Well,

Company is offering an "Executive MBA" - it's an 18 month program (weekend classes) followed by 18 months bonding (so total 3 years, lah) - and at the end of the program you get an Executive MBA cert and International Diploma in Management, awarded by University of Cambridge Int'l Examinations UK.

Now ... what the heck is the difference between Executive MBA and the "regular" MBA? As far as future employers are concerned would there be any difference? Also, this "University of Cambridge Int'l Examinations UK" <-- I bet it doesn't have anywhere near the same "power" as an actual Cambridge paper, but then is this like some lousy thing that isn't even accredited by anybody, or is it worth a shot for trying to get into this program?

I've been thinking of getting my MBA for a while now.

Most worried about the paying for it part, though ... someone mentioned in the thread that you can withdraw EPF for it, how much would I be able to withdraw (I'm estimating I have maybe RM20K in all my EPF accounts in total)?

And as for bank loans, would I be looking specifically for an educational/study loan, or those quick cash kind of things (the interest rate for those damn high leh ... like almost credit card kind of levels). Assuming a 40k/yr (I've only been working 2+ years) salary, what kind of amount should I be aiming to borrow?

Thanks Melon.

From EPF website:

So assuming I'm going for a April intake, I'd have rm7.5k from my EPF a/c 2 ... hardly sufficient, haha. Problem is, the huge bulk of my savings are in my company's ESOS, which only matures 2 years from now - I can withdraw it earlier, but then I don't get the benefit (I'm expecting a 60%-70% ROI over 3 years for this).

So EPF of 7k + Cash-In-Hand of 7k = 14k. Still need, at the very least, 6k-13k. No house, lousy car, hmmm maybe talk to Father/Mother Sdn Bhd and see if they're willing to ... further invest ... hahaha if no then only find other more independant ways of getting the $$

[edit] @ tinkerbel > I enquired with the HR, and apparently if you fund your own MBA, the company rewards/re-imburses you 10k in cash, no strings attached. Which is now kind of dilemma-ish, cos I was really considering resigning and working a low-stress-low-pay job while studying ...

[edit 2] My department head recommended International Islamic University cos that's where she did her MBA. I was like erm ... really ...?? and apparently the MBA itself is totally secular and has a decent percentage of non-muslim students.

This post has been edited by deodorant: Dec 3 2007, 12:40 PM

Totally undecided, but mostly limited to budget concerns, so it's a toss-up between a local uni or a cheaper college/foreign-u affiliation like that segi/usq tie-up.

So SEGi is a bad idea ... ?? Obviously if money was no object then Nottingham/MBS/Overseas is best choice, but what if a particular poor guy who can only afford to spend 20-odd or 30k max wanted to take MBA, what would be a list of "ok" MBAs to choose from?

Anyway been shopping/asking around. Couple of friends are in UTAR's MBA (new-ish program), they don't have much good to say about it. But really, at this moment my only options are local U, or lower-end local college like SEGi/utar/etc etc.

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Added on January 14, 2008, 10:47 am[add] I should also add that I work late, so another limiting factor is weekend-courses only ... hmm ... maybe should work 1-2 more years, ikat perut a bit, then resign and full time

This post has been edited by deodorant: Jan 14 2008, 10:47 AM