Is an MBA or similar to Master's degree worth it? I have a bachelors in business now and wondering if it's worth the time and the money. Does it really help you very much in your career?
Is an MBA or similar to Master's degree worth it? I have a bachelors in business now and wondering if it's worth the time and the money. Does it really help you very much in your career?
If you don't go to a top 7 (maybe top 10) MBA program, the opportunity cost for an MBA is not worth it.
Don't see the point of an MBA. If you have the talent to graduate from an elite program you should just be able to work your way up in the business world based on skill.
Grad School Q wrote:
Is an MBA or similar to Master's degree worth it? I have a bachelors in business now and wondering if it's worth the time and the money. Does it really help you very much in your career?
If you get an MBA from a top school you will have access to great on campus recruiting and will come out making at least $120+ (assuming you're not looking at not-for-profit). If it's not a top school I don't think it's worth it unless you do it part time and your employer helps with the cost.
What are the top 10 MBA schools?
dssssss wrote:
Grad School Q wrote:Is an MBA or similar to Master's degree worth it? I have a bachelors in business now and wondering if it's worth the time and the money. Does it really help you very much in your career?
If you get an MBA from a top school you will have access to great on campus recruiting and will come out making at least $120+ (assuming you're not looking at not-for-profit). If it's not a top school I don't think it's worth it unless you do it part time and your employer helps with the cost.
+2
I went to a top 10 MBA program (a long time ago!). I told myself that, if I couldn't get in a top 10 program, I wasn't going to B-School.
What's changed since then is cost. It's way more expensive to go to B-School now. So, I think it's even more important to only go to a top school (or have your employer pay).
The only other thing I'd add is, go to B-School with an end in mind and will an interest in business. I was shocked when I went to school to see how many of my classmates went to B-School to figure this out. It's too expensive now to go without a plan.
BERNIE IS A LOSER wrote:
Don't see the point of an MBA. If you have the talent to graduate from an elite program you should just be able to work your way up in the business world based on skill.
THIS x100
An MBA is pretty much only useful if you are looking to crack into front office finance (private equity/hedge funds etc) or investment banking. These professions are practically impossible to get into if you didn't start in them directly after college. The only way to get into them after college is by going to a Top-10 MBA and getting recruited via summer internships.
Otherwise, an MBA is a joke. Real world experience will trump it every single time. However, experience should always be progressive. Don't get stuck in a rut.
I think it is only worth it if you get into a very good one, have someone else fund it, or you have a job that you are probably overqualified for and want to switch and move to a more competitive field.
Maybe I am conservative but the cost alone would keep me from doing it. If you are lucky you didn't have to pay for undergrad (this was not the case for me or many posters. You apply after 5 years of working so lets say you are 27. Unless you have been an investment banking analyst, petroleum engineer, management consultant or practicing doctor you probably don't have that much saved up from your first 5 years of work. I have friends who work at very "prestigious" advertising and PR firms who spend more than they make.
So you decide to go to b-school and you will be out of $120K best case scenario if you pay for it (if you go to a major city it is probably worse). When you graduate you are 29.
I used to work for a big bank where we hired a ton of MBAs. Most hated the work and quit after a year or two because of the hours. They were making around $100K - $125K in base salary and bonus would range from $40K to $125K depending on performance. That is a lot of money, I want to make that very very very clear. But this was in NYC, and you lost about half of that right off the bat to taxes. A decent portion of that bonus was in deferred stock with some 3 to 5 year vesting period. So the actual cash comp per annum would not be as high as you would think on those numbers. When you add in rent, vacations, everything else, many couldn't put a huge dent in that student debt. Then the ones that got married and had kids it was even worse. I felt bad for some because many felt trapped in this job they needed just to service mortgage and student loan payments.
This is going to sound ridiculous especially considering the debt many medical students rack up, but while the jobs coming out of bschool are well paying they are not nearly as stable (at least in finance). I saw many many coworkers get laid off when i was working for the bank, many had to take serious paycuts when they moved. Also the compensation I am talking about is for some of the highest paying jobs out of business school (finance). I can only imagine in other fields.
So I would say in short unless you are in a field that absolutely requires it or you have a dead end job, I wouldn't do it. If you are industrious in undergrad you can literally learn everything you need to know. Nothing makes up for work ethic, the ability to learn on the job, attention to detail, etc. Some of the worst employees we had went to Harvard Business School and some of the best had no MBA and came from far less prestigious schools.
Take the GMAT first and aim for a score above 720. If you can't get a good score don't bother. All in all a business PhD is a better option. You go to school for free and business professors make top salaries.
The traditional idea behind an MBA is that your company wants you to in a leadership role, but you haven't yet developed the diverse array of skills needed for it. For example, you major in engineering in college and start working for some big engineering firm after graduating. Now it's 5 years later and the company recognizes that you have potential and wants to put you on some sort of leadership track. But the problem is you only know engineering. So they pay for a school to teach you all the other skills you'll need to be a competent manager and, eventually, executive, such as accounting, finance, marketing, etc.
If the above situation applies to you, then by all means go for it. But for most people this doesn't apply. The purpose of an MBA has evolved away from this original purpose and now it seems to be more about branding and networking. This is why B-school is generally not worth it if you don't go to a top school (which would include Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Dartmouth, and a few others). If you go to a mediocre school you're just paying large amounts of money to brand yourself as mediocre and network with people with mediocre careers.
Answer these 3 questions
Do you make $100k or more (NYC and LA area this number changes)?
Do you have a kids?
Can you make $100k at your current company without an MBA?
If the answer to those questions are yes, the ROI on an MBA is worthless.
yes - 101 wrote:
An MBA is pretty much only useful if you are looking to crack into front office finance (private equity/hedge funds etc) or investment banking.
I work for a hedge fund. The portfolio managers I've talked to about this have told me that they thing an MBA is totally useless. They would much rather see a master's in finance. (And a CFA doesn't hurt.)
I think an MBA is useless unless:
A) You're interested in being an entrepreneur
B) You're in a top program
C) You're an excellent networker
The only friend of mine who has done well as a direct result of his MBA program had all three of these. He attended one of the top 3 programs in the US, really worked it and made a ton of contacts, and started his business with some of his classmates, funded by one of his professors, during his final semester. They're currently making a ton of money by the looks of things.
He told me that the classes were not of much use. He already had a bachelors in accounting and said he didn't learn much. But the opportunity to meet people was, for him, invaluable. He has the personality to exploit that kind of thing. Most people probably don't.
I will say 100% go to Harvard or Stanford if you can get in and have no intention of getting a big time job and if even if you take on a lot of debt. The golf outings alone will let you rub elbows with a lot of very successful people.
BERNIE IS A LOSER wrote:
Don't see the point of an MBA. If you have the talent to graduate from an elite program you should just be able to work your way up in the business world based on skill.
Has nothing to do with the talent to graduate from an elite program - it's the talent to GET IN. The programs themselves - the classwork, etc. - are easy. Most of it is stuff you already know (unless you were an artist or some wacky save-the-children volunteer). Even then, these days it's so much group work, and a lot of them have virtually done away with "grades".
Once you're in, it's just about learning how to network, networking, and how to sell yourself (interview / present). You basically buy access to the network and the recruiting. 100% worth it if you can get someone else to pay for it (scholarship / company / parents / gofundme / illicit stolen phone sales, etc.).
And you can meet some smart / interesting people. And that can lead to stuff.
top 15-20 or so - yes.
otherwise, no.
No. Worthless.
The finance suggestion is a good one if it interests you. It depends on what you do now.
If you live near a large university taking your MBA while working full time is an option if you're okay with it.
Yippee wrote:
Has nothing to do with the talent to graduate from an elite program - it's the talent to GET IN. The programs themselves - the classwork, etc. - are easy. Most of it is stuff you already know (unless you were an artist or some wacky save-the-children volunteer). Even then, these days it's so much group work, and a lot of them have virtually done away with "grades".
Once you're in, it's just about learning how to network, networking, and how to sell yourself (interview / present). You basically buy access to the network and the recruiting. 100% worth it if you can get someone else to pay for it (scholarship / company / parents / gofundme / illicit stolen phone sales, etc.).
And you can meet some smart / interesting people. And that can lead to stuff.
This is pretty much it.
Most of you people are nuts though. There is a huge, huge variation in the cost of an MBA. There is a program out there for everyone (though they're all damn expensive). Don't have a lick of business sense? Don't have a top GMAT score? There are still more local schools that will absolutely give you a high return on investment. There are also a lot of people that probably get a low ROI because they have a lot of the knowledge or their next job won't let them apply it.
yes - 101 wrote:
An MBA is pretty much only useful if you are looking to crack into front office finance (private equity/hedge funds etc) or investment banking. These professions are practically impossible to get into if you didn't start in them directly after college. The only way to get into them after college is by going to a Top-10 MBA and getting recruited via summer internships.
It's actually worse than that. Lots of MBAs from top school go into finance, but it's not all that easy to do if you weren't in finance first. I know a number of people who had a very hard time getting PE jobs after attending top MBA programs; the firms wanted people with prior PE experience.
I'd add, however, that MBAs are also extremely useful in startups and that an MBA is a good credential to get you in the door at some of the biggest corporations, which are often great employers with decent pay and reasonable hours.
In any event, I have a lot of friends that went to top b-schools, and most of them have no regrets, but it's important to realize that the cost wasn't important for most of them. Either they had family money or they'd already saved so much working on the street (and stood to make a lot more when they were done) that they could afford it. They were also pretty much fried from working finance hours, and many of them couldn't take it anymore. For them, b-school was a chance for a two-year networking vacation, featuring very little work, frequent trips to exotic locales, and a lot of partying. Sort of like college, if everyone also had a ton of money.
Here's a story: I graduated from HLS the same year that one of my best friends from high school graduated from HBS. One Monday evening we were having dinner and his mobile phone rings. It was Amex. They said they have a suspicious charge on his card from last night: 500 euros at a "champagne club" (strip club) in Reykjavik. He sighs, "sadly, that's legitimate." It was about a week before finals.
WSJ did a breakeven calc many years ago and even when costs were only terrible not insane....it was 7 years for most MBAs. I would be surprised if its less than 10 years now.