<p>My sister’s managers prefer people with experience over people with just MBAs. An MBA is a plus, but if someone applies with a great background but no MBA, the person without the MBA will get the job. From what she said, they just had some bad experiences with unexperienced UofC and Northwestern MBA grads. Wherever you work, each hiring manager will have their own little quirks.</p>
<p>On a side note, you should wait a year to try and establish Illinois residency. The University of Illinois has a reputation of really sticking it to OOSers. Also, you’ll have to take the GMAT. Some schools like UIC, have two MBA programs. They have a full-time program aimed at students with no work experience and a professional MBA program for working professionals.
UIC’s full-time tuition per semester for in-stater’s for the MBA and MSA is about $8500/semester plus fees and for OOSers, which you’ll be, is about $15,000 plus fees. UIUC’s full-time tuition per semester for IL residents is about $5400 plus fees and for OOSers is $12,000.</p>