I stumbled upon this website, and want everyones opinion. I am an American, married to a Taiwanese. We have one son (1 year old). I am considering going after my MBA, and saw that Cheng Chi University has a program that may fit. This would put us closer to my wifes family for at least a couple of years, and that would be nice. But I am concerned about the fact that it is a Taiwan University, and how much global acceptance it would get. What is everyone elses advice? I am 28, so not too old, but not too young too.
Chengchi has a great location in MuZha. It’s my favorite place to be in Taipei as a matter of fact because it’s quiet and the air is great. As for quality of life, the MuZha area is a nice place to raise a family. They should have no problems.
As for the university itself, I know that their international MBA program is fairly new.
Regarding credibility, here in Taiwan MBA’s are a dime a dozen. It doesn’t really matter where you went to school. Maybe in the States it’s different?
Especially with the nearby incinerator belching out carcinogens. A few years ago a report came out claiming that the level of toxic substances in the air was something like 2000 times the standard in California. It had quite an effect on property prices out there. Maybe that’s why so many foreigners live out there.
Seriously, it is one of the nicer parts of Taipei. And there are cute zoo animals painted on the incinerator’s smokestack.
[quote]Regarding credibility, here in Taiwan MBA’s are a dime a dozen. It doesn’t really matter where you went to school. Maybe in the States it’s different?
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That’s why where you went to school is so important. Taida’s MBA orogram is much more prestigious than Chengda’s, and an MBA from a top US school is more prestigious than one from Taida.
Thanks for all of your advise so far. i am happy to be getting such good feed-back. While the MBA might not mean a lot, it will help me to get the language down, and we will be closer to my wife’s family (They all live down in Tainan). As a software engineer, I don’t see much demand in the area for my skills, I saw the MBA as an excuse to let my wife go home for a while. but at the same time, I don’t want to waste my time.
Feiren is right about the smokestack. And yes, it has a cute giraffe painted on the side of it! I wonder if that was “public relations.”
Still, I think the air there is cleaner than Taipei’s so you can imagine how bad it must be in the city! I live in Yung Ho and the pollution there is overwhelming.
But I didn’t know about the 2000-times-higher-than-in-California thing. Yuck! guess I won’t buy a house there!
I googled for more information on this subject. Apparently an NGO consumers group tested that levels of dioxin in the soil, water, and produce from the Muzha area and found that the cancer risk was 2600 times greater than that in California. The Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency tested for dioxin levels in the blood of Muzha residents and found no significant levels. They argue that because Muzha residents do not eat locally-grown produce, the high levels of dioxin do not pose a threat. Local environmental groups have critiicized the EPA’s study saying that the sample (about 70 people) was far too small given that the total population of the Wenshan District is over 230,000.
In 2000 NT800 million was spent to reduce dioxin emission at the Muzha incinerator; however, emission levels after the work still exceed Taiwan’s environmental standards.
I also learned that the Neihu incinerator also has high Dioxin emissions.
Feiren is right about the smokestack. And yes, it has a cute giraffe painted on the side of it! I wonder if that was “public relations.”
Still, I think the air there is cleaner than Taipei’s so you can imagine how bad it must be in the city! I live in Yung Ho and the pollution there is overwhelming.
But I didn’t know about the 2000-times-higher-than-in-California thing. Yuck! guess I won’t buy a house there!
I live in Mucha. See if you can find a place up on one of the hills, that way you get a nice breeze. Hsin Tienb[/b] is pretty similar.
Oh, and I wish I could have gone to National Political University for Chinese. It’s a beautiful campus and a good school. Unfortunately, my university had a deal with Shr Dab[/b] instead.
As far as MBA’s go, unless you go to one of the super-competitive schools, aren’t they a “dime a dozen” in the U.S. too? (Mine’s from Thunderbird, which I thought was a good experience, though the school’s promotional literature tended to overstate its effect on future employment.)
Don’t think of the degree per se, think of what you’ll actually learn–that’s where the value lies. Language and cultural knowledge by itself is nothing to sneeze at. If you manage to pick up high-tech or financial skills, or a network of personal contacts, then that’s probably time well-spent.
For the benefit of the original poster “National Political University” is a literal translation of the name of the university in Mucha, which can also be written as follows:
Zheng Da
Cheng Da
Zheng Zhi Da Xue
National Cheng Chi University
Guo Li (National) Zheng zhi (Politics) Da Xue (University)
But I guess with a Taiwanese wife you may already know all that. I lived in Mucha and studied at Zheng Da, and liked the place. As you know there is a lot of snobbery with regard to MBAs. If the syllabus looks good, and covers the right areas, and the faculty input looks useful, then why not do it ? Unless you can go to Harvard, Wharton, London School of Business, or other top schools, isn’t the second tier of MBAs all much of a muchness ? As long as you get your financial, management, and organisational behaviour courses, you’ll get something out of it. Gus (one of the founders of this website) is doing an MBA - perhaps he’ll be able to give you better advice.
Thats one of the things that I am worried about. I have the high tech skills already. I am a programmer. The purpose of the MBA is to give me a back door to another career path should I choose (or the economy chooses for me). I guess the question comes down to. Will I learn enough (and will it be marketable enough) to justify not working as a programmer (and getting a little behind) for 2 years. Granted an MBA and possibly two languages is nothing to sneeze at. But I could go to a state school here in the states while I am working and get the same dime-a-dozen MBA, Here though, I would not get the experience, the language, or the culture.
Whaddyamean no market for your talents? The Taiwanese are aware they will lose out in the hardware game to the Chinese. So, they want to try and do more software. You have a decent shot at a good job.
If you decide to go to school anyway, why not consider something else other than an MBA? They are of little use.
