Anyone here have an MBA?

[Balls 0]

I'm a couple semesters out from finishing my BA in business and am thinking about getting an MBA afterwards. Was it worth getting yours? How would you compare it to your undergrad experience? Anything you think I should know/consider?

Thanks

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....so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

[Nightingale 0]

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I'm a couple semesters out from finishing my BA in business and am thinking about getting an MBA afterwards. Was it worth getting yours? How would you compare it to your undergrad experience? Anything you think I should know/consider?

Thanks

I don't have one personally, but I do have three friends that do, and they've all said it was a waste of time and it would be valuable if you owned your own business, but if you're working for a large corporation like they are, they believe it was not worth the time and money, because experience is valued more than education.

[JohnnyD 0]

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I'm a couple semesters out from finishing my BA in business and am thinking about getting an MBA afterwards. Was it worth getting yours? How would you compare it to your undergrad experience? Anything you think I should know/consider?

Thanks

I don't have one personally, but I do have three friends that do, and they've all said it was a waste of time and it would be valuable if you owned your own business, but if you're working for a large corporation like they are, they believe it was not worth the time and money, because experience is valued more than education.

I have friends with MBAs and their experience is exactly the opposite. The ones working for large corps value them far more. Its just common sense really. If two people are applying at Microsoft and one has a BA/MBA and the other has no degree, but has run a small business successfully for a number of years, which one is the front runner? The BA/MBA without question. The experience is nice, but it just doesn't translate and there is no pedigree to fall back on.

To the OP - depends on what you want to be when you grow up. Get out of college and get a job. See what you like. If you end up in a huge corp, chances are you will be able to get them to pay for some or all of your MBA. If you're in a smaller company, very unlikely. Reason? The MBA is much more valuable to progressing in larger corps.

[pilotdave 0]

I have one. I think you'll find that your experience will completely depend on where you go to school. I took a really crappy MBA program. My company will pay for any degree... MBA sounded easier than a masters in engineering, so I did it. Really couldn't have been much easier, and I have no background in business. But an MBA from a school like MIT is going to have a lot of math. My program wasn't THAT easy, but considering I came out of it with a real live masters degree, well, its hard to believe there'd be an easier program.

Dunno if it holds any value yet... haven't changed jobs. I do notice that generally when somebody gets promoted to VP at my company, they almost always have an MBA. Figured it couldn't hurt.

Best part of my program was that it was held in a hotel near work. Books were brought to us, and dinner was included in tuition. I've never been to the campus and don't even know where it is.

Dave

[Balls 0]

Thanks. I was pretty set on being done when I finished my BA. But yesterday something in the back of my head was telling me to think about it.
I just wish my school was closer to a DZ

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....so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

[Muenkel 0]

I have an MBA. I went to grad school straight out of undergrad, so I earned it by the time I was 23.

As for my experience in the professional world, I would say that performance led me a lot further 80% of the time. When it came time for high executive level, the MBA made a huge difference.

A master's program usually is more difficult than a bachelor's depending on the major and school.

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Chris

[billeisele 122]

I got mine while working and the company paid for it, did much of the studying at work

suggest getting a job and gain the experience along with the degree, many of the concepts will be easier to learn if you can apply them to a real world situation

Give one city to the thugs so they can all live together. I vote for Chicago where they have strict gun laws.

[marcandalysse 0]

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suggest getting a job and gain the experience along with the degree, many of the concepts will be easier to learn if you can apply them to a real world situation

I more or less agree with this. Better yet, get a job, work for awhile and try to work in a couple different areas to see where you'd most like to focus in your MBA. At USF we had mostly an older group in the MBA program and I learned alot from their experiences in the 'real world'.

marc

"The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly." --GK Chesterton

[zoobrothertom 5]

As you can see by the responses, it has pros and cons.

Educationally speaking, if you have a BA in business, you practically/already have an MBA. Most MBA programs are basically the 3 and 4 year classes of your BA with a couple of electives exclusively for MBA students thrown in. For example, the class name might be Management 5505 but the material covered is basically the same as Management 4505. About 40% of my MBA classes were shared with undergrads.

Employment wise, the MBA helps. No doubt about that.

If I recall correctly, the MBA was orginally created for people who did not have a BA in business. For example, an engineer now managing big projects.

One suggestion, do a double major. Select the MBA program and another Masters business degree program that has a lot of overlap. That would really help and the workload is less with the overlap.

Good luck!

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I'm back in the USA!!

[Nightingale 0]

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I got mine while working and the company paid for it, did much of the studying at work

suggest getting a job and gain the experience along with the degree, many of the concepts will be easier to learn if you can apply them to a real world situation

Agreed. My friends went straight from BA to MBA, and then into the workforce after they got the MBA, so that may be why they didn't find it as valuable.

[DontPanic 0]

I got my MBA right out of undergraduate school, and I really enjoyed the experience. The program was challenging, but it was also a good time in my life.

But that was 1985-1987, and times have changed. So many companies are paying for their people to go to MBA school, that many Colleges and Universities are treating them like profit centers to cover all their other graduate programs, and the costs have skyrocketed (the costs of college have skyrocketed in general).

When I went in the 80s, I had an assistantship and some other part-time work, and I was able to get out with virtually no debt. It is very hard to do that now with so many companies throwing money at these schools.

You have to pay a premium to get an MBA that makes it much harder to justify, while many of your classmates will be getting the degree paid for by their company.

I really value the education I received in my MBA program, but I have a hard time recommending the degree to people today.

[BerryBoy 0]

I have earned my master's and am now working on my doctorate. I didn't want to re-post, but my 2 cents can be found in a similar topic (link below). If you're logged into DZ.com the link will jump you right to my post. If you want the short story, then here's the condensed version:

"...let me share with you one thing that I have learned: A degree is only useful and worthwhile if you use it. That sums it up."


http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3103009;search_string=degree;#3103009

[sandi 0]

Not all MBA programs are the same, you need to check out different programs and know what you want to get out of it. I know a few people with MBAs from University of Chicago and Northwestern University who are very happy with the education they received and the jobs they got upon graduating with their MBAs (starting salaries around 100K).

Many top programs require you to have at least a couple of years of work experience before applying (as well as a high undergrad GPA and high GMAT scores). You may want to think about working for awhile after finishing your undergrad. If you have a couple years work experience you may be able to apply to better programs, possibly get your employer to pay for it, and have a better idea of what you want to focus on in your MBA (finance, management, etc).

Also, if you are planning to go full-time, check into graduate assistantships. There aren’t as many available for MBA’s but there are usually a few each year. I’m in a PhD program (not in business) and my research assistantship pays my full tuition and a monthly stipend. They are primarily for doctoral students, but I believe most schools have some available in MBA programs.