Plz can someone recommend skols in US n Canada for DBA,

Odunnu:

I am currently on break in academics. My MBA results came out complete last month. I ran an MBA in Business Management in UNN. I failed a core course and missed out on graduating last year, took a resit and made it this year. Thank God.

tanimola22:

@Deenee

Why did you have to take the TOEFL? Why do some schools in the US require us, Anglo Africans, to take an English language test before we are even considered for admission? Abi our english inferior? Me I don't think so O,

Throw more light, abeg,

its.me:

Really informative!,  Pls i really need a 'big' career guidance, am currently a b.sc acct undergrad bt av always loved economics, so am thinkin of doin M.sc econs after grad instead of ICAN and even preferably Mba str8 up, pls do u think dats a gud path to take,  I wud rili appreciate your informed advices.

deenee:

P.S I had to re post because, my initial post contained a lot of typos and grammatically incorrect sentences which is in my own opinion not 'up to standard'. Also for some reason, I could not modify my original post. I guess the person that started the thread activated some command or something? Well ,if there are any more, please just read in between the lines !

oYaTo:

Just started mine last month at the Warwick Business School via distance learning, very eye-opening so far. The major challenge right now is having to learn and study alone, no one to discuss with   . There's an online discussion group, but so far haven't tried it yet.  

chamber2:

It is quite rare to see people move from accounting to economics. It has always been the other way round. However, it all depends on passion and one's career objectives. what do you want to do thereafter, work as an economist or accountant? So, you have to spell that out before you enroll for the program. My humble self studied economics, but i have interest in so many things, including accounting, finance, project mgt, strategic mgt, supply chain etc. After my MBA, i hope to enroll in a Masters degree program in Economics (part-time) and do a few professional qualifications alongside. So, it depends on your interest and career goals.

Regarding the MBA. It will be difficult for schools like UI to accept you in their MBA program. But, a course-mate of mine told me that she was accepted into unliag MBA even without work experience. I am unable to confirm the veracity of her claims since i am currently not in Nigeria. In the UK, most universities accept students/recent graduates without work experience into their MBA program.But most top schools will not accept you.

desola234:

@bountimore,
Lagos Business School offers general mgt MBA so i took all sorts of courses-mkting,research,finance,operations, HR,MIS,strategy,enterpreneurship, etc!! Completed in 21mths.
No dissertation or thesis but wrote a business plan; challenging, a whole lot of reading, based on case study, no textbooks and no lecturers,  just FACILITATORS.
3mths internship btw 1st and 2nd yr
was dat helpful?

deenee:

This one question, I am afraid I cannot answer. One common thing, though is that quite a handful of schools in the US/Canada include GMAT and TOEFL as part of the admission requirement and this has been the case for several decades.

I also do know that some schools in UK also require some form of assessment to test  the English language proficiency of their applicants. On a personal note, I just think that it has to do with setting a standard and it has also been discovered that most find it difficult to catch up or cope when the academic session begins.TOEFL is not that hard , GMAT is quite harder than TOEFL.

BTW many schools, even in the UK have also started to include pre-sessional courses as part of the curricula for their M.Sc students ( esp those in accounting, economics et al. )  A pre-sessional course is an academic teaser that is taught before start of the term which helps students have an overview of the entire course content. This has been the case recently, because quite often, foreign students are in most cases at the 'lower end of the curve' and this teaser tends to help them understand in advance, the learning methods used which I am sure you will quite agree, is a sharp contrast from what obtains in Nigeria

aribisala0:

well the standard of written english /grammar of recent university graduates (going back 20 years) is atrocious and still declining .
even here,on this thread, people are talking of "running an MBA" in blissful ignorance  ,whatever that means. i believe this is not unrelated to a now endemic culture of exam malpractice .i suppose that explains the requirement for TOEFL. of course there's a spectrum of linguistic competence including "proficient ,expert and master users". many nigerian university graduates do not even scale the "proficient" threshold .
it is the case that a graduate of any institution is a "brand representative" and so they protect their brand by enrolling students who will not injure their brand through poor communication skills

aribisala0:

well the standard of written english /grammar of recent university graduates (going back 20 years) is atrocious and still declining .
even here,on this thread, people are talking of "running an MBA" in blissful ignorance  ,whatever that means. i believe this is not unrelated to a now endemic culture of exam malpractice .i suppose that explains the requirement for TOEFL. of course there's a spectrum of linguistic competence including "proficient ,expert and master users". many nigerian university graduates do not even scale the "proficient" threshold .
it is the case that a graduate of any institution is a "brand representative" and so they protect their brand by enrolling students who will not injure their brand through poor communication skills

tanimola22:

Abeg another deviation, I sorry.
aribisala0

Which statistical analysis did you use to come up with the above conclusion? Where did you get your data? I am sure you did not speak loosely. I am interested in your research methodology. Teach me

chriswely:

It's annoying when Nigerians try their best to defend whites. I possess a Masters degree from UK on applying for an MBA, i was told i sit for TOEFL. I use to think English is our first language in Nigeria. I can remember entering an office last year in PA and the white lady asking my brother, if i can speak English. The truth of the matter is that loads of whites see us as inferior or something like that,

aribisala0:


well it is a curious notion that[b] all conclusions must be based on statistics to be valid.[/b] much if not most of life is based on little statistics . anyway i stated my opinion based on teaching and recruitment experience and the anecdotal evidence from other employers . i actually interview MBA applicants and i have acquaintances who have recently graduated from nigerian universities  . i have supervised undergraduates from private universities in nigeria doing electives in the UK
in 1989 jubril aminu ordered the closure of nigerian universities for five months unprecedented at the time but now routine. nigerian universities no longer trust Jamb results and arrange retesting of their own. senate president david mar is on record in the previous session of saying the same .we can argue about when the rot started but i believe 1989 was a watershed.
i never claimed to have conducted research but i have had the painful personal experience of interviewing a few nigerians for my alma mater and turning them down because of bad english (all with 680+ GMAT  scores }

tanimola22:

LOL. , Grammar no be our language. It is our second language. But that does not mean that some of us do not speak it better than the 'so called natives'.

Indeed, a good command of the English language is essentially required of any MBA aspirant, But oga sir, you know, I find it very difficult to believe that, as you claimed, some people ambitious enough to do a top MBA would command bad English, Are you talking about minor mistakes during conversations? If it is that, then it is inevitable,

aribisala0:

well the standard of written english /grammar of recent university graduates (going back 20 years) is atrocious and still declining .
even here,on this thread, people are talking of "running an MBA" in blissful ignorance  ,whatever that means. i believe this is not unrelated to a now endemic culture of exam malpractice .i suppose that explains the requirement for TOEFL. of course there's a spectrum of linguistic competence including "proficient ,expert and master users". many nigerian university graduates do not even scale the "proficient" threshold .
it is the case that a graduate of any institution is a "brand representative" and so they protect their brand by enrolling students who will not injure their brand through poor communication skills

chriswely:

It's annoying when Nigerians try their best to defend whites. I possess a Masters degree from UK on applying for an MBA, i was told i sit for TOEFL. I use to think English is our first language in Nigeria. I can remember entering an office last year in PA and the white lady asking my brother, if i can speak English. The truth of the matter is that loads of whites see us as inferior or something like that,

tanimola22:

Abeg another deviation, I sorry.
aribisala0

Which statistical analysis did you use to come up with the above conclusion? Where did you get your data? I am sure you did not speak loosely. I am interested in your research methodology. Teach me

tanimola22:

But oga sir, you know, I find it very difficult to believe that, as you claimed, some people ambitious enough to do a top MBA would command bad English

chamber2:

@sagamite

You are very correct. We, Nigerian graduates, make a lot of unapologetic grammatical blunders. While i was undergoing my one year of national service in Ibadan, i happened to be in constant contact with U.I and Ibadan poly students, and i was amazed at their command of the English language. Prior to this experience i had this thought that U.I students would be very sound as regards the use of English language.Unfortunately, my discovery was amazing. Though, my little experience with a few of them may not represent the entire picture, but it goes further to buttress your point.

But do you blame them? Most were students who struggled under the harsh village sun to pass their waec and then jamb to secure admission into universities in the cities. Majority never saw television until after their secondary schools. Then tell me, how do you expect such a product to have a good command of English language, albeit graduating with a first class or 2.1? Remember,knowledge of academic English does not translate into having superior understanding of English grammar. We seem to be very good at academic jargon, and not really English language.

So, methinks our poor command of English language is as a result of both environmental and somewhat, economic factors. Even when you read our newspapers you may end up vomiting due to the nature of grammatical errors in them.

However, i do not think that the above are enough justifications for poor command of English. Personally, i work hard every day to improve on my use of English grammar and writing skills because it tells a lot about one's educational background.

tanimola22:

Sorry for the deviation eyin managers in the making---I just want let this person know werin dey.
@i[b]ts.me[/b]

Just to let you know, a master's in economics is not a piece of cake; it is not about cramming, adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying. It is much, much stronger than those. I don't know the material covered in a typical msc economics class in naija, but all I know is that a master's in economics is heavily mathematical here in Europe. You will need an above average knowledge of calculus, differential equations, probability and statistics, graph theory(basic) and group theory(basic) to fully understand what your professors teach you in class. You will further need these tools if you hope to do a PhD after your master's. These math courses are the things that will help you understand graduate level economics. Contract theory, for example, depends on logic, differential equations and calculus.

The best economics students in my class are not those that did economics at undergrad level, they are those that studied things like statistics, math and econs combined, physics, computer science, engineering and pure math. The ones that studied economics at undergrad are just average students.

I am not saying all these to kill your dreams or to kill your spirit, but I am saying them to truly let you know what you are planning on getting yourself into and therefore help you make an informed choice. Information, as they say, is key!  

Notwithstanding, you can learn all these above mentioned math courses if you are eager to learn them. They are not rocket science. They are things that, with the right approach, discipline, resilience and attitude, can be eventually learnt if you have the passion to. So, brother/sister, follow your mind.

NB: The story may be different if your aim is to do the master's in Naija.

its.me:

Oh boi! U just scared d hell outta me, i rili tink i nid 2 take a chill pill now, cos seriously mathematics is my BIGGEST problem, which then made me tink about Msc econs, i felt i cudnt b goin 2 work daily jst crunching numbers, Tanx a bunch man!, nid 2 sit up 4 ICAN nw den! Haaaa!

Sagamite:

I am really struggling not to derail this thread.

Graduate?

[Shakes head]

aribisala0:

consider the logic of that remark. even people ambitious enough to be president have bad english .

i believe you read the post and comprehended it. it was a formal interview. in fact a standard structured interview .
anyhow[b] not every candidate is ambitious[/b].that is wrong.a good many are confused,jumping on a bandwagon or forced into it by parents.
one girl(with excellent english by the way),at 22 already had a master's from a top UK university but really wanted to be a musician . her father was the main driver.she was turned down for work experience gaps and a lack of focus but her GMAT score was high enough to merit an interview .

Sagamite:



Thanks!
Show me where I said 'every candidate is ambitious'. Just as we cannot generally conclude that all Nigerian graduates have a bad command of the English language, you cannot conclude from my previous post that I said every MBA candidate is ambitious. Why such a hasty generalization?

It is not a lie that unambitious people enroll for MBA programmes. But you will agree with me that it is also not a lie that ambitious people enroll for MBA programmes. You may claim that my statement is illogical if and only if you agree that yours is illogical. For every unambitious person enrolling for an MBA programme there exists an ambitious person enrolling for that same programme.  And if either of them wishes to study at a business school, then the language of instruction at that business school is logically expected to be within his grasp.  Anything short of this is questionable. Hence, my previous post.
I am corrigible, so I am waiting for you to point out the place where my argument is flawed. I am waiting.


I saw the "running an MBA" statement as well but tried not to comment so it does not appear I am turning the thread to personal attack.

You are also right on that "brand representative" stuff because any time I see such poor grammar or grammatical structure, I am keen to ascertain which school they are doing the MBA in. I want to know which school accepts and turns out MBA candidates with such poor grammatical construct so I can tell which MBA schools in Nigeria are not up to scratch.

It is shocking if you have a Masters from the UK and you are requested to still take a TOEFL test.

I have a BSc from the UK and no one has ever questioned my English or told me to take an English that they are not telling a white English boy to take. By the way, I am Black and have no UK accent.

Maybe in your MBA application you exposed grammatical abilities that suggest you need to prove your proficiency in the language by sitting a TOEFL test.

In just your very short post above that I quoted, I can forgive your "I use to think English . . . . . " as just an unconscious omission of "d" at the end of "use".

But when you say "I was told to sit for TOEFL" , that is bad use of grammar. "You are asked/requested/told to take a TOEFL test" not "sit" it. That is not about inferiority or racism, you need to re-evaluate yourself.

If you have unfortunately not been observant enough to spot the issue, why don't you google "Nigeria" "graduate" and "quality" and see reports.

I can't believe you thought this was a logical point.

tanimola22: