Christian Barbu

Meet Christian Barbu

Name: Christian Barbu

Current Location: United States

Originally from: Romania

Title: Manager, Information Systems

Next Step: Possibly earning a Ph.D.

School: Walden University

Target: MBA, 2007

What's interesting about Christian's story is that he was already involved with the process of getting a degree online before he actually went for it himself.

As the manager of information systems manager for a higher education company, Christian put his computer skills to work, helping to create the very sort of Web sites that he would later utilize in pursuit of his M.B.A. degree. But when he first started his job he was enrolled in William Paterson University as a traditional student. He found the combination of work and school to be taxing.

"I would take very early morning classes, the ones that started at 7 am," he recalls, "and then drive after work to those that were offered late at night."

He found that between working in an office and going to school, he was spending more time and money stuck in traffic than was efficient.

When his college introduced BlackBoard, which offered students the opportunity to complete some of their coursework online, Christian jumped on it.

He was already familiar with the platform because of his work in IT, and being able to work on his academics from anywhere he could bring his laptop made his whole life easier to manage.

But WPU would only let students earn so many credits through the online program, so Christian had to spend a few more hours in traffic before he earned his B.S in Business Management and Administration in 2004.

With his B.S. in hand, Christian became Director of Information Technology at a college in New Jersey. It was while on the job at a national conference called League for Innovation in the Community Colleges that Christian discovered Walden University.

Though Christian was no longer a student, his interest was piqued when he wandered across Walden's booth.

He was impressed by how much they catered to graduate and Doctorate students, which meant to him that the faculty had to be top notch.

"It didn't seem like the kind of program where they would just be pushing lots of people through in a general way," he explained. "It was quality over quantity."

Christian gave Walden's representatives his contact information, took some material home with him, and within a week he was registered in the university's MBA program.

His instructors were successful businessmen and women in their own right, many with 30 plus years of experience in the private sector; they had spent that time building high-powered careers and now had the leisure to share everything they learned with their students.

(Christian was somewhat surprised to learn that his instructors also taught at traditional colleges throughout the country.)

A big myth about distance learning, he points out, is that your education comes solely from reading and writing, as if it's all impersonal text. "My understanding of the assignments was increased by all the real life situations the professors presented in their lectures... It was a good blend."

Christian was in the two-year MBA program, which meant that he was simultaneously in school full-time and employed full-time. But for him personally, it wasn't an option to drag it out. "If I took more time, I don't think I would have learned as much," he says.

He does admit, however, that he had to develop good time management skills in order to stay on top of each class syllabus. That's because one way in which Christian's distance learning experience differed from traditional learning was that the deadlines seemed stricter for online assignments and postings.

He recalls that as an undergrad, professors were more lenient and accepting of excuses, but under this particular higher education system, "if you don't do the work, you really do get a zero."

In fact, he says, it was sometimes pretty tempting just to accept partial credit rather than stay on top of daily schoolwork.

What did he find to be the biggest distraction? "Well, you know, anything a young male does not conforming to school... I'm not quite an old man yet..." As a single guy in his late 20s balancing work and school, Christian understood the meaning of peer pressure for the first time in his life.

"My friends were definitely the biggest distraction," he laughs, recounting their annoyance at his having to take time away from going to clubs and parties in order to finish assignments. Sometimes the guys would even visit the frat house from their undergraduate days, even though Christian was the one who was still a student.

Then again, he enjoyed the freedom of being able to log in and do coursework from anywhere in the world where a wireless connection was available.

While traditional students were sitting in class, he was working on a laptop in sunny Florida. Though he keeps an office at home, he says that Walden had "a plethora of online sources," so much of his material was portable—because it was virtual.

After so many years of working a 9-5 job and having a full course load, Christian describes his recent graduation from Walden University as "kind of a shock."

With all the free time he suddenly has on his hands, what is he doing? Planning for the next step. "I'll probably go for a Ph D next," he says, though he's undecided as to whether it will be online or traditional.

As his instructors at Walden exemplified, a successful professional career backed with a good degree can segue into more leisurely academic jobs in which one would be able to teach a class or two from semi-retirement. "But I'll take a few months off to relax and enjoy the post-MBA period first."

Even so, Christian admits, it's been a long time since he's planned a weekend without having to factor in the time to write a paper.