<p>I read the article on helicopter parents getting involved in MBA students. I'm stunned! Are they going to show up at job interviews too? It's great to stay involved, but not to that extent. </p>
<p>To the posts directly above, I went to Columbia Business School too many years ago. They required a concentration which just consisted of taking 4 courses in an area of interest like finance, marketing, accounting, operations research, etc. </p>
<p>To the original question -- In my case, it was worth the money. In fact, I haven't heard from any MBA graduate that he/she regretted getting the degree. No doubt there are some.</p>
<p>I also we went got my MBA from Columbia eons ago.</p>
<p>I got my job from an on-campus recruiting. My subsequent jobs were from networking.</p>
<p>I went straight to B-school from undergrad. I would definitely not do that again. Some work experience would have made the course work a lot more meaningful for me.</p>
<p>The MBA from Columbia did make a difference in a job offer a couple years after graduation. It had very little direct impact about a decade later or so later.</p>
<p>i realize some top bschools like kellogg, uchicago, haas, stern, anderson, marshall, etc. have fully-employed MBA programs. i'm wondering how these are viewed by employers. </p>
<p>are they as prestigious as their full-time counterparts? if not, then where would they rank (e.g. maybe kellogg FEMBA = anderson MBA.... i dunno, random uneducated example) </p>
<p>are the students of similar enough caliber and work experience (besides in terms of GMAT scores)? do FEMBA students have decent opportunities to get jobs of similar caliber and salary as their full-time counterparts?</p>
<p>The question you ask is a bit hard to answer. First, at least for Chicago, whether you went to the part time or the full time program, your transcript and diploma are the same. Second, the school considers the two tracks the same (at least it did when I attended a few centuries ago) in that they allow students to take classes with either group (and this is the real test of equivalence. For instance, the Harvard Extension School, which offers classes and a degree but has open admissions, does not allow its regular students , undergrad or grad, to take the extension school classes for credit).</p>
<p>But, here's the difference: part time students can't use campus recruiting efforts. If they allowed this, they'd offend the folks paying the bills, employers, most likely.</p>
<p>So, the career paths of the students start off differently.</p>
<p>FWIW, I've known many a new MBA who was frustrated that their current employer did nothing after they received their degree. They had to change jobs to capture any value.</p>