<p>i am wondering if it is possible to pursue two graduate degrees at the same school at the same time.</p>
<p>in my case, that would ideally be an MS in aerospace engineering and an MBA. at stanford or MIT.</p>
<p>possible? if it happens, does it happen with good frequency?</p>
<p>At MIT, it's possible if you are accepted to the [url=<a href="http://lfm.mit.edu/%5DLFM%5B/url">http://lfm.mit.edu/]LFM[/url</a>] program -- the program allows you to simultaneously pursue an SM in an engineering discipline and an MBA at the Sloan School of Management. (You should PM sakky about this if you're interested -- I am under the impression that he knows more about this than I do.)</p>
<p>Admission to the program is pretty competitive, and it has some sort of previous work experience requirement.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if it is possible to pursue both degrees if you're not involved in the LFM program, although administrative types at MIT are usually pretty nice and you could ask. Contact info for the Aero/Astro department can be found [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/about/contact.html%5Dhere%5B/url">http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/about/contact.html]here[/url</a>].</p>
<p>If you are accepted into a dual-degree program, do you have to pay tuition costs for BOTH schools? (For example, if the tuition at MIT Sloan is $29,000 and $29,000 at MIT Urban Planning, do you have to pay $60,000 per year?)</p>
<p>Matt,</p>
<p>It depends a great deal on the program and its individual rules. For example, Harvard Kennedy has dual degree programs where you get an MPP along with another degree (usually JD). Sometimes, people even get their JDs at schools in entirely different areas (I don't understand the logistics of a program where you get your MPP in MA and JD in CA...)</p>
<p>PM sakky, he's the man.</p>
<p>No, you're not responsible for paying tuition to both Sloan and the engineering department. Actually, you're only responsible for paying about 1/4 of your tuition total, because the program is funded through corporate sponsors (for whom you are supposed to work an unpaid internship).</p>
<p>Financial info [url=<a href="http://lfm.mit.edu/index.php?cat=faq&fileName=faq.html%5Dhere%5B/url">http://lfm.mit.edu/index.php?cat=faq&fileName=faq.html]here[/url</a>].</p>
<p>Yeah, but the LFM subsidy carries heavy drawbacks. In fact, it's not really much of a subsidy at all, when you think about it, and in fact, I actually believe that LFM might be better off by eliminating the subsidy in return for eliminating the drawbacks that come with the subsidy. I think the subsidy should be offered as an 'a la carte' menu option rather than being a fully bundled package deal. </p>
<p>The reason why it's not really much of a subsidy has to do with the fact that you are obligated to serve a 6.5-month unpaid LFM internship. This is no small potatoes. Keep in mind that LFM students are not 'minor' employees. Almost all of them have significant work experience and excellent resumes, and so they could make quite a bit of money by working for 6.5 months in a regular job. </p>
<p>But being forced to work for free for 6.5 months when you could have been making money is not the most egregious aspect of the program. The most egregious aspect is that the forced internship prevents you from taking some other internship that could be more useful or more interesting to you for your future career. There is no guarantee that you are going to get an LFM internship that you are interested in. Every year, plenty of people get stuck with internships that they really don't care about, with companies that they don't care about, and with projects that are not useful in helping them advance their career the way that they want. Keep in mind that MBA programs are basically career-advancement tools. That's the only reason for them to exist. Nobody goes to an MBA program "for fun". People go to such a program in order to set themselves on the career path that they want. The LFM internship may or may not help you do to that. </p>
<p>Most regular MBA students will take an internship during the summer of their first and second year that has to do with an industry that they are targeting. For example, plenty of regular Sloan and HBS students intern at consulting or banking firms. LFM students can't do that, because of their obligatory LFM internship. Even worse, like I said, the LFM internship lasts for 6.5 months, which means it lasts through the fall of the 2nd year. Yet that is precisely when most of the recruiting for full-time jobs happens. So when the big recruiters are there, you're not there. </p>
<p>Now, don't get me wrong. I don't want to paint LFM in a bad light. What I am saying is that the 'subsidy' is far less than meets the eye, and in fact, really, should not be called a subsidy at all. In particular, the loss of what financiers would call "real options" in terms of being able to mold your career path in a different direction than what LFM will take you can be a serious problem. I know a lot of LFM'ers were interested in interning at McKinsey, but they couldn't do it because they were obligated to take an LFM internship. McKinsey was even willing to pay what a normal LFM corporate sponsor would have paid, but still, no dice. </p>
<p>Bottom line, you should really consider LFM if you are interested in a career in operations or manufacturing management. That's what LFM is designed to do and that's what the internships are all about. If those things don't interest you - and in particular, if you know your interests are in consuting or banking - then I would say that the regular Sloan MBA program (or any of the other elite MBA programs) is probably a better fit for you than is LFM. Or, if you really insist of getting that dual-degree, then you may be better off in the Northwestern Kellogg MMM program, or perhaps the Michigan TMI program.</p>
<p>I would also add the following:</p>
<p>As far as work experience is concerned, LFM requires 2 years of work experience. Not even the Sloan School MBA program requires work experience (although it is extremely rare to get into that program with no work experience). LFM students generally average about 4-6 years of experience.</p>
<p>The dual-master's feature is not unique to LFM. In fact, it is an option
available to all MIT graduate students, as shown in the following link under the section of "Simultaneous Registration for Two Master's Degrees". In theory, you could complete both an MBA from the Sloan School and an SM engineering degree while not being part of the LFM program. I have never known anybody to do that, as all the people I know who get this combination of dual-degree are LFM students, but the option is there. What LFM provides is a way to get two degrees in a prepackaged manner, but you could just build your own dual-degree program.</p>
<p>You could also use the option to create other combinations of degrees. I know that a popular option of the MIT SDM program (which is a specialized joint engineering/management program that awards students a SM degree in "Engineering and Management") is to couple that SDM degree with a formal engineering SM degree. Other combinations I have heard of are people getting dual SM's in 2 engineering disciplines.</p>
<p>As far as Stanford is concerned, Stanford used to have a formal dual-degree MBA/MS program that was similar to LFM, but that program was cancelled a few years ago. Nowadays, Stanford still offers a means to do that, but on a purely adhoc basis. What that means is that the student ends up having to figure out how to piece together all of the course requirements, and there is no formal structure in place to help you do that the way there is with LFM.</p>
<p>In closing, what I would say is that you have to be careful about what you really hope to gain from a dual-degree program. You shouldn't just be going around collecting degrees just for the sake of collecting degrees. The truth is, most MBA grads will enter professions in which nobody is going to care about whether you have an engineering degree or not. For example, the majority of MITSloan and Stanford MBA graduates enter consulting or finance, and having an additional engineering master's isn't going to make you any more qualified to take jobs in these fields. In fact, there are plenty of people who are probably better off just going to regular Sloan than to LFM, especially if you want to do consulting or banking. LFM requires a lot of work to complete all of the engineering requirements, and that's time that you could instead be spending more profitably on networking and schmoozing with recruiters. So you have to think very carefully about what exactly you are aiming to accomplish.</p>