<p>What is more important: a MBA or a science- related PhD. I'm interested in both business/science and will clearly take courses in both (frosh at Emory next year), however I'm interested as to the best entrance point into the industry, i.e. from a profitabilty viewpoint, which type of degree has the most potential for growth.</p>
<p>If by profitability viewpoint you mean which makes the most $$$, then PhD is not the way to go. The reason is that it takes way too long to obtain a PhD to make it worthwhile for the money. However, if you do have a PhD, it is very easy to get a job in the biotech industry.</p>
<p>It depends what you're going for. If you want to be involved with a startup in any serious way, you need a PhD. </p>
<p>If you want to work for a more established company, an MBA or JD with some science background can be helpful, even if the majority of people probably get involved with those companies through the PhD route. A lot of people do the PhD, do some research, then end up going into more business development functions such as sales.</p>
<p>I agree with polo08816 that if you just want money, then the MBA is better than the PhD. You should pursue the PhD because you have a genuine commitment to research, not because you think it's the best way to make money.</p>
<p>Not necessarily; many PhD's go into management.</p>
<p>Well the fact that I'm interested in the biotech industry should indicate that money isn't the only factor. The issue is that I could see myself pursuing either a MBA or PhD, and I wanted to know which degree had more flexibilty in this industry. From what posterX is saying, it seems that a PhD is more valuable, ability to get into management/ start-ups. Money is important, but my interest in science/research is genuine.</p>
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Not necessarily; many PhD's go into management.
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<p>What about it? Like has been said before, if you want to get into management, the fastest way to do so is via the MBA, not the PhD. </p>
<p>Look, one can always say "not necessarily" to anything. For example, there is always one guy that will win the lottery. But that doesn't mean that buying lottery tickets is a wise thing to do. There is always one guy who will smoke 3 packs a day and still live to be a 100, but that doesn't mean that smoking is safe.</p>