The Keller Graduate School MBA curriculum has the same core courses that you would expect from any MBA program, but has the additional benefit of flexibility. There are many concentrations that you can select (such as International Business, Finance, and Project Management), as well as a few elective courses. This allows you to design a program that meets your needs and interests. This is a great start.

The courses were well developed, comprehensive, and demanding. There is good balance between theory and application of concepts in realistic problems (often dealing with scenarios faced by real companies, or complex comparisons of two or three companies that appear similar but are really quite different). There is also a good balance if team and individual assignments.

The only area that I felt the program was weaker was on pure analytics and statistical analysis. This is not to say that there wasn't plenty of analysis (especially the the various finance courses), but it wasn't necessarily as deep as I've heard about from some (but certainly not all) schools.

A typical "knock" on a school like Keller is the use of adjunct professors who come from business. I personally found this to be a benefit. A friend of mine is graduating from a top ranked online MBA program with full-time professors. He often comments how "out of touch" he feels they are. I wouldn't say that one approach is always better than the other, but the converse is true as well.

Before I started I also looked at completion rates and grade distribution. Back in 2005 the program completion rate was around 60%, and the distribution of A's to B's (you need a "B" or better grade in every course to graduate) was roughly 40% : 60%. There is always the concern over grade inflation and the perception of value of the degree due to grade inflation, but I personally found the grading fair for most courses. So, this distribution seemed reasonable given the amount that people pay for the program.

The education that you get is very good. In general, it seems that employers are not as impressed with a MBA degree simply due to the number of people having one. But, if the selection is close then the degree seems to make a positive difference.

I have not heard or been told that anyone devalues my MBA because it is from Keller. About the only downside is that you don't have the type of graduate network that you would have with a bigger name facility - and there is practical value to that.

As an aside, I took both classroom and online courses for my Keller MBA, and found the online courses more challenging. The interface used was very good, but like any online course you miss out on the immediate interaction from the group. This requires additional research and analysis to make and support your point. The online exams were also challenging, with multi-step essay questions that force you to explain your answer and show all of your work. You definitely worked to earn an 'A' in any course.

My experience was very positive, and I would recommend it to anyone considering a MBA who needs to gain a well-rounded understanding of many topics, gain the hands-on knowledge gained from many complex assignments and a lot of homework, and (for whatever reason) cannot go to an Ivy League school. Would I have preferred to go to HBS? Absolutely. Could I have afforded $150K and two years off work? Not with a family. I'm sure that there are things that I would have learned at HBS that I did not learn at Keller, and the HBS graduate network is invaluable, but at the end of the day I'm comfortable that I can stand toe-to-toe with a MBA from any institution and hold my own.