Last night I was watching special program on CNBC called The Money Chase: Inside the Harvard Business School and they raised the question as to whether the MBA is worth the price tag that comes with it. The required two years of full time classes at the Harvard Business School will cost you a mere $160,000. Some of the other top programs at UPenn, NYU, and Stanford cost in the same range. And that is if you ace the GMATS with a top notch score!
On the other side you have the possibilities of many different part time MBA programs that practically every college has began to offer. Many companies pay partially for their employees to go to school, but the life of working by day and taking classes by night just does not rub some people the right way. It seems like everyone is putting in the time and money to get their MBA, but if everyone has the degree, does it still hold the same weight as it once did before?
Is it really worth it to quit your job and go back full-time? Giving up that primary income stream for two years is a big risk, a risk that requires you to be 100% financially secure. That is the major reason most people chose part-time programs, because they just can not afford to give up their working income and continue the same lifestyle. With the current economic state, it is too risky to say goodbye to a constant paycheck and start school full-time, especially when many MBA graduates are having trouble finding work!
On the other side you have the possibilities of many different part time MBA programs that practically every college has began to offer. Many companies pay partially for their employees to go to school, but the life of working by day and taking classes by night just does not rub some people the right way. It seems like everyone is putting in the time and money to get their MBA, but if everyone has the degree, does it still hold the same weight as it once did before?
Is it really worth it to quit your job and go back full-time? Giving up that primary income stream for two years is a big risk, a risk that requires you to be 100% financially secure. That is the major reason most people chose part-time programs, because they just can not afford to give up their working income and continue the same lifestyle. With the current economic state, it is too risky to say goodbye to a constant paycheck and start school full-time, especially when many MBA graduates are having trouble finding work!
I for one believe that getting your MBA is going to eventually become like an undergraduate degree: You need it to move ahead in the business world and everyone else is doing it just like you. How people attain this degree will be a totally different story. I will be finishing a part-time program in early 2010 for my Masters in Information Systems Technology from Penn State and I must say that the program has been a total joke. All you have to do to do well in the class is show up and the value added from the professors and classmates is very little.
I have always felt that I would want to go to a top notch business school if I positioned myself appropriately. By appropriately, I mean hitting a homerun on the GMATS and getting into a top notch BSchool program. I do not want to go the part-time route for my MBA because I just do not feel it will be worth it. I want to gain that different perspective from other students that have the same passion. I want to go through intense case studies and be able to contribute from my experiences working in the Financial Services Industries. I have always been one to just "do what I need to do to get by" when it came to school, but if I get the opportunity to do my MBA they way I would like to, then I am going full force and full-time.
Then, and only then, will an MBA be worth it to me. What's your angle?
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6 comments:
I don't see ANY value in an MBA in the industry I'm in (IT).
It's seriously undervalued and .. kind of BS if someone puts it on their card like "John Doe, MBA"
We kind of laugh when we see stuff like that.
Unless you work in the Finance/Accounting department of the IT world, it's great to be certified as a management accountant.. but generally speaking you don't have any use for any certification other than in the IT fields you're in.
So for me? Total waste of time.
Did this study also factor in that if you go full-time for 2 years, you have to pay for living expenses & also forego the salary/income you'd normally earn in those 2 years that you took to get your MBA instead?
The numbers just get jacked up higher and higher when I think about it.
I'd NEVER do it unless it was
A) required by someone/something
B) paid for in full by my company/corporation
C) living expenses also reimbursed
D) has an actual value in the industry I'm working in
I know it's helpful in other general business areas.. but in IT, you're better off spending your money on getting your Cisco certs.
I read through the links given and I can see it says around $160k... but for people going back for their MBAs they may be married with kids, and HBS estimated it at $100,000 A YEAR!
But that's WITHOUT factoring in the lost salary/income.
So we're talking around $76,000 for the first year, plus around $70,000 net loss in salary foregone (assuming you're a smart SOB to get into HBS).. that's $146,000 for the first year alone, times two.
That's almost $300,000 just for an MBA if you factor in your loss in salary.
Wow.
Somebody better get a hell of a job after graduating with that much in debt (conceivably)
And that's for a single person, not even a person with a family.. the price goes up to $352,000 at the end.
Sorry. I'll shut up now. LOL!!!! I'm hogging all the space.
I've got to say that the financial aspect is quite daunting but right now I'm working for a small start-up that is founded by three Berkeley Haas graduates. I'm working with some of the most intelligent people I've ever met and what I've learned here goes far and beyond anything I learned in a classroom.
I'm also in the process of taking a Kaplan course to take the GMATs this fall. I'm doing it for a few reasons. I'm inspired but what the others in my company have achieved. I want Grad school to be an option down the road once I've left this company. I want to start a business of my own someday and I think making the right connections is what Grad school is all about. For the most part thats what the founders of my company did.
I'm sure that not everyone will agree nor is grad school for everyone, but you've gotta weigh out all the options before you judge.
I'm going to take a different perspective - while a MBA is great I see a lot more companies wanting real world expereince. While education is great if you can't apply it to your career then what good is it?
I've seen people do well in school only to find out the working class is totatlly different. I've seen the flip side as well.
As it's been said before - If you CAN afford the MBA program then by all means go for it. It really depends on what you put into it.
I agree with FB on this one - it all depends on the field. I work in IT, and an MBA would be useless for me.
I'd be better off with the real world experience. I've talked with some senior members of my company, and by their estimates 7 or 8 years on the job will give a functional equivilent of an MBA, with the benefits of no debt and a full-time salary along the way.
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