I am currently a high school student in California that plans to get a bachelor of science in management in the future. As I was doing more research, I saw that many people go on to graduate schools to earn their MBA. When I saw this, I thought this could be a potential path for me, but then I read what other people had to say and a lot were saying that an MBA is not worth it. I also saw that an MBA degree is pretty expensive. So I need some advice about this topic, is an MBA worth it or is it just a waste of time.
MBA’s work best for non business undergrads.
You got a minute befor seriously considering an MBA. I would definitely recommend that you have a few years of work experience after college before pursuing it
Sometimes it’s worth it and sometimes it’s not. I got mine ages ago when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, and my starting salary was more than triple what I had been earning in a management role for a big company. So it worked for me.
That doesn’t mean it’s worth it for you.
You have a decade to figure it out. Do HS and when the time comes, you’ll have more facts in front of you. Maybe you’ll be interested in some aspect of business where an MBA is not the right advanced degree (big data? actuary? accounting?) Maybe you’ll hate business and decide to become a landscape designer.
Just do your best to get a solid education right now!
It depends on what you want to do and where you get the MBA from.
Many business schools keep detailed statistics on where their MBA graduates end up and their starting salaries after graduating. You can visit their websites or search things like “Harvard MBA starting salaries” to find that information on the school’s page. The website Poets & Quants also publishes some comparative information on MBA programs.
For example, at [url=<a href=“http://www.hbs.edu/recruiting/data/Pages/at-a-glance.aspx%5DHarvard%5B/url”>http://www.hbs.edu/recruiting/data/Pages/at-a-glance.aspx]Harvard[/url], 94% of the class of 2016 had received an offer within 3 months of graduation. Their median base salary was $135,000, with a median signing bonus of $25,000 (and most of the class - 68% - received a signing bonus). At the link above you can see what sectors they entered. At the Yale SOM, 93% of the graduating MBA class received an offer within 3 months of graduation. Their median base salary was $120,000, with a median of $34,000 of other guaranteed compensation (and 70% of the class was offered this).
Harvard and Yale are expensive - about $70K a year, most or all of is usually financed through loans. If you hit the median salary of your average Yale or Harvard graduate, you could theoretically afford to repay that; in reality, you will be living will below your means for the first 10 years of your career.
Now, at Tulane - which isn’t in the top 50 MBA programs - only 67% of their students with permanent work authorization (about half the class) had an offer within 3 months of graduation, and their median salary was $93,000. However, Tulane costs around the same amount as the top 20 MBA programs. Then there are unranked schools like Hofstra University (median salary $58,000), Clarkson University ($67,000), and University of San Francisco ($70,000 - but only 28% of full-time graduates are employed by graduation). Those universities cost almost as much as the top privates, but the salaries are half theirs or less.
The best deals are probably top MBA programs at public universities in your home state - like Georgia Tech, UT-Austin, UNC, UC-Berkeley, UVa, Michigan, Indiana, UCLA, etc. For example, Georgia Tech’s CoA for MBAs is about $50K a year, which will save you around $40K total. (They do, however, tend to make less - GT’s MBAs’ median starting salary was around $107,000, with a median signing bonus of $16,000.) Even mid-ranked MBA programs at public universities can be a decent investment if Wall Street isn’t your destination and you get a scholarship or pay even lower fees - Georgia State’s MBA is not as expensive as Georgia Tech’s, for example.
Definitely don’t worry about MBA yet. Hell, you might get to undergraduate business school and decide you hate business!
Keep in mind that there are alternates to MBAs. There’s also MSF (masters of science in finance) and MFE (masters of financial engineering).
In my research I feel like the general consensus has been that paying a huge amount for a MBA is only worth it if you go to a top 20 MBA program. Otherwise, keep it in state and low-cost, or perhaps consider another masters degree geared towards business.
Note, though, @Julliette, that almost every MBA program offers many (and sometimes big) scholarships. Only Stanford and Harvard don’t these days (they offer fin aid). Though I thought that HBS has started giving out merit scholarships as well.
http://poetsandquants.com/2014/11/20/mba-scholarships-at-top-business-schools/
It’s the same high price/high discount model we see in undergrad admissions.
Many many years ago I graduated with a CS degree and worked in a very large multi-national bank. I retired now after 30 years. I was told at some point like after 15 years of experience I couldn’t be promoted to senior executive position because I didn’t have an MBA. i did ultimately made into that level but only after another 10 years! just my personal story.
An MBA from a top 10 program opens more opportunities and potentially is worth it. As posted above, the best bang for the buck are the top ranked state public school programs like California’s UCB’s Haas and UCLA’s Anderson and if you are in state, you would pay a lower tuition than the top private schools, like Stanford. You are still a long way from a career. Just pick subjects that you enjoy, do your best and go from there.
An MBA teaches information from every major area of starting and managing a business: Financial and Managerial Accounting, Finance, Operations, Marketing, Strategic Mgmt, Organizational Behavior, IT Management, and some sort of entrepreneurial/startup course. Supporting this practical training are courses in Econ, Statistics, Business Law, and International Business. (I think Communications, History, Sociology and Psych are useful in Marketing, but those usually are not available as part of an MBA program – unless you are able to take them as electives outside the program…)
If you want to start or manage a firm, an MBA will be helpful – as others have mentioned, moreso if you did not study Business for your BA/BS.