Molly Seidel Gets Degree from Devry

The negativity on this thread is everything that is wrong with LetsRun. This is a woman who has reached the top in high school and college, and was a medalist in a marquee event in the Olympic games. She does something to further her education, and all some of you can do is criticize her?

Congrats to her to try to position herself for success when her career in running has ended.

It's because it is from DeVry. If you have a pulse and an undergrad GPA higher than 2.5, you're in. If she went to any state school or even BU/BC, she wouldn't get nearly as much negativity. It just doesn't make sense for someone who went to ND and the Olympics to not strive for something better.

Getting a "checkbox" degree for a job you don't have doesn't make sense either. You get the checkbox degree when you are in a job and the only way to move up is to get a MBA/Masters.

I ran in college was so focused on running that I did not
finish my college degree at the time. I did however, run a 1500m in 3:45 and a
10,000m in 29:05. I thought running was going to be my ticket train for the Olympics
do all the amazing stuff that top tier runners do. In late 2006 I was broke
living with my sister and brother-in-law in Arizona. I went to OK to train some
more and chase a dream that was never going to happen I wound up getting drunk
and beat up the RA in the dorms and added a few more legal charges to my
already amazing record and was given an ultimatum by the school leave or have
charges pressed I chose to leave. I went back to AZ decided I needed a change
and went to California to turn myself in for some other legal crap that I was hiding
from. I served around 2 months in Orange County Jail that was a lot of fun
especially because I had charges that landed me in with the violent offenders.
Fast forward I joined the military the judge agreed to lower my charges to misdemeanors
and drop probation if I showed actual proof that I was going to pursue military
and I did. On active duty I was injured and utilized the time to complete my
college degree. I also married on active duty and my wife pushed for me to
complete my master’s degree also. My degrees post bachelors have been primarily
online because of convenience.

My degrees:
BS: Criminal Justice and Administration (National
University)
MS: Organizational Leadership (National University)
MS: Psychology (SNHU)
MBA: Business/Sports Mgt (SNHU)
Post Grad: Engineering (Carnegie Mellon)

My income:
$145K

My Wife’s degrees:
BS: Sociology (SNHU)
MS: Organizational Leadership (SNHU)
MS: Engineering MGT (SNHU)
Post Grad: Engineering (Carnegie Mellon)

My Wife’s:
$87K

Household
$232K

What I am overall saying is a degree is a degree. You can
have one from the fanciest university in the world or from an online institution
but what matters is how you present yourself to the people that are going to
hire you. If you have a degree from Harvard or MIT but you can’t communicate
you are not going to get hired. If you have one from DeVry but your
communication and ability to present necessary information is top notch you
will get hired. Some of the best physicians in the world came from low tier
schools and some of the lousiest came from the best.

Olympic medalist with an MBA. What a failure!

Seriously who cares where she got it from its a good achievement and you have to pass the exams just the same as someone who' s rich parents got them into a better college

GSB

It is clear that DeVry has some deal with USATF or some other national body to give away free degrees to pro athletes. They can probably afford to do that because they are for-profit (I have a moral objection to for-profit education of any kind but that's another topic). Someone offered her a degree that was already paid for. So why not take it, especially if you are struggling with injuries, it is something to do with your time? The literal pettiness and mean-ness here is sometimes hard to comprehend.

Dalia Frias was top 6 High School runners like 4 years ago. For some reason- chose Duke. Entered the portal after weak seaaon at Duke, and day later got picked up by UCLA... top 6 public school in USA. 1 day later changes mind, goes to U of Oregon-- with a 78% acceptance rate. Bombs out after strangely breaking both feet running. Huh? She should have stayed at UCLA for the academics! The worst was Addy Wiley. Chose to go to some bizarre non-NCAA college, leaves after 2 years. Whatever. Gave up a 4 year degree and NCAA div 1 school. Weirdo

The schools that McKinsey recruits from have work experience requirements. Only in rare cases have I ever seen someone with less than 3 years experience get into a top 15. To land McKinsey from an MBA with no prior experience you'd have to be truly extraordinary, like a Saudi prince or founder of a massively successful start up.

The answer is "it depends." The MBA is seen as a career pivot tool -- once you get the degree your previous degrees and experiences matter less; you're starting from a clear-ish slate as companies believe that an MBA will give you the base competency to do something new. (This is less true today as the job market is really tight and firms are less willing to take a risk on an MBA without previous experience in that industry/function).

As someone else said, your opportunities are somewhat correlated to the tier of school you go to. The MBA tiers are Top 3 (people usually call them "HSW" or Harvard, Stanford, Wharton), Top 15, Top 25, and then everyone else (there are many more ranked schools but people tend to not care about ranking after 25). US News and Reports is considered the most reputable source for rankings.

If you want an elite job where prestige matters, like investment banking or "Big 3" consulting, then the higher the tier the better. Companies have relationships with the schools and will have quotas for the number of interviews at each school. But that doesn't mean going to Stanford will automatically land you the role -- the school helps you get a foot in the door through reputation, but also training you how to network, how to get your resume/cover letter noticed, placing you with peer mentors who have successfully interned/previously worked in your desired career, connecting you with alum who work at those companies, arranging networking events and extracurriculars to build your desires skill set. But all that said, actually getting the job is still on you -- no one is there to hold your hand in a coffee chat or an interview.

But most jobs are not "elite" jobs, and so the tier of school matters less. For example, I am about to start at household brand's general management leadership development program (LDP) which will place me on an accelerated promotion path compared to non-MBA coworkers; I went to my Top 15 program on a full scholarship but some of my LDP peers in the program paid full price at Harvard and Wharton. We'll be making the same money doing the same job, so was sticker price worth it? Maybe. Each school has its own sort of culture and unique opportunities, so if that person really enjoyed their experience then who am I to say it wasn't worth it for them.

I can tell you that for myself, I absolutely would never have gotten this job without the MBA. Before this I was scraping by in the public sector. Originally I only planned to apply to MBAs from local colleges but after research decoded to shoot my shot at higher ranked programs. The core material can be learned online for free, but the extracurriculars were real game changers for me. Within two years I went from only grassroots organization experience to multiple short and long term internships with F500 companies, funding to attend conferences and earn professional certificates. Those smaller, cheaper programs I was originally looking at simply don't have the resources to offer those sorts of opportunities in as much depth and breadth as a top program.

But maybe you don't want to change careers or land an elite job; in that case you don't need an elite MBA and you may not need any MBA at all. If your company will give you a raise for getting a masters then find a cheap "check the box" online program. If you want to brush up on your finance skills to open up an online store, just take some coursera classes.

I would agree that there's a glut of MBA programs and degree holders. There's a lot of degree mill programs churning out directionless graduates who didn't hone any valuable skills. And it's true that there are "book smart" but "street dumb" MBAs at elite programs not to mention people with questionable ethics; however, I find that online discourse greatly exaggerates their preponderance. Lastly, it's also true that academics are a joke at most of the top programs. Not only did we have a grade non disclosure policy -- we didn't even have real grades! "High pass" "pass" "low pass." You have to really try hard to fail because students who fail to graduate don't get high paying jobs and that reflects poorly on the rankings (and future alumni donations). My school had a "college 2.0" feel which led to a lot of new, strong friendships that can be hard to come by in your 30s. At some points the program had high school level drama, but it's very easy to avoid these people.

One particular kind of post-secondary education is not for everyone. Why would you denigrate as "weirdo" anyone who chooses to follow a different trajectory? Do you really think the path to resolving all the world's problems is to hand over all power and decision-making to Ivy Leaguers? That no other sorts of experience can make important contributions to the world? If so, I'm sorry for you.

The purpose of the Catholic Church isn't to make money, and anyone can participate in mass without paying any money.

The purpose of Notre Dame is to make money, and anyone wants to go there has to shell out 200k one way or another.

Obviously, Notre Dame, like nearly every college in America, is a for-profit college.

My God, take a breath dude. You must be a blast at parties.

I do not know why USOC thinks it is their interest to shuttle Team USA athletes into a for-profit institution known for scammy behavior but I'm sure cash is changing hands somewhere.

The reason you wouldn't take a degree that's already paid for is because it sends the wrong signal: a for-profit degree carries large negative value in a lot of places. Same reason you would dissuade a bright, talented high school student from getting a "free" bachelor's degree from University of Phoenix instead of paying to go to a traditional university.

For Molly in particular it does not really matter, she can do pretty much whatever she wants in life and I wish her the best. I'm much more concerned about some random shotputter that gets encouraged to take a scammy for-profit online degree program, only later to realize that it's not worth the paper it's printed on.

A lot of education is signaling, whether you like it or not. If you want a job at a religious institution, you shouldn't get a degree from Reed or Oberlin. If you want a job at the Scientific American, you shouldn't get a degree from Bob Jones University. And if you want a good job in management, consulting, finance, etc., you should not get an MBA from a for-profit online school like DeVry.

What part of “Olympic medalist” did you not understand, Skippy?