Is the MBA worth it today?

Graduate School Business School - MBA
1

<p>its a simple question, yet i believe it has a complex answer.</p>

<p>my cousin did his mba. i eblive for him it was a good choice, he was an engineering major who wanted to obtain basic biz knowledge so he could advance to middle management. but im a biz major, and in fact most of the stuff i study is the stuff he studied.</p>

<p>for a person like me, is it worth it to get my MBA? let me put this more specifilcally: is it worth it to stop mid-career and pay to go back to school for 2 yrs and learn stuff i already know, rather than advance in my field for two yrs? whats if i wanted to work for a firm? what if i wanted to work for myself? </p>

<p>i dont like to think in terms of salary, i like to think in terms of opprtunity cost and time.</p>

2

<p>It's only good/worth it if you go to a top business school :).</p>

<p>Well since you don't think in the terms of salary...the opportunity cost you would miss out by not going to a business school is a higher salary and maybe a better environment in the work force.</p>

<p>Which would you be better off with, advancing for two years in your field, or take one to two years off at business school? You would have to compare and contrast the two and see which is better and go with whatever you feel is right.</p>

3

<p>have you considered part-time MBA?</p>

4

<p>my cousin went part-time, it wasnt pretty.</p>

5

<p>Clearly some part-time programs are not good. But others are very good. </p>

<p>I can agree that the full-time MBA has lost its luster, and in fact, I fully expect many full-time programs to close up shop. All full-time MBA programs have been suffering from a lack of applicants lately, as people realize that having an MBA will not, by itself, provide that much of a boost, and certainly not enough to justify the lost income. I believe all prospective MBA candidates should consider the following factors:</p>

<p>*The flight to quality</p>

<p>Tpeck alluded to this. Basically, since all full-time US MBA programs require you to give up 2 years of salary, you will generally maximize your investment only by getting into the best program you can. For example, an MBA from a no-name school might not be worth it, but an MBA from HBS, Wharton, Stanford, or Sloan might be. </p>

<p>*Consider part-time programs.</p>

<p>I agree that you gotta be careful as some part-time programs are weak. But others are very strong. I would in general consider such programs only from highly reputable schools. However, high-quality part-time MBA programs do exist at Kellogg, Chicago, Berkeley, UCLA, Columbia, and a few others. You may also want to consider Executive MBA programs which are basically high-end part-time programs. Wharton has an excellent EMBA program.</p>

<p>*Consider 1-year MBA programs.</p>

<p>1-year programs are available at Kellogg if you earned an undergrad degree in bus-ad in the last 5 years. However, the most common 1-year MBA programs are run overseas, especially in Europe. INSEAD, IMD, Impresa, and several other Euroschools offer excellent 1-year programs that are comparable to, and are in certain ways better than the best US MBA programs. </p>

<ul>
<li>Think about B-school only if you envision a career change, especially into consulting or banking.</li>
</ul>

<p>If you are just going to go back to your old employer or your old industry after getting an MBA, then the MBA may not be worthwhile. MBA's are generally valuable only if you want to switch to another career entirely. This is particularly so if you want to get into consulting or banking. The fact is, there are only a few opportunities to get into consulting and banking, and post-MBA is one of those times. It's not like you can just work for many years and then simply "decide" one fine day that you want to become an investment banker. </p>

<p>*Think about getting multiple-degrees.</p>

<p>I believe dual-degree programs, like the Northwestern Kellogg MMM program, or the MIT LFM program, are good ways to hedge your bets. I know of one person who is not only completing the MIT LFM program, but is also completing a master's degree in information technology at Harvard. Hence, this person is completing 3 master's degrees in 2 years. Why get one master's when you can get 3? Now obviously I don't advocate just picking up a whole slew of degrees randomly, for all those degrees should still relate to what you want to do, but as long as that's true, and as long as you're not working anyway, might as well rack up a whole bunch of degrees at once.</p>

6

<p>alright, the only place i would go to do MBA would be Marshall or anderson. unless i got into harvard/wharton/tuck but im not exactly what you would call harvard/wharton/tuck material. sloan and chicago are too nerdy and quanty. kellog is too cold, so is ross. nyu is too financy, and i dont want to work in new york eww. im not haas/stanford material either. im quite stupid actually. multiple degrees take a long time. part time is weak. i dont plan on changing my career b/c im going into biz anyway.</p>

7

<p>i belive i just answered my own questions</p>

8

<p>
[quote]
kellog is too cold, so is ross

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Harvard and Tuck aren't exactly the warmest places in the world either. Especially Tuck.</p>

<p>
[quote]
multiple degrees take a long time.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Not if you do it right. That guy I referred to who is getting the 3 degrees at the same time (2 from MIT via LFM, 1 from Harvard) will be graduating in 2 years, the same time frame as the regular MBA's. </p>

<p>
[quote]
i dont plan on changing my career b/c im going into biz anyway.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Yeah, but biz is a giant field with many subcategories. Like I said, you can't just be working as a marketer or in biz-dev and then simply decide one fine day that you want to be an investment banker. That's a major career shift, even though it's still a business career.</p>

9

<p>If you just need a MBA for advancement, there are a lot of good state schools that offer online MBA. UT, Nebraska, Georgia, Auburn, West Virginia. That way you could still work full time.</p>