Table of Contents
Introduction
I recently completed the Quantic MBA. I graduate in about 2 weeks.
I thought readers would be interested in my experience as someone who actually completed the program. I was one of the last cohorts to be admitted with a 100% scholarship before Quantic switched to a model where the standard tuition cost is $9900 but using scholarships they still provide a lot of full rides.
The program includes about 500 lessons across 10 courses (called concentrations in Quantic’s language.) Each lesson includes 5-20 pages of material to click through/questions to answer. There are 6 projects. The Business Foundations “course” is only a couple hours of material. It’s not an accurate reflection of the length or difficulty of the program.
I think it’s a good program for tech workers who want to move into leadership roles or for small business owners who need to improve their knowledge or for people who need an MBA to “tick a box.”
Below, the MBA curriculum 100% complete:
Projects:
There are 6 projects.
Accounting Group Project
This project involved doing the journal entries for a case study and doing a writeup of their financial position and recommendations to improve it. Writeup plus accounting workbook.
Markets & Economies Individual Case Study
This involves reading a writeup on a British bicycle company and answering one of several questions (for example, post-Brexit should they change their pricing strategy?) Writeup.
Leading Organizations Individual Case Study
This project involved reading a case study on a startup and providing an explanation of what they would do differently. Writeup.
Marketing Group Project and Presentation
This project involved selecting a company that was underperforming and completing a 25-page marketing plan, along with a 15-minute presentation.
Corporate Finance Group Case Study
This project involved looking at a fictional factory location problem in 3 states and using the data given to determine the NPV/IRR in order to choose the right location.
Strategy Individual Case Study Presentation
The final project involved a presentation analyzing a company’s strategic direction and determining a new one. Writeup and 15-minute presentation.
I would estimate each project took about 8 hours.
Program Structure
Each concentration is made up of courses. Each course is made up of lessons. So, for example, the statistics concentration Data and Decisions is made up of 8 courses:
- One Variable Statistics
- Probability Fundamentals
- Probability Distributions
- Two-Variable Statistics
- Regression Analysis
- Data Collection
- Statistical Inference: Making Data-Driven Decisions
- Advanced Statistical Inference
Inside the “One Variable Statistics” are these 8 lessons:
- Measuring Central Tendency: Mean, Median and Mode
- Standard Deviation
- Five Number Summary
- Boxplots
- SMARTCASE
- Frequency Distribution
- Histogram
- SMARTCASE
Once you start a lesson, you have to proceed through some content. For example, inside the “Measuring Central Tendency: Mean, Median and Mode” lesson there are 13 “pages” of content.
SMARTCASEs are mini quizzes where unlike the lessons you only get the one shot at each question. You can repeat them but you need a minimum of 80% to move on.
Each week we had to complete two of these courses (e.g. One Variable Statistics and Probability Fundamentals.) I’d estimate each lesson took 15 minutes or so, depending on my familiarity with the material. Accounting went faster because I made it to Intermediate Accounting in undergrad. Corporate Finance went slow because I’d never worked with WACC or the Modigliani-Miller Theorem.
Exams
There are two exams, one at the midterm (which includes the content from Accounting, Economics and Statistics) and a final (which includes the other concentrations: Leading Organizations, Marketing and Pricing, Finance, Supply Chain and Operations, Strategy, Entrepreneurship.
The first exam took me about 3 hours. The second one 4 hours. They are open book, but there is no repeating here. If you get less than 80%, you risk not graduating (there is make-up coursework you can do to attempt to raise your cumulative average above 80% but I didn’t run into that.)
Time Commitment
Quantic estimates 5 hours a week for the program, which is much lower than a lot of MBA programs. Their active learning might play a role here, or the material may not be as rigorous.
Using my 15 minutes per lesson estimate from earlier, I spent about 125 hours for lessons + 48 hours for projects + 7 hours for exams means about 180 hours in the year or about 3.5 hours a week. Given that I had previously completed courses in accounting, statistics, economics and marketing, this makes sense. I was able to speed through a lot of the early material, while going slower in the later concentrations.
Positives
- The mobile learning is really effective. It makes it fun and I was surprised how much I retained without actively trying to
- Mobile learning means you can take advantage of all of those 10 minute blocks throughout the day. I found it was easy to fit it around my other work.
- The content is comprehensive, and at least equivalent to the courses I took in those subjects at a regionally accredited B&M school for my other Masters
- Scholarships are pretty common, including 100% scholarships – even now. That can make it very cost-effective.
Negatives
- Quantic is nationally accredited (DEAC), not regionally accredited which means the degree is not as widely accepted outside the US.
- Quantic’s programs lack AACSB or other business school accreditation.
- It’s easy to just click through the lessons, since you can repeat them, or click “Give me a hint” until the answers are filled in. You rob yourself of the learning obviously, which will make the exams and projects a challenge or even impossible (I definitely had to repeat the Corporate Finance lessons in order to complete that project successfully.) You do need to get 80% on the SMARTCASEs but if you repeat them enough you may end up memorizing the answers instead of the learning.
Conclusion
I really enjoyed my year in the Quantic MBA. It’s not the right program for everyone but I think it will really suit my needs as a tech professional looking to move into leadership roles in the future.
The economics, accounting and statistics coursework was at least equivalent to the learning in my undergrad but in an accelerated format, so I believe the other concentrations (e.g. Leadership, Pricing, Corporate Finance) are similar.
For a play-by-play of my time in the program, you can also read this DegreeInfo thread where I documented things from the day I was admitted: https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/quantic-school-of-business-and-technology.57761/
