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Kelley School of Business Indiana University Bloomington
Kelley Direct Online MBA

Comparing online MBAs? Top considerations to find the right program

Posted on by Kelley School

It’s no secret that a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree is a massive investment of time and resources—especially financial resources. Tuition for some of the highest-ranked online MBA programs exceeds $100,000, with rates varying based on factors including the type of institution (public or private), enrollment status (part-time or full-time), and books and other supplies.

A hallway with the IU Kelley School of Business logo.

The Kelley Direct Online MBA is a more affordable option than many of the other top-ranked online MBA programs, with the total tuition coming out under $95,000. How do we keep the cost of an online MBA degree lower, while keeping our No. 1 ranking by the Princeton Review, U.S. News & World Report, and Poets&Quants? Our faculty and staff spend a lot of time finding ways to balance the cost and experience for online MBA students without compromising on quality. See how Kelley Direct gives our current and prospective students the best possible education, experience, and return on investment (ROI) for their money.

Determining the cost of the No. 1 ranked online MBA program: Kelley Direct’s strategy

Kelley Direct offers a top-ranked, high-quality degree at a lower cost because we plan and manage every aspect of the program ourselves. Many business schools partner with online program managers (OPMs) to outsource aspects of their online MBA programs, including admissions, marketing, course design, and hiring nonfaculty instructors to teach courses instead of regular faculty. These online program managers may receive 40% to 80% of all tuition revenue according to the Wall Street Journal, so students’ tuition dollars aren’t going exclusively to the program or school that they’re attending.

Because we don’t use an online program manager at Kelley Direct, every student’s tuition is reinvested back into the program and the academic experience. This helps keep our tuition rates lower and allows us to deliver a higher value to our students. Our in-house strategy means that Kelley Direct instructors are the same faculty who teach in the Kelley School’s residential programs, that students are able to meet faculty at two required in-person courses, and that there are full-time staff working at the Indiana University main campus in Bloomington to serve online students—not from a corporate call center. Read more about our in-house approach. (more…)

Students gain invaluable experiences through Kelley Direct’s global immersions

Posted on by Kelley School

In this article 

  • Learn about Kelley Direct’s global immersion experiences, which are uniquely designed to put your skills to work and change your perspectives on business. It’s one of the many reasons we’re ranked among the best online MBA programs offering international business by U.S. News & World Report.  
  • Hear from faculty who have thoughtfully planned and led international immersions. They share their perspectives on the importance of in-person international business experience for online MBA students.  
  • Find out how Kelley Direct Online MBA graduates have applied the skills and cultural awareness they gained through studying and interacting with businesses in another context to their careers at home. 
Four Kelley Direct Online MBA students stand in front of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, holding a flag that says "Global Immersion: Greece."

Interested in an international online MBA program? Kelley Direct’s global immersions take students all over the world—including Greece.

Global immersions provide an opportunity to travel internationally to gain real-world business experience as part of an international business online MBA focus. How do you fully immerse yourself in a country’s corporate landscape and culture? 

You go there. 

Each year, Kelley Direct’s full-time faculty design and teach more than 12 optional global and domestic immersions that center on a topic that prepares students for the complexities facing businesses in an interconnected global economy. These trips take Kelley Direct students to business hubs throughout the world, including Thailand, Ireland, Greece, and Brazil, and provide one-of-a-kind opportunities. 

Professor Tatiana Kolovou, who is Greek, leads a group of students during the Kelley Direct Online MBA global immersion in Greece.

Professor Tatiana Kolovou, pointing, led a global immersion to Greece, her native country.

In 2022, Tatiana Kolovou, a professor in the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship at the Kelley School, led a group of students from the Kelley Direct Online MBA on a trip to her hometown of Athens for a unique opportunity to consult with the Olympic Athletic Center of Athens and to experience the nuances of Greek business culture firsthand.  (more…)

Meet the Trailblazing Women of the Kelley Direct Spring 2024 Cohort

Posted on by Kelley School

The start of the Kelley Direct Online MBA Spring 2024 cohort is just around the corner, and we can’t wait to welcome the amazing women in leadership roles who are gearing up to begin their Online MBA journey. These incredible individuals come from varied industries and backgrounds and are looking to enhance and advance their careers. We invite you to get to know some of the trailblazing women who will be joining you this Spring and learn more about MBA career paths.

Online MBA student and senior account manager Kelley Nicole GianniniKelley Nicole Giannini

Location: Pensacola, FL

Title: Senior Account Manager

Employee: Walt Disney Company

Why did you say yes to Kelley Direct? I said yes to Kelley Direct because of the curriculum. I can customize and choose whatever electives I would like to do along with being taught by the same full-time faculty as in-residence students. It fits the narrative of what I am looking for and my vision for my career.

What are you looking forward to the most? I am eagerly looking forward to connecting with industry professionals of diverse backgrounds and perspectives, as Kelley Direct offers an immersive environment where we can all learn from each other

Did anything surprise you about Kelley as you completed the admissions process? I was very surprised at how personal the admissions process was. I automatically made a connection with my admissions counselor. Other programs were stonewalling, ghosting, or came off as telemarketing. It was the exact opposite with Kelley Direct.

Line Momeni, online MBA student and product marketing managerLine Momeni

Located: Rosemont, Illinois

Title: Product Marketing Manager

Employer: Emerson

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I hold an Electrical Engineering degree and a master’s in engineering management. I’ve been working as a Product Manager for the past 6 years and it’s been a great experience. However, I’m considering my future and interested in exploring new career paths. That’s why I’m thinking about pursuing an MBA degree. I’m excited about the opportunity to learn more about business, finances, and strategy, and I hope that this will help me take my career to the next level.

Why did you say yes to Kelley Direct over other MBA programs you may have considered? The admissions process was an exceptionally smooth and straightforward experience. It felt like a seamless, easy conversation, and applying for a scholarship was just as effortless. The simplicity of it all made pursuing my educational goals stress-free and enjoyable. I’m so excited to have received the Forté Fellowship Scholarship! It played a big part in my decision, and I can’t wait to see what opportunities being a Forté Fellow will bring my way.

Helen Lou, online MBA student and chief of staffHelen Lou

Located: Washington DC

Title: Chief of Staff to the President of Defense and CEO

Employer: Rolls-Royce North America

Can you tell me about your background and what led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I have an engineering degree from Chicago, and I started my career working for a Defense Aerospace company and moved into a Program Management role where I ended up relocating to their headquarters in DC. Being a part of management led me to think about my next role and maybe changing industries. My next step is to grow my leadership skills and network with an MBA.

Why did you say yes to Kelley Direct? Kelley Direct is a well-established program that comes with a great reputation. My mentors and others have spoken highly about the program and how it has made a name for itself, so it was an easy choice to make.

What are you looking forward to the most? I am looking forward to the opportunity to connect with a diverse and dynamic cohort that comes with a wide range of demographics and age groups. I’m excited to work and learn from professors and meet more people across industries.

Kelley on Location Milwaukee: Building connections in person while learning about the business of fun

Posted on by Kelley School

As part of the #1–ranked Kelley Direct Online MBA’s curriculum, students participate in two in-person, immersive experiences. These intensive, week-long sessions are designed to offer hands-on applications and encourage networking with classmates, faculty, and staff. 

In their second year of study, students convene in a handpicked US city for Kelley On Location. The experience is designed and led by a full-time faculty member (side note: all Kelley Direct faculty are full-time—there are no adjunct instructors here). This year’s student cohort traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, along with faculty lead and Clinical Professor of Management, Carolyn Goerner, who designed the experience and offered tools to enrich each participant’s workplace culture. The topic—the business of fun—was workshopped amongst the group to establish how fun can be incorporated into meetings and work situations that are otherwise mundane, explains Goerner. Activities, including improvisation and cardio drumming, to name a few, were applied to custom plans for each student to utilize in their organizations back home.  

“If you want creativity, don’t ask the same people to meet in the same places all the time. In other words, shaking it up a little bit is what makes an organization not just more creative, but a better place to work,” said Goerner.  

“I think most importantly, students walked away (from Kelley On Location) with a really strong sense of who they are, what ‘fun’ means to them, and how they can inject that into their own organizations.”  

Watch the video for Goerner’s reflections on the recent Kelley On Location experience and learn more about how our in-person experiences are just one way our approach to business education is drastically different from any other online MBA program.   

We don’t use an online program manager (OPM): What it means for you and the value of your MBA

Posted on by Hannah Carroll

Sarah Wanger, Executive Director of the Kelley Direct Online MBA Program

Sarah Wanger is the Executive Director of the Kelley Direct Online MBA Program.

By Sarah Wanger, Executive Director, Kelley Direct Online MBA Program 

At Kelley Direct, our approach to business education is drastically different from any other MBA program. We deliver our #1-ranked online MBA program—with signature in-person experiences and an innovative curriculum taught by full-time faculty—at a much lower price than our competitors.

How? 

Our high-quality MBA program is designed and delivered in-house by the dedicated faculty and staff at the Kelley School of Business in Bloomington, Indiana. We practice what we preach—our business model is proven to bring more value and lower prices to the consumer. 

If that doesn’t seem like a big deal—it is. Many business schools partner with external, for-profit vendors, called online program managers (or OPMs), to outsource many aspects of their online MBA programs. This can include everything from admissions and marketing to course design and the learning platform itself. The cost of these services is high: According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, online MBA programs typically pay online program management companies 40% to 80% of all tuition revenue. 

That means most of your tuition dollars are going straight to the online program manager and its shareholders—not to the program or school you’re attending. It’s an important detail to consider when you’re looking at MBA programs. 

At Kelley Direct, your tuition gets reinvested back into the program and your academic experience. And because we’re not paying anything to an OPM, we can keep our tuition rates lower. This empowers us to sustain a lower-price model that delivers high value to you—our students.  

This vertical integration strategy (which simply means we do everything in-house) benefits your wallet and your overall experience in the program. Here’s how:  

Full-time faculty—no adjuncts. 

Kelley Direct instructors are the same faculty who teach in the Kelley School’s renowned in-residence programs, including our full-time MBA program. No competing priorities. No substitutes. Your faculty members design the courses, provide live weekly instruction, grade your assignments, and advise you throughout the program. Our 125+ Kelley Direct faculty craft learning experiences that will make you better at your job and prepare you to advance. When schools pay big revenue shares to OPMs, they sometimes cut costs by relying on adjunct faculty (who often aren’t required to have business degrees or even business backgrounds).  (more…)

The perfect way to end my MBA journey—the Kelley Direct Immersion experience in Italy

Posted on by Kelley School

By Geni Rupley, MBA’23, Senior Biomedical Engineer, R&D at AtriCure, Inc.

I’ve always valued interactive learning. It’s the primary driver that encouraged me to join the Kelley Direct online MBA program in February 2021. As a biomedical engineer, many business principles were new to me. I wanted opportunities that challenged me to actively apply the concepts. I’m grateful that I received multiple chances throughout my time at Kelley, including this Italy immersion. This was my last class with KD and the perfect way to end my graduate career journey. The global immersion provided a balanced itinerary of client consulting, cultural experiences, and time to socialize and network with classmates and faculty.

Client Consulting: Bortolomiol was a professional client who enthusiastically welcomed us into their facility and taught us about the prosecco industry. We got to authentically learn about their business through a facility and vineyard tour, tastings, and interactions with their employees. Before we arrived, they provided us with a clear problem statement. I didn’t feel restricted on the direction we could take to come up with a solution. Our objective was to expand brand awareness and sales of Bortolomiol’s DOCG prosecco in the US. During the final presentations, our sponsors, Luana and Flora, listened intently and were fully engaged, asking thoughtful questions. Their open-mindedness allowed for a great presentation experience. It was also fun to listen to the other groups, as we all provided unique and different solutions.

Cultural Immersions: We took part in many cultural experiences, including a pizza-making class, a pasta-making class, a day trip to Padua, group dinners, Villa di Maser tour, and more. In Padua, I visited the Basilica of St. Anthony and a botanical garden, went shopping at local markets, and toured the University of Padua with the group. The town we stayed in, Asolo, is small and allowed for a more authentic experience. Every night we had the opportunity to explore on our own and have dinner with each other. Overall, I loved experiencing the history and local cuisine in Italy.

Networking: Throughout this immersion, I had plenty of time to get to know my classmates and professors. I appreciated this aspect the most, and I left the trip feeling energized. The group dynamics were fun and welcoming. The chance to socialize and interact with so many people, including the locals, was unforgettable. I look forward to staying in touch with the group.

 

A special thank you to Susan, Jenni, Quentin, and my classmates for an incredible trip!

Unforgettable Kelley on Campus MBA Course Experience

Posted on by Kelley School

By Tanvi Gupta, Kelley Forté Fellow & Solution Specialist at Deloitte

I just returned from an extraordinary experience, and to say that it was memorable would be an understatement. Over the weekend, Bloomington became the epicenter of innovation and learning as more than 200 students, driven by passion and ambition, gathered to partake in X503—the Kelley On Campus MBA course at the breathtaking Indiana University in Bloomington. As I reflect on this remarkable introductory course, I am awestruck by the transformative power of my first MBA class and how it set the foundation for my remaining online courses.

The backdrop of this exceptional gathering was set for us by the Kelley Direct Program, the #1 online MBA. The program’s commitment to excellence was evident to me from the moment I set foot in Bloomington. The excitement in the air was palpable as I joined students from diverse backgrounds and corners of the world, and we converged to explore the vast realm of knowledge and connections that awaited us.

At the heart of the course lay the exhilarating case competition, which was not just a challenge but an opportunity to immerse ourselves in real-world problem-solving. We were tasked with devising the most creative solution to a predicament faced by Aeroseal, a company led by a Kelley alum. We met the gravity of the challenge with enthusiasm and tenacity; 60 teams collaborated, brainstormed, and innovated tirelessly to craft solutions that could shape the future of a real company. My team’s idea was to make Aeroseal a household name to increase market demand by targeting the end users. While another brilliant idea won the competition, making it to the finals allowed my team and me to present our idea to a bigger audience, evoking memories of the excitement that comes with being on a stage. We experienced firsthand the spirit of community and collaboration that the Kelley Direct Online Program stands for, truly embodied in the Kelley On Campus MBA course.
(more…)

Meet the Kelley Direct fall cohort: Q&A with incoming student Zachary Ambrose

Posted on by Kelley School

A family-friendly MBA you can earn online: It’s one of the many reasons students choose the #1-ranked Kelley Direct Online MBA. Meet Zachary Ambrose—a project management director and father of two—joining the program this fall because Kelley offers the right fit for him and his family:

Why are you pursuing an MBA?

“I recently landed a director role at Fidelity Investments, building software and leading large projects. I want to dive into strategy, but my educational background is outside of business. An online MBA will allow me to build a strong business foundation and explore what interests me most.”

Why did you choose Kelley Direct?

“My wife and I have two kids and an online MBA is the best option for me and my family. After researching many programs, I chose Kelley because it has the best return on investment.”

What are you looking forward to the most?

“I’m excited for in-person events like Kelley On Campus where I’ll have an opportunity to meet classmates and faculty and be a college student for the week.”

Did anything surprise you about the Kelley Direct admissions process?

“Admissions counselors were up front, easy to reach, and walked me through the process. It was a good surprise to find out how easy it was to apply.”

Interested in earning the Kelley Direct Online MBA? Start with the first part of our Kelley Direct Application. It’s free and takes only a few minutes to complete.

Meet the Kelley Direct fall cohort: Q&A with incoming student and resident physician Maaz Ghouri

Posted on by Kelley School

Dr. Maaz Ghouri is rounding out his education with a strong business foundation to prepare for building a private practice. Want to gain business knowledge you can use in any industry?  Many students earn the #1-ranked Kelley Direct Online MBA to build business acumen they can apply in a wide variety of fields. In this fourth installment of our Q&A series with incoming students, Resident Physician Maaz Ghouri shares his plan to earn an MBA to launch his dream:

Why are you pursuing an MBA?

“I’m currently a second-year resident physician in family medicine at the University of Rochester. I want to open my own clinic or practice one day. With a background in science, now I want to round out my education with a strong business foundation.”

Why did you choose Kelley Direct?

“The Kelley Direct Online MBA is the best out there—and as a busy physician, the schedule works for me. The Kelley community is warm, welcoming, and full of connections.”

What are you looking forward to the most?

“I’m excited to learn from Kelley faculty. It’s an opportunity for me to meet people in different fields who possess a variety of skills.”

Did anything surprise you about the Kelley Direct admissions process?

“The thing that surprised me about the admissions process was how easy it was. The availability of information and resources was a key component to making it easy for me to complete.”

Interested in earning the Kelley Direct Online MBA? Start with the first part of our Kelley Direct Application. It’s free and takes only a few minutes to complete.

 

Meet the Kelley Direct fall cohort: Q&A with incoming student Brittany Goldman

Posted on by Kelley School

Women who want to become influential business leaders are joining the #1-ranked Kelley Direct Online MBA program this fall. In the third installment of our Q&A series with incoming students, Brittany Goldman talks about her passion for women in business and the moments she’s looking forward to most in the program:

What aspect of business excites you?

“Innovation is something I’ve always been excited about. As a marketing director for NBC Universal, I work in ad sales, as well as with new revenue streams. I feel very passionate about my role as a woman in business.”

Why did you choose Kelley Direct?

“I chose Kelley Direct for the flexibility I’ll have to choose from a variety of course electives that will expand my skill set. Opportunities for networking and in-person experiences make Kelley Direct an amazing online program.”

What are you looking forward to the most?

“I’m looking forward to a global immersion trip with Kelley Direct and to apply what I learn in my current role with NBC Universal.”

Did anything surprise you about the Kelley Direct admissions process?

“My admissions counselor talked to me about the Forté Fellowship program. I applied and received the award. I’m excited to take advantage of the resources Forté provides.”

Interested in earning the Kelley Direct Online MBA? Start with the first part of our Kelley Direct Application. It’s free and takes only a few minutes to complete.

 

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