal, specifically in their forensic accounting groups. I then went to work for a research firm that was providing research to hedge funds, investment firms, private equity firms, and I got a chance to really see the capital markets and how they worked and how we use financial information in those capital markets. I do research as well as teach. My primary research interests include financial reporting, disclosure private equity, corporate governance, forensic accounting, and accounting education. I have work that is forthcoming in the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy that was also cited by the Wall Street Journal. I have other publications in Accounting Horizons, Research in Accounting Regulation, the Journal of Portfolio Management, and the Journal of Investment Management, as well as issues in Accounting Information.

Micah:    Wow. Thank you, Dr. Stevens. What an extensive resume. It's very impressive.

Dr. Jennifer St...:    Thank you. We all work hard here.

[00:02:30]
Micah:    
I see that. Now, we will hear from our current students, both of which who currently are attending Ohio University as part of our MAcc program. Adrien, please introduce yourself.

Adrien Roberto:

[00:03:00]    Gladly. Hi, I'm Adrien. So I graduated with a degree in Accounting and Management Information Systems in 2018, immediately sat for the CPA exam, and started my career at PWC for one year in Cleveland and then one year in Columbus, both in their assurance practice. Stayed at PWC for two years, and then in October of 2020, I accepted a position at a mid-sized public company in Columbus, Ohio where I work today in Internal Audit.

Micah:    Very neat. Victor, how about you?

Victor Scavo:
[00:03:30]    Hi, my name is Victor Scavo. I have a degree in accounting and a master in taxation overseas, and I started over 20 years ago working in KPMG and other big companies around the world and since I moved to the United States. So I work with several mid-sized, mid-market companies. And here I am. Never too late to come back to school and keep improving.

Micah:    That is right, Victor. Thank you for sharing, both of you. Adrien, I have a question for you. I see that you've earned your CPA. Why did you choose to pursue our MAcc program?

[00:04:00]
Adrien Roberto:    
Yeah, so it's always been a personal goal of mine to get my master's. I was looking at OU's master's program when I was in my undergraduate degree, but I'd already had plans to go to PWC. I already had the 150 hours. So it's more of a personal goal that I'm able to achieve at this point.

Micah:    I see. Thank you. Victor, you are a manager and a director. Tell us why you chose to pursue our MAcc program. And do you have plans to earn a CPA in the future?

[00:04:30]
Victor Scavo:    
Yeah, definitely. Yes, here in the United States, and I'm a CPA overseas.

Micah:    Cool.

Victor Scavo:    And earning the certification as a CPA or probably pursuing a career on academia. Why not? And teach some younger generations of use my experience for that.

Micah:

[00:05:00]    You both have very impressive resumes and impressive careers. Thank you so much for sharing with us today. All right. Now, we'll look at our MAcc at a glance. Dr. Stevens, please give us a little bit more about what we'll be talking about today in our session.

Dr. Jennifer St...:

[00:05:30]

[00:06:00]    Sure. So I'm going to talk a little bit about our MAcc program. And we designed this program. So you are getting a degree from Ohio University. Ohio University offers a student-centered transformative learning experience. And in our MAcc program online, you will be getting the same professors with the same learning goals and the same content that you would be getting with our on-campus program. So we are really committed to providing that close-knit relationship between the students and the faculty. In order to mimic the personal touch that we have in our on campus, we bring that to the online setting. And we really do work hard to have in-person meeting times during the week so you can get to know your professors take an interest in each individual student and their goals following the program. So we are very committed to, again, giving you high quality faculty and giving you a high quality program, but in a flexible format that fits the life of a working professional that often has family or other personal obligations.

[00:06:30]

[00:07:00]    So when we were designing our MAcc, we know that data analytics is really important to the future of business. The good news is accountants are really good at data analytics, and we've always been good at data analytics. So the problem of the 20th century was lack of data. The problem in the 21st century is too much data. Well, and so what are we doing with this data? Accountants are really good at taking financial data and turning it into usable information for decision making. And that's what we've always been doing, but now we just have new tools through big data and new analytical tools to help us do that job better. So we're teaching core accounting skills that you will need to sit for the CPA exam or further your career in accounting because everything runs through the financial statements. So guess what? Accountants are really well versed in business and how businesses run and helping to make those businesses run profitably. Otherwise, there is no business.

[00:07:30]

[00:08:00]    So we give you the core accounting skills, but we also layer in some data analytics in order to help you use and be prepared to use those tools to meet the needs of the future and be marketable in the marketplace. So we have different pathways for students of any undergraduate background. So if you have an accounting undergraduate degree, such as both of our students do tonight, we give you a 30-credit hour path that's the most efficient and effective path to the 150-credit hours that you would need to earn a CPA, if that is your goal to earn the CPA. But we don't teach to the test. We are teaching to long-term career outcomes and long-term career success.

[00:08:30]

[00:09:00]    We have the program... If you don't have an accounting undergraduate degree, we also have a very efficient set of prerequisites that I'll talk about in a minute to help you get prepared and change careers to pursue accounting as a very... It's a great lifelong career with long-term career opportunities and a very stable job path and progression. So we have designed our program in seven-week increments. We find that this is really helpful. Students take one program every seven weeks, that way they can really focus in and do a deep dive in one area instead of trying to manage multiple classes at a time. So our students will take one class every seven weeks, and they are in the evenings, so you can manage your full-time job or your family while also completing your degree that should help... your career in the long run. It is 30 credit hours if you have an accounting background. It would be up to 45 credit hours if you don't have an accounting background, but that is actually a very low amount of hours to convert from some other non-business undergraduate degree and pursue accounting as a career.

[00:09:30]

[00:10:00]    As I mentioned, our classes will help prepare you for the CPA exam, but really, we are teaching for long-term career skills that are going to help you be marketable in the future. And we provide numerous networking opportunities. So we do have live classes where you get to interact with your faculty and your fellow students. We also have the LDC where we invite you to come to campus and pay for your time on campus one time during your program. And then we host other events both online and in person that you are welcome to attend to help you meet people, not only from your program, but from other programs in the College of Business, meet employers, meet our alumni because we know networking is a big part of business.

Micah:

[00:10:30]

[00:11:00]    Thank you, Dr. Stevens. All right. So curriculum is very important. As an enrollment counselor, I share details about our curriculum with potential students every single day. As part of our online curriculum, there are 10 core courses that are broken down into 30 credit hours. This particular curriculum structure is associated with core accounting and data analytics track, as Dr. Stevens mentioned in detail, which is suitable for accounting majors typically. Another important aspect of the math program is that students are able to earn their data analytics certification. A certification is very important. All students must take the same seven courses as part of the core curriculum. Now, we do offer other tracks for non-accounting majors so don't worry. Dr. Stevens did mention that already, but I would like for her to go into more detail so students get an idea of what they must do if they are not an accounting major and/or if they do lack those credit hours.

Dr. Jennifer St...:    Sure. Adrien and Victor, how do you expect the data analytics certificate to benefit your career?

Adrien Roberto:
[00:11:30]    Yeah, so I'll go first. So I'll talk about it in terms of internal audits since that's where my area of expertise is currently. So we do a lot of operational audits that include siphoning through large amounts of data and making relevant assumptions based off of those, and then reporting those to the audit committee. So being able to have those skills that we gain through the data analytics classes, I've already seen have helped me with those operational audits.

Micah:    What about you, Victor?

Victor Scavo:
[00:12:00]

[00:12:30]    Yeah. In my case, I'm an external advisor. And a lot of my clients, and actually before my career, I did a lot of... a lot of analytics from inside the company as I'm a management accountant. And definitely, being a heavy user of Excel for many years and analytics, actually I use analytics software in the past, but during these classes, we got to learn some things that Excel can do that I didn't even know after being using it for many years. And it's quite interesting, and also the application is evident. So definitely, it's worth having not just the credential, but learning these new skills or just updating the skills as new formulas and new developments in Excel are available.

Micah:    Absolutely. Thank you, Victor. Dr. Stevens, would you please give us more information about our curriculum in detail, specifically the business non-accounting track?

[00:13:00]
Dr. Jennifer St...:

[00:13:30]

[00:14:00]    
Sure. So as we've previously mentioned, we have a track for any undergraduate degree. As I mentioned, Adrien and Victor both come from an accounting undergraduate degree. So they would take the curriculum from the previous slide, but we've also designed a curriculum for those without an accounting undergraduate degree, and that would be if you come from maybe a degree in the business school that was not accounting, maybe finance or marketing or management, or even if you have come from a degree that was outside the business school, maybe in the sciences or the humanities. So all of our students, regardless of your path or your undergraduate degree, will take our seven core accounting classes that you can see up there. So we're making sure that if you have an accounting degree from Ohio University, you are getting core accounting skills at an advanced level that you will need, not only to sit for the CPA, but also to pursue accounting as a career and all the doors that will open.

[00:14:30]    Now, in order to get... If you don't have an accounting undergraduate degree, in order to get you ready for those seven classes, we're going to have you take four accounting bridge courses, which are basically prerequisites. So this is very special to Ohio University. We took our undergraduate curriculum and we condensed it into a very efficient four-course set of classes. So this is allowing you to very efficiently get up to speed and get prepared to step into the master's level accounting courses. You won't find these really in any other program. So if you don't have an accounting undergraduate degree, you take these four prerequisite courses first, we call them the accounting bridge courses, and then you will take your core accounting classes, as well as your data analytics track.

[00:15:00]

[00:15:30]    If you come from a degree that's outside the College of Business, you will still need to take the four accounting bridge courses, those prerequisites. You'll take the seven core accounting courses, but we're going to give you a little bit more business background that we think is important to understanding business and how it works because as you know, accounting is reporting what's going on within the business. Everything runs through the accounting system. So we're going to give you one data analytics course and then three MBA electives to give you basics in finance, organizational behavior and operations management. And that can be completed in 45 credit hours.

[00:16:00]    So if you're looking to change careers, maybe you graduated with a degree in the humanities and you can't really see the path that you plan to take with your career, you're going, you have a job, you don't really consider it a career, you're not sure what you want to do long-term, accounting provides a really stable career path with lots of job opportunities, and it also provides a very stable progression of salary growth over a long period of time. So I think if you can't see your career path and you want to change careers, you should consider accounting and you should consider our very efficient curriculum to get you to move in that direction, pursue that profession, as well as get you ready to take the CPA exam.

[00:16:30]
Micah:    
Thank you, Dr. Stevens. All right, so now, we will talk about one of my favorite aspects of the program, and that is the Leadership Development Conference, the LDC. And we have this event twice a year. Dr. Stevens, could you please tell us more about the LDC?

Dr. Jennifer St...:

[00:17:00]

[00:17:30]    Sure. So one time throughout your time in the program, you are required to attend one LDC. So that's just once throughout the entire program. And that's where we are inviting you to Athens. You are responsible for travel, but once you get to Athens, your hotel and all of the meals, as well as all of the programming, including world-class speakers, is all provided. So we fly people in to give great talks. You get to meet your classmates in person that you might never have met in person or you might never have the opportunity again to meet those people in person. You get to interact with your faculty in person, and you get to meet other people from the college of the Online College of Business at Ohio University. So we do pick a theme for each LDC. They're usually very applicable to any career. And people find these conferences really engaging and really invigorating.

Micah:    Great. Thank you so much. Now, I would like to hear from our students. Both of you have had the opportunity to attend the LDC, is that right?

Victor Scavo:    Correct.

Adrien Roberto:    Yes.

Micah:    Awesome. Adrien, share your experience with us, please.

[00:18:00]
Adrien Roberto:

[00:18:30]    
Yeah, so I attended this past August, and our theme was how to be a data-driven leader. As we've established, it's extremely applicable, and not only to business, but to the accounting profession as a whole. We did have world-class speakers. We had, I think he was the managing partner of Cleveland Clinic come, which was very cool to hear him speak since I am from Cleveland. But outside of the speakers, it was really great to meet my classmates face to face. I've seen them over Zoom or over Teams, but it was really nice to have those conversations, as well as meet other people and network with others from other programs.

Micah:    Absolutely. That networking is so important. Victor, would you share with us your experience, please?

Victor Scavo:

[00:19:00]

[00:19:30]    Definitely. I was at the conference back in April during the spring. It was a great time, and definitely the getting to connect with the fellow students, the all the professors and the other people from the other programs, all the other MBAs. And it was very interesting the different generations, younger students coming out of school, people with a lot of experience. And then actually, we requested to be mixed up and then actually to be able to share more with the two perspectives. And then it was really, really interesting to have that experience, and basically coming out of the pandemic, a lot of people working remotely, working from home and get to fly to Athens. But it was great for me to see people in person. It was a very nice...

Micah:

[00:20:00]    Yes, that connection and that togetherness is really nice to have again. Thank you both for sharing your experiences with us. All right. So now, we'll talk about our affordable tuition. As an in-state student, you can expect to pay an affordable of $950 per credit hour. As an out-of-state student, you can expect to pay an affordable of 973 per credit hour. Don't forget to budget for additional costs such as travel to the LDC, of course, textbooks, supplies, and other fees that may apply. Okay, so now, we'll take a look at our career outlook. We already have two awesome students here who have amazing careers that are progressing. Dr. Stevens, what other details can you give us about career outlooks that you've not already mentioned?

[00:20:30]
Dr. Jennifer St...:

[00:21:00]    
Sure. So I think what a lot of people underestimate is the versatility of the accounting degree and the diversity of job opportunities that are available to you with an accounting degree. I don't like to say this in front of my colleagues from other departments in the College of Business, but we like to call accounting the universal donor of the business school because employers recognize that account... understand business because everything flows through the accounting system. And so as with an accounting degree, you can take a job in finance, you can take a job in marketing or in management, but those other degrees don't allow you to take a job in accounting. And so you might think that accounting is just you're going to sit with a advisor, you're going to do taxes, or you're going to do audit, but the job opportunities with accounting are really extremely diverse and endless, and there's always a demand.

[00:21:30]

[00:22:00]    So the department chair of the School of Accountancy likes to say, "I can promise you that you will have a job if you have a degree in accounting. I can't promise you that you're going to like your job, but I can promise you that there'll be three other jobs out there for you if you don't like your job." And with an accounting degree, you can go to a not-for-profit, you can go to the government, you can go into the corporate accounting department of a firm, or the finance department that's doing budgeting and financial planning. You can be a forensic accountant, which is what I was, where I'm looking for fraud and I'm helping companies manage their risk, in addition to the traditional audit and tax that provide really great long-term career paths for those with an accounting degree.

[00:22:30]    So the certified public accountant is the gold standard of credentials. And with our degree, you will be able to sit for that exam. Please do check with your enrollment advisor to make sure that we meet the qualifications in your state, but we do in almost all the 50 states and territories. While we're not teaching to the exam, we will prepare you for that exam and for a long-term career in accounting. But really, if you look at the long-term earnings potential of someone with an accounting degree, it goes way up from here. This is the lower end. It goes way up from there. I talked with an audit partner from Ernst & Young. He's making well over several million dollar a year.

[00:23:00]
Micah:    
All right, thank you so much. At this time, we'll hear from Elizabeth who will give us more information about our GradCATs program, which is a career coaching program that our students will benefit from far after they have received a master's from us here at Ohio University.

Elizabeth:

[00:23:30]

[00:24:00]

[00:24:30]    Thanks very much. Thanks to the innovative partnership between Ohio University and RiseSmart, students in degreed graduate programs have the opportunity to enroll in an intensive four-month career coaching program. We call this GradCAT, and it stands for Graduate Career Acceleration Team. This unique experience includes a career team of three, comprised of an individual career coach, a branding expert who is also a professional resume writer, and a career concierge whose sole mission is to uncover hidden job opportunities that are not otherwise posted in the marketplace. This experience also includes a technology platform that provides access to webinars, templates, assessments, and many other resources designed to support career growth and transition. For students who opt in, when they become eligible, this support continues for life.

[00:25:00]

[00:25:30]    As team leader for GradCAT, I have the opportunity and the honor of leveraging my extensive background in human resources and talent acquisition to provide direct career services to students, as well as programming that is relevant to all phases of career entry, growth, transition, and acceleration. In a word, Ohio's graduate career services is dedicated to being meaningful for all students enrolled in master's programs at the Ohio's College of Business. Wherever students are in their career, no matter how far they want to go, to the C-suite or starting and growing your own business, the GradCAT team has the expertise and the commitment to support all students for life.

Micah:

[00:26:00]

[00:26:30]    Now, we will talk about our admissions requirement. We look for our students to obviously already hold a bachelor's as a requirement for our program. We look for students that have a GPA of at least a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. We also ask that you provide us with any prior transcripts from any universities that you would've attended, two letters of recommendation, either educational and/or professional. Our students must provide us with a personal statement letter, which is a letter introducing yourself, your endeavors, and why you decided to choose Ohio University to be a part of your educational experience. We also ask for a professional resume and/or cover letter. And last, we have a 50-dollar application fee. International students are also encouraged to apply with us. So lastly, we'll have closing remarks from Dr. Stevens and our students. We want to know why choose Ohio University? I would like to start with Ms. Adrien with any closing remarks on her experience and on why she decided to choose our online MAcc program.

Adrien Roberto:

[00:27:00]

[00:27:30]    Sure, thank you. So when I was looking at MAcc programs, Ohio University just stood out to me based on the reputation. I also had a few friends that went through the program, the on-the-ground program, and could not speak highly enough about it. So I knew that it was a no- brainer for me to choose Ohio University for any prospective students that is a master's degree. So it's rigorous, but it's definitely worth it. You learn so, so much, so much more than you would think there is to learn about accounting. But like we mentioned with the seven core classes, me coming from an audit perspective, being able to learn about forensic accounting and tax was really beneficial to me because I didn't really have a great base knowledge of those coming in. You need to make sure that you work towards the degree diligently. You're working in teams for majority of the classes, which I think is extremely relevant to the profession. You're always working with others. I've had nothing but a great experience with OU's MAcc... I'm excited to finish, but I cannot say enough good things about it.

[00:28:00]
Micah:    
Thank you. Victor, what about you?

Victor Scavo:

[00:28:30]    I will start. I chose Ohio University. I read about the student engagement so I decided to give it a try. And that's what something that stood out to me, and also that requirement that we have to go at least once during the programs for the leadership conference. And so it's like a "yeah, they're perfect. So we have to go." It's not just the online. As Adrien says, the pace of the classes are rigorous. So just to use the same word. It's a lot of work. It's seven weeks. They fly by really quick. You have to be really engaged. You have to be on top of your game. And all the classes have left something new to me. It doesn't matter how many years of experience you have. They're learning things, updating things. Basically, things that the...