Going back to school to get that MBA
- Thread starter Saint1
- Start date
OfTheCross
Veteran
Requirements:
GRE, Bachelors, Work experience
not sure which school. I can drive to both Cal State University Long Beach and CSU Fullerton
By the time I get there, probably in person classes
tofuspeedstar
Bosozoku Champion
-See if your employer will pay for a chunk of it (If you like working there, usually comes with the term of staying with employer for x years after finishing)
Oldschooler
All Star
What exactly are you asking? Have you made up your mind about going back? What is your bachelor's in? Do you have work experience?
In general i agree with the poster above if it's not a top program why waste thousands of dollars for an MBA which most people only attend to network when the theory being taught is the same as what is taught during any business undergrad. MBAs are good for people who have a technical background such as a scientist or engineer and are trying to break through into management or for people with a few years of experience trying to network themselves in to a different industry.
In general i agree with the poster above if it's not a top program why waste thousands of dollars for an MBA which most people only attend to network when the theory being taught is the same as what is taught during any business undergrad. MBAs are good for people who have a technical background such as a scientist or engineer and are trying to break through into management or for people with a few years of experience trying to network themselves in to a different industry.
Vandelay
Life is absurd. Lean into it.
I'm actually studying for my MBA now.
Need a few more questions answered.
I'm 36, 10+ years in my career, and I'm getting MBA paid for in full by my job. I could potentially make it to director level at my current job without it. Having it makes it all but a certainty for me.
The reason why I ask where are you in your career is because, with Covid...enrollment is down everywhere. You may not need a gre or gmat. I got in grad school and undergrad major was BS as well as my GPA. I'm going to DePaul University in Chicago. Not ivy leagues, but still good. I got into notre Dame as well, but my job wasn't going to cover the tuition in full for them so I settled for DePaul. I got in simply off the strength of my resume and recommendations.
Need a few more questions answered.
- Where are you in your career? Do you have a career?
- What did you study in undergrad? What was your GPA?
- What do you want to ultimately do?
I'm 36, 10+ years in my career, and I'm getting MBA paid for in full by my job. I could potentially make it to director level at my current job without it. Having it makes it all but a certainty for me.
The reason why I ask where are you in your career is because, with Covid...enrollment is down everywhere. You may not need a gre or gmat. I got in grad school and undergrad major was BS as well as my GPA. I'm going to DePaul University in Chicago. Not ivy leagues, but still good. I got into notre Dame as well, but my job wasn't going to cover the tuition in full for them so I settled for DePaul. I got in simply off the strength of my resume and recommendations.
null
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congrats. i hope to start autumn 2021. first thing first, I am studying for the GMAT now using Kaplan.
Get your company to pay for it. If its possible, see if you can do a full time MBA so you can get it out of the way quicker
If you’re going to pay out of pocket then it really should only be from a Top-15 school and up.
The people who are saying it needs to be from a top 15 school are giving you shytty advice. You should only do that under two circumstances.
1. Your job is paying for it
2. You’re almost 100% confident that your new job will more than cover the 80-100k (plus interest) worth of debt that Top 15 MBA is going o cost you
You’re biggest concerns should:
1. How reputable is that college in the location your are applying
2. What is a realistic return on investment if you get the MBA vs. continuing to progress without it.
For example, if you live in North Carolina, there’s no need to get a Top 15 MBA if you live in area that loves to hire NC State grads. Just get the MBA from there. A way to figure this out is to research which schools have partnerships with corporations in the area, and find an affordable one (of those with the partnership).
1. Your job is paying for it
2. You’re almost 100% confident that your new job will more than cover the 80-100k (plus interest) worth of debt that Top 15 MBA is going o cost you
You’re biggest concerns should:
1. How reputable is that college in the location your are applying
2. What is a realistic return on investment if you get the MBA vs. continuing to progress without it.
For example, if you live in North Carolina, there’s no need to get a Top 15 MBA if you live in area that loves to hire NC State grads. Just get the MBA from there. A way to figure this out is to research which schools have partnerships with corporations in the area, and find an affordable one (of those with the partnership).
HacksawJimThuggin
All Star
I think MBA's are a terrible idea unless they're for specific career advancement. The return on your investment is just not worth the hassle, the majority of the time. Again, that's just from my point of view.
I guess this presupposes he's fine staying in NC post MBA. If that's the case then NC State could do for him. The Top 10-15 have more nationwide recognition and depending on his post MBA plans, the Top 15 are the target schools for certain employers (Big 3 consulting, Top Investment banks etc).
There's really no one size fits all model for MBAs but generally, all else being equal, the higher up the ranking you go, the better. So much of the MBA value is perception and the network you buy into rather than the actual knowledge gained from the classes.
In my opinion, he should just do a bit more planning for what he wants to do and possibly save himself 10s of thousands of dollars. Again, that’s unless his job will pay for it or he is very confident he will recoup his investment. If one of those two things apply, he should go for it.
I work for a top 3 consulting firm right now and I graduated from a small HBCU and left with 13k worth of student loan debt. Others may have been able to take a shorter path to get to the same job by going to a top ranked school, but they also probably ended up with over 100k worth of student loan debt. You don’t HAVE to go to a top school, you just have to plan and be intentional about your plan.
And once he gets the job he’s targeting, his school won’t matter anymore because he’ll then have the experience that trumps where he got a piece of paper from. So he can move where he wants to after that.
Very true, but it also helps to put the odds up front.
If you're trying to get into McKinsey from an NCState MBA then you'll have to climb a mountain to even get facetime with a recruiter. McKinsey from Fuqua is a different story. But yes, biggest thing for him is to plan and plan well.