After returning from a three-year tour of duty in Japan, naval officer Chris Ognek started looking for an accredited, online MBA program that would allow him to travel the world while still giving him the feeling of a home base. "As a naval officer, my opportunity to get stationed near cities with high-quality schools is rather limited," he says. "Prior to moving to Japan, I commuted over an hour each way, twice a week. I knew that my job would not afford me the time to do that again."

Ognek found Penn State's world-class iMBA program, which gave him the high-quality education he was looking for, along with the practical flexibility he needed. He chose Penn State because of its highly-regarded reputation in the educational community. After starting classes, he found that he was able to frequently interact with his peers, who were high-caliber students with diverse backgrounds. As a career military officer, Ognek knew that his experience would be different from that of his iMBA colleagues, but he found, through interaction, that they had more in common than he thought. "I have found the student interaction to be better than with any of my other learning experiences," he explains. "I think the exposure to so many successful domestic and international students has been the highlight of the experience."

In addition to the interaction with his classmates, Ognek also found that the skills he was learning were almost immediately applicable in the real world. He says that his professors were also very supportive, and he remained in steady contact with them throughout his time as a student. Through electronic communication, his professors — some of the best in their field — were available whenever he needed to communicate with them during his busy schedule, even on the weekends. "It's like having mentors working right alongside me while I apply my education in the real world," he says. "That directly translates into a better education and a higher level of success at work."