<p>Hey guys,
I am a chemical engineering major and I have just started to think about grad school. I plan to have my own company at some point. Which one do you think helps you the most--Phd or MBA?</p>
<p>If you want to know which degree will give you the skills and knowledge required for starting and running your company then we’d have to know what kind of company you plan to own.</p>
<p>These two degrees are completely at the opposite end of the spectrum. Honestly, they couldn’t be farther apart. One is the highest academic degree you can get that is based on heavy research and certifies you as an expert in your field. One is a professional degree that certifies that you have taken advanced courses in management. Honestly, they help you with entirely different things. What are your professional goals? Obviously you want to start a business, but what kind? Will it require heavy R&D? Will it require people to consider you a technical whiz? Honestly, before you even consider a Ph.D., you really need to sit down and figure out your goals.</p>
<p>Oh I am sorry I should have been more clearer.I want to go into R&D…right now I’m interested in a couple of areas but am nowhere near decided. But high tech research is my goal and am right now helping out in research concerning ceramic implants…the biomedical field interests me a lot…I am only interested in high tech,not mass production or anything like that.</p>
<p>As a high school senior with no credentials, I would say go for the PhD assuming you make it through because if you know the research/invent something, you can start your own company. </p>
<p>If you want to get involved with other start ups after you start your own, then they will be more interested in your previous experience than any MBA.</p>
<p>The PhD will give you skills that may allow you to innovate in a technologically interesting and profitable way. The MBA will give you the skills to take an innovation and hopefully make a profit from it. If you have the one you can hire someone else to do the other (in theory) or you can take them both and go it alone.</p>
<p>I would recommend starting with your first ambition. If you want to be a technological innovator, go for the PhD.</p>
<p>First, let me say that I am not ranting nor bashing but…</p>
<p>I don’t know WHY any student before his/her junior year is concerned with PHD’s, MBA’s etc. That leads to stress and the next you know, you are going bald at 25.</p>
<p>Knock out those chemistry, physics and calculus courses first, get admitted to the last 2 years of your engineering program THEN gradually start researching grad school. By that time, you will have a better idea of what you truly want.</p>
<p>remember that if you own a company, at some point you will hire talent to take care of your need for phds or mbas.</p>
<p>A degree is not required to start a company; knowledge, capital, a sought-after product, a good business plan, discipline, and luck are required to start a company. Any chump can go through 4+ years of higher education and get a degree at the end; most of us do not have all the factors listed above to start our own companies. </p>
<p>What the degree does is signal others that you successfully navigated 4+ years of bureaucracy and managed your time accordingly. This talk about owning your own company sounds great and all, but in reality is nothing more than a vague idea. What kind of company? What product(s) will the company offer? Is/are the product(s) in high demand? What makes you think you will be able to compete with the BASFs, DuPonts, DoWs, and Union Carbides of the world?</p>
<p>You are better off investing your time studying and perfecting your skills.</p>
<p>really appreciate the encouragement.</p>